Report on a Game Franchise
The Sonic Adventure games are considered as some of
the best Sonic game out there and there is good reason for that because these
games are some of the best game for their respected systems. They have a lot
going from them and many people still love them to this day. The basic premise
of these games is running fast and jumping high for the most part; all of these
games capture the sense of speed needed to enjoy a Sonic game. These games have
a variety of characters from Hedgehogs to Robots, each with their own unique
play style.
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 1 was released on the 23rd of December
1998 in Japan and 1999 in western countries to critical acclaim as it was
Sonics first leap into true 3D. Sonic has already been in 3D but it was an
isometric view which doesn’t suit a sonic game very well as it can be hard to
go fast when you can’t see far in front of you. Sonic Adventure is an Action
Platformer with 6 characters and 1 secret character, the playable characters in
this game are Sonic the Hedgehog , Miles ‘Tails’ Prower, Knuckles the Echidna,
Amy Rose, Big the Cat and E102 Gamma. Development for Sonic Adventure started
in 1997 on the Sega Saturn, this was switched to the Dreamcast as it was much
more powerful than the Saturn, it was being developed my Sonic Team, these were
the people who created the original Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Megadrive so
there was high hoped that the game would be good. Some of the people on Sonic
Team had previous experience with 3D games with “Nights into Dreams” for the
Sega Saturn. Near the end of development Sega and Sonic Team knew that it was not
a complete game and they fixed most of the issues for the western release
nearly a year later. The western version of this game included more than the
Japanese version and it was less buggy, although there were still bugs
prominent throughout game.
Upon the western release Sonic Adventure was met with critical acclaim
as it was a fun action/adventure game with each character having their own
unique playstyle, Sonic’s stages are based on speed, Tails is based on racing
against others, Knuckles’ stages are a treasure hunt for the scattered Master
Emerald, Amy’s stages are based on escaping from a pursuing robot, Big The Cat’s
stage is based on fishing for his lost frog Froggy and E101 Gamma’s stages are
based on shooting things to increase your time. Even though this was received
relatively well there were still some major bugs which turned some people away
from the game as they can be frequent. There is no definitive review score for
this game as there are many that give it scores that are on the other side of
the scoreboard from other reviewers. For example IGN gave Sonic Adventure a low
score in each category saying that the game hasn’t aged well.(2) But the user reviews for this game
give much higher ratings then the Game Critics, some of the games hate may stem
from the fact that Big the Cat’s stages are just fishing and nothing else, and
that is radically different from the rest of the characters that have action
packed stages to keep the player on their toes. After this games success (over
2.5 million sales on Dreamcast) a sequel was inevitable. This game has a
variety of different puzzle elements within some levels which are a good break
from the intense speed of the levels. After key points in the story there are
bosses which push your gaming abilities with high pace action on the spot
thinking. Throughout the game you travel through the three different overworlds
where the player can run free and they each with their own secrets, these
overworlds act as the hubs of the game where you are able to access the various
stages. The stages cover a lot of ground on the variety spectrum as the stages
are all unique and good looking for the team, some stages do play the same
stages as others but there is always a difference such as a varied path or
added challenges. Another key point is the bosses, every character has at least
one boss, and some even have 4 bosses and even some mini bosses. The bosses are
grand and can be quite difficult when you don’t what to do. The main boss
throughout the game is Chaos, Chaos is the villain being controlled by the evil
Eggman, and most characters have a shot at chaos throughout his various forms.
The music for this game was composed my Crush 40 and the reception from the
public was a mixed bag as some people loved the music although other thought it
was just cheesy 80’s riffs. I am in the middle, some of the songs are some of
the best that Crush 40 has ever produced (Open your Heart), although some songs
are quite lacklustre. I have had experience with this game and I think that it
is possibly the best game on the Dreamcast.
Sonic Adventure 2
On the 23rd of June 2001 Sonic Adventure 2 was released
internationally on Dreamcast. Sonic Team knew the success of the first game and
their objective was to take the greatest bit from the previous game and improve
on them to make the better than its predecessor. Much like Sonic Adventure this
game is an action game but instead of each character having a unique way to
play, there are 3 core types of gameplay, Speed, Shooting and Exploration. The
game is split into two stories, Light and Dark side, each has 3 characters
which means that there are 6 characters throughout the game. We say goodbye to
Big the Cat, E102 Gamma and Amy Rose as they are replaced with Rouge the Bat,
Eggman and Shadow the Hedgehog. There was a lot of real world inspirations
littered throughout the game, for example the stage “City Escape” is based on
the roads of San Francisco which is where Sonic Team USA was based. Also the
Golden Gate Bridge is the inspiration for the bridge in the “Radical Highway”
stage. Compared to the previous game this game was considerably less buggy as
Sonic Team had learned from their previous game which ended up as a better
product. Also this game was received better then Sonic Adventure with review
scores being higher. Even though the game was received better and had higher
scored there was still some obvious problems with the English release of the
game, some characters would talk over each other which would lead to confusing
conversations. The reason for this happening is when the game was in
translation for the west the animations for the characters talking was not
edited which resulted in characters talking before and after the animations had
started/finished. There are a lot less gameplay bugs this time around which
kept players interested as they didn’t die as frequently to bugs/glitches. 1.44
million Copies of this game were sold on Dreamcast (8),
a lot more may have been sold alongside Sonic Adventure as the Dreamcast was a
dying system losing out to the PlayStation 2. Sonic Adventure 2 was still a
success even with all of the criticism and it even merited a remake later down
the line. I have had no experience with this game as I did not own it.
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Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
On the 3rd of May 2002, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle was
released in Europe; Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is an upgraded port of the
original from the Dreamcast to the GameCube with arguably biggest change being
the Two Player game mode. Changes to the Battle Mode include no more clone
characters; no longer locked into a 3 match bout and added stages. In this game
the story is a little more complex than the previous game. Gameplay wise there
isn’t a lot of changes, the the basics are still there, you can run super-fast
and jump super high and you have to use your skills to advance through the
plethora of levels to reach the ending, the bosses are still as grand as ever
with giant stone golems and GUN Mech suits, but there are some quality of life
changes such as Knuckles and Rouge levels now having blinking markers to make
treasure hunting a little bit easier, Eggman and Tails’ lock on system was a
little more responsive and faster. In the graphic department the models for the
characters were improved to give better shading and the shadows were improved
also. Another change was the Chao Garden which received some big upgrades such
as GBA link support, improves Kindergarten features by adding more and Chao
Karate was added! Other changes to the Chao garden include the different areas
of which the Chao's can live including Chao Heaven and Chao Hell
which housed new architecture. Compared the original Sonic hedgehog, this games
controls and feel is a lot better and there is a lot more to it. Each character
in this game as variety of upgrades they can acquire, some of the upgrades are
essential such as Sonic’s Light Speed Shoes which allows him to dash across a
string of rings extremely quickly, Tails’ Jet Booster which allows him to glide
for a short time after jumping, this upgrade is identical to E102 Gamma’s Jet
Booster which did the exact same thing. Other Power Ups aren’t essential to
complete the game but the do allow you to find secrets in some levels. All
characters can get an upgrade called Mystic Melody which opens up some
shortcuts when played at shrines, but some characters have unique upgrades that
are exclusive to them such as Knuckles Sunglasses and Air Necklace which aren’t
essential but they can help a great deal in certain situations. Overall the
upgrades are a lot more varied then Sonic Adventure and they are a lot more fun
as you can bounce around to your hearts content or you can roll around on fire
if you wanted to. Compared to all of the other games this game is the best
reviewed of all of them for the fact that it is more polished and there is much
more replayability than the previous games. But like the previous games there
are some reviews that score it a lot lower. Playing through this game took up a
big part of my time when I was child as there was much replayability since each
level had different objectives if you replayed them and those were essential to
unlock the secret level, Green Hill Zone. I believe that this game is the best
of all of the sonic adventure games because I think that it looks better and it
has more replay value than the others with its varied battle mode and the Chao
Gardens which allow player to raise a Tamagotchi type creature and have them
race and fight. Another good point that’s brought up when talking about this
game is the music, its music is considered better than the previous
game as there are more serious tones yet they are still good to listen to and
they are appropriate for the stage they are played on. For example, one song
that is widely considered on of the best from the game is called Escape from
the City (by Crush 40), it is a song that is fast paced with a strong bass
throughout the song, it’s very catchy and it relates well to the stage, the
stage consists of Sonic trying to escape from the city as he had been wrongly
arrested, near the end of the stage he is chased by a huge truck and the music
changed to a hectic song piece of music. The Music for this game is arguably
better then Sonic Adventure but there is no clear answer, the music is superb
and its exactly what you want to hear in the situation that you are in, its
fast paced goodness that keeps you pumped throughout the whole experience
playing this game Some of my personal favorite songs include “Live
And Learn” and “Escape from the City”. This is the game that I have
had the most experience with and it is my favorite of these games as it had the
most replayability. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle sold 1.6 million copies on
GameCube alone (9).
Sonic Adventure DX Directors Cut
A year passed without another Sonic Adventure game but on 27th June
2003 Sonic Adventure DX Directors Cut was released on GameCube. The aim of this
game was to fix lots of major bugs within the game to allow player to enjoy a
smoother experience such as the graphics were improved in most areas to make
them glossier and pop out of the various environments, also the camera was
improved as that was a problem present in the original game. Other than this
there aren’t a lot of new features added, the few that were added was Metal
Sonic in Time Trial mode and Cream the Rabbit who make some cameo
appearance connected with Sonic X. The main addition was Mission Mode where
there are 60 missions available which increase the longevity of the game. Other
added features included GBA link up to the Chao Garden which allows for the
transfer of Chao to other people games. The mission as different missions for
each character but the missions are still quick lacking as a lot of them are to
collect rings or hide and seek with a balloon. Overall the mission mode was
quite lacklustre although it did improve the longevity of the game. Other than
these changes the game was still a remake which made the game more enjoyable.
The gameplay from the original game was improved substantially with the camera
changes as the faulty camera lead to leaps of faith which lead to the death of
Sonic many times. All in all this port was decent and it was a worth follow up
to an amazing game. Although they had fixed a variety of bugs they were
still present in the game which can be disheartening in some levels which can
take quite a bit of time. I asked my brother on his opinions of the game and he
said “It’s probably one of my favourite games on the GameCube.” I also asked
him if he agrees with the criticism that this game receives and he said “I
understand where they are coming from and I agree on some things but not all of
them because I still like the game a lot”. Throughout the game there are a
variety of power ups that each character can receive, some power ups are
necessary like the Light Speed Shoes for sonic which allows him to quickly dash
through a line of rings. Other power ups are not necessary such as the Crystal
ring which allows him to charge up a light speed dash in a fraction of the time
that I would usually take. The power ups that are not necessary can be very
helpful and it may make the game easier in some places but you may have to go
out of your way to obtain these power ups. this game has a decent amount of
replayability. Sonic Adventure DX Directors Cut sold around 1.27 million copies
on the GameCube (7). This version of the game is the one sold on
the Playstation Store and the Xbox live market place but the mission mode is
sold as DLC. This is the definitive version to play if you are interested to
play this game as it is just a batter version of Sonic Adventure and there is
more to it so you can play it for longer.
These games were ported over to modern systems like the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC each with high sales which show that these games are still loved by people throughout the world and it was one of the most sold game on the PS store in 2012(4). These ports were done well and the games still live on arguably Sonics last good games. There have been some good sonic games recently like Sonic generations but most others are seen as bad by the community as they are mostly riddled with bugs and glitches which take away from the whole experience. A classic example is Sonic 06 which is a seen as a bug riddled game with no enjoyment to be found within it, along with the constant bugs the loading time is atrocious. A lot of the music has stuck with the community as a lot of songs from the Sonic Adventure games get remixed and put into new Sonic albums, this shows that quality of the music and how well the community enjoys this music. The album "True Colors: The Best Of Sonic The Hedgehog" has a lot of this series music in it, from the original tracks to remixes. In this album other games are included also like Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 3D Blast. A lot of the music in all of these games make you feel like going fast as a lot of the songs are quite fast paced which gets you energized, this is what you need in a Sonic game as it is fast paced and action packed so you have to be on your toes at all times. Some of the music is quite chilled out or their respected levels such as "Pumpkin Hill" which is a stage for Knuckles in Sonic Adventure 2, this song focus is the lyrics as the beat stays the same throughout the song. Although some of the lyrics are questionable as they are quite strange and out of place. These days these games are extremely cheap to download on the Playstation store, Sonic adventure 2 is only £6.49.
(6) http://cdn2b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/78/41/1342484055_2951_sonic2.jpg?itok=U3Wswi-C
(7) http://www.vgchartz.com/game/2103/sonic-adventure-dx-directors-cut/
(8) http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic
(9) http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic
(7) http://www.vgchartz.com/game/2103/sonic-adventure-dx-directors-cut/
(8) http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic
(9) http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic