Summary
- Sonic Adventure 2 is more of a chore than its sequel thanks to the tedious gameplay of its non-speedsters.
- Only one-third of the game is Shadow and Sonic, the rest is clunky mech suits and radar detection minigames.
- The first Adventure has much better momentum and rarely drops the ball.
TheGamer is full of Sonic fans. The Blue Blur spins circles around their heads more regularly than he releases good games, but I get it. When I was a kid, as bad as the titles I played and the shows I watched were, there was something so endearing about these characters that it didn’t matter. So, I decided—after hearing so much about it from colleagues—to finally go back and play the Adventure games.
I’d heard time and time again that Adventure 2 was Sonic’s magnum opus. It introduces Shadow (AKA the best character) and features a banging soundtrack from Crush 40, so it’s only natural it stands out even 20 years later from myriad games Sega has thrown at the wall, dwarfing its predecessor.
But it hasn’t aged well. Hell, I don’t even know if it was considered good at the time. Reading about frustrations I had on old forums, I found people from two decades ago moaning about the same things, but the slither of good seems to have washed away the rest as time marched on.
Dreamcast's Sonic Adventure 2In Adventure 2, you jump from Sonic/Shadow to Knuckles/Rouge to Tails/Eggman. The speedster levels are incredible, and easily some of the best 3D platforming out there. But that only makes up a third of the game. The rest is split between frustrating treasure hunting, in which you follow a janky detector in wide-open levels that take an age to complete, and a clumsy tank shooter that, when it tries to sprinkle in platforming, falls at the first hurdle.
Tails and Eggman are in giant mech suits kitted out with miniguns and rocket launchers for some reason, so when they jump, they’re tediously slow and cumbersome. So, when a level remembers that this is a Sonic game and needs platforming, you’re doing it with six cinder blocks strapped to your shins.
The other characters are grating chores that you have to push through to get to the good stuff, which is a strong way to sour the entire experience considering they make up two-thirds of it.
Many boss fights are just the equivalent character from the opposite story, i.e. Shadow vs. Sonic, which is pretty dull since you can just spam leap on their head to win most fights.
On the other hand, Adventure focuses solely on Sonic, before moving on to the other characters’ stories. There’s an overworld that you explore between levels, and it’s here where you gradually uncover new characters. Once they’re unlocked and join the gang, they aren’t mandatory to play as, but you can dive into their perspectives and play through their eyes whenever you want.
The flow is never disrupted. While Adventure 2 takes time out of the excellent platforming to have you go hunt for gems in Pumpkin Hill or whatever, Adventure has some incredibly slick 3D platforming of its own and the game keeps the focus squarely on it for as long as possible. It’s nice that you don’t have to worry about being thrown into the nail-grinding halt that is the other two playstyles every five minutes.
Speaking of the overworld, it’s a much better connective tissue for the story. In Adventure 2, you enter a liminal hub that leads to the Chao Garden after each level, so there’s no sense of place, making the story feel increasingly disconnected. On the other hand, in the first game, I fell in love with Station Square, this comically American metropolis, as I broke into its enormous casino and delved into its sketchy sewers.
Sidenote, the casino is the best 3D Sonic level. Turning him into a pinball was a stroke of genius.
Each level snaps together so satisfyingly, and by introducing new keys and powers that unlock areas we’d only glimpsed at earlier, there’s a powerful sense of progression without ballooning the world to an unintuitively bloated size.
It’s easy to see why Adventure 2 holds such a grip on Sonic fans. It introduced Shadow, has one of the most memorable stories thanks to Maria, and is easily an early peak of the series’ 3D platforming. But people are looking back with rose-tinted glasses, because the majority of the game revolves around side characters who feel awful to play as.
Adventure reaches similar heights with its gameplay, and while it might not be as refined or slick as its sequel, it isn’t weighed down by gimmicks. So, it’s aged a helluva lot better, and easily stands tall as the peak of 3D Sonic. The only thing it’s missing is Shadow.
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Like Follow FollowedSonic Adventure
Platformer Systems Released December 23, 1998 ESRB e Developer(s) Sonic Team Publisher(s) Sega Engine The Hedgehog Engine Franchise Sonic the HedgehogWHERE TO PLAY
PHYSICALAn ancient evil lurking within the Master Emerald has been unleashed from its slumber by the devious Dr. Eggman and is on the verge of becoming the ultimate monster using the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Only Sonic and his friends are heroic enough to put a stop to Dr. Eggman and his evil minions. Hit the ground running in this classic epic adventure in a race against time to save the world!
Six Characters, Six Adventures - Play through as one of six different characters, including Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, each with their own unique adventure and story.
Breed a Pet Chao - Breed and nurture your very own pet Chao in the Chao Garden minigame. Then compete against other Chao in a battle for ultimate Chao supremacy.
