Sonic's true 3D debut is another worthy game in the series but, unfortunately, it was one of the last great Sonic games.
Sonic Adventure is the true 3D debut for Sonic, and for that reason it was comparable, for Sonic fans, to that of Super Mario 64. Released in 1999 Sonic Adventure was one of the highest anticipated games for the Dreamcast amongst the Sega faithful.
The story of Sonic Adventure revolves again around Doctor Robotnik trying to wreak havoc, but this time he's trying something different. Instead of making another high-powered fortress like the Death Egg Robotnik is trying to find the seven Chaos Emeralds so he can feed them to a creature called Chaos. Years before the events of the game a tribe of Echidna's (Knuckles race of creature) tried to steal the Chaos Emeralds, and as a result of anger Chaos broke free from his entrapment in the Master Emerald to destroy the race. Doctor Robotnik shatters the Master Emerald holding Chaos in the present time to again unleash him to the world, and Sonic and his friends must stop them both.
One of the biggest fears of a fully 3D Sonic game was if Sega could successfully transfer the high-speed thrills of Sonic's 2D titles in to a 3D world. Well I believe Sega did a very good job in doing so. Sonic Adventure is just as fast and action filled as Sonic's 2D games on the Mega Drive, and this'll please fans a lot. It's easily the fastest paced 3D platform game ever created.
When playing through the games main mode you get to play as six different characters each witnessing mainly the same events (but each witnessing them slightly differently), and this adds a nice twist to the games story. The game includes some old favourites, like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose, and introduces new characters such as E102 Gamma and Big the Cat, and each character has their own aims and goals.
The game plays really well and has a lot of variety between each character. Each character's level goals are different to one-another, which keeps the game play fresh. Sonic's levels are all about fast-paced game play, and he also has more levels then any of the other characters. Tails' levels revolve around races, where in each level he must race against somebody (mainly Sonic but Robotnik once) to the end of each level. Knuckles levels revolve around finding pieces of the Master Emerald that Robotnik smashed. Amy's levels have her running away from a robot called ZERO who is after the bird she is looking out for. E102 Gamma's levels make you see the game more from the point of view of the bad guys as Gamma actually starts the game as a robot pawn for Robotnik, and his levels see him fighting and destroying other E100-series robots. And lastly Big the Cat's levels have him fishing for his missing frog.
The variety between the levels was a real high point because it mixed things up a lot. In the 2D Sonic games the levels were the same whether you played as Sonic, Tails or Knuckles but this time around you got to play each characters levels in different ways. All the characters have their own little reasons for getting involved in stopping Robotnik, and the story between each of the characters mixes in well.
Sonic Adventure gives you game play across two different fields, the Action field, which are levels and the Adventure field, which is the games world screen. Unlike in previous 2D instalments Sonic Adventure gives you an open and expansive world to explore when you're not attempting the games levels. If you just play through the game without getting any secrets the Adventure field serves nothing more then the purpose of a way of connecting levels, with you having to travel across it to find your next level. The Adventure field comes in three different scenarios; Station Square, Mystic Ruins and Egg Carrier. Station Square is a town scenario, where you can mingle and talk to humans, Mystic Ruins holds the ancient ruins of the mystic Echidna tribe and the Egg Carrier is Robotnik's flying fortress. Each scenario is nicely designed and this goes a long way to making the game feel great because it's nice to fully explore these areas.
A big feature of Sonic Adventure is the Chao breeding system. Chao's are little blue creatures which look adorable. You can find multiple Chao eggs throughout the game and taking them to a Chao garden will make them hatch (there are entrances to the Chao garden in all the games main adventure fields). Chao are a sort of intelligent virtual pet for the player to raise. Chao can be taken with the player by downloading the minigame Chao Adventure to their VMU and this makes them act like a sort of tamagotchi. The player can also raise their stats by giving them small animals that they found by defeating the robots. While the Chao breeding system isn't a necessity it is a nice distraction from the games main adventure.
I really liked the music of Sonic Adventure. 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 of the playable characters (except for Gamma) also has an instrumental theme that later translates into a vocal theme song that plays during the end credits of their story. The development team preferred the use more rock-orientated music over the traditional techno-based music present in earlier Sonic games. Also the game is visually stunning for a Dreamcast title. When it was released Sonic Adventure was easily the best looking 3D platform game ever made and even to this day, despite its age, the game remains looking great
Sonic Adventure does have some niggly little problems that may annoy you, mainly the camera work. When you're playing as Knuckles, Amy, E102 Gamma or Big the Cat the camera is generally fine, but when you play the faster stages with Sonic or Tails the camera has problems keeping track of where you are, and sometimes the camera gets caught behind walls. I'm a big critic of bad camera work, and if it wasn't for the slower levels the camera would have really annoyed me. Also I thought some of the characters didn't fit that well in to the games story. Although I liked his levels I thought they could have done away with E102 Gamma's levels, but still kept him in the game. But Big the Cat is the most pointless character in the whole game. He basically serves no purpose, it seems Sega only put him in the game to annoy you. I didn't really mind him as such a character, but his levels are really tedious. They could have been much better if Sega put a bit more imagination in to designing them.
Sonic Adventure is a great 'proper' 3D debut for Sonic but, unfortunately, it was one of the last great Sonic games. The game brought the high speed thrills of the 2D Sonic games in to a 3D world brilliantly, offering fans the game they were hoping for. The game does have a few annoying moments, and the camera may drive you mad on occasions, but regardless of this Sonic Adventure is a true gem of a platformer and a great addition to any Dreamcast collection.
Review by: James Widdowson
Score: 9.2/10