Sure, the DX version could have been better in terms of polishing the game, but overall, Sonic Adventure 1 to me is the best Sonic game ever. To this day, I have yet to see a Sonic game top this gem.
Yea, it has its share of flaws and hasn't aged the best, but what do you expect? It's from 1998! Expecting this game to age well is like expecting Super Mario 64 to age well. It just isn't going to happen, so you can't judge games from the late 90's on graphics due to their limitations.
Anyway, I'll mention why I love this game, what it could have done better and what was terrible about, starting with the things I love about this game.
1: The first Sonic game that wasn't a spin-off to include more than 2 characters.
Yea, Sonic and Knuckles was the first main Sonic game to have you be able to play as someone else besides Sonic, but this was the first Sonic game to let you play not only as Sonic, Knuckles and Tails, but Amy, a new robot character named Omega and even Big. Ok, sure, not all of them were great, but I love the fact this game included alot of characters to play as and even gave them their own storyline. Again, not perfect, but most of it was decent, if not very good. If there's any complaint I have with this, it's the fact the character story modes besides Sonic felt way too short.I understand Sonic is the main character and all, but still, they should have done more with characters like Tails, Knuckles and Amy. Heck, I would have even liked more of Omega too since he was a good character. The only one I didn't want more levels for was Big the Cat, but I'll get to THAT character and his story mode later.
2: The story
To this day, I haven't found a better story about Sonic and his adventures. Ok, Sonic Adventure 2's story might have been a bit more epic and dramatic in tone, but overall, I found SA1's story alot more cohesive and engaging. It didn't have nearly as many plotholes SA2's story did, which I might give a review about sometime down the road, but anyway, back to this one... I really love how this is the first Sonic game that actually has a credible threat that isn't Eggman and his robots. Instead, it's a monster named Chaos who grows in size and power the more Chaos Emeralds he absorbs, and so it's a race against the clock to get the Emeralds before Eggman does and he uses Chaos' full powers to destroy their home and world.
While not perfect, I actually love how this game does give you a sense of urgency when it comes to your objective. You want to stop Eggman from getting the Emeralds at all costs. The only thing that would have been better had the game given you a time limit so you actually feel more pressure to complete certain objectives in time and not just mess around. Ok, sure, the fact you fail to stop Eggman by default until the final level probably would have made that pointless, but I still think it would have been nice feature that the game actually made it so like if you were fast enough, you could prevent Eggman from getting certain Emeralds and preventing Chaos from transforming as much as he did. Oh well... overall, I still enjoy this story despite its faults.
3: The music.
Oh yea, I wasn't about to let this one go unnoticed. While alot of Sonic games have great music, I think Sonic Adventure has one of the best, if not THE best Sonic soundtrack for a Sonic game of all time. The only one I can think of that might be able to contend it for best Sonic music in a game would be Sonic 06. Sonic Adventure 2's soundtrack is really good, but doesn't quite match up. The character themes other than Rouge's and Shadows are just lacking in comparison to their SA1 counterparts. And while Live and Learn is no doubt a great track for a final boss, I still enjoy Open your Heart more. It just has that feeling of, "Oh yea, it's on now! Time to stop Perfect in his tracks."
4: Character portrayals(for the most part)
Last, but certainly not least, I absolutely love how well the characters we're written in SA1. Sonic is still the cool, smart-alecky hedgehog, but takes his role serious about defeating Eggman and saving his home from harm. This to me is something I can't believe SEGA got away from in later games. Sonic was at his peak in SA1. Now he's just a flippant jackass who doesn't take the situation seriously anymore and makes terrible jokes as well. Seriously, what the heck happened, SEGA?! How could you make Sonic this unlikable? He used to be cool, but because of your terrible writing, he isn't anymore.
Tails is sadly another prime example of this too. In SA1, he was as good as I think you can get with his character. He was smart, but likable. He was competent, but also developed as a character too. This is one of the few games where Tails actually grows and learns he can't always rely on Sonic and wants to be his own man when push comes to shove. His final battle with Eggman was to me one of the best parts of his story. I loved seeing how he knew he had to save the day without Sonic's help and he did it with flying colors.
THIS is the Tails I want back in the Sonic games, not this insult of a sidekick he's become now, whether being an unlikable prick in Sonic Lost World or a total and useless coward in Sonic Forces. For shame, SEGA!
Knuckles is tragically another who also has been taken the woodshed character wise. In SA1, he was mature, intelligent, even showing some of his gullible traits from Sonic 3. Sure, falling for Eggman's trick was kinda stupid on his part considering he should have learned from that by now, but at least the game tries to give a good explanation for why he did, so while not the best written, it's believable, so I give it a pass. Anyway, probably my favorite part of Knuckles' story was the ending where he was afraid to learn the true meaning of the Master Emerald and why he was the guardian of it. To me, I actually found that absolutely fascinating because it shows even for someone as strong as Knuckles, he too is not above feeling fear.
Too bad the games that came after this one didn't try to make Knuckles this interesting. Even SA2's story of him wasn't as good. It wasn't terrible, but... lacking. To me, the absolute worst character portrayal of Knuckles other than the Sonic Boom games, because yea, those are the worst portrayals of him, were YET AGAIN, Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces. Seriously, SEGA, how did you get this bad when it came to writing characters?
Knuckles should have been written out of Sonic Lost World entirely. As I wrote in my Lost World review, what was the freakin point of him being there!? What, just for comic relief, because even in that regard, the writer's failed miserably at it. Knuckles bragging about saving the day better than Sonic and then getting trampled by chaos IS. NOT. FUNNY.
And then we get to Sonic Forces. While I do think Knuckles as a commander wasn't a bad idea in itself, the execution of it was beyond abysmal. I mean, Knuckles was absolutely useless as a commander. His plans are all terrible and doesn't do a darn thing to help! Heck, if it wasn't for Sonic, his classic counterpart and the "rookie", Eggman would literally wiped the floor with the Resistance. That's how pathetically inept he was. In a sense, he was even worse portrayed in Sonic Forces than in Sonic Lost World. At least in Lost World, his screentime of being useless is very brief, but in Sonic Forces, he's around for nearly all the cut scenes and dialogue scenes, and in all of them, he barely does anything. He's either just standing around, flapping his gums or coming up with plans so stupid, it makes me wonder how he ever got the rank of commander to begin with.
Seriously, there is no excuse for Knuckles being this badly inept. Knuckles is more than capable of being competent, especially on the battlefield. But NO... it's blasphemy for anyone other than Sonic to be a playable character in the modern games. Ugh, whatever... might as well move on.
Moving on to Amy, her character ironically hasn't been that bad since SA1, although I will say I thought she was best written here. She wasn't too over the top fan-girly or psychotic in SA1 and actually showed she had a heart for those in need like that bird and its family. Plus, it's one of the few games where she's actually thinking about possibly moving on from Sonic and being independent. Again, I can't help but find that good character development.
Don't get me wrong, I do find Amy's crush on Sonic cute, but I always hated how Amy never grew as a character after SA1. She's just there mostly to chase and fawn over him, which is sad because I'd like to see her actually learn that perhaps it's not worth it anymore. But no... we can't have that, now can we? Amy can't ever be anything other than Sonic's fangirl. Ugh...
And lastly... Big. Yea, there's no defending this one. Unlike the others, Big was terribly written from the start and to this day, remains terribly written. The ironic thing is, I actually don't hate Big. I do think he can be a good character, but it's like SEGA is content with him being the big, dumb stupid character who either chases after Froggy or punching stuff like Knuckles does. Again, it's sad because I do believe Big could have alot more to him than that. But it won't ever happen because SEGA doesn't care anymore.
Anyway, moving on to things I thought SA1 could have done better.
1: Omega's gameplay.
While his story was pretty good after looking at it again up-close, his gameplay is just monotonously repetitive and uncreative. Ok, the idea of him having a time limit and him having to destroy enemies was a nice way to give the player incentive, but still, did it have to be some lazy lock-on game mechanic where he just locks onto everything and hits it with an irritating beeping sound? It just felt like not much effort went into this. I mean, it's pretty much... lock onto enemies, avoid enemy attacks at the same, fire back and destroy them. Lather, rinse and repeat.
I understand they wanted to make a system that would keep the flow of the game going at a good pace, but I just felt this wasn't the way to do it. To me, Omega's sections should have been first person, or if it had to be 3rd person, make it so the camera was at an angle where the player had to be good at aiming to attack and destroy the enemies. Yea, I know this idea isn't perfect, but still, it would have been better than what we got. That and actually have a cool firing sound too. Is that too much to ask?
2: Tikal's hints within levels.
Ironically enough, in the hub areas, Tikal's hints are actually pretty good, but inside? They were just terrible. I mean, she pretty much tells you things you 1: already know, 2: stuff that's plain common sense or 3: completely useless.
I mean, what is the point of having her say, "Don't fall." during Sonic's stages or, "This way." when doing Knuckles emerald stages? I mean, seriously, HOW is that helpful? I think the player knows not to fall. And again, this way? This way WHERE?! You mind at least pointing in a certain direction, Tikal? I just don't get why they botched the hints up so badly in the levels. I mean, if they can give you good hints in the hub areas, I think they could in the levels too. It really didn't make any sense.
3: The Skychase levels
While I actually did enjoy them since it felt like TaleSpin, especially with that firing sound, I wish there was more to it than what we got. Again, like Omega's levels, Tails' guns automatically locks onto targets once it's aimed at them and destroys them instead. I just don't get why the weapons in SA1 have to be auto-locked. Couldn't we have more skill type of gameplay so it feels more rewarding? I know some might argue Sonic is auto-locked when he homes onto enemies, but honestly, considering you can kill enemies without the homing attack, I don't believe that's a good enough excuse. I'm not saying I hate lock on attacks entirely, but SA1 had way too many sections of them.
And lastly, we move onto to the things I hated about SA1. Well, only one thing I can think of, but nevertheless.
1: Big's game mode.
What else do I need to say about it that hasn't already been said? It's stupid, pointless and it's frustrating as heck. Not to mention fishing is not something you're supposed to do in a Sonic game. I might have let it go if it was just some silly mini game or unlockable game mode that didn't involve unlocking Super Sonic, but that's just it. You HAVE TO clear Big's story mode just to play as Super Sonic. Who's bright idea was this anyway?! The fact this game forced players to do it just to finish the game was despicable. What were they thinking?!
The sad thing is, had it not been for Big's terrible game mode, I would have easily given this game an 8 out of 10. However, considering how bad and game breaking it was, I'll have to dock it one full point and give it a 7.
All and all, I still love Sonic Adventure 1. To this day, it remains the pinnacle of a Sonic game IMHO. It had a good story, well written characters, great music and pretty good to decent levels. The sad thing is, as much as I love SA1, I always felt like it was just scratching the surface of how good a Sonic game could be. The fact we haven't seen a game even come close to being this well designed, creative and emotionally invested is just plain sad. Sonic truly deserves better as far as I'm concerned.
What's even worse is how fans are now treating Sonic Adventure like the plague in the Sonic fandom, as if it and SA2 are on the same abominable level as Sonic 06, and that couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, the Sonic Adventure games are not perfect and definitely have alot of flaws. However, to put it in the same category as Sonic 06 is not only insulting, but flat out criminal. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, for all of their flaws, are still solid Sonic games. And in SA1's case, top notch.
The Sonic series badly needs to return to its Adventure roots because what it's doing now is clearly not working, but I doubt it ever will. Fans are making SEGA think these games are too risky, when in reality, they're not. If SEGA would only take their time and give them the polish and effort they need, then I'm pretty confident people would love the adventure series again. Maybe not all the fans would, but I believe more would than not.
Hopefully SEGA will finally get that hint one day before they destroy Sonic completely with their inept garbage, but I'm not holding my breath. Sonic is not doing well to put it lightly.