Overall, a solid though slightly problematic entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
So now we have 'Sonic Adventure 2: Battle'. First of all, I should mention that I never owned a Dreamcast, although my cousin actually did, and even then, whenever I stayed over, I only played through the first stage of the original version of 'Adventure 2' so for me, 'Battle' has been the version of this game that I know the most. The game itself is certainly one of the best 3-D Sonic games, primarily because of how if offers not only two branching storylines to go through, but also different styles of gameplay because of the many characters you can play as. Granted, it doesn't work all of the time but in the end, it is a well-done 3-D Sonic game that is very much worth playing compared to some other titles in the franchise like 'Shadow the Hedgehog' or the 2006 'Sonic the Hedgehog'.
The story begins when Dr. Eggman invades a top secret military base looking for a secret weapon as described by a diary belonging to his grandfather Gerald. Eggman finds this secret weapon, which he discovers to be a black hedgehog named Shadow, who calls himself 'the ultimate life-form'. Shadow offers Eggman his help in taking over the world if he can bring him the Chaos Emeralds and meet him on an abandoned space colony known as ARK. Once Shadow goes on the loose, he is mistaken for Sonic, which lands Sonic in trouble with the military. As Sonic escapes capture by the military with the help of his friends, he must stop Eggman before he takes over the world. Meanwhile, Knuckles the Echidna and treasure hunter Rouge the Bat look for pieces of the Master Emerald after an encounter with Eggman results in it shattering to many pieces.
Sonic Adventure has you playing as six different characters through 3 different types of stages. Sonic and Shadow's stages follow the general style of gameplay as the other 3-D Sonic games. The goal of these stages is to speed through the levels as quickly as possible and reach the 'Goal Ring' at the end of the level. Your health is represented by the amount of rings you have, and if you're hit by an enemy without any rings, you lose a life. Both Sonic and Shadow are controlled by using the Control Stick to move around and the A button to jump. Pressing the A button while in the air will have them perform a Homing Attack, which will lock on to nearby enemies. This comes in handy when traversing large pits where you'll lose a life if you fall in. In order to get through low barriers or to just get a little speed boost if you're having trouble getting up a slope, hold down the X button to go into your 'Spinning Roll Attack'.
Then we have the Treasure Stages where you play as either Knuckles or Rouge. In each stage, there are three pieces of the Master Emerald (sometimes it will be 3 keys) and the goal is to find each piece, which could be hidden in any location in the stage. A homing beacon will lead you to each Emerald as it will light up and blink when you are near it. An exclamation point will also appear when you are right on top of it. Knuckles and Rouge's controls are similar to those for Sonic and Shadow but the biggest difference is that they have the ability to glide around the stage, which takes the place of Sonic and Shadow's homing attack by holding the A button while in the air. They can also latch onto walls by flying into them.
Finally, we have the stages where you play as either Sonic's friend Miles 'Tails' Prower or Dr. Eggman. They move around in giant mechs, which means that they control differently than the other four characters. Like Sonic and Shadow, the goal in these stages is to reach the end of the level. However, instead of speeding through the level, you use the mech's cannon to blast through whatever is in your way by pressing the B button to fire it. If you hold down the B button, then you will lock onto nearby enemies. Instead of having your health represented by the amount of rings you have like the other four characters, Tails and Eggman's overall health is represented by a Health Meter which can be replenished by finding Rings.
Each of the two storylines also includes one level where Tails (for the heroes) and Rouge (for the villains) will be driving a vehicle down a road and the goal of these stages is to reach your target. For Tails, it is to catch up to the President's limo while Rouge tries to catch up to Tails flying his mech. Simply hold down the A button to accelerate and press the Y button to boost after collecting a certain amount of rings. After completing these stages, you can then choose to race on three different tracks as one of the six main characters in the game either against the other characters or with a friend. That of course is where the multiplayer comes in also, where you can race your friend through one of the speed stages, try to find the emerald shards in a Treasure Stage, or battle using giant mechs.
Along the adventure, each character will gain special abilities to help them progress through each level. Sonic and Shadow will gain the ability to travel along a path of rings, referred to as a 'Light Dash' (press B when in front of one of these ring paths), and can also bounce repeatedly in order to reach high ledges by pressing the B button while jumping. Knuckles and Rouge will gain the ability to dig through most surfaces (pressing the B button while climbing a wall or after jumping while on the ground) and will also be able to punch through stronger crates. Tails and Eggman will gain the ability to glide across long distances (pressing/holding the A button while in the air) and can also upgrade their cannons to break open stronger crates.
During each stage, if a character finds a Chao key hidden in a special crate, the player will be transported to the Chao Garden, where you can raise the creatures known as Chao. The first time you enter this area, you will have two eggs which will hatch into baby Chao. You can then care for them by feeding them fruit to increase their stamina, or give them devices known as 'Chao Drives', which are also located throughout the stages after destroying a robot, to increase their strength and their ability to fly, swim, and run. You will also come across animals when going through the stages but these will not only increase one of your Chao's attributes but will also deplete another. You can enter the Chao in events like races or a karate tournament. In order to name them, buy additional Chao Eggs and other items, and to have them learn new 'abilities', take them to the school which can be reached by going through the other door in the Chao World lobby.
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle offers a good amount of variety as it alternates between the three main types of stages. Of course, the speed stages with Sonic and Shadow are easily the best stages in the whole game. Compared to the last game I reviewed, Shadow the Hedgehog, Adventure 2 Battle allows you to speed through the levels as quickly as you can. As for the Tails and Eggman stages, they are also pretty fun. This is primarily because of the fact that you can just shoot through everything that tries to get in your way. While this stages don't have you speeding through them like the Sonic and Shadow stages, they don't make it tedious because it allows you to take your time. Now the Treasure stages with Knuckles and Rouge are a different story.
Remember in my Shadow the Hedgehog review where I mentioned how you couldn't speed through the stages in that game because you had to 'find' the items necessary to reach your goal? Well, the Treasure stages in this game work the same exact way and once again that's a huge problem. These stages slow down the game and most of the time will be spent just flying throughout the level just trying to find those damn Emerald shards. On the bright side, the homing device that locates the shards is very reliable and it also helps when the exclamation point appears over the character's head when you are close to it, because apparently in the Dreamcast version of the game there was no exclamation point and you only had the homing beacon.
Finally, we have the Chao stages which serve as a nice distraction from the other stages. The only real complaint I have with this mode is that while you are given the right amount of material to raising a Chao, the other content in this mode doesn't allow the player to do much. All we really do is just sign a Chao up for either a race (where all you can do is cheer on your Chao by pressing the A button, which drains the Chao's stamina by the way) or a Karate Tournament (where literally you do nothing but watch your Chao fight), or send them off to 'school' to learn something and we then pick them up later. This part of the game really needed more for the player to do rather than just watching things unfold before their eyes with limited interaction.
The Treasure stages and the occasional shoddy controls are the only downsides to an otherwise rock solid game. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle works where other 3-D Sonic game tend to fail because it does offer a nice variety of gameplay with its branching storylines and different types of stages to go through. Granted, only 2/3rd's of these stages are well-done, as the last type of stage slows down the game greatly. The Sonic the Hedgehog series may have had a rather rocky tenure in the world of 3-D gaming but there have been some very solid entries along the way and it does seem that with the release of games like 'Sonic Colors' and 'Sonic Generations', Sega is figuring out how to make the world's fastest hedgehog work in 3-D.