Oh Sonic, how far have you fallen my friend. You used to have a lot of ‘tude, running at light speed with your blue, spiky haired self. I remember when you were just a 2D kid, so young and so full of life. Your first transition to 3D turned you into a 70 year old man. For shame!! After playing through Sonic Adventure, it really made me question whether or not the games I played growing up were any good. I have fond memories of Sonic Adventure as I mentioned before. I had just bought my Dreamcast and it was my first taste of Dreamcast gaming. I always refer back to Sonic Adventure as THE game in the series that successfully took Sonic into the 3D realm. If anyone out there has fond memories of Sonic Adventure, prepare to be disappointed!
We all know who Sonic is, the classic Sega icon has a huge history in game industry likened to Mario during the Nintendo/Sega clash of the 90’s. Unlike Mario, Sonic’s transition to 3D hasn’t been as easy as his Nintendo counterpart. While Mario was redefining platform games with Mario 64, Sonic was stumbling his way onto the Dreamcast with his forray into the 3D realm with Sonic Adventure..
Where do I even start, Sonic Adventure is quite simply a mess. I could start with the terrible camera system, the awful music, ridiculous story, or the suprising amount of bugs that litter the landscape. By far the biggest problem with Sonic Adventure is the camera. Sometimes the camera works and when it does its great, most times though it either gets stuck on the wall, or simply does not move the way you want it to. You press the L and R buttons to move the camera left and right, but for whatever reason, the camera doesn’t move when you want it to. I died way too many times simply because the camera could not keep up with Sonic, usually resulting in Sonic running off of a cliff or running into a wall. The camera isn’t helped by the overly touchy controls. If you even move the analog stick slightly, Sonic will veer off course missing rings or running straight into an enemy.
The story follows Sonic as he battles Dr. Eggman as he tries to capture all of the Chaos Emeralds. I can forgive the story, no one plays a Sonic game for the story but the dialog delivery, the script, and the voice actors are absolutely terrible. If that wasn’t the worst part, the fact that there are 6 total characters that each have a different gameplay element, only one which is actually any fun to play. Even worse, the other character’s story and dialog simply get in the way of any kind of enjoyment one can have from having multiple characters.
My first walk down memory lane ended up in youth being destroyed by the monstrosity that is Sonic Adventure. Sonic 4 was just released returning Sonic to his 2D roots. I can only hope that Sonic redeems himself in this new adventure.
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