Review: Sonic Adventure & Sonic Adventure DX (from 2009)
Oct 29, 2017 16:14:25 GMT -5
Post by Junkaholic95 on Oct 29, 2017 16:14:25 GMT -5
As I'm sure most of you are well aware, I'm a huge Sonic fan. Particularly, I love the Sonic Adventure games. For the sake of simplicity, I'm combining the different revisions into one review.
Sonic Adventure - 4 Stars
Sonic Adventure DX - 4.5 Stars
The basic premise: Dr. Eggman wants to destroy Station Square and build his own city. He releases "Chaos, the god of destruction" from the Master Emerald and feeds him Chaos Emeralds to make him stronger. Sonic and Tails have to find the emeralds before Eggman does. Meanwhile, the other characters each have their own problems to worry about.
This was the game that truly brought Sonic into the 3D realm for the first time. The graphics were great for their time and the overall gameplay was excellent. You had 6 characters to choose from once you unlocked them all. Each had their own unique story line that tied in with the others. Each character offered a unique gaming experience all their own. The controls were decent and made gameplay a breeze.
I'm going to focus on the gameplay and not so much the character's personalities. If you want that, check out Wikipedia.
Sonic - High speed running stages. Get to the specified goal and knock out the bad guys. True to the Sonic style and in 3D! Sonic's basic moves are homing attack that lets you attack enemies and spin dash that gives you a burst of speed. Sonic has lots of power-ups. The light-speed shoes let you travel along trails of rings. The Crystal Ring speeds up this process. The Ancient Light allows you to attack multiple enemies at once.
Tails - Race against Sonic/Eggman to get to the goal first. Tails has one attack and that's his tail whip. Tails can fly and has 2 useful power-ups. The Jet Anklet and the Rhythm Badge. One lets you fly faster, and the other allows you to do continuous tail whip attacks.
Knuckles - Find the lost pieces of the master emerald before Angel Island sinks into the ocean. Very straight-forward. You have a radar to help you find the pieces and you can explore parts of the levels that the other characters can't. Knuckles has one basic attack and that's his punch. Punch 3 times to do a charging punch. Knuckles sports 2 power-ups. The Shovel Claw lets you dig holes. Pretty simple. The Fighting Gloves let you do the Maximum-Heat-Knuckles-Attack to knock out multiple enemies.
Amy - Her objective is to find the parents of a helpless Flicky bird. Her stages are similar to Sonic's but offer more of a challenge. She carries a hammer to whack enemies with a mighty blow. She has 2 possible power-ups. The Warrior Feather lets her do the Spin Hammer Attack and the Long Hammer gives her a better reach at enemies. Amy can also use her hammer to jump higher than normal.
Big the Cat - His goal is to find Froggy. He wanders around aimlessly fishing in various places to find him. His power-ups include 4 lure upgrades, the Life Belt that lets him float, and the Power Rod that gives him longer casting distance.
E-102 Gamma - He's a robot created by Dr. Eggman as a slave. He later develops a personality and abandons Eggman in pursuit to "save" his brothers. (Actually, he destroys them) Gamma's stages are shooting stages with a time limit that goes up with each enemy you destroy. He has one basic ability and that's blow things up with is laser cannon. He has 2 power-ups. The Jet Booster lets him fly and the Laser Blaster gives him a wider shooting range.
The levels in this game are amazing. Here's a brief run-down of each level.
Emerald Coast - A seaside paradise filled with lots of places to roam.
Windy Valley - Just as the name suggests, it's a large, windy valley. Get swept away by a tornado and walk on paths made of air. One of my personal favorites.
Casinopolis (pronounced cas-in-op-o-lis) - No Sonic game is complete without a casino stage. Collect as many rings as you can to find the Chaos Emerald.
Ice Cap - Climb a snowy peak and snowboard back down to reach your goal. A great level with catchy music and lots of hidden perils.
Twinkle Park - A huge amusement park with lots of rides and attractions including a roller coaster and a go-kart track. Be careful not to jump the fence, it's in the middle of outer space!
Speed Highway - Dash along airborne platforms, run down the sides of buildings and wind through busy city streets.
Red Mountain - An active volcano with many dangers. Watch out for the lava. It burns!
Sky Deck - Board the mighty Egg Carrier and find Dr. Eggman. Be careful, one false move and you could fall to your doom. Don't forget to watch out for the cannons.
Lost World - An ancient temple of Knuckles' ancestors. Explore this ancient relic and unlock the secrets of the past.
Hot Shelter - The inner workings of the Egg Carrier. Work your way through the different hallways and room and find your way out of the ship.
Final Egg - Eggman's jungle base. Your final level before the big showdown with Eggman. Can you stand this final test?
Throughout the game are also mini-stages that you must beat in order to advance through the story. Here's a quick description of each.
Twinkle Circuit - A fun go-kart racing game. Can you beat your best time?
Sand Hill - It's like snowboarding, but with sand. Board you way through the desert. Watch out for moving ruins!
Hedgehog Hammer - Take Amy's hammer and whack them hedgehogs! Get the high score and escape Eggman's prison.
Sky Chase Acts 1 and 2 - Fly the Tornado 1 and later the Tornado 2 and chase down the Egg Carrier. Watch out for Eggman's fighter jets and bombs!
The bosses in this game are amazing as well.
Dr. Eggman - Eggman builds all kinds of machines. Can you take them all down?
Chaos 0, 2, 4, and 6 - As Eggman gives this monster more emeralds, he grows into a tougher beast. Can you defeat him?
The E-Series - Destroy E-102's brothers and rescue the animals inside.
Zero - Amy's only boss. Destroy this annoying pest with your hammer.
Other characters - At some point, you fight other characters one on one. Show them who's boss!
Perfect Chaos - Chaos has all 7 emeralds and has destroyed Station Square. This is your final battle. Can Super Sonic save the world from total destruction?
This game also sports Adventure Fields.
Station Square - Your typical city. Has a beach, a hotel, a train station, an amusement park, and lots and lots of buildings.
Mystic Ruins - An ancient jungle hiding a large temple. Also home to Tails.
Egg Carrier - Eggman's flying fortress. It may be huge, but it moves fast and flies high.
The music in this game is superb. Crush 40 performs the main theme "Open Your Heart." Jun Senoue proves his excellence with the music he penned for the levels in this game. Each character also has their own unique theme. The sound track for this game is available on a few different CDs. Jump on Google or Ebay or something. I'm sure you'll find them.
I'll also make a brief mention of the Chao Gardens where you can raise your own chao to be big and strong.
This game had 2 major releases. The original for the Sega Dreamcast and the DX version for the Nintendo Gamecube and PC. The DX version was pretty much the same. The only real differences are the graphics are better, a few glitches are fixed, and they added a mission mode. Mission mode basically gives you a mission to solve in addition to following the main story. UPDATE: Both versions are now available for Playstation Network and Xbox Live as of Fall 2010. The PC version is also available for download via Steam.
Well, that's my review. I love this game. It's one of the best games ever made, and I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you want to learn more, check out Wikipedia or Google. There's lots of sites with all kinds of information. Better yet, go buy or rent the game. You won't regret it!
Sonic Adventure - 4 Stars
Sonic Adventure DX - 4.5 Stars
The basic premise: Dr. Eggman wants to destroy Station Square and build his own city. He releases "Chaos, the god of destruction" from the Master Emerald and feeds him Chaos Emeralds to make him stronger. Sonic and Tails have to find the emeralds before Eggman does. Meanwhile, the other characters each have their own problems to worry about.
This was the game that truly brought Sonic into the 3D realm for the first time. The graphics were great for their time and the overall gameplay was excellent. You had 6 characters to choose from once you unlocked them all. Each had their own unique story line that tied in with the others. Each character offered a unique gaming experience all their own. The controls were decent and made gameplay a breeze.
I'm going to focus on the gameplay and not so much the character's personalities. If you want that, check out Wikipedia.
Sonic - High speed running stages. Get to the specified goal and knock out the bad guys. True to the Sonic style and in 3D! Sonic's basic moves are homing attack that lets you attack enemies and spin dash that gives you a burst of speed. Sonic has lots of power-ups. The light-speed shoes let you travel along trails of rings. The Crystal Ring speeds up this process. The Ancient Light allows you to attack multiple enemies at once.
Tails - Race against Sonic/Eggman to get to the goal first. Tails has one attack and that's his tail whip. Tails can fly and has 2 useful power-ups. The Jet Anklet and the Rhythm Badge. One lets you fly faster, and the other allows you to do continuous tail whip attacks.
Knuckles - Find the lost pieces of the master emerald before Angel Island sinks into the ocean. Very straight-forward. You have a radar to help you find the pieces and you can explore parts of the levels that the other characters can't. Knuckles has one basic attack and that's his punch. Punch 3 times to do a charging punch. Knuckles sports 2 power-ups. The Shovel Claw lets you dig holes. Pretty simple. The Fighting Gloves let you do the Maximum-Heat-Knuckles-Attack to knock out multiple enemies.
Amy - Her objective is to find the parents of a helpless Flicky bird. Her stages are similar to Sonic's but offer more of a challenge. She carries a hammer to whack enemies with a mighty blow. She has 2 possible power-ups. The Warrior Feather lets her do the Spin Hammer Attack and the Long Hammer gives her a better reach at enemies. Amy can also use her hammer to jump higher than normal.
Big the Cat - His goal is to find Froggy. He wanders around aimlessly fishing in various places to find him. His power-ups include 4 lure upgrades, the Life Belt that lets him float, and the Power Rod that gives him longer casting distance.
E-102 Gamma - He's a robot created by Dr. Eggman as a slave. He later develops a personality and abandons Eggman in pursuit to "save" his brothers. (Actually, he destroys them) Gamma's stages are shooting stages with a time limit that goes up with each enemy you destroy. He has one basic ability and that's blow things up with is laser cannon. He has 2 power-ups. The Jet Booster lets him fly and the Laser Blaster gives him a wider shooting range.
The levels in this game are amazing. Here's a brief run-down of each level.
Emerald Coast - A seaside paradise filled with lots of places to roam.
Windy Valley - Just as the name suggests, it's a large, windy valley. Get swept away by a tornado and walk on paths made of air. One of my personal favorites.
Casinopolis (pronounced cas-in-op-o-lis) - No Sonic game is complete without a casino stage. Collect as many rings as you can to find the Chaos Emerald.
Ice Cap - Climb a snowy peak and snowboard back down to reach your goal. A great level with catchy music and lots of hidden perils.
Twinkle Park - A huge amusement park with lots of rides and attractions including a roller coaster and a go-kart track. Be careful not to jump the fence, it's in the middle of outer space!
Speed Highway - Dash along airborne platforms, run down the sides of buildings and wind through busy city streets.
Red Mountain - An active volcano with many dangers. Watch out for the lava. It burns!
Sky Deck - Board the mighty Egg Carrier and find Dr. Eggman. Be careful, one false move and you could fall to your doom. Don't forget to watch out for the cannons.
Lost World - An ancient temple of Knuckles' ancestors. Explore this ancient relic and unlock the secrets of the past.
Hot Shelter - The inner workings of the Egg Carrier. Work your way through the different hallways and room and find your way out of the ship.
Final Egg - Eggman's jungle base. Your final level before the big showdown with Eggman. Can you stand this final test?
Throughout the game are also mini-stages that you must beat in order to advance through the story. Here's a quick description of each.
Twinkle Circuit - A fun go-kart racing game. Can you beat your best time?
Sand Hill - It's like snowboarding, but with sand. Board you way through the desert. Watch out for moving ruins!
Hedgehog Hammer - Take Amy's hammer and whack them hedgehogs! Get the high score and escape Eggman's prison.
Sky Chase Acts 1 and 2 - Fly the Tornado 1 and later the Tornado 2 and chase down the Egg Carrier. Watch out for Eggman's fighter jets and bombs!
The bosses in this game are amazing as well.
Dr. Eggman - Eggman builds all kinds of machines. Can you take them all down?
Chaos 0, 2, 4, and 6 - As Eggman gives this monster more emeralds, he grows into a tougher beast. Can you defeat him?
The E-Series - Destroy E-102's brothers and rescue the animals inside.
Zero - Amy's only boss. Destroy this annoying pest with your hammer.
Other characters - At some point, you fight other characters one on one. Show them who's boss!
Perfect Chaos - Chaos has all 7 emeralds and has destroyed Station Square. This is your final battle. Can Super Sonic save the world from total destruction?
This game also sports Adventure Fields.
Station Square - Your typical city. Has a beach, a hotel, a train station, an amusement park, and lots and lots of buildings.
Mystic Ruins - An ancient jungle hiding a large temple. Also home to Tails.
Egg Carrier - Eggman's flying fortress. It may be huge, but it moves fast and flies high.
The music in this game is superb. Crush 40 performs the main theme "Open Your Heart." Jun Senoue proves his excellence with the music he penned for the levels in this game. Each character also has their own unique theme. The sound track for this game is available on a few different CDs. Jump on Google or Ebay or something. I'm sure you'll find them.
I'll also make a brief mention of the Chao Gardens where you can raise your own chao to be big and strong.
This game had 2 major releases. The original for the Sega Dreamcast and the DX version for the Nintendo Gamecube and PC. The DX version was pretty much the same. The only real differences are the graphics are better, a few glitches are fixed, and they added a mission mode. Mission mode basically gives you a mission to solve in addition to following the main story. UPDATE: Both versions are now available for Playstation Network and Xbox Live as of Fall 2010. The PC version is also available for download via Steam.
Well, that's my review. I love this game. It's one of the best games ever made, and I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you want to learn more, check out Wikipedia or Google. There's lots of sites with all kinds of information. Better yet, go buy or rent the game. You won't regret it!
