Introduction:

The 3-d Sonic the Hedgehog games have been known to be pretty bad, but either it's a lack of voice acting in my other games or my low standards that I like this game.

Story:

There are really three stories- Hero, Dark, and Final. They all relate to each other, which is nice.

Hero - You play as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Dr. Eggman is planning to take over the world using the space colony ARK's giant laser which could wipe out all of Earth at its full potential. It needs the 7 Chaos Emeralds to do this, so you must stop Eggman and defeat him at his base.

Dark - You play as Shadow, Dr. Eggman, and Rouge. You have to help Dr. Eggman steal the Chaos Emerals and stop Sonic from stopping the cannon. This story is slightly harder than Hero.

Final - You can unlock this after you beat both Hero and Dark. You can play as all of the characters, because after the laser is at full power, a self-destruct mechanism is activated, and ARK will crash into earth, pretty much killing everyone on it. Eggman, Shadow, and Rouge have a change of heart, and decide to help save the Earth. The reason the self-destruct thing was made was revenge for Dr. Eggman's grandfather, because his granddaughter was killed. It's a long story.

I would recommend playing both Hero and Dark so that you can fully understand the storyline.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is incredibly simple. For the six characters, each one has a match and can do exactly the same things.

Sonic and Shadow can run, jump, roll, and grind. You run really fast, and you do a double jump, where you press A to jump, and then A in the air to do an attack. Hold B while you're still to roll, and jump on rails and hold B to grind. L and R control the angle. There are some power ups such as dashing through lines of rings, which can get you over water and pits, and other attacks. The level ends when you get to the goal ring.

Tails and Dr. Eggman are in battle robots. Hold B to focus your laser and use the control stick to swing it around. The laser targets your enemies, and then release the B button to automatically shoot the enemies. The more enemies shot at once, the higher your score. You can jump and get a power up to glide for a while once you get the power up. The level ends when you get to the goal ring.

Knuckles and Rouge can jump by pressing A, and glide by pressing A in the air. They attack with B, and can do some combos. They can also climb walls like Spiderman. If they're on walls, they can dig into them to find treasure. To dig into the ground, jump and press B to dive into the ground.
Knuckles and Rouge are equipped with radar for the 3 Master Emeralds they must get in each level (though there is one where Rouge must get 3 Chaos Emeralds.) Their best powerup is sunglasses for Knuckles, and the Treasure Scope for Rouge. Both show hidden treasure. Also in their levels there are computers that decrease your score but give you hints where the Emeralds are.

Tails and Rogue each get one driving level. There are ramps, speeds, and big turns. You hold A to accelerate and B to stop and reverse. You sharply turn with L and R. You move with the control stick. That's it.

All characters get power ups that increase their attacks, and they can find Mystic Melody. If you find a certain altar and have mystic melody, play it and you'll warp to a secret spot.
All power ups are found somewhere in the levels.

For health, you have rings and if you get hit they fall around you and you can pick them up to restore health. For everyone except Tails and Dr. Eggman if you have no rings you die after one hit. Rings give you one more hit, so if you have some rings, get hit, and don't pick up any more one more hit will kill you. Tails and Dr. Eggman have life bars and rings, which simply restore energy.

There are checkpoints in the game as well.

I liked the gameplay. It's very simple to use, but very hard to explain.

I give the gameplay: 9/10

Graphics:

The graphics weren't bad. There wasn't a fuzziness or blatant pixels, although it was definitely cartoony.
It looked almost like clay, with bulging eyes and Dr. Eggman's nose looks like a carrot with a bruise. Otherwise, it's clearly defined, although the bosses could've used a bit more work.

I give the graphics: 8/10

Sound:

I give this part a high score because most of my other games don't have voice acting. The voices in here were nice, although Amy's and Tails' voices got a bit annoying. There is an option to change the voices to Japanese, and they sound much different. The dialogue is nice, but the grunts during the level are repetitive.

I give the sound: 8/10

Replayability:

You can redo any level, dialogue and all. You can also go straight to almost any level you want. It's very easy to get to a certain level.

I give the replayability: 10/10

Challenge:

There really is little challenge in the game, except for the end, which is pretty tough. However, there isn't much stamina in the characters, so that is hard.

I give the challenge: 5/10

Frustration:

You don't have much health and enemies are very repetitive, but there isn't much frustration.

I give the frustration: 5/10

Value:

If you bought it new it'd be about $15.00 I guess, but used it'd be about $8.00

I give the value: $9.00/$15.00

Chao:

Yes, there are chaos in the game. In levels you can find animals and vitamins to feed your little chao. You can trade Chaos with a GBA and make them strong. Total there are 3 Chao areas, but 2 you must unlock, Chao Arena, and Chao Kindergarten, where your Chao can learn things. It's babyish, and I don't like this. However, with this you can see Tails and Eggman out of their battle robots. Tails can fly and jump high, and Eggman is slow, clumsy, and can't jump that well.

I give the chao: 4/10

2P Battle:

You can choose areas not in the game and characters not in the game, such as Light and Dark Chao, Chaos Zero, Tikal, Amy, and Metal Sonic. You can race and attack, dig for treasure, or battle. It's all a competition; there are no co-op battles. It's pretty good and fun.

I give the 2p battle: 9/10

Overall:

This game is very well done and good for a 3-d sonic game. I'd recommend buying it before it stops selling.

I give Sonic Adventure 2 Battle: 9/10

Conclusion:

I don't have much more to say. Its 3-d gameplay is different yet still clearly a Sonic game.

Written By: Adam
E-Mail Address: flashback25@aol.com
Date Submitted: June 19th, 2007

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