Sonic Adventure

aka: Sonic Adventure International
Moby ID: 3530
Dreamcast Specs

Description official descriptions

Yet again Sonic and friends find themselves wrapped up in the schemes of Dr. Robotnik. This time he plans to exploit the power of Chaos, a malevolent being that feeds upon the power of the Chaos Emeralds. In their own way, five heroes will do what they can to save Station Square and, perhaps, the entire world.

The player can select from which character to play after meeting them with Sonic, and each has its own unique version of each level. Sonic's levels involve racing through a level as quickly as possible, destroying any robots along the way. Tails can hover over distances, and his levels are similar to Sonic's except that he must beat an opponent to the finish line. Amy can't charge up ramps or run as quickly as Sonic and Tails, but she does have a giant hammer she can break obstacles with. The goal of her levels is to avoid being captured by a robot sent after her by Dr. Robotnik. E102 Gamma is a slow, difficult to maneuver robot, but it has guns and missiles that can lock on to several targets at once, chaining together attacks and earning a higher score and more time on the clock. The goal of its levels is to reach a boss enemy and destroy it before time runs out. The final character is Big the Cat, a fisherman searching for his lost frog. Big's levels are almost entirely devoid of action or fighting; he just fishes. Each character can find items that increase their abilities as the story progresses, such as a ring for Sonic that lets him home along lines of rings, or improved lures for Big. A final chapter wrapping up the story is unlocked after all other characters have been completed.

Additionally, each of the characters can visit the Chao garden where they can raise baby Chaos. By petting, feeding, and showing animals found in levels to the Chaos they can grow stronger, and optionally be put into races against other Chaos. As well each level in the game has additional objectives that can be completed to acquire extra emblems, although the emblems don't do anything in this version of the game. Finally, at one time it was possible to go online and download additional levels and bonuses in the game, such as a Christmas theme for Station Square and a level sponsored by AT&T, but since SegaNet shut down this is no longer possible.

Spellings

  • ソニック アドベンチャー - Japanese spelling
  • 索尼克大冒险 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Dreamcast version)

325 People (296 developers, 29 thanks) · View all

Producer
Director
Art Director
Main Programmer
Sound Director
Character Designer
Scenario Writer
CG Movie Producer
CG Movie Director
Producer
Assisting Producer
Web Development and Support
Executive Producer
Network Games Producer
Sr. Product Manager
Sr. Marketing Coordinator
English Translation (SEGA OF JAPAN)
In-Game Text Rewrite
Lead Tester
Assistant Lead Testers
Testers
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 52 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 116 ratings with 8 reviews)

Without a doubt, the best game I ever played!

The Good
Since the very first Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 I was completely hooked on the character. This game brings a whole new dimension to him. What I like about the game is it is more fast paced that the previous, the environments are incredible, they keep all of the robots from previous games and the final boss was actually a challenge to defeat, which, nowadays, is quite rare in final bosses. The characters of the 3D game are successfully taken from the original 2D environment, the new characters, including Big, are I think a huge success and, most importantly, they remain true to the spirit of the game.

The Bad
What's bad about this game...hm...I can't think of anything, even though many critics probably have some things to pick at.

The Bottom Line
If I still had my Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure would be the most used game on it. This game is an absolute must-have if you're a fans and a must-try if you're not.

Dreamcast · by M.Allen (83) · 2007

Could have been great, but...

The Good
The graphics are great, and when the game is fast, it's FAST. The controls aren't excellent, but they do their thing. The first three levels are excellent in every way, and that's something not even Tails can stop (argh how I hate that irritating little thing).

The Bad
At first I liked the thought of some adventuring with Sonic, but that was not for long, because when I had started playing I realized that all I really wanted was to run, and to run fast. Sure, there are lots of opportunities for running like a maniac, but there are also lots of irritating parts where you just walk around town looking for the next level, and that isn't so inspiring. Oh, and the music and voice acting is terrible (although the music is better than in Sonic Adventure 2), bordering on unspeakably evil and bad.

The Bottom Line
If you have a Dreamcast and feel the need for a quick injection of great graphics and furious speed, then get Sonic Adventure, but you might wanna look for it in the bargain bins. The tedious adventuring parts and the horrible music and voice acting lower the score somewhat, but the game's worth its money, if just for the first three levels.

Dreamcast · by optrirominiluikus (70) · 2004

The game that introduced me to the Sonic world

The Good
Sonic Adventure, released in 1999, was the blue blur's first foray into a fully three-dimensional world. It introduced a style that was decidedly different from the series' days on the Genesis, with a much bigger world and a plotline of a much grander scale. For longtime fans, this was likely fresh and unexpected, but for me it was my first experience of the hyper-fast 'hog and his friends' exploits against the nefarious Dr. Eggman, solidifying me as a huge fan of the series for years to come.

The gameplay is broken up into multiple playstyles involving six characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Big the Cat and E-102 γ, both newcomers to the series at this point. Sonic's campaign features the standard, high-speed action the series is renowned for, giving him new abilities such as the homing attack, which has played an integral part in the gameplay of subsequent Sonic titles. Tails' game revolves around racing against his speedy buddy (and later, the Doctor) to prove his own strength and independence. Knuckles, after a scuffle with the game's major antagonist, has to search for pieces of the master emerald. Amy finds herself playing both the role of bodyguard and damsel in distress as she and a bird friend must escape the clutches of one of "Eggman's clunkers" (to quote an in-game line spoken by Sonic :p). Finally, Big is on a mission to rescue his always-escaping amphibian pal, Froggy, and E-102 provides an interesting story (and fun shooting gameplay) on whether or not a robot should obey the demands of his master, or embrace free-will.

Each of the characters' stories play out in a unique way, in which their actions are all happening at once, though we are seeing from one individual perspective (i.e. whichever character is played). They ultimately combine to lead to Sonic's faceoff against a brand new enemy, known as Chaos.

The graphics, though definitely showing their age nowadays, look great for the time period the game was released in. At this time, the level of detail found in Sonic Adventure's world was unprecedented, and surely wowed gamers at the time; ditto for the CGI intro in the game.

Much like high-speed action being the core part of the series, it wouldn't be a Sonic title without having an AWESOME soundtrack, and this one surely brings the sonic (pardon the pun) goods! From rock, to jazz and hip-hop, Sonic Adventure features a much more diverse soundtrack compared to the classic techno beats of the original games.

The Bad
The game can be rather glitchy at times, likely owing to its nature as a launch title for the SEGA Dreamcast; characters can fall through stages and some mechanics can be clunky.

Being an early 3D platformer, it has the typical issues with the game camera- it can be uncooperative, unintuitive at times and causing many cheap deaths.

Whilst the plot is great, the voice acting can be a bit cheesy at times, not helped by the rather exaggerated movements of the characters' mouths and bodies, though again, this was at a time when such features in a game were unheard of (or, at least, new) and thus hadn't hit the stride of being high-quality yet.

Finally, the game is quite short and easy, with each of the non-Sonic characters having very brief campaigns (Sonic's has 10 total stages, whereas the others only have around 3-4), and bosses being easily taken down due to simple battle patterns (some of their A.I. can even be glitched, allowing you to beat them in a matter of seconds).

The Bottom Line
One of the definitive Sonic the Hedgehog titles! If you're looking to get into the series, Sonic Adventure is a must-play!

Dreamcast · by BlueWind SSK (28) · 2019

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
PS3 / Xbox 360 versions Freeman (64840) Apr 3, 2018

Trivia

Many, MANY scrapped ideas from previous Sonic games were put into this game. (eg The boulder, object interaction, etc...)

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Grant McLellan.

Xbox 360 added by Riemann80. PlayStation 3 added by Crawly.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Sciere, MegaMegaMan, ケヴィン.

Game added April 2, 2001. Last modified March 27, 2024.