Game Discussion of the Week: Sonic Adventure

Added and stickied.

At the beginning, it's very fun and exciting, and the graphics were mind-blowing at the time, a full generational jump. The first level at the beach does its best to leave a mark and that's how the game is usually remembered (most videos that show Sonic Adventure usually use footage from that level). The controls look very good at first and the gameplay seems like an adequate transition to 3d, on par with what Nintendo was doing to their properties.

But then, later on, the game shows its flaws: there are a lot of bugs/glitches, the other characters aren't very fun to play, the presentation is terrible (badly directed cutscenes, bad voice acting, cringe-inducing dialogue), Sonic's controls aren't adapted for the exploration sections at the city, none of the other levels are really on par with how promising Emerald Coast was.

The impression is that it was a promising, but also a very rushed game. That level of polish that you would get from a 3D Mario or Zelda release is just not there, which turned out to be Sega's main problem with most Sonic installments later on: they are too comfortable to release unfinished games in their most important franchise, which always looked strange to me.

That said, I would give it a 4/5: an impressive game (especially at the time) that could have been polished to be a true classic.

For me this is the most disappointing Sonic game. I played Sonic Adventure 2 before the first one, which I noticed had better review scores from critics, some of the best for any Sonic game in fact. It was routinely featured on top 10 Dreamcast titles lists and had this legendary reputation as being the "single best 3D Sonic game ever" (so said many a game journalists).

On top of that, the trailer for the then-upcomming re-release of the game (Sonic Adventure DX) that was included on Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube was mind blowing, and in fact when I first saw it as a kid the trailer looked so good that I thought it was a totally new sequel to Sonic Adventure 2:



(the version of this trailer included on Sonic Mega Collection was trimmed down a bit, but still wowed my childhood socks off)

I soon learned that the trailer was actually for a remaster of the original Sonic Adventure and would be released for Gamecube; when it came out I begged my parents to buy me a copy, and once I finally played it I was shocked by what a mediocre, depressing experience it was.

As someone who played the sequel beforehand, I don't think the original Sonic Adventure did anything better. I remember absolutely hating certain aspects of the first game like the overworld/HUB/city/whatever you want to call it (why was it necessary?), and the chao garden felt like a half-baked gimmick in comparison to the sequel's. The voice acting was terrible (even worse than Sonic Adventure 2's), the character models & cutscenes often looked ugly, the abundance of human characters in the hub+other parts felt unfitting for a Sonic game, and the music was generally a bizarre mix of amateur junk, or "college rock" as some refer to it. Weird. I've also heard numerous complaints about the camera, which has been described as one of the worst ever in a 3D platformer, but my memory on this particular issue is very scarce.

Overall it was a completely underwhelming experience, even worse than Sonic Heroes (the last 3D Sonic game I bothered playing), and I was pleasantly surprised to learn later on that it was a game that was retrospectively viewed as highly overrated by the gaming community. When I learned that, I no longer felt insane.

Based on my memory, I would give it a 2/5 "bad" score, but since it has been well over a decade since I played it AND the fact that I sold my only copy years ago, I'm not sure I feel comfortable giving it a rating.

I admit, it was a very pretty game for 1999, especially the beach level which you mentioned, so it probably sounded like I wasn't giving the visuals enough credit. My real issues with the game lie with the other aspects of it.

I haven't played Sonic Generations. I remember it came out at a time when consoles were becoming oversaturated with shitty Sonic games, like Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic Riders Zero Gravity (all on the Wii, coincidentally), so I didn't pay much attention to it.

stratogustav - I haven't played Colors, but everyone praises it. I should check it out someday, it would be an incentive if Sega ported it to PC...

Back to Sonic Adventure: do you guys like to play with any of the other characters? I might me misremembering it, but the Amy levels were surprisingly competent as they were more traditional platform levels.