Are you a fan of Sonic Adventure 2? Good news…
If you ask me, Sonic Adventure 2 was the beginning of the end for 3D Sonic games. Whenever I hear somebody tell me that they think Sonic Adventure 2 is the best 3D Sonic game, I cannot help but muster a funny look. Don’t get me wrong: SA2 is, in certain areas, a vast improvement over the original Sonic Adventure – with generally tighter controls, a significant boost in graphical detail, and less fiddly collision detection problems. But it is also responsible for bringing about a number of bad habits that plagued this franchise for nearly half a decade following its release.
Okay, so they put Big the Cat back in – but where’s my green x-boxes?
The other 3/4ths of the game is, of course, spent playing through either “Hero Story” or “Dark Story”, which is an oddly Japanese way of saying good versus evil. Each story is split up between three playable characters broken up by class, bringing the total roster to six, in spite of complaints that Sonic Adventure‘s large number of characters was pushing its star performer too far out of the spotlight. To combat this, Sonic Team attempted to streamline each character’s role – and while noble in concept, it does not always work out so well in practice. Whereas Sonic’s levels in the original Sonic Adventure were serpentine, somewhat open areas that each felt noticeably unique, all of the “speed-class” levels in Sonic Adventure 2 are built from the same heavily-scripted, linear, single-lane tracks hovering over illogical bottomless pits, turning every stage in to a glorified re-skin of Speed Highway. Don’t get me wrong – Speed Highway might be one of the most iconic and fun levels from the original Sonic Adventure, but it leaves stages in Sonic Adventure 2 feeling a little lacking in diversity when you’re playing roughly the same type of level over and over and over again.
Curiously, Sega has chosen to ONLY publish screenshots of Sonic/Shadow levels.
Nothing was done to improve the game, either. This is a straight-across port of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, with the only real enhancement coming from the resolution the game is running at (real 720p this time, instead of SA1‘s stretched and letterboxed 640×480). When you consider the additional options both Jet Set Radio and NiGHTS received, it’s a little disappointing to see just how totally basic this port actually is. As an example, there’s still an option to switch between Stereo and Mono sound, even though that’s been a function handled by your console’s dashboard for close to eight years now. Very little effort was made to make this feel more like a modern game, and given how often I ran in to trademark blunders like misfired homing attacks, I was really starting to miss some of the more simple mechanical improvements from recent games like Sonic Generations. Would it really be so hard to add homing attack crosshairs to this game? Improve the targeting? Anything? The only thing this version of Sonic Adventure 2 adopts from recent Sonic games is the addition of Omochao hints appearing during loading screens – but they’ve been so awkwardly shoe-horned in to the game that it ends up looking more sloppy and lazy than anything else, given most of them disappear before you can finish reading. Perhaps that’s for the best – a lot of them outright spoil things you won’t see until near the end of the game. At the very least, I did not notice any new graphics, sound or control problems in my time spent playing this version of Sonic Adventure 2, which is more than I can say for Jet Set Radio or NiGHTS. Everything you love and hate (or love to hate) about SA2 is present and accounted for: characters talking over each other in cutscenes, loud music that drowns out dialog, enemies that wait until the moment before you hit them to attack you, and a scripted camera that loves to show you the worst possible angle exactly when you don’t need it to – it’s all mostly here.
Welp, time to put the controller down and take a nap.
At the time, it was easy to forgive Sonic Adventure‘s more egregious problems because it was both a launch title for the Dreamcast and the first 3D Sonic game ever produced; but starting with Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Team did not react to complaints so much as they started to embrace them. What advancements it did make over its predecessor are outweighed by a lack of coherence and creativity, further marred by tedium and an intense focus on over-simplifying game concepts that were not very complicated to begin with. As a port, it manages to accomplish the bare minimum and is alright enough for that – if you are a fan of Sonic Adventure 2, you will find very little in this version has been changed for better or worse. As it became standard for Sonic games to follow, Sonic Adventure 2 is a roller coaster ride of highs and lows – when it’s good, it is really, really good. But when it’s bad, it might as well be the worst game in the world. A shame there’s not more highs.
We could all stand to live and learn a little.
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So I just spent a few more hours with this game because I’m just this kind of masochist who wants to beat the game no matter what, and I’m in the final stages anyway. But I’m starting to wonder if it’s really worth the bother, it’s just too frustrating.
It took me way too many tries to get to the end of Shadow’s last stage, but not because for reasons of challenge – every time I died it was for reasons that weren’t at my fault. Homing attacks wouldn’t dectect, the camera would show things from stupid angles, Shadow would randomly fall off from those gravity tubes… or simply miss the rail when trying to land on it (and missing rails is way too easy in this game in general). Well okay, I managed to finish the stage somehow in the end, but boy was it a chore.
Then “Last Story” came along. I already got used to those strange blob robots who do those weird arm attacks from a mile you can’t avoid (except if you’re really really lucky), so they didn’t annoy me as much as in the earlier stages. Just them being able to attack me through closed doors (!) way a new thing, but whatever. Then the room with those glowing green walls and moving cubes comes along and things become just hopeless. The first half of the room is perfectly doable… but as you reach the second the camera rears its ugly head once again. Instead of showing you how you’re navigating Eggman to the exit it gives you the fascinating insides of a cube or a look beyond the ceiling. You only get them to see for one or two seconds, but it’s long enough to lose control and inevitably fall into the pit with no real chance to get out of it alive. And in rare case the camera doesn’t screw around? You hop and hover from one cube to another… however it’s not secured that you’re going to land one until you did so, because with the angle that the camera chooses it’s not very clear until the very last second. It could just as well happen that you miss them by a tiny milimeter and fall into the pit. And even if you did land on one and thought yourself secure you’ll get proven wrong in a moment. Because that’s when the timer runs and the blocks start moving again… except that they’re moving without you for some buggy reason, leaving you in the air to let you fall into the pit.
Anyone who doesn’t smash his/her controller in the process during the section (let alone even pass it) is a hero to me. For all I know (and believe) I’ll be stuck in that part forever.
I’d just really like to see into people’s head who genuinely think that this is a good game. There’s nothing fun or challenging about it, it’s just an unfair mess that is hardly even playable. I just can’t see how anyone can even defend this stuff, really! Or why everyone is slagging off Sonic 06 yet give this a free pass.
I don’t want to post another essay-sized post, lol, but I will say I’m enjoying reading other long posts, so maybe mine aren’t so bad?
I genuinely have a good time with SA2 simply because I’ve played and beat the game twice. I can usually get through an entire level without dying. I honestly didn’t have a hard time with the part in question- were you speaking about the portion where you have to pause time and jump from cube to cube, Kaoru? It seemed self explanatory to me at the time- if that’s what I’m thinking of. Just pause time while cubes are as level with you as possible, and even then you just need to jump on one or two to make it across. Don’t let the dozens of platforms bewilder you!
I never really stated how I feel about the game yet I don’t think. Since I’m used to the intricacies of the stage design and know how to work around certain parts of a level, that’s not to say I think the game has quite a few flaws. The level design IS too sparse and linear, there are WAY too many bottomless pits and hardly any tiers or alternate paths to speak of, the hit detection is too precise in terms of nailing a rail while homing attacks would rarely(but often enough) send you through an enemy instead of bouncing upwards off of them. The gravity pillars in Shadow section could have used some tweaking, getting stuck along the rim of the top or bottom instead of running up its side and onto the top seems to be luck of the draw.
All in all though, I had a blast with the game and found it enjoyable, and definitely look forward to playing this HD version(360′s being repaired right now). To put this in perspective, I played and beat Sonic ’06 100%, and consider it the worst and less fun Sonic game to date(even less fun than Sonic Labyrinth). I think SA2 is tolerable, enjoyable, and challenging, though challenging not by unintentionally flawed design(which, again, I admit is an issue), but by the 5 challenges in the stage select screen.
As an aside, did anyone find the story to be decent at best? I thought it was alright. Shadow’s portion, while convoluted and nonsensical(why is he a hedgehog again?) was engaging and gave him a sense of mystery and depth. Besides the odd explanation of Shadow’s origin, the animations were what really brought it down for me. They were better than in SA1, but the awkward silences, poses, and interactions of the characters were way too robotic.
@ChaoticFox
No, it’s just I’ve been taking a lot of college writing courses, one of the latest specifically we analyze judgements like these, and there’s a lot of stuff to pick apart, some is just downright ludicrous, all in all, a terrible review, I just have to take some time and write up an essay.
I cared about the story
This game was never good
I for one am interested in what Sanity’s_Theif has to say about my writing because I am always looking for ways to improve. Though I will be totally honest in saying that where he’s coming from seems a little bit weird, considering this is an opinion piece. If he’s going to tell me I’m not allowed to think the thoughts I have, that’s going to get really awkward, really fast.
@Kaoru
I remember the game being a huge pain the ass the first time I did it (it is still a pain in the ass btw).
Sonic and Shadow last stage were both a terrible chore because of how poorly made they were. Cannon’s Core is even worse. The Biolizard is the icing on the cake.
Honestly, I can’t understand how people could even enjoy the game in the first place, 90% of the fun in this game was from City Escape. Sonic can’t even run straight.
@Ryan Bloom: I have seen mainly two schools of thought of writing technique: one in which the mind is let loose as it were, letting the words fall down on the page and anything that falls through is validly creative and personal, and another in which balance and control is supreme in order to stay in line with reason and the status quo.
It is in my experience that a review writer should tend towards that second technique I mention or else he runs the risk of offending his audience, or losing his ethos or credibility. For example, a freelance writer who is fond of mainstream pop and rock music is asked to write his opinion of a classic Mozart composition, which, following popular trends, someone as himself does not particularly like. However, the audience of this magazine are connoisseurs of this specific genre and would like a viewpoint indicative of their expected personal reaction to that piece should they ever listen to it. This leaves him with one of two options: (1) write a review not conforming to his audience’s tastes and (2) write a review in line with their preferences. Obviously, the second will result with a positive reaction in this case and likewise applicable and useful to their circumstances.
In other words, a primary focus of review writing is the perspective of other people in reasoning and liking. That may mean figuring out why and how the logic of liking something works for them. That may mean learning to weigh certain qualities and characteristics in ways that you may not. That may lead to slightly painful, temporary conformance on your part, but writing was never meant for the faint of heart.
@HumbleAnswer
How about this: I have an opinion, and I describe that opinion. I’m not going to compromise that opinion just because I’ll get a negative reaction; that’s completely silly, and leads down a very slippery slope where you are afraid of speaking your mind just to avoid backlash. That’s antithetical to a lot of things a review is supposed to be.
To me, a review is framing my experience in a way that informs readers of what my thoughts are so they can take those in to consideration for purchasing. “Faint of heart” aside, it’s not complicated at all to write a review. Nor should it be. Have opinion => describe opinion. Done.
I just happen to be good enough at writing to have the position I do here at TSSZ.
@Ryan Bloom:
No doubt, I don’t have any qualms with the idea of agreeing to disagree, but it is just a matter of when I do it that varies somewhat from you. I am just a more technical breed of writer as you may have already noticed–sometimes to my peril. But I must say that I wholeheartedly enjoy the style and diction of your review from start to finish despite what my criticism may suggest, (de)constructive or otherwise.
And that is not to say that I don’t like my fair share of disagreement and controversy, either! Just take this post, hehe! Or, for example, if I reviewed the Sonic CD Japanese soundtrack, I would tear that sucker to shreds as it makes me think bad thoughts like campy, kiddish, outlandish and loopy. It is a soundtrack that drives me insane to this very day no matter how hard I try to understand what the point of it is. Yes, it is a more complex composition but when it really comes down to it, I find it goes a little out of hand where form and function say bye bye to each other. The US soundtrack, however, comes across much more inviting and much less obtrusive, driving home the real atmosphere of that game. Almost ever professional review may say different, but that is just me: I would make enemies with a post about that in no time! >:)
Ah, well… It’s largely a review full of the same nonsensical (and in some cases, outright lies) crud as many 3D Sonic games have sometimes been criticized for, but at least this one is calm and well, compellingly-presented.