It’s been just over 10 years since Sonic Adventure graced our Dreamcasts and Sega has realized since they can’t make a decent Sonic game anymore they might as well port over an old one people liked. Surely nothing can go wrong can it?
Sonic Adventure
Developer: Sonic Team
Price: $10.00 ($5.00 extra for the DX Upgrade)
Platform: PS3 (reviewed) & 360
Well that’s what I thought too until I realized the ‘port’ of the Dreamcast version is really the Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut edition which was a port of the Dreamcast version for the Gamecube and PC. That’s not to say that the game is bad, it’s just that it feels upsetting that all the issues in the PC port are still present and the fact that we’re getting a port of a port just makes me laugh.
One of my major complaints about the game is that it revolves around an over-world that is just completely bland. There’s nothing to do around it except link all the other levels together and sometimes knowing your objective can be confusing. There’s a red orb that floats around the place and gives you hints on your objective, but at times these hints are so vague that I had to go online to re-watch the cutscene for clues I might have missed, or basically run all over the place until you hit a cutscene. The only things you can really do in your free-time between storyline missions are replaying previous stages, playing pinball in the casino, or going to the Chao garden to raise your Chao. The Chao garden is the place where you bring any eggs you find and hatch your little buddies. I did chuckle how you basically need to steal the golden egg from a store owner to acquire the gold Chao, seems Sonic will perform criminal activities if it gets him a new buddy to play with. As you play through the storyline you unlock new characters to play as in their own story mode with new weapons/objectives. Tails can hover and be a little bitch, Knuckles can glide and punch things, Amy has a giant hammer she can use to stun a giant robot that is stalking her, Big the Cat fishes, and E-102 can shoot stuff. Each character follows their own storyline and you’ll cross paths with other characters every so often seeing familiar cutscenes through a different perspective which is a nice touch.
Now lets get to the actual parts you’re all wondering about: the action stages. These are the parts where the goal is to speed to the end of the level, acquire the emerald/free the animals, and there’s a horde of baddies in your way ready to stop you. This is how a 3D sonic game should be done with Sega slowly remembering in the daytime segments in Sonic Unleashed and hopefully Sonic Colors destroys the Sonic Cycle by perfecting it. My one gripe (which is my second major complaint) is that nearly every level has tons of parts where you fall through the ramp/wall/floor/etc and plummet to your death. I don’t mind replaying a level 2 or 3 times due to a death, but after falling through the same damn hole 5+ times it starts to get increasingly annoying. There’s also the atrocious camera that makes me want to burn an orphanage, but let us not dwell on that.
This is the part where I could take a crack at the lame story, horrid cutscene animations, voice acting that makes me wish I was deaf, and how every time something goes wrong in the game it’s always Tails that caused it, but I think this sentence is more than enough. Instead lets mention how brilliant the soundtrack is with upbeat tunes to keep you going through the levels and how the graphics are given a slight HD update that doesn’t make the game look that much better but it is a nice addition. For an extra $5.00 you can upgrade to the Director’s Cut which includes 60 new missions and the ability to play as Metal Sonic, but I’d only advise it for hardcore Sonic fans since $5 seems a bit steep for what you get.
The Final Word
Honestly if you loved the original game there’s no problem with reliving nostalgia, and if you never played it before than this is a great chance to do so. Just know that it does have it’s flaws, it does feel dated, but you will have some fun with it at the least.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
