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Sonic Adventure 2

Sonic Adventure 2

As Sonic Adventure 2 is released on PSN and Xbox Live we revisit a past perhaps best left forgotten.

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Shitty friends. We've all had our fair share of them. Whether they somehow managed to tag along for parties, nights out or gaming sessions uninvited or they stole our girlfriend/boyfriend, or stole our candy, no childhood is complete without a couple of shitty friends. Of course, they are hopefully overshadowed by a significant number of great friends, but sadly that has not always been the case for Sega's blue hedgehog Sonic. In a way, the mixed quality of Sonic's friends could be said to reflect the quality of his games as well. And Sonic Adventure 2 is one of those games starring Sonic that follows "the more the merrier" principle.

Ever since his breakout days on Mega Drive, Sega have struggled to fully harness the potential of their mascot and while Sonic Adventure 2 was a great and content rich platformer at the time of its release, it must be said that it hasn't aged particularly well.

Sonic Adventure 2

While the original Sonic Adventure arguably had worse playable friends (Big the Cat, I'm looking at you), Sonic Adventure 2 did not let the player choose what character to play with but instead locked you into either the hero or dark path with a linear string of levels alternating between three mirrored characters. Sonic and Shadow had similar speed focused levels, Eggman and Tails went about shooting, while Rogue and Knuckles kept looking for emerald shards. The Sonic and Shadow levels are still entertaining, even if the controls leave a little to be desired.

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Knuckles and Rouge the Bat provide us with a decent change of pace even if it is sometimes a bit boring to try and search out those emeralds. The Tails and Eggman levels are, for the most part, atrociously bad. Slow, sluggish controls, horrible camera, and what can simply be described as a puzzling design choice to have Eggman and Tails walk around in clumsy mechs. Oh well, at least Amy only appears in the cutscenes.

Sonic Adventure 2

This was the game that introduced Shadow the Hedgehog, a military prototype who would later go on to star in his very own ill-fated adventure. He's probably one of the better elements in what can only be described as a trainwreck of a story - it won't take you long to start skipping the cutscenes, it's hard enough to hear the dialogue under the thick carpet of music (once again of mixed quality). There is something wonderfully naive about the Sonic soundtracks from this era, but some of the Knuckles levels (he's a bit of a rapper that Echidna) are just painful to have listen to.

Sonic Adventure 2
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The HD port looks reasonably good, especially the character models look clean and while aged, they won't bring tears to your eyes. Your eyes may start tearing up when faced with some of the less than impressive textures this game has to offer. There is clipping (as in the original), atrocious cameras (especially if you are a bit unsure of what direction you're heading next), and other graphical issues in there, but then again it's a game from 2001.

Sonic Adventure 2 is, however, a content rich game. Two full campaigns (hero and dark side), lots of challenges for those who wish to conquer the full game (180 emblems), mini-games, battle mode and chaos garden to enjoy. The latter is one of the nicer features (how could you not love the ultra-cute tamagotchi clones?), and even if Sonic Adventure 2 stands as one of the best examples of more not always being better - it will still provide hours of entertainment for a young gamer who may not care too much about the rather atrocious physics and courses provided in the karting mini-game. The later Gamecube version had even more content and you can buy that extra "Battle" content, mainly fleshing out the versus mode as DLC.

Sonic Adventure 2

When Sonic Adventure 2 was originally released on Dreamcast in the summer of 2001 I was happy with it. Sure it did away with some of the more applaudable features of the first Sonic Adventure, but it was also more streamlined and featured a better cast of characters. Eleven years later, and I'm sad to discover how poorly the game has aged, but I'm not all that surprised. Games like Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (released later that year) were just miles ahead of what Sonic Team were capable of accomplishing on Dreamcast. There are definitely some good levels in Sonic Adventure 2, some decent tunes, lots of chao, and well, it comes at an affordable price. But I still see very little reason to revisit this rather painful period in Sonic's past unless you're a real die-hard Sonic fanatic, if you're not you're far better served with Sonic Generations.

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05 Gamereactor UK
5 / 10
+
+ Lots of levels and content. + Chao garden. + Some great Sonic 3D levels in there. + A few really catchy tunes.
-
- Tails and Eggman levels are ill conceived. - Awful story. - Poor collision detection and camera. - Some mini-games and extras only serve to bring down the overall impression. - Mixed results on the visual side of the HD update.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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Sonic Adventure 2Score

Sonic Adventure 2

REVIEW. Written by Bengt Lemne

"There are definitely some good levels in Sonic Adventure 2, some decent tunes, lots of chao, and it comes at an affordable price."



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