A great game chock-full of a variety of content, but with some big flaws that prevent it from being a classic. My favorite Sonic game after Sonic 2.
On the plus side, the number of stages, plus the 5 missions for each stage, plus the rating system, plus the chao garden means there's a ton of single player content. The Sonic and Shadow levels are for the most part peak 3D sonic, and I enjoyed most of the Knuckles and Rouge levels as well. The Tails/Robotnik levels are forgettable but not terrible. Raising chao is oddly addicting
For the drawback, first I have to mention the camera. This game has worse camera issues than Super Mario 64, and it had half a decade to improve on what SM64 did. Although most of the time the issues occur in areas that don't really hamper you, they really hurt the ability to explore the levels and figure out a path to a good score.
The other major drawback is that the levels near the end (Mad Space, Crazy Gadget, etc.) have some really frustrating sections, they are challenging for the wrong reasons (issues with controls/camera/gimmicks as opposed to requiring platforming skill or puzzle solving)
On the plus side, the number of stages, plus the 5 missions for each stage, plus the rating system, plus the chao garden means there's a ton of single player content. The Sonic and Shadow levels are for the most part peak 3D sonic, and I enjoyed most of the Knuckles and Rouge levels as well. The Tails/Robotnik levels are forgettable but not terrible. Raising chao is oddly addicting
For the drawback, first I have to mention the camera. This game has worse camera issues than Super Mario 64, and it had half a decade to improve on what SM64 did. Although most of the time the issues occur in areas that don't really hamper you, they really hurt the ability to explore the levels and figure out a path to a good score.
The other major drawback is that the levels near the end (Mad Space, Crazy Gadget, etc.) have some really frustrating sections, they are challenging for the wrong reasons (issues with controls/camera/gimmicks as opposed to requiring platforming skill or puzzle solving)
4 Comments
Pretty nice review, btw! =D
I forgot to mention the game has an awesome soundtrack - characters have their own themes, and even the tracks without lyrics are pretty good
Thanks CDX! I agree it was made for multiple plays and it gets better as you learn the level...just frustrating the first few times
CDX
11 months ago
That being said, I feel like SA2 was (as with every major Sonic game up intil then) clearly made for multiple playthroughs, and all of that jank can be dealt with relatively pain-free once you get around to beat the game a first or second time.
Plus the original Dreamcast version have slightly less polish issues. (but the camera still sucks hard lol)