Sonic Adventure

Sonic Adventure is a video game developed by Sonic Team and released on December 23, 1998, in Japan by Sega for the Dreamcast. One of its development titles was Sonic RPG (although the final product was an adventure game, not a standard RPG). The final updated edition, known as Sonic Adventure International, was released on September 9, 1999, in North America, October 14, 1999, in Japan and Europe, October 18, 1999, in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and December 3, 1999, in Australia. It has sold over 2.5 million copies, making it the best-selling Dreamcast game. It was the first Sonic game on a sixth generation console.

An enhanced port was released in 2003 as Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the Nintendo GameCube and in 2004 for Microsoft Windows. The game was ported to Xbox Live Arcade on September 15, 2010 and PlayStation Network on September 20, 2010. The game was featured on Dreamcast Collection, a four game bundle released in 2011.

Gameplay

This game is the first in Sonic series to feature free-roaming 3D gameplay. The game is divided into three types of stages: Action Stages, Adventure Fields and Subgames. The division of Action Stages and Adventure Fields was a serious departure from previous Sonic games. In addition, unlike the previous game in the series, Sonic Adventure has six different characters to choose from: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big and E-102 Gamma; each with their own style of gameplay. Only Sonic is playable at first, but other characters are made available after encountering them in his story. When all stories have been completed, a final story is unlocked.

Sonic's stages involve high speed gameplay, whilst Tails' stages require him to reach the end of the level before Sonic (and in one case, Robotnik) does and Knuckles' stages see him searching the area for shards of the Master Emerald. All three of these returning characters retain a lot of their trademark moves from previous Sonic games. Amy's stages require her to escape from the E-100 Zero robot chasing after her, Gamma's stages involve shooting through levels to reach a target and Big's stages involve fishing for his friend, Froggy.

Action Stages are the main playable levels for each character, where the player must face various enemies in order to complete their respective goals. Adventure Fields split up the action, where players can explore the surroundings to advance the plot, discover new levels or search for items which enhance a character's ability (for example, the Light Speed Shoes which allow Sonic to run across a path of rings.) Subgames deviate from the main gameplay of the character, which include minigames such as kart racing and snowboarding. Players may also find hidden Chao Gardens, which allow them to raise Chao, a sort of virtual pet. Chao can be taken with the player by downloading the minigame Chao Adventure to their VMU, or in the GameCube version, a Game Boy Advance with Sonic Advance. The player can also raise their stats by giving them small animals that they found by defeating the robots, which improves their performance in Chao Races. There are also eggs hidden throughout the Adventure Fields which can produce special types of Chao.

By playing through Action Stages and Subgames, searching through the Adventure Fields or winning Chao Races, players can earn Emblems. In the case of Action Stages, each one has three Emblems, which can be earned by replaying the stages and fulfilling certain objectives, such as beating the level within a time limit. In Sonic Adventure DX, these can unlock hidden extras such as Game Gear games.

Plot

Centuries ago, the planet was bestowed the seven Chaos Emeralds. These emeralds were a source of unlimited power, and consequently it did not take long before wars broke out over who would control the Chaos Emeralds. There was also a Master Emerald, which was the controller of the Chaos Emeralds and could either negate or amplify the Chaos Emerald's power. One of the chao living near the shrine of the Emeralds accidentally made contact with the holy water in the shrine and mutated to become a peaceful creature that could use the power of water called Chaos and became the guardian of the rest of the chaos there. Later on, a tribe of echidnas, led by Pachacamac, angered Chaos by attempting to steal the Chaos Emeralds, ruining the sanctuary it was protecting and attempted a mass massacre on the chao living there. They were all but completely destroyed within a single night and Chaos, in his fury, used the negative power of the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Perfect Chaos and slaughtered all the echidnas. Pachacamac's daughter, Tikal, had pleaded with Pachacamac but he refused to listen to her. Tikal then prayed to the Master Emerald after Perfect Chaos had left to destroy the entire world to seal herself with Chaos inside the Master Emerald.

In the present day, Dr. Eggman learns of the legend surrounding Chaos through a mural in the lost world. Believing it to be true, he creates his flying fortress, the Egg Carrier, seeks out the Master Emerald and shatters it, freeing Chaos in the process while interrupting Knuckles's job of protecting it and forcing him to collect the shattered pieces. Eggman's goal was to control Chaos, and use its destructive powers to collect the Chaos Emeralds and conquer the entire world, turning it into Eggmanland. To help him, he has created the E-Series robots, a group of powerful robots powered by animals placed inside them and programmed to obey him. Soon after, Chaos makes his way into the Mystic Ruins where Big is sleeping. Big's friend, Froggy, ends up swallowing Big's lucky charm, the yellow Chaos Emerald, and bitting off Chaos's tail which causes him to grow his own tail. Big then begins chasing down Froggy. As Sonic returns from an adventure, he sees the police trying to attack Chaos who has arrived into Station Square. He fights and defeats him but escapes. Later at night, Eggman creates E102-Gamma, the second of his E100 robots. Eggman tests Gamma's skills by having him do target practice and battling E101-Beta in order to join the team of the Egg Carrier. The next morning, Tails is out testing a new prototype plane but malfunctions and crashes. Sonic rescues him, and Tails shows him a Chaos Emerald he found which gets stolen after a battle with Dr. Eggman upon arriving at the Mystic Ruins. Amy's story begins in mid-story of all the characters. Remembering old times with Sonic, the Egg Carrier flies over Station Square, and a bird smacks into Amy. As soon as the bird drops, a robot named ZERO chases Amy. After they learn of Eggman's plans, Sonic and his friends spring in to action to stop Eggman and they all start their own separate, but intertwined, journeys for the Chaos Emeralds.

Sonic has defeated Eggman and Chaos, Tails has stopped Eggman from bombing Station Square with a missile, Knuckles has restored the Master Emerald, Amy has rescued a small bird and his family from the clutches of Eggman and his robotic minion Zero, Big has rescued his best friend Froggy, and Gamma has rescued his robotic brothers from Eggman's clutches, destroyed by a last resort point blank blast from his elder "brother" E-101 Beta MK-II and releasing the bird during the process.

However, shortly afterward, Angel Island falls once again, and Eggman is attacked by a surviving Chaos. Meanwhile, noticing that Angel Island has fallen once again, Knuckles decides to go to Sonic with the Chaos Emeralds for advice, when suddenly he finds Eggman on the island, bitter and defeated. Knuckles asks him what happened, to which Eggman responds "This is terrible! C-Chaos is...", before being attacked once more alongside Knuckles by Chaos, who steals the latter's six Chaos Emeralds.

Elsewhere, Sonic and Tails take notice that Angel Island has fallen once again, and hurry to the scene, where they find Eggman and Knuckles lying on the ground. Knuckles then reveals to Sonic and Tails that Chaos stole and absorbed the six Chaos Emeralds he was in possession of. Eggman flies off in a hurry, going to his secret hangar to use the Egg Carrier 2. Sonic and Tails then decide that they must retrieve the final emerald before Chaos, when suddenly, Sonic is teleported to the past where he witnesses former echidna chief Pachacamac and his warriors attacking the Master Emerald shrine, with the chief's daughter Tikal pleading to them not to attack the shrine before they are all killed by Chaos, who absorbs the seven emeralds and attempts to destroy the world. Sonic then returns to Angel Island, where he and Tails return to Tails' plane the Tornado 2, which uses the seventh emerald as a power source. However, they arrive too late and Chaos retrieves the seventh emerald before they do.

Meanwhile, in Station Square, Chaos transforms into his final form, Perfect Chaos, and floods the entire city. Sonic arrives, where he witnesses Eggman trying to attack Chaos in the Egg Carrier 2. However, Chaos immediately destroys it. Tikal then appears, explaining that Chaos' heart is filled with anger and sadness and the negative energy of the chaos emeralds flows through him. Chaos drains the emeralds power completely, leaving all power of the emeralds useless. Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Big arrive with all 7 emeralds and their collective positive energies (explained in Sonic Rush) along with Sonic's good heart enables him to re-ignite the Emerald's positive powers. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and neutralizes Perfect Chaos. Chaos is not destroyed completely, but his heart is filled with joy, happiness and forgiveness. Tikal takes Chaos back with her, but leaves the Chao to live peacefully with humans. Sonic runs off into Station Square and Angel Island is put back to its original state high in the heavens.

Development

Development of Sonic Adventure began around April 1997 with a development team of 30 members. Then Sega employee Yuji Naka had been unhappy with prior treatment of Sonic, especially in the Sega Saturn racing game Sonic R[citation needed]. After several titles for the Mega Drive, he worked mainly on the game Nights into Dreams however, learning of the Dreamcast brought him a renewed interest in creating Sonic games. The development team focused on graphics and high resolution for this game, with Naka reflecting that "we have pushed the Dreamcast as far as we can at present".

Music

Head composer Jun Senoue brought a new sound to the Sonic the Hedgehog series with this game, and as such it features many different styles of music such as jazz, rock, techno, pop and country. Each heroic player character (aside from Gamma) also has an instrumental motif that later translates into a vocal theme song that plays during the end credits of their story. The game contains vocal performances from Tony Harnell, Karen Brake, Marlon Saunders, Dread Fox, Ted Poley, Nikki Gregoroff and Johnny Gioeli, whom the latter would later join Senoue to form the band Crush 40. The development team preferred the use of "hot, funky, and rock 'n' roll" music over the traditional techno-based music present in earlier Sonic games.

Reception

The reception at the time of original Dreamcast version was overwhelmingly positive, including reviews from GameSpot and GameSpy being above 90%. The current Game Rankings average ranking is 88%. It became one of the few Sega All Stars games. In Japan, it received an excellent 38 out of 40 from Famitsu. Although criticized for its camera system, framerate issues, and fishing stages with Big,the game was still highly praised for retaining the fast and enjoyable gameplay that Sonic was known for in 2D as well as the game's graphics, multiple character storylines, and soundtrack. Brandon Justice of IGN rated the game an 8.6/10, criticizing various glitches and voice acting while praising the game's visuals and gameplay. Despite this, GamePro gave it a positive 5/5 by saying "Sonic is fun, fast, and a great reason to purchase a Dreamcast".

The 2010 Xbox 360 and PS3 ports received less favorable reviews. While some critics viewed it as a good piece of nostalgia, others criticized the lack of improvements and the game's more noticeable age, with IGN giving it a score of 3.5 out of 10, calling it "so fundamentally flawed that it borders on unplayable", making it the lowest scored Sonic game on the site since Sonic and the Black Knight. 1UP.com gave it a D rank, criticizing its lack of improvements and touchy controls. Retro Gamer magazine gave the Xbox Live Arcade port 63%. In 2009, GamesRadar featured Sonic Adventure in the article about the "games that don't deserve nostalgia", citing the gap between the review scores of the original version and ports.

The game has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling Dreamcast game. This includes one million sold in the United States.

Discuss anything that has or hasn't been mentioned or anything else about Sonic Adventure. Lets hear your thoughts on the game.

I just got a Dreamcast and ordered this game. Can't wait to play it! Can't believe I'm FINALLY gonna get to play this game and once it arrives I'll be saying what I think of it. :3

My dad won't buy a dreamcast for me. "It's too expensive," he said. "We won't be able to find any games for it," he said. "We won't be able to find all the cables to it," he said. "Please don't kill me!" he said.

When our nearest Goodwill has one on sale, they sell it for only $20.

$20!!?!? Dude, I was happy to get mine for 40, and 60 for shipping O.o well I hope your dad eventually lets you get it though.

Well, everything costs more in Canada. Maybe your money is worth less, although, if the US Treasury keeps printing money at this rate, OUR dollar will be worth less in the global market.

Crap, I meant to say it's $60 WITH shipping. Meaning overall. (Wow, I really can't type this week)

Canadian dollars are different, but BARELY. Last I checked, $1 Canadian is LESS than a cent different than an American dollar. Sure, it eventually adds up, but it takes a LOT of money to really make a difference. And I got mine off eBay, the seller was in America.

Ah. Well, if Obama gets elected for another 4 years over here, we're going to end up having the less valuable dollar over here.

^agreed. Obama doesnt know what the crud he's doing.

He's killing economies in Europe, Israel, and pretty much all over the world. The only people that are benefiting from his presidency are the lazy S.O.B's that rely on the government to feed them not because they are incapable of getting a job, but just too lazy to get off their couch and go get one, the Chi-Coms, and the Arab Sheiks. If he did not kill the Keystone Oil Pipeline, we'd see an improvement in the economy, and gas prices would go don in the future. If we cut out all of these load-of-bull regulations on drillers that do nothing except increase the prices of drilling for oil, we'd see a drop in both gas prices and unemployment rates. If we killed the ban on drilling in the Gulf, we'd see the same thing happen! He's nothing but a typical Chicago-style corrupt politician!

Seriously? Well, he's better than the last president the states had. I haven't been in the states for YEARS and I know that.

The worst thing BUSH did was sign the idiocy known as "No Child Left Behind" into law, providing an incentive for cheating amongst teachers. The worst thing OBAMA did was fail to order a cruise missile attack or drone strike on the launchpad where those North Koreans planned to launch that missile into orbit from, despite us telling them REPEATEDLY not to launch the damned thing REGARDLESS of what its payload would be, showing them that they can prepare to launch an ICBM and the United States just won't give a damn about it.

Crap, really? O.o Bush was terrible to Middle Easterns, though.

Actually, he's the one who sent American soldiers who usurped their oppressive governments. Gawd, what propaganda are you reading?

Uhhh guys, sorry to interrupt this political discussion but this topic is about Sonic Adventure. XD If you want to talk about the politics, create a topic to where it would be needed.

That's actually a very good idea.

Looool goes to show how off topic I can get. How did we get from Sonic Adventure to politics? I don't even like politics! XD

Well it's been almost two weeks and this game still didn't arrive in the mail. It will probably come tomorrow, since it seems everything's coming on either Monday's or Friday's for me. O.o

And it came Monday last week but I was on an overnight school trip so I played it Wednesday. IT'S FLIPPING AWESOME!!
There was even a glitch that happened so I couldn't move on (an item I was carrying disappeared) do I had to restart the game but I got further in one day than I did in almost a week so I'm good x3 So far I unlocked Sonic's, Tails', Knuckles', and Amy's levels. (But I haven't gotten around to playing as Amy yet.)

And now I've been listening to Open Your Heart a LOT because of this game. Not sure if I like this or Heroes more. I think the reason I'm considering Heroes as my favourite 3D Sonic game is because of the Nostalgia though. Oh well... At least I already know what's my favourite Sonic game of ALL TIME.

Having fun, I see.

SA1 and SA2 surpass Sonic Heroes.

Especially when awesome music is involved.

Haven't played SA2. I'm looking for it. Dear eBay sellers: Nobody's going to buy your copy of the game if it's more expensive than it was when it was first released ELEVEN YEARS AGO.

But I'm seriously in love with SA now. My only complaint is the camera. It makes me dizzy and I had to go get headache pills. But it's totally worth it! Lol

I'm not a HUGE fan of Tails' levels though. I spend my time running like hell to get to the capsule instead of actually playing the game. But I won't complain, because it still is fun.

I preferred Tails' levels in SA1 than SA2. Nothing beats Live and Learn. You'll love SA2 once you get it. I honestly believe it would be tied but SA2 might have a better story than SA1.

Nado The Rabbit wrote:Haven't played SA2. I'm looking for it. Dear eBay sellers: Nobody's going to buy your copy of the game if it's more expensive than it was when it was first released ELEVEN YEARS AGO.

There's an unlicensed NES game called Action 52. It was a waste of money unless you had the foresight to know that it would sell for over $300 on Ebay during bidding wars. The original price was about $200, all the games were crap, two or three didn't even work at all, most of them were space shooters, there were glitches that make the infamous Old Man glitch from Red, Blue, and Yellow look good, and they all just were a waste of time in general.

I'll probably play SA2 sometime before I buy it though, since Dawn found it hidden with her old GameCube games(but had no idea she even had it since she hasn't played with her GC in ages.. Lol)

Daniel, you're kidding, right!? Wouldn't that be more expensive than the system itself!? That's insane. I miss my NES though (I still have it, but the plug's missing. Probably lost it while moving, like the plug for my Genesis.) My birthday cake even looked like the NES with it's controllers... My sister makes epic cakes. :3

I stayed home from school a few days ago and spent the day playing SA. And I'm kind of sick right now so if I stay home you can bet you know what I'll be doing

Haven't looked for SA2 online for a while though. There might be some better deals now...

No, I am not kidding. Star did the research into the Ebay prices, the original price is fairly well known, and the price per game, counting taxes, was originally about $4.