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Sonic Adventure 2 .:: Sonic Adventure 2

Name: Sonic Adventure 2 - All nations

Other Names (Nicknames): SA2

Release Dates:
June 19th, 2001 - USA
June 23rd, 2001 - Japan
June 23rd, 2001 - Europe

Quality: 128-Bit, 3D Platformer

Game System(s): Sega Dreamcast

Also released on:
(1). Gamecube - Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (a ported version of Sonic Adventure 2, with slightly enhanced graphics, bonus features in 2-P mode, and the Chao mini-game)

Developer(s): Sonic Team USA

Character Introductions: Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Gerald Robotnik, and Maria Robotnik.

Region Game Takes Place On: Random locations on Earth.

Concept Introductions:

          Sonic Adventure 2 actually isn't that much different from Sonic Adventure. … Yet at the same time, it is very different. Sonic Adventure 2 adds a whole new twist to Sonic gameplay, since it enables you to choose whether or not you want to play as the heroes or the villains. The heroes consisted of none other than Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles (and Amy if you want to count her, although she is not playable in any other modes save 2-P). The baddies consist of Shadow, Dr. Eggman, and Rouge. Each character has their corresponding rival: Sonic/Shadow, Tails/Eggman, and Knuckles/Rouge. Yep, you heard me. Eggman's rival, this time, is Sonic's sidekick! Sonic's too busy dealing with a threat much more imposing than Eggman. The gameplay style varies depending on which characters you use. Sonic Adventure 2 is also the first Sonic game where the enemies throughout the Action Stages are primarily NOT of Eggman's creation! They instead are the robots built by the local military, GUN (Guardian Units of Nation). Destroying them causes a Chaos Drive to pop out, which are entirely useless if you're not a chao hustler, although they do replenish just a bit of Tails' and Eggman's health..

          The chao mini-game makes its comeback in Sonic Adventure 2 as well, with even more little surprises. There are now three types of chao: neutral, hero, or dark. Raising them with a hero or dark character will determine what type of those three types the chao will grow into. If you raise them with both sides evenly, it will evolve into a true neutral (which from there, it won't turn into a hero or dark chao). New permanent powerups also made their introductions. Each character has up to 6 new permanent powerups that are hidden throughout the action stages. Some can be found by just taking the normal path (since you NEED those), and others you need to look for manually. New regular powerups have been added as well such as the bomb that destroys all enemies on screen, and a medical kit (only for Tails and Eggman).

         The character's designs look generally the same as Sonic Adventure's (the ones that made a comeback from SA, anyway). Their bodies are slightly more lean and their physique is a bit more aerodynamic, but that's about it. Overall, Sonic Adventue 2 was probably the paramount for the Sonic character anatomy since for Sonic (as an example), he was more lean and streamlined, yet his belly still had a bulge and was round like how we were used to. The only major appearance change is Sonic's new shoes used in Sonic Adventure 2 to tie-in with his new ability to grind (another introduction in SA2) along the rails of the levels. His new shoes are a pair of SOAPs (which is an actual grind shoe brand that is very popular among skaters in California), designed off of the SOAP Scorcher shoe. SOAP helped promote SA2, and vice versa, evident by the many SOAP billboards in the City Escape Action Stage, and their logo in the credits. These new shoes sparked a lot of hype among fans since they looked so cool on Sonic, but unfortunately SA2 was their first and last debut in any Sonic game. Originally, Sonic was going to have his normal shoes. And finally, Sonic Adventure 2 also has a 2-P mode.

Concept Deductions: The Chaos Emeralds are just as important to the story in SA2 as they were in SA. However, like in SA, they are not found in Special Stages; you just get them as the storyline goes along. Adventure fields are no more in Sonic Adventure 2. Each Action Stage is linked by a simple cut scene. The way to access the chao mini game is also different. You don't just go to the chao gardens in adventure fields anymore (obviously since there ARE no more adventure fields). A new location known as Chao World is accessible only by grabbing the chao key hidden in a special blue box throughout the Action Stages, and completing the stages with the key in hand. After that, Chao World becomes permanently accessible through the stage select menu. The Chao World network leads to three Chao Gardens (two of them need to be unlocked) and the Chao Kindergarten, which is where you bring your chao to teach it activities, name it, and buy stuff from the black market where you can buy special items for your chao, and special chao eggs. (The Chao Black Market is only available by default in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. To get it in the original Dreamcast version, you need to collect all the emblems.) Also, Sonic Adventure 2 marks the very first Sonic game where the jumping sound effect is no longer the classic, "bwooeep," but instead sounds more like a realistic flipping sound. The classic sound is kept only for Amy's jump in 2-P mode and for Sonic in the Green Hill Zone extra stage. The appearances of their jumps also look like actual flips instead of warped, blurry balls of color.

Storyline:

           50 years ago, the president (13 presidents ago from the current one) began to form a large interest in what was known as mankind's eternal dream: researching immortality. This drove the president into confidentially requesting Professor Gerald Robotnik (Dr. Eggman's grandfather) to scrutinize such a farfetched illusion of grandeur.

           Gerald Robotnik stubbornly refused this request, since it had crossed Man's limits. He was a man of ethical standards (unlike his grandson). However, ironically, Gerald's beloved granddaughter Maria had been diagnosed with a lethal sickness known as NIDS (Neuro Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Medical treatment for this illness at the time was unavailable. This eventually resulted in Gerald Robotnik's approval of the president's request, thus research for immortality begun aboard the ARK, a spherical space research facility. Research on Maria's illness was being conducted thoroughly, but Gerald's newly unveiled research on immortality brought in a new ray of hope. Could something so absurd have been fabricated within the mind of Gerald Robotnik? Soon, the project underwent research and was codenamed Project: Shadow, named because of the sarcasm involved in not actually being able to create a shadow (which didn't exist in the world).

           At the beginning stages, Chaos Emeralds were researched and soon resulted in the creation of Chaos Drives. These Chaos Drives were the objects in which the infinite power of the Chaos Emeralds were utilized upon a living being. They were meant primarily for the prototype which had to be nearly perfect before toil on the main project would commence. The prototype of the Ultimate Life-form bore fruit. It was modeled after a lizard's shape and seemed to meet many of their standards: it could self-regenerate, self-restore, and self-reproduce. This thrilled the researchers. However, in their moment of glory, things began to look bad. The prototype was unruly and hard to control. This caused many problems for the researchers and those aboard the Space Colony ARK as a whole. More than likely, because of the threat this posed, the confidential research had been leaked into the GUN military organization back on Earth.

           The GUN's top ranking officials had developed a strong disliking for the researchers aboard the ARK and thus planned to take advantage of the ARK's situation and form a plan to shut the ARK down. This secret plan was named "ARK's Indestructible Seal." The plan included the evacuation of all citizens of the ARK back to Earth while all research facilities involved with Project: Shadow were frozen and shut down, and all of those involved with the project were to be killed. This entire plan was released to the public under the premise that a bio-hazardous accident had occurred that GUN knew nothing about and those who were killed (namely the researchers) were victims of the accident. This was to cover GUN's true motives of shutting the ARK down, erasing Project: Shadow, and put the blame on Professor Gerald Robotnik as the person responsible for the accident. The plan was completed in 7 days and the prototype of the Ultimate Life-form was found and sealed within the deepest part of the colony.

           However, there was a miscalculation in their plan. Unbeknownst to GUN, Gerald was putting the finishing touches on the Ultimate Life-form, "Shadow," using a much more desirable interface and physique for the creature. As they stormed into the space colony, Gerald escaped, and entrusted the final project (which was in a stasis tube at the time) to his granddaughter Maria, expecting her to release the project and herself in an escape pod towards the planet. Although she managed to successfully release the project, she was gunned down by a GUN officer before she could escape.

           Gerald Robotnik was jailed at Prison Island back on Earth and when he saw Maria's name upon the list of casualties from the "accident," he went insane. It also happened that GUN managed to retrieve the Project: Shadow that was released via Escape Pod. Gerald somehow managed to altar the Ultimate Life-form once again with a new motive. His mind was set totally on revenge, and he biogenetically programmed Shadow with those same intentions. Gerald was eventually executed soon after.

           50 years later, after performing extensive research on his grandfather's legacy, Dr. Eggman then decides to use this Ultimate Life-form for his own biddings, hoping it would do better than Chaos did. It was only a matter of time before Dr. Eggman managed to penetrate into the GUN Prison Island and release what he had sought out for: Shadow the Hedgehog. However, Eggman seemed to have freed a whooole lot more than what he had bargained for…

Personal Criticism/Opinion:

         Sonic Adventure 2 was released right at Sonic's 10th birthday. While released 4 days BEFOREHAND in the USA, it was released exactly 10 years after Sonic's faithful introduction on the Genesis in 1991 in Japan and Europe. Sonic Adventure 2 was meant to emphasize Sonic's 10th anniversary by giving the blue blur a whole new feel. Sonic Adventure 2's storyline, atmosphere, and style is set in a much serious, corrupt and realistic environment. This emphasis on Sonic's 10th birthday was most notable by the 10th anniversary gift pack that was released at stores for a very limited time in Japan and given only by pre-order to USA buyers. The gift pack included a music CD containing classic tunes from the very first Sonic game all the way to Sonic Adventure 2, a special collector's coin, and a pamphlet explaining Sonic's history. (It was with this little pamphlet that the Mary Garnet Story was introduced to the world.)

         For many, Sonic Adventure 2 is their number one favorite. This decision is well justified by the game's impressive variety of features and realistic atmosphere. This was definitely a breath of fresh air for a Sonic game, since it gave a whole new air to the hedgehog. Sonic Adventure's storyline was what was thought to be as realistic as a Sonic storyline could get, but SA2 outdid that as well with the introduction of a military organization, tragedy, and even death. The gameplay is based entirely on that particular premise. You choose to either play as the heroes or the villains. Each story brings you through a collection of Action Stages, where unlike Sonic Adventure, no one character gets the same Action Stage. There are 29 action stages in all, Sonic having the most: 6, the others have 4 to 5 stages, while all of them get a little of 1 Action Stage.

         Sonic and Shadow's gameplay is basically the same as Sonic's in Sonic Adventure's: high speed, spinball jumpin', spindashin', ring-zoomin', and spring bouncin' goodness. New twists were added to that particular gameplay style including their new ability to grind and somersault. They both travel at essentially the same speed and have the same gameplay. Tails and Eggman's gameplay style has shades of E-102 "Gamma" from Sonic Adventure, with the mixed platformer/shooter gameplay. In SA2, you don't walk as Tails or Eggman. Instead, they are always in their two vehicles. For Tails, he uses the Cyclone walker, which is a transformed version of the Tornado 2. And of course, Eggman uses his Egg Mobile with a pair of legs on it so it can walk. The objective is to go through the levels and shoot and blast as many things as you can and reach the goal, just like Gamma. However, your health isn't the classic ring system. Instead, you have a life bar. Once you run out of heatlh, you're down and out for the count. All rings do for Tails and Eggman is replenish a bit of health, along with Chaos Drives. Knuckles' and Rouge's gameplay is the same as Knuckles' Master Emerald piece hunts in Sonic Adventure. Hell, you're even looking for Master Emerald pieces again! (Save two levels where you must search for keys to Eggman's base, and one where you look for three Chaos Emeralds.)

          Once again, Sonic Adventure 2 has the emblem hunt. Except unlike Sonic Adventure's 130, you must collect 180 of the sumbitches in SA2! Most of these emblems are received from the Action Stages. Once you finish everything in story mode, you've only collected a small portion of them. Each Action Stage has 5 missions; the first one being the one you completed in Story Mode. Each mission gives you an emblem. But here's the kicker, which was an asset introduced in Sonic Adventure 2: how well you did on the mission is graded at the end of the Action Stage. You can either get an A (best one), B, C, D, or an E (worse one). The grade you get depends on your score (yes, finally, the score is actually useful), rings collected, and the time you took to finish. The 6 "All A Ranking" emblems are the hardest ones to get. (You get one each for getting all A ranks on the Action Stages for each character.) The rest of the emblems are received through the kart racing mini-game, boss battle trial, completing each story, and the chao mini-game.

         However, unlike in Sonic Adventure, you actually get something for collecting all emblems! You get the Black Market for the chao garden, which is where you can buy all kinds of special items for the chao, and even special chao eggs (currency is the rings you've collected so far throughout the entirety of time spent on the game). You unlock many hidden characters for 2-P mode including Amy and Metal Sonic for the race challenge, Tikal and Chaos for the treasure hunt, and Big the Cat and the Chao walker for the shooter game. You also unlock new karts for the kart race, and different costumes for the 2-P characters. Last but most certainly not least, you unlock an extra stage, and that extra stage is a complete, 3D makeover of Green Hill Zone! The extra stage is modeled exactly like the first act of Green Hill Zone, complete with the original badniks, ring locations, and even the original sound effects! In Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, everything's pretty much the same with the exception of the unlocked characters: they are playable by default from the very start of the game. All you unlock by collecting the emblems in SA2:B is the Green Hill Zone and several costumes for the characters which enhances their abilities slightly in 2-P.

         Sonic Adventure 2: Battle's differences from the original lie primarily in the 2-P mode and the Chao mini-game. From the very start, as mentioned, all of the characters that had to be unlocked in the original are usable automatically in SA2:B. (Except Big, who has been replaced by a stupid Dark Chao walker — in fact, all of Big the Cat's cameos are gone, since in the original, he makes tons of cameos since he is hidden somewhere in each Action Stage.) You are also able to choose a lot more of the action stages to play through in SA2:B and their length (for the race challenge ones) extends dramatically. A new grind race and "streetboard" race has been added for the speedsters among other mini-games. The chao mini-game has been decked out with all kinds of new chao egg colors because of the default introduction of the black marke and the new Chao Karate, where you can see your cute, jiggly little critter beat the living crap out of another one! The only other difference is the slight tweak in the emblem hunt. I noticed that in SA2:B, the 10th emblem you get from raising chao is missing. That 10th emblem is now given to you by getting all A ranks on the Cannon's Core Action Stage. In the original, you didn't have to do that. Luckily, it isn't THAT hard.
          
          Finally, let's move onto the new characters Sonic Adventure 2 introduces. Gerald and Maria Robotnik are just there for storyline appeal. But Shadow and Rouge are two new flavors to the mix. Shadow the Hedgehog is the dark image of Sonic with jet black fur, cool red highlights on his bent up quills (a lot like Super Sonic's from SA's) and along his arms and legs, red eyes, and a nifty pair of hovershoes (which make him look like he is skating when he runs). Mixing that with an angsty past and a dark, badass attitude, you get a recipe for a HUGE fanbase (which, two mainstream 3D platformers later, became a recipe for disaster). Rouge the Bat is also another mature tinge to the Sonic realm. A secret government spy with a rather feminine body that defied the Sonic-style anatomy and a HUGE taste for jewels (particularly Knuckles' jewels). Clad in a jumpsuit that looks like something a girl would wear in a cheesy sci-fi porn flick, a dominating disposition, and overflowing with femininity, Rouge the Bat broke grounds for the average Sonic character. She was the first official female character who is actually independent, and can fight on her own.

         Rouge the Bat, of course, did not earn as much fans as Sonic Adventure 2's showcase character, Shadow. Luckily, a few years down the road, she began to grow more admired since by then, Sonic Team began to REALLY screw Shadow up while they still managed to maintain the style Rouge claimed from her SA2 roots.

         Overall, Sonic Adventure 2 was its own Sonic game. It gave Sonic a feel that a true fan wouldn't have ever expected. It was serious, realistic, and mesmerizing. It was a one time gig. Well, it SHOULD have been a one time gig. After the release of Sonic Heroes, Sonic Team has began trying harder to make their Sonic games more like how SA2 was. But they more than likely won't give you that same feel that SA2 did, so don't expect too much.

Let's see some GAMER'S PERSPECTIVE:

Replay value? Sonic Adventure 2's replay value is excellent. ESPECIALLY the ported SA2:B with all of the new 2-P features and the much more detailed chao mini-game. But ultimately, the easy access to each Action Stage is definitely a plus. And unlike in Sonic Adventure, you can actually access the story mode and play through which cut scenes you want to start at and then play the story from there. In Sonic Adventure, you only had one chance to even see the cut scenes. So Sonic Adventure 2's replay value is actually better than Sonic Adventure's.

Graphics? Sonic Adventure 2 had the best Sonic character models yet. Each of the characters looked streamlined, stylized, and much more cool. The good thing about the Sonic Adventure 2 models is how much they took advantage of texture mapping. A lot of the bodily features (such as the scruff of white fur on Shadow's chest, and even Sonic's peach tummy) were painted onto the mapping of the character instead of modeled manually. Cotton folds were also defined well on the mapping for Rouge's attire and the amount of detail painted on the mapping for the character's shoes was awesome. The oral movement sucks, though. In SA2, they tried to make their mouths look more realistic, thus too small in proportion to a Sonic character's anatomy — they were MUCH better in SA1. The model movement wasn't too good either. It's as if they tried too hard to make them look realistic. Before the last fight when Sonic & Shadow are powering up with the Chaos Emeralds, they look like they're jerking off. However, the modeling and mapping for the levels is spectacular; common for Sonic games. They concentrate so much on the environment that they sacrifice the character model's quality. And, as usual, the FMVs (or a lack thereof) suck like crazy and have a continuity error when the Eclipse Cannon blows up the moon. The moon has no molten magma core since its magnetic field is too weak. It might have one because small moonquakes have been recorded, but not enough of one to glow red like that as seen in the crappy SA2 FMV sequence.

Music & Sound Effects? Sonic Adventure had variation in its OST. There were some saxophone songs, tribal themed music, techy/rock, and plain rock tunes. But Sonic Adventure 2 is nothing but a huge ROCK fest (save a few character themes, the BGM that plays at the end of the Cannon's Core [which is nothing but a spinoff of Lost World's BGM], and several Action Stage BGMs). SA2 is a huge rock fest mostly because almost the entire OST was done by Jun Senoue. But overall, the music is done by the same group as from Sonic Adventure, so the music is generally the same. However, SA's variation is definitely what makes it better than SA2's.

Storyline? Sonic Adventure 2's storyline is by far the most tragic, emotional, and serious storyline seen in any Sonic game so far. Of course, you can't really compare the storyline from a Sonic game to that of something seen in a Square-enix game, or a Martin Scorsese film. But as far as Sonic game storylines go, Sonic Adventure 2's gives you a whole new feel. Definitely an up.

OVERALL RATING? I rate Sonic Adventure 2 as a 9/10.