So his name's Sonic... and he goes on an adventure? (Sonic Adventure in Review)

     Hey friends, I think you all know by now that I'm a pretty big sonic fan, and as such, I think it's time for another post talking about some classic titles from Sonic the Hedgehog's past. We're going to skip around a bit in this section, because there were a lot of spinoff titles for Game Gear and other obscure consoles like the Saturn (even some that were cancelled like Sonic X-Treme), but the next big shift came with the release of the Sega Dreamcast. Of course that's also skipping the pretty awesome Sonic CD, which was the introduction of Metal Sonic, as well as Amy Rose, a female pink Hedgehog and a love interest character for Sonic, even though she's not one that Sonic has really shown any interest in. It was a great game in the lineage of 2D Sonic platformers, that includes a time travel mechanic, creating three different designs for each of the stages, past present and future. It was a great game, but for this post, I'm going to begin with a step into the future... which unfortunately didn't pan out great for the Blue Blur. Hang on, everyone, we're going fast into the third dimension today.

Open Your Heart!

    With the release of the Dreamcast, Sega's last platform, also came the release of Sonic's first (non-isometric) 3D platformer, called Sonic Adventure. This game was poised to bring the console wars of Nintendo vs. Sega to a whole new dimension, and unfortunately for Sega, there was a pretty clear winner. Super Mario 64 came out in 1996 and made such a splash in the video game industry, people still refer to it today as the reason that video games look the way that they do. Sonic Adventure, in contrast, came out in 1998, two years later, and looked nowhere near as polished, and Sonic didn't move as smoothly in 3D as everyone's favorite plumber. That's not to say that people didn't like it, they certainly did, but it's hard to compare it to the gold standard of 3D platformers, as it appeared to be going for a completely different feel. For one thing, he was given full lines of dialogue along with everyone else, can you imagine just how different Mario 64 would have been if he spoke actual words throughout the game? I have to be honest, I've never played this game in its original form as I never got a Dreamcast, but I have played Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut for the Gamecube, which, as I understand it, is pretty much the same game. Sonic in 3D felt very different, and yet still had some of his familiar charms and moves. Sonic's normal spin jump wouldn't work on a 3D plane, so they added the new move, the Homing Jump, which allowed you to lock on and attack flying enemies from a little distance, which they used a lot in platforming which was an interesting new addition to Sonic's repertoire, and the most important improvement to Sonic moving forward. On top of this move and other accessories that would allow sonic new moves and abilities like the light dash... we got... variety. 

    Don't get me wrong, variety is a good thing in many cases, but not these ones necessarily. With Sonic Adventure, they introduced a lot of different characters for you to play as, all with different mission objectives or playstyles. Sonic's story was very much like how you would expect for Sonic to graduate into 3D. You move fast, dodge or defeat enemies and obstacles, and get to the end of the level as fast as you can. Tails was always racing someone and trying to get to the end of the level faster than the other person, whether that be sonic or someone else. Knuckles had a scavenger hunt section where he would have to find three pieces of the Master Emerald as it was shattered at the beginning, using his glide and ability to climb up walls to reach areas that Sonic certainly couldn't. So far this seems tame, right? Well... it's about to get a lot crazier. Amy Rose, relatively new to the series after her introduction in Sonic CD, has a campaign, and all of her levels are her running away from a giant robot that is trying to capture her and her bird. Big the Cat is the really nuts addition, as his levels revolve around fishing for his pet frog, appropriately named Froggy. Let me tell you that nothing was more frustrating to me as a kid than playing a fishing game right in the middle of a game that was supposedly all about speed. There was one more character, E-102 Gamma, who was one of Eggman's robots that used his gun to blow up targets. His levels are always built around either collecting some Mcguffin or other, or defeating one of his other robot friends. He became good fairly early on in his campaign and ultimately ends up being the one who saves Amy in the end. In this case, variety wasn't great, especially since the final campaign which is the true ending of the game is locked until you beat all of these different characters' storylines. But what are those storylines, exactly? I'll try to make it as concise as I can.

    Sonic Adventure is all about Sonic and friends dealing with the schemes of the evil Dr. Robotnik (Now called Eggman) once again, though this time he's awoken Chaos, the god of Mayhem, who needs all of the Chaos Emeralds to reach his true power. There are many fights against Chaos in this game, and it's cool to see him evolve from the blue humanoid form into all the different forms that he takes throughout the game as he absorbs more and more Emeralds. It's also interesting to see how some versions of him are only fought as certain characters. Knuckles is the only one who fights Chaos 2 (the one who has only absorbed two of the Emeralds), and there's even a boss fight with Chaos 6 as Big the Cat which plays out completely differently than the other fights. Since Big just fishes, his boss fight is just you casting your line inside Chaos's liquid body and trying to catch Froggy once again. Once again, just because it's different doesn't mean that it's enjoyable. Most characters have a story involved with trying to stop Chaos from getting the emeralds in some way, though Sonic's story is pretty much the only one completely revolving around that. Amy and E-102 actually are the two least effected by Chaos's threat as Amy's whole thing is just trying to get away from the robot, and her final boss fight is against that robot, and E-102 is trying to figure out what his purpose is, and he fights his robot brother, "E-103 Beta" as the final boss. Once all of the campaigns are completed, the Super Sonic campaign is unlocked, which shows Chaos getting the seventh Chaos Emerald and reaching full power, flooding the whole city. Fortunately, Chaos only absorbed the negative power of the Chaos Emeralds, which allows for Sonic to transform into Super Sonic using the positive energy of the emeralds. Super Sonic has to travel all through the flooded city, floating above the water and collecting more rings as he goes along before running out and falling into the water below. This fight is super cool, and honestly the hype around it makes for a very satisfying conclusion to what is a very lengthy game when you consider all the different playthroughs.

Bonus Content!

    This game is presented in an "Open World" format, which just means that there's a hub world where you can access all of the different levels, which are the actual meat of the game. These hub areas are pretty interesting to explore, however, and it gives a lot of interesting depth to the world that these characters inhabit. You can go around and find Chao eggs which allow you to raise more types of Chao (the little cute creatures that you can raise in the Chao gardens, like a minigame in the background), you can run around these worlds and look for emblems, and you can even run around the jungles of the Mystic Ruins and speculate on what may be hidden under the thick canopy, like I always did when I was little. There was one area that was the entirety of the jungle, and I would play as Knuckles and just fly around in the air above the jungle, then climb a ladder and do it all again. It was so much fun that many of my hours of playtime with this game were probably devoted to just that activity over and over again. Something about the overall world of this game really clicked with me as a kid, and it led to me finding all of the optional accessories as well, such as Knuckles's sweater, which gave him a fire punch for some reason. I'll admit, the Chao activities like Chao races and just tending to the Chaos was more an interest of my little brother. I loved this game a lot as a kid, and even though I know it didn't take off and ultimately the Dreamcast was the last Sega console to be released, I'm really glad that they rereleased it for the Gamecube.

    My original idea for this week was to talk about both Sonic Adventure games, but I realized after writing it that there was a lot more here to talk about than I remembered. The two Sonic Adventures are significantly stronger than many games that followed, though I can't speak on behalf of the handheld games, as I never had many of them, and as such, next week I'll be talking a little bit about Sonic Adventure 2, and the difference in perspectives and mechanics that led to it being an even wilder story than even this first game in this sub-series. Thanks so much for reading this post, friends, I really appreciate your support a lot, and I hope you have a great week. I've been your Self-Proclaimed Speedy Hedgehog, and I'll talk to you again next week!