Sonic Adventure

Growing up, I was a huge fan of Sonic the Hedgehog. I was introduced to the series when I was around 7 or 8, playing games like Sonic 06 and Sonic Adventure 2 while staying over for the weekend at my distant cousin's house.

Eventually I was able to pick up Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for myself, and put hundreds of hours into it and the Chao Garden, eventually moving on to play Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Unleashed, yada yada; HOWEVER, I missed out on playing one of the most important games in Sonic's history... yes... that is right......

SONIC ADVENTURE.

NOPE, I never played Sonic Adventure while I was growing up. I remember watching gameplay of Sonic running around Staion Square and thinking that it looked SICK, but I was never able to get my hands on it. That changed sometime earlier this year (2023) when I found a copy of Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast at work. I STOLE IT and kind of sat on it for a while, but I finally got around to completing the game and filling the Sonic Adventure sized hole in my heart.

I am proud to say that I really enjoyed this game. The game, like most other Sonic games, has a banging soundtrack. Casinopolis, Speed Highway, Windy Valley, Red Mountain. ALL BANGERS. Had me feeling nostalgia for a game I never got the chance to have any nostalgia for, Windy Hill especially. The character themes are great (ESPECIALLY BIG'S THEME); However, some don't hold up as well as their Sonic Adventure 2 counterparts. Believe in Myself from Sonic Adventure is like a thousand times better than the SA2 version, but It Doesn't Matter SUCKS when compared to the SA2 version. That and having to hear these songs OVER and OVER during cutscenes (especially Eggman's theme JESUS) can get annoying at times. Really not a huge issue in the grand scheme of things however, because the soundtrack is fantastic.

Moving onto the gameplay. You probably know, but in case you really are looking for some legit insight into Sonic Adventure while reading this I'll go over it anyway. In Sonic Adventure you can play as six different characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big the Cat, and Gamma (Eggman Robot). Each character has their own storyline and form of gameplay, each tying into the other and eventually leading to the true ending of the game. You start with Sonic, who plays just like you think he would. You run SUPER fast through a bunch of linear maps until you reach the end of the level. Perhaps you are thinking, "BORING... SO BORING... I HATE SONIC SO LAME..." BUT its not as boring as you may think.

Each level in Sonic's route has FUN and also INTERESTING ummm I can't really think of what you'd call it right now, but fun and interesting GIMMICKS? Not really gimmicks. For example, Casinopolis involves NO running, but instead you play a small variety of pinball machines in order to earn enough rings to get to the end of the level. Its all great fun, and controls great too; But, I did find that sometimes when running on those fast bending curves that Sonic would glitch and lose ALL MOMENTUM which was annoying at times, but not annoying enough to really complain about. Sonic's story was easily the best, with Tails and Knuckles not being too far behind. Tails' levels are just racing Sonic to the end of his levels, which is extremely easy because you can just fly over everything, and Knuckles is just finding pieces of master emerald like in SA2.

Where the game starts to SUCK is during Amy, Gamma, and Big's stories. Okay, Gamma wasn't bad, I did enjoy Gamma's story a lot but by the time I got to AMY AND BIG I was just so ready to get to the end of the game. Amy just runs away from a robot in her levels, and she has like 1000 hours of cutscenes to watch, and it was just way too slow and boring for me.

Big's level are infamous for being hard with the dreaded fishing minigame, but they really aren't if you know what you're doing, which many don't because the game does NOT tell you to do it properly. I had to look up a stupid youtube video just to beat it, but once you understand you can easily beat his story in like 30 minutes to an hour. But god was I getting tired of the game after having to play through Big and Amy's stories.

ANYWAYS... I Finally get to the end and boy was it a treat. Your usual Sonic final boss where you turn gold and fly around with some badass ROCK music blaring in the background, and it rocks. Thats all I can really say. its worth playing through all the stories to get there, its a nice reward. I died a few times because im not good at video games which kind of spoiled the moment a little bit but STILL its badass. VERY GOOD ENDING.

Okay overall I'd have to give Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast FIVE bags of cookie dough bites. Amazing game, was really glad to finally get to play it. Fantastic music, beautiful graphics that still hold up today, and some super fun gameplay. Yeah Amy and Big suck major eggs but I really don't think that their involvement really hurts the game that much, still had a lot of fun, and I am very glad I was able to get to play this game after missing out on it during my childhood.