Sonic Adventure

The Good
The Year is 1999 Sonic that little blue hedgehog who stole everyone’s heart’s back in 1990 has been absent for 5 years with no new Sonic game appearing on the Sega Saturn which probably partially led to its failure but now as a Dreamcast launch game Sonic is back! In full 3d! But did Sonic suffer the same fate as all 2d platformer to 3d transition except for Mario?

You may be pleased to hear it does turn out well being faithful to the old Sonics with the same action packed levels as Sonic but other characters have different game types Tails must race sonic through levels which I don’t care for personally but at least its different Knuckles must do a scavenger hunt for pieces of the shattered master emerald Amy must evade a robot trying to steal a birdie from her so Robotnik can take it a turn it into a robot two new characters being Big The Cat and E-102 in Big the Cat’s levels you must Fish… What? For Froggy his friend who has swallowed a chaos emerald which leads to E-102 who works for Eggman(Robotnik) and soon works to help Sonic and friends in all this chaos you may be asking what is the overall plot to this game well.

Eggman has come upon a creature called Chaos who feeds on chaos emeralds and grows bigger eggman wants the use Chaos to destroy Station Square and make Robotnikland and Sonic decides to stop him by collecting the emeralds first along the game you discover Chaos’s true identity and why Robotnik’s meddling was a big mistake even for him.

In between missions Sonic and friends can explore Station Square and the mystic ruins for items, routed to new levels and upgrade to your character, The music and sound effects in this game are great and wonderful action sequences like running down the side of a building or getting chased by a whale.

The Bad
Since the final Super Sonic game requires you to beat all characters campaigns some people will never finish the game because of Tail’s levels and Big’s levels and the games camera can make sticking a landing and seeing what you are doing.

The Bottom Line
This game is a great return of Sonic and should be played by all Sonic fans and any one looking for a good action thrill.

The Good
This was Sega's attempt at a "killer app" for the Dreamcast, a platformer game starring the titular character on an adventure with his friends, who are also playable characters. It features state-of-the-art (for the time) graphics, as well as a catchy soundtrack produced exclusively for the game and stunningly good sound effects.

Not to be overlooked is the game's game-within-a-game, the "A-Life" artificial intelligence system that functions as the brains behind the baby "Chao" creatures found in one room of the main hotel in the beginning of the game, as well as select locations throughout the rest of the game. These "Chao" creatures can be raised by Sonic and the other characters, and provide an interesting sub-game when used in combination with the Dreamcast's Virtual Memory Unit.

The Bad
Characters not named 'Sonic' could've been explored more in-depth. In addition, Tails' missions are a bit of a letdown; they mostly revolve around racing Sonic throughout a given level, which can get boring at times. Big's missions are usually no more than glorified fishing simulations, and E-102's are just confusing most of the time.

The Bottom Line
If you've got a Dreamcast or have access to someone else's, this game is a must play, even in 2009. The storyline, graphics, and sound are simply amazing, and were well ahead of their time. I'd go so far as to say it's one of my favorite console games of all time.

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!