2 Sonic 2 Adventure (Sonic Adventure 2 in review)

    Hey friends, last week I said I'd be going over Sonic Adventure 2, maybe the best known of all Sonic games, especially from the terms of what characters stand out the most today. This game introduced quite a few fan favorites, as well as some elements that would definitely return in future titles. This has probably the most melancholy story out of any game in this entire franchise, which is a strange thing to say about this series, considering that the main character is one of the biggest causes for memes. For such a peppy and upbeat character, this game definitely ends on a note of sad recollection, which makes it even more interesting to me. I hope you brought your rocket shoes and your snowboard made from the door of a helicopter, because it's time to get started!

Live and Learn!

    Sonic Adventure 2 didn't have to rewrite the rulebook following off the heels of Sonic Adventure, but it made a lot of interesting improvements and changes to the overall formula. Instead of having an open world map like the first Sonic Adventure, there were just individual stages. Instead of having 7 different campaigns including the final one, there are only three, with Hero, Dark, and Final stories. I should say again that I didn't play this original game on Dreamcast, but I played it a lot as Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on Gamecube. This game introduces several new characters, including fan favorites Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat. On top of these new additions, an old favorite returns. That's right, the Death Egg is back! It's called the Space Colony ARK this time, but it still has the death laser and it still looks like the Death Star with Eggman's face on it. Each campaign alternates between three different characters with the Hero side being Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and the Dark side being Eggman, Shadow, and Rouge. Shadow plays the same as Sonic and the same can be said for Eggman and Tails, as well as Knuckles and Rouge. Sonic and Shadow both run through levels just like Sonic did in Sonic Adventure, Knuckles and Rouge look for various pieces of treasure, not always pieces of the Master Emerald this time around, and Tails and Eggman both act like E-102 levels from the past title, as they're both in mech suits. A big thing that is changed here in terms of mechanics actually came as product of a brand deal with Soaps, a kind of shoe that was designed to let people grind on rails more easily as if they were on a skateboard. This little sponsorship deal made it so Sonic and Shadow could grind on rails in their levels, which became a major staple in 3D Sonic games going forward, though sometimes it doesn't work super well (especially in Sonic Heroes). As you can see, this game comes with some interesting change ups on past mechanics without changing anything major on either side.

The Good!

    The story in this game is a bit more out there than the first one, but the Hero story begins with Sonic jumping out of a police helicopter as he's being charged with crimes that he didn't commit, and he has to run through San Francisco to escape, but is ultimately captured after being cornered by GUN (basically the FBI) after an encounter with Shadow. Shadow vanishes by using Chaos Control, which allows him to teleport essentially, going even faster than Sonic. Following this, Tails flies to a prison island (I guess Alcatraz) and his plane transforms into a fighting mech to break Sonic out of jail. Knuckles and Rouge are having an argument about who should take the Master Emerald, Knuckles, the protector of the Emerald, or Rouge, a jewel thief. As they're arguing about it, Eggman swoops in and tries to steal it, but Knuckles breaks it into pieces so he won't get away with the whole thing, which sets off Knuckles and Rouge's levels for the most part. Sonic is escaping from prison and gets cut off by Shadow who sets the island to blow up after a battle, then Eggman decides to show off his space station, Space Colony Ark, that blows a hole in the moon, and threatens the president (yes, the president presumably of the United States is a character in this game). Sonic and friends find out that Eggman had a secret base inside a pyramid, they break in and steal a rocket to fly up to Space Colony Ark. The laser is apparently run on Chaos Emerald energy, and Eggman gets his hands on all of the Chaos Emeralds, despite Tails's plan of making a fake one that would make the reactor explode. Sonic is captured and ejected into space, yet is able to escape using Chaos Control from the fake Chaos Emerald somehow, he faces Shadow and somehow causes an explosion in the laser (which ultimately amounts to nothing as you'll soon see). The final shot of the Hero story is of Sonic hanging onto a satellite, Luke Skywalker in Empire Strikes Back style, though Sonic seems to be sitting pretty instead of barely hanging on.

The Bad!

    The Dark Story actually makes it much more clear what's happening in the game. Eggman's grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, created Shadow as the ultimate lifeform and left him in a secret base in the middle of a desert hidden in a pyramid, there's lots of fuzzy stuff in this game, but Shadow has all kinds of memories about his past life, mostly relating to Gerald Robotnik's daughter, Maria, who is never fully explained, but she died in an explosion on Space Colony Ark as Shadow was ejected from the station. Shadow apparently was recovered and put into suspended animation in this pyramid until Eggman wakes him up. Shadow's whole role here is to frame Sonic, even though it should be obvious to anyone that it isn't him because of the rocket shoes and different fur color. I guess people are just stupid, oh well. Rouge is approached by Eggman to do a job for him and she'll get paid a lot of money, so she goes along with it. Shadow, Rouge, and Eggman all go up to Space Colony Ark. All the same stuff happens from the Hero side playthrough, and Eggman is once again close to world domination, all he has to do is to press the button and fire the laser, but there's a complication. The power of the Chaos Emeralds is too strong for the station.

The Potentially Fatal!

    In the final story mode, all six of the game's playable characters have to work together to stop the destruction of earth because of Gerald Robotnik's scheme finally put into motion. The Emeralds overpower the entire station and send it hurtling to earth, the only way to stop it is the Master Emerald, which Knuckles can now carry around with him, despite being a massive structure in the original Sonic Adventure. All six playable characters (well, except Shadow because he was programmed by the professor) have to work together to get to the core of the cannon and override the Chaos Emeralds to stop the collision from happening. Once the characters take care of their short, timed missions, the Biolizard appears, which is a prototype of the ultimate lifeform created by Gerald Robotnik. Shadow arrives after getting a pep talk from Amy, and after he's reminded about Maria wishing for him to bring hope to humanity. Shadow fights the Biolizard and defeats him, Knuckles inserts the Master Emerald into the console and stops the Chaos Emeralds. Everything is as it should be until the defeated Biolizard uses Chaos Control and teleports out of the station, merging with the colony and ensuring that it maintains the collision course with earth. Sonic and Shadow team up and use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic and Super Shadow to take down this giant foe which is almost the size of the space station at this point. The two hedgehogs (though one may be a "fake hedgehog") defeat the foe in the depths of space, finally joining forces for one last "Chaos Control!" which teleports the space station, but causes Shadow to fall back to Earth, presumably dying upon re-entry. Sonic is able to get back into the space station somehow, but reports the news of Shadow's demise to the rest of the players in this story, who all begin to reflect on all that they've been through in this game. It ends with a weird note of the characters bonding between heroes and villains. Rouge reflects on giving up her treasure hunting ways and they all go on their way as they leave the space colony. Sonic says "Sayonara" to Shadow, which I'm not sure how he knew that Maria had said that to him, but it works for a sad goodbye to the new character.

Chao Gardens and more!

    This game wasn't open world like Sonic Adventure, instead it relies on individual stages that flow into each other, though just because of that doesn't mean that there are no side modes or bonus materials here. The Chao Gardens are even more in-depth this time, with a special Hero and Dark Chao garden that you can unlock by growing Dark and Hero Chaos (as in the plural of "Chao"), not to mention the kindergarten where you can teach your chaos new skills or buy more fruit for your cute little pets to eat. The Chao Races return from Sonic Adventure, with the addition of Chao Karate if you feel like watching your little friends duke it out with other little guys (this sport has actually been deemed illegal in the Sonic world though, which is why it's hidden behind the waterfall in the neutral garden). There are still several missions to do in each stage, just like the original game in the "Adventure" series, which gives you added replayability in addition to collecting more goal rings to get additional rewards and completion achievements. There are also many multiplayer modes to play with friends in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, which I'm not sure that they had in the original release, but they're all a lot of fun. I remember that I always played as Chaos on the treasure hunt stages just because I was amazed that the main villain from the original Sonic Adventure was a playable character in this mode! I think my favorite mode was the treasure hunt, which was just a multiplayer knuckles level basically in retrospect, but it was a lot of fun to play with friends from what I can remember.

    It would truly be a disservice for me to wrap up this post without saying anything about the fantastic music put together by Jun Senoue and Crush 40, his band. Just running through City Escape and hearing "Escape from the City" is enough to get anyone hyped up, and the same goes for most of this soundtrack. Crush 40 did a fantastic job with the music for these games, and continues to rock with all of the soundtracks that they've done for Sonic games. Even though the games may dip a bit (or a lot) going forward through Sonic's rollercoaster of quality, the music is always solid and extremely fun to listen to even today.

    Sonic Adventure 2 is certainly one of the fan favorite games in the series, and I hope that my writings here have done an adequate job of illustrating why that is. It's a pretty bombastic story all the way through, though one with a bittersweet ending. The world is ultimately saved from the machinations of Eggman's grandfather, and only because Shadow, also the work of the mad scientist, overcame his programming and teamed up with Sonic in the end. It's actually a fairly poignant note here, especially for a Sonic game which typically avoids sensitive subject matter like death or loss. It's a shame that Shadow's sacrifice would be short lived as you'll see in the next few games. Shadow's name is best synonymous with being edgy and "cool," but you haven't seen anything yet.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends. I hope you've enjoyed my little Sonic Celebration so far, and I hope that you liked these games as much as I did as a kid. If you played, did you have a favorite level in this game? I have to say City Escape is still such a huge stand out for me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one out there that feels that way. I hope you're all doing well and thanks again for your support! It's almost been a full year of me writing this blog, which is pretty crazy to me! I've been your Self Proclaimed Ultimate Lifeform, and I'll talk to you all again next week!