Sonic Adventure (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) Review

Five years after the previous main series Sonic the Hedgehog game, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and after the entire lifecycle of the Sega Saturn in North America, Sega and Sonic Team finally released their first main series 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game, Sonic Adventure. The game was a launch title in North America for the Dreamcast and was arguably the most important version of the game. This review will judge the version of Sonic Adventure released in 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on its own merits.

 

The gameplay of Sonic Adventure is broken up into 7 parts: the campaigns of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big (the Cat), Gamma (Eggman’s E102 robot), and one final campaign that brings all of their stories to a close. All of these stories take place in mostly the same areas, with some omissions and changes to suit each character. The characters also all have unlock able abilities that the reviewer won’t spoil in this review. They also all have access to people to talk to, Hint Boxes, and a red glowing orb that make it hard to get confused or lost in any of the stories. Every campaign uses the same camera system too, which works most of the time, and is rather good for when the game came out, but is a bit too easy to get the camera stuck on walls and objects. Every campaign also has bosses, with battles against other characters usually being rather underwhelming but real bosses often being some of the most well designed and interesting parts of their respective campaigns.

 

Sonic uses his standard Spin Dash and ability to run extremely fast as he did in his games for the Sega Genesis. This time, however, Sonic can also use his Homing Attack, which pushes Sonic forward while in the air or, while in front of an enemy and in the air, Sonic will target the enemy and hit them with the Homing Attack. This works most of the time, and is a rather clever way to make Sonic hit enemies instead of jumping into them like he did in the Sega Genesis games, which would have been much more cumbersome in a 3D environment. What the Homing Attack does not help with is making the game any more difficult, and difficulty is rather lacking from this game. It is understandable that Sonic Team may have not wanted to overwhelm players with both a new perspective and tough challenges, but early 3D platforming games like Super Mario 64 were able to provide a good enough challenge while also making the game approachable for new players. Sonic’s campaign also features two Sub Games that he has to beat before the campaign ends. One is a rather generic racing section where Sonic drives a car through a course, which doesn’t leave much of an impression. There are also the sections where player has to control Tails’ plane and dodge Eggman’s rockets and robots while also defeating them, similar to games like Sin and Punishment. While these Sub Games aren’t that engaging on their own, they don’t overstay their welcome and provide a good variety for Sonic’s campaign.

 

Tails controls mostly the same as Sonic, but with his signature ability to fly rather than Sonic’s Homing Attack ability. This, coupled with Tails’ campaign mostly featuring the same challenges present in Sonic’s campaign help to make Tails’ campaign far from a highlight. Tails’ ability to fly also wasn’t really considered when creating the level design at all, with some stages letting Tails skip significant portions of the stage by just flying past them. Tails’ campaign also features the same sections where the player control’s one of Tails’ planes, which while they do make sense in the story, aren’t exactly worthy of being forcibly replayed.

 

Knuckles also controls similarly to Sonic, but with his signature ability to glide rather than Sonic’s Homing Attack ability. Knuckles stages all have basically completely different layouts than Sonic’s levels, and feature some of the best level design in the game. Knuckles’ stages are not linear paths like Sonic’s. Instead, Knuckles must find shards of the Master Emerald hidden throughout the level. Knuckles can use the various hints present in the stage and the display at the bottom of the screen with the three emeralds Knuckles is looking for that lights up the emeralds in colors that gradually turn from blue to green to red as Knuckles gets closer to them. Overall Knuckles’ campaign is far from the worst, but doesn’t reach the same heights that other campaigns do.

 

Amy is slower than Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails, but other wise controls rather similarly, with one major exception being her hammer that can hit enemies and help solve puzzles. Amy also features mostly unique levels, but they are mostly the same style as Sonic’s linear levels, but with a balloon she has to grab on to at the end instead of how Sonic’s levels end. Strangely some of Amy’s levels are the best examples of creative level designs that utilize the power of the Dreamcast. Amy also has a short and easy minigame where she has to play Whac-A-Mole with her hammer that provides a nice distraction. Amy’s campaign is surprisingly a highlight of the game, considering her relative popularity and importance with the other characters’.

 

Big the Cat controls somewhat similarly to the other characters too, but his special ability is by far the most unique. In his levels, which are basically styled in the same way as Knuckles’ levels, but much more empty, Big the Cat has to find the body of water that his frog, Froggy, is sitting in and catch him with his fishing rod. The game does a rather poor job of explaining what to do in these stages, but what the player is supposed to do is throw the bait near Froggy, wait until Froggy bites it, quickly push down on the analog stick, and hold down the action button to reel Froggy in until Big the Cat catches Froggy, ending the stage. While this gameplay style provides some variety for the game as a whole, it is rather shallow and doesn’t help with the games almost complete lack of challenge at all.

 

Gamma controls similarly to Amy, but his special ability is a gun that can lock onto targets when the action button is held down and fires when the action button is released. His stages are also linear affairs, and are possibly the least interesting in the game. All the player needs to do as Gamma is run down straight paths with enemies that are all beaten by holding and releasing the action button repeatedly. Overall Gamma’s campaign is among the worst and fails to be challenging or engaging.

 

Overall Sonic Adventure‘s gameplay features a lot of experimentation, which while it leaving some good mechanics with few levels, it also prevents bad mechanics from lasting too long. The player can also choose to rechallenge stages to collect additional emblems with new objectives beyond the C Emblems which only require the player to complete the stage. There are also the Chao Gardens where players can raise Chaos using collectables from the main campaigns and race those Chaos, providing a lot of extra game time if the player is interested in raising the Chaos. In terms of control Sonic Adventure is essentially perfect because of how limited the buttons needed are, with only the action button, jump button, and analog stick being necessary to beat the game.

 

While Sonic Adventure isn’t particularly impressive today, it doesn’t look bad for a game from 1998. Compared to games like Banjo-Kazooie, which also released in 1998, Sonic Adventure is rather impressive. Sonic Adventure‘s texture and model quality impress compared to its N64 and PlayStation counterparts thanks to the relative power of the Dreamcast. The amount and variety of assets and content is also rather impressive for a 1998 3D platformer. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of Sonic Adventure is a port of Sonic Adventure DX: Directors Cut for the Nintendo GameCube, an arguably inferior version of the Dreamcast original artistically and in some cases technically, but still a fine version of the game. Using the power of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the game is now rendered in HD and targets 60 FPS, with a surprising amount of slowdown considering the contents of the game. There is also a blue border behind the game on the rest of the now widescreen presentation, which could have used an option for removal. The original menus from the Dreamcast original also make their return, and still look as low budget and low effort as ever. Overall the game doesn’t really meet modern standards but looks rather good considering where it comes from.

 

Where Sonic Adventure is lacking technically is polish. Sonic Adventure is the game to begin the unfortunate tradition of 3D Sonic games featuring many bugs, glitches, and a general lack of polish. Characters often behave in ways that were obviously not intended, the camera frequently gets stuck, and some of the mechanics can be overly finicky.

 

Arguably the greatest part of Sonic Adventure is its soundtrack. The selection and variety of sounds are large and it is hard to find a song that can really be considered bad. The game also features many vocals in its songs which were rather novel for a video game in 1998. Some songs are repeated a bit too frequently but this can be forgiven because of the quality of those songs. There is also rather quality voice acting present, with a few strange deliveries that have become memes in the years since Sonic Adventure‘s game’s release.

 

In terms of plot Sonic Adventure isn’t particularly impressive. The writing is rather average and the overall plot is rather simple, but there is a lot for fans of Sonic the Hedgehog to enjoy here. It is impressive how well they were able to connect the 6 main campaigns together in terms of story, though.

 

Overall Sonic Adventure is a rather substantial game for its 1998 release date, and is easily worth its asking price on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Although it makes a lot of mistakes, Sonic Adventure also has a lot of good moments too, and is always playing its great soundtrack in the background.

 

Overall the reviewer would give the game a 7.5 out of 10.