This remake of Sonic Adventure is great for fans who never played it on DC, and even those who have should pick this up.
4 years later, the game is re-released on the Nintendo GameCube with updated graphics and a handful of new features, one of the most appealing being the ability to unlock 12 Sonic Game Gear games.
Now, many people will argue that the game isn't that much different from the original and that the graphics could have even been made a little better, but what was so bad about the original Sonic Adventure?
You're given 6 playable characters, each with a different story that paralells the main story. Dr. Robotnik (I still call him Robotnik, even if the game calls him 'Eggman') finds an ancient text detailing the story of a monster named chaos. He's able to bring this creature to life and one night, Sonic meets up with the beast in Station Square (the generic city in which the game takes place).
You start with just Sonic's story at the begginning, so you'll have to fight 'Chaos 0' first. It is here you're introduced to Sonic's homing attack, a great attack that is currently used in all 3d Sonic games. You will then unlock new characters as you meet them.
For example, the next day, in Sonic's story, you save Tails from Emerald Coast, and after talking to him, you've now unlocked his story, so you can see his perspective on the action.
The story is fairly well done, especially after a 2d generation of Sonic games that featured stories such as "Stop Robotnik from kidnapping the animals!" Another new thing that's in this Sonic game, and this one alone is the addition of 3 Adventure fields. The Adventure fields are similiar to the new 3d Mario games, in which you walk around and explore and can access the action stages from various points. You often need to find keys and stones to access new level entrances and these only become available after triggering certain story events.
For example, after you save Tails in Sonic's story, you'll be prompted to take a train to Mystic Ruins, the second Adventure field, and fight Robotnik in a boss battle. After you beat him, you now have access to the Wind Key which will open your second action stage. This is much different than what most Sonic fans remember, but it's still a fairly welcome change of pace because the game usually tells you where to go or gives you a pretty good hint so you're not just wandering around for hours trying to find the next level.
Now, what kind of gameplay are you in for? Sonic Adventure has 6 different stories and they all have obvious differences in the characters' type of game. Sonic, for example is the main game, the 'run through the levels and dont get killed' type of levels. I personally love these the most. Tails is similiar to Sonic, except the goal in his levels is to actually race Sonic to the end which can be a pain. Knuckles has smaller versions of the levels in which you have to search for 3 shards of the master emerald. Amy Rose has levels in which you are being chased by a robot named Zero, and your goal is to get away from him. One of 2 new characters, E-102 Gamma is a robot who employs shooting to destroy large waves of enemies and this can actually be quite fun. Big the cat... well, don't get me started. The levels are basically just pools of water in which you fish... that's right, fish. You sit down and throw your line into the water, hoping to catch your best friend, Froggy.
So, obviously you have a lot to do here, but the game did come out 4 years ago on an older platform, so is it still worth playing now? Let me answer that by saying: Of course it is!
Even if you beat the whole game on the Dreamcast (as I did), this remake features not only better graphics but some new features worth unlocking and it's still as much fun as you remember it. This game, in my opinion has survived the test of time, and even though it strays away from traditional Sonic gameplay in many areas, it's still a lot of fun and offers much variety.
The bosses are also well done, and most of them take place against different forms of the water monster Chaos. Of course, you face off against Robotnik a time or 2, and a few characters have bosses that are exclusive to just them, so it's a lot of fun fighting the bosses.
Besides Big the cat, it's pretty easy to tolerate the new gameplay forms as most of them still are chock ful of enemies and you're still dashing through the levels pretty fast. Obviously, with Knuckles, you have to stop and smell the roses more than you may like in order to find the emeralds, which can sometimes be easy to find and sometimes frustratingly hard. Luckily the emerald radar helps you out. Gamma's levels aren't as fast or hard for that matter but they're still a lot of fun as you can take down as many as 12 enemies at once by targetting and firing. Amy's stages are for the most part similiar to Sonic's, except for the robot following you, but he really doesn't do much beside fire a little attack off now and then.
Big the cat as I mentioned is just plain tedious, I dont know why Sega decided to add him in there. The fishing levels are just plain boring. You throw your line into the water and hope you get lucky. They're not that hard if you have the patience but who wants to have patience in a Sonic game?
Something new for this game is upgrades, these attachments to your characters that do become permanent and enable new abilities. They are very often mandatory in order to reach new levels and are sometimes difficult to find. For example, with Sonic, you need to obtain the light speed shoes to unlock the entrance to his third stage, Casinopolis. To do this, you need to fall into the sewers and find the shoes. Now you can perform Sonic's light speed dash which allows him to travel via the rings in the air. This is a fun move that will be used many times in this game.
The game was great in 1999 and it's even better in 2003 as it not only includes the entire main game with improved graphics, but features a new mission mode and unlockable Game Gear games.
In mission mode, you pick a character to play as and try to find Mission Cards scattered through the 3 adventure fields. The missions can be fulfilled in the action stages, such as finding a flag or beating a certain number of enemies.
The game also added more emblems to collect. The original Sonic Adventure had 130 emblems, while this new update has 160 to collect, and a surprise unlockable character for doing so.
In addition, you unlock 12 Sonic game gear games in the process of collecting these emblems. The 12 games include Sonic the hedgehog, Sonic the hedgehog 2, Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic Chaos, Tails Sky Patrol, Sonic Spinball, and a lot more. They are definitely worth collecting the emblems for, which is another thing I like about the game. It rewards you a lot more than the old one.
In addition to the main game and new mission mode, you can also play mini games as all 6 characters, a feature that was in the DC version, but still a great feature nonetheless. The mini games include a sky fighting game, a racing circuit and a boss game where you play through the many bosses. In addition, by beating all 6 main stories, you unlock a pretty decent final story.
The controls are pretty easy to learn and obviously if you owned the original for Dreamcast, you'll pick it up even faster. When it comes to Sonic, remember the A button, the A button is your friend, with which you can jump and use the trusty homing attack. The B button is also a component with all the characters as it usually enables some kind of offensive attack or an upgrade ability such as Sonic's light speed dash.
Graphically, I feel SADX is as good as any other Sonic game, and the graphical improvement over this as opposed to the improvement done on SA2 in it's remake is a lot more. I don't really notice the difference too much except when I look back at the DC version and then I do notice that they really made Sonic look more refined, gave his quills a little shine and all the other characters have that same added polish to them. Overall, the graphics were improved as much as they could be, and there's almost no problem here, as the game runs at a smooth 60 fps the whole time.
The sound in the game is fairly well done, although the character themes are a little odd, in my taste. The only one that really fits the character is E-102 Gamma's techno theme. Everyone else has these oddly bouncy themes and Knuckles has this hip-hop stuff that's just scary. The voice acting is a little fake at times, with Dr. Robotnik and Sonic probably having the best voice actors in the game, although that's still not saying much. For some reason, in this GameCube remake the sound of the rings is a little off, I can't put my finger on it, but it's a little offkey, sounds more like a wind chime than the traditional ring chime we all know and love, but it's not that much different.
There will plenty more replay value in this remake than the original so if you thought the original Sonic Adventure had a lot to do, get ready for even more because you can go back into the Adventure Fields when you're done and play through any of the 60 missions available. There are also some great classic Game Gear games in there in addition to the mini games the game already included.
When reviewing this game, I couldn't look it as a clone of a game, as that usually makes the score lower. Instead I've been looking at it as a new game, while at the same time acknowledging the fact that a game by the same standards has already come out some time ago. Sonic Adventure DX is now a mere remake or port even, it's been loaded up with even more to the point where it's worth it to replay the entire story mode again even if you've already beaten. Also, looking at it in the perspective of someone who never owned a Dreamcast, it now allows them to play one of the greatest Sonic games ever made on a new platform and get all the enjoyment with a little more, so there's nothing wrong with that either. Overall, I would say all newcomers to the Sonic series should check this out, and even if you already own it, rent it at least and try it out, you'll be pleasently surprised by the new content.