RETRO REBOOT | Sonic Adventure (Sega Dreamcast)

The Sega Saturn came and went without a true Sonic game, one of the many death knells of the console, as US audiences failed to embrace its library of games. Sonic fans would have to wait until the Dreamcast before being able to play as the Blue Bomber, and receive an alternative to Super Mario 64 and Spyro. Admittedly, I only really KINDA liked Sonic games, much preferring to enjoy the cartoon series. As a 2D platformer, I just don't feel like Sonic the Hedgehog worked, as blending the speed with the zone exploration seemed to age as rapidly as Sonic himself moved. Perhaps the leap to 3D could breathe new life into the series. It did, but not in the areas where it counted.

The first thing that was advertised was Sonic’s new appearance. Gone was the squatty little ball with the pudgy belly and almost Mickey Mouse-like qualities, Sonic’s new look captured more attitude with his aggressive grin, sharp green eyes, and longer, more defined quills. To be fair, this did embrace the more edgy aura of the late 90's, as the fans who may have started as grade school kids during the height of the of the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis wars were now becoming teenagers. It would serve as easy ammunition for Sega fans to throw shade at Nintendo's continued focus on colorful atmosphere.

"Gaming should grow up with us!" the decree cried. His body is also sleeker and built more for agility and speed. This new Sonic looked primed and ready for action!

As Sonic Adventure was the first attempt to bring the speedy hedgehog into a free running, 3D atmosphere, there’s a checklist of materials that need to be implemented in order to have a successful playthrough of a fast-paced Sonic game while avoiding certain programming hiccups. To get the easy stuff out of the way, the character models look pretty good for the time. Sure the timing of the lip flaps and the dialogue are off by about a week, but characters are pretty expressive and try to be more than just lifeless wireframes with texture. This is still early 3D rendering, there was room to grow.

Emerald City is rendered in real-time 3D, something the ‘Cast was pretty good at doing. So while the game looks great, boasting a great variety of level designs that are very huge and unique, the collision detection and controller calibration can be a little spotty depending on which campaign you are playing through. I’ll get to this more in the controls, but for missions (mainly Sonic’s) where the emphasis is on speed, the camera is not your friend most of the time. It can often swivel out of the playing field and staring into the emptiness of the abyss or a creepy inside-out view of Sonic’s innards can be pretty common when it shouldn’t be. If it were possible to adjust the camera so that it isn’t so close this could mitigate some of these problems.

The stages are fairly vast, and can be fascinating to observe in Sonic's foray into open world game design. This might be a nitpick, but there's staples of the franchise that begin to look silly when translated to an environment where there are more than two dimensions. Bounce and boost pads just naturally occur? For a being that's blindingly fast, why does Soni need these structures? Something that begins to be the crux of the series' problems for literally decades.

That leads right into the gameplay. Once again, I'll be fair; Sonic Adventure is pretty progressive in its efforts to offer a wide variety of play styles. With multiple routes and large map layouts, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Big, and Omega approach their particular quests differently.

Sonic’s campaign No surprise, Sonic’s missions are all based on speed, which in some levels it works okay, but trying to keep the fast pace going can prove to be a little frustrating. I try to Spin Dash for some easy momentum, but Sonic outruns the camera and as it desperately tries to catch up, I have already collided with an obstacle. He has the most stages to play through and involves a lot of running back and forth Emerald City. Sonic also gains the Homing Attack, which is a Godsend for his offensive arsenal. The speed does no favors, as he constantly crashes into objects and will just come to a complete stop. It's not the most unbearable thing in the game, but the game does not accommodate this style of play, as it will involve a lot of stopping and starting.

Tail’s campaign Similar layout to Sonic’s, but with an emphasis on racing Sonic to the end, and if he wins, gotta do it over. This a parallel to Tail’s story, feeling he always slows Sonic down. Tails’ pace is slower than Sonic’s and easier to manage because the camera isn’t a detriment this time around. The races get really tough near the end on the Egg Carrier, where the layout can get kind of confusing. Tail’s ability to fly means I can glide over obstacles with ease, but with larger gaps and tricky depth perception, relying too heavily on it caused me to fail often. Getting to pilot Tails’ plane, the Tornado 2, shakes up the gameplay’s pace for a bit, giving to two stages that play similar to the rail shooter Panzer Dragoon!! Now THAT’s boss.

Amy Rose’s campaign Amy is eluding Dr. Robotnik’s Zero robot, whom is in constant pursuit of her and the Flickie she’s carrying. There isn’t much to her missions, they play similar to Tails’ stage, but considerably slower. I have admit, I love whacking things with her Piko Hammer. The Zero robot can be slowed down, but other than that, I didn’t find him all that much of an obstacle to avoid.

He chases you for a while and then will disappear inconspicuously. Did he take a lunch order? Amy’s hammer does come with a slight delay when attacking, and the hit box can be absolute garbage, which can be troublesome when gauging how close some of the trickier baddies are to you.

Amy's missions are, at the very least, incredibly linear and the easiest to play, but really aren't that fun. It's probably the closest Sonic Adventure gets to feeling like a balanced 3D platformer. Unfortunately, this is around the point of the game where my vision started to swim, and I could not wait for thesen portions to be over. Well, little did I know, the Amy Rose section of the game is probably an oasis of entertainment compared to Big the Cat and Knuckles' missions...

Big The Cat’s Horrendous Fishing Game- And here is where the praise for Sonic’s attempts at trying something different comes to an end!! Thankfully he has the shortest run time of the six characters, so the need to suffer is minimal, providing you can ace the most obtuse and hideous fishing controls in the history of video game fishing mechanics.

In Big’s little befuddled mess, you have to hope the lure and bait falls right in front of Froggy’s face and he bites. I think you’re supposed to pull down on the analog stick to secure a bite, but every time I did it, I felt lucky. Reeling the fish in is pretty much a battle of patience as opposed to any kind of fishing skill.

Knuckles’ campaign Knuckles may be even slower than the former, but he has my second least favorite format; Knuckles is searching for the shards of the Master Emerald, so unlike the linear play of everyone else’s game. Knuckles is in a smaller playing field and you have to locate three pieces that are spread throughout each stage, and it turns into a tedious game of Hot & Cold. As you get closer to a shard, the chime gets louder and faster. Knuckles’ flying, wall climbing, and physical attacks work reasonably well, but it's so goddamn boring. Between the running in circles and the constant chiming, this is torture.

Gamma's campaign Robotnik’s machine is a playable character, and he can be pretty hit or miss. His levels are paced slowly and involve defeating one of his several brethren. His initial walking cycle fairly slow, but when he starts to gain momentum, his legs become treads and his left/right movement goes haywire. There is a lot of stopping and starting with Gamma and the pace can be jarring with the need to stop and attack with his homing missile. You can’t guide the target over foes manually, it does itself. Once you get his hovering upgrade, it becomes a little easier and when you get the hang of his homing laser it can get pretty cool, but Gamma’s play scheme seemed to be a little bit raw. With some fine tuning it may have fared better, like a standard pulse rifle shot or more effective targeting system and maybe charging the attack into a homing beam, perhaps that might make it a little too easy.

Super Sonic Final Boss Battle- As cool as the Super Sonic concept is (it gradually became less cool when I discovered how much I hate Super Saiyans), I have never liked controlling him. Sonic’s already fast controls make him suspect to handle in the first place, so making him faster and even more hectic seems like considerable regression.

Combined with the rate at which he consumes Ring Power, makes this a power I could probably do without. Now, with that being said, this boss battle with Perfect Chaos is EPIC!! The theme music plays in all of its Crush 40 glory (Did this band ever catch on? They were awesome!!) as Sonic rockets towards the beast, evading his deadly blasts, cycloning up into him and explode in fantastic triumph!!

It's too bad this controls like absolute ass. As far as I'm concerned, THIS (and a good chunk of Sonic Adventure 2, that game will have its day) sums up what I think became the worst traits of Sonic games; veering away from stimulating, inventive gameplay in favor of aura farming. Yeah, the music cool, and the cinematography is cool. But it's not fun at all to actually indulge. You SURVIVE the controls, rather than adapt to them.

In closing, Sonic Adventure runs entirely off vibes, as far as I'm concerned. It's aged terribly, the controls don't hold up well, the various play styles among the roster seems like an attempt to offer variety, but it comes off as not having a particular identity. The camera is one of the worst enemies that will result in a ton of deaths, and the story is...really not that interesting.

It makes sense why current Sonic Team doesn't want to revisit this format. By never properly integrating the "gotta go fast" mentality of the series, it throws anything and everything at the wall, hoping something sticks. I'll give it a little credit that it's mostly a product of its time, but this would further provide evidence that Sonic video games showcase the franchise's weaknesses. Sonic is so lucky he looks "KEWL".