Been a while since I covered something different. To me, these are oldies but goodies, and I'm doing this since Sonic the Hedgehog hits 20 years right about now. While Mortal Kombat II was the first game I legitimately played in my youth (yeah, a little boy playing a MK game), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the first one actually had to myself, and is a rather key memory of my childhood. Obviously, I jumped for joy when I found out he was going 3D on Sega Dreamcast, but only got as far as to playing the demo to one of them. Over time, though, I did end up owning and playing both via Nintendo GameCube.
To start, I'll introduce the first game, Sonic Adventure. To my knowledge, this was technically the first true 3D action title, as the before released Sonic 3D Blast had an isometric view, and Sega Saturn's Sonic Jam, a compilation title, made subtle changes that would be staple to future titles. Sonic Adventure introduced many firsts into the franchise, as it was the first game where characters had eye color and voices. The Homing Attack, introduced in Sonic 3d Blast (or Flickies' Island), was available initially in the beginning of the game. As well, everyone else had new and old abilities as well. Upon getting power up items, the abilities of one character can be enhanced, or it can introduce a new move entirely, such as Sonic's Light Dash.
Gameplay was somewhat of a variety. While everyone plays the same stages, they don't all play the same way. For starters, Sonic and Tailshas for the most part the same stages, but differ in gameplay. Sonic's stule is reminiscent of Sonic 2, where one player can control briefly Tails, and Tails is usually racing either Sonic or Eggman. Knuckles, who can now punch enemies, has a 3D Treaure hunter-style gameplay to him, where he finds pieces of the Master Emerald he was destined to guard, which serves as part of the game's plot. Amy Rose, an originally non-playable character from Sonic CD, is perhaps one of the more drastic changes to a character, apart from Eggman himself. She can't Spin Attack/Jump like her crush Sonic, but has a bammer she can do damage to enemies with. Apart from this, she is generally slower, and most of her stages require her to find a balloon to escape Zero, all the while using any place to hide in to confuse him. The new playable character Big the Cat is self explanatory he's huge, as in his name, but within his immense strength, he's generally kind. His game centers around his hobby: fishing, which is more or less vital when trying to get hsi pollywog pal Froggy. E-102 Gamma is another new face, created by Eggman, but goes against his creator. Gamma's gameplay is a 3D Shooter stage, where he hunts down his brothers of the E-series. Tikal is a non-playable that acts like a guide to the characters, though she herself is another member of the story;s plot. Once more, like any Sonic game, Ivo Robotnik/Eggman is the recurring enemy, but is accompanied by his E-series robots, and a fluid being of the Master Emerald, named Chaos.
Cut-scenes are animated, and have voices. That aside, you can navigate through the city before each stage to talk to people. You can even pick up items, some of those you'll need to advance. The game also introduced the baby-like creatures named Chao, which you can take care of. It's staple features were its use of its many gardens, plus the fact that you can use the portable VMU to raise it. When Dreamcast folded, Nintendo took it up by releasing the graphic enhanced follow-up: Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut for the Gamecube. Like the original sequel's remake, the VMU's feature was remade to work with the Game Boy Advance (with assist of the GBA/GC Link) and, in this case, the GBA game Sonic Advance 2, which had a Chao Garden feature. It also bore a Mission mode, where the 6 characters complete missions. Doing so will earn them emblems, normally gotten during the action stages or found through the overworld. In addition, SADX also had games from the Game Gear that were unlockable, starting with the handheld Sonic the Hedgehog. Recently, both games were remade and packed as a downloadable title for both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, with the graphics intact for each. A DX upgrade was later released, giving the game the feel of Gamecube's remake in terms of graphics and features. Another thing to note, and while it isn't the first game to do so in general, the game had a vocal theme in general, followed by vocal themes for most of the characters. The only one that lacked this, playable wise, was Gamma, who had more of an instrumental, slightly electronic feel to its theme.
Sonic Adventure gets an 8, granted I played the original's demo, and a 7.5 for Sonic Adventure DX. I cannot grade the one rehashed for the next gen consoles yet, but I'll update this upon doing so. Next time I'll cover what is right now it's only sequel: Sonic Adventure 2.
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