SONIC ADVENTURE

Review!

Game info:
Developer: Publisher: Release: Genre: Cost: Players: Age Rating: Peripherals:
Sonic Team SEGA Out Now! Action/Adventure £39.99 1 3+ VMS, Vibration Pack, VGA box.


ONE OF THE GREATEST GAMES EVER!!!!
Sonic Adventure was the flagship game for the Dreamcast and promised so much and it really has delivered the goods. The graphics are amazing! The 6 characters have been put into 3D to great effect and the 4 characters from the previous games Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles still look like they did in previous games. The characters Big and Gamma are the new characters and offer new gameplay experiences. Big has to try and catch his amphibian pal, Froggy and Gamma is out to catch Froggy too for his master, Dr. Robotnik but then turns form the dark side and decides to be a goody. The game runs at a super silky smooth 50/60 frames per second and the graphical effects and speed is amazing with very little slowdown.


6 GREAT CHARACTERS!
There are 6 characters to play with and 1 secret character you get when you complete the game with all 6, Super Sonic! Here's a rundown of all the characters.

Sonic: Sonic is still as fast as ever and is out to stop the dastardly Eggman or Robotnik as he's known to us Westerners from getting the Chaos Emeralds and feeding them to his new "pet" Chaos the water monster!
Miles "Tails" Prower: Tails is out to try and do things himself and without the help of Sonic.
Knuckles: Knucles is looking for the pieces of the Master Emerald after it was blown up when Chaos burst out of it.
Amy Rose: Amy is protecting a bird and is helping it trying to find its freinds.
E-102 Gamma: Gamma is trying to catch Big the Cat's pal Froggy but Amy soon turns him from the dark side.
Big the Cat: Big's pal Froggy took a funny turn after swollowing a Chaos Emerald and getting Chaos' tail and now Big is out to try and catch Froggy, the little pest.


COOL MUSIC!
The music has got a bit of a slagging from some mags but I think the music is quite cool. Sonic's "It doesn't matter" song is cool as is main song for the game, "Open your Heart" which is Super Sonic's song but you should here Knuckles' song, "Unknown from M.E." cos it is GREAT! The cool kind of Jazzy style music and great words make you want to sing along! In fact in Japan the song were released on CD's so they could just listen to the music!


Amazing Graphics!
As you can tell from these screenshots the graphics for this game are amazing! On the Mega-Drive and Saturn the Sonic games were pretty amazing looking and these graphics just blow them away! But what about the Sonic speed? Well this is about a thousand times faster than the rest, it really does look like Sonic is running through the levels at over 700mph and almost so fast that your brain might not be able to cope! Sometimes the game goes into a "free-run" mode because some parts are so fast!


Awesome playability!
The game's characters are moved using the analogue thumb-pad with much sensitivity which means if you push the analogue stick a little bit the character walks and the more you push the stick forward the faster the character moves push the stick all the way forward the character will run, to be honest that will be what your doing most of the time anyway. The D-pad is used for looking about in the game and each character has a jump, pick up and special move button. The 2 trigger buttons are used to swivel the camera around the character to get a better view of what you are doing which you need to do sometimes.

Lastability
Once you've completed the game you'll think that there won't be much to get you back but, there are at least 2 things to get you back and get you playing more and those things are the cute little Chao creatures which you can download to your VMS to play Chao Adventure where you can nurture them and raise them Tamagotchi style. The other thing to get you back will be the Emblem challenges for each stage and mini-game.

Here is a lowdown of each of the challenges:
Chao and Chao Adventure: The Chao are funny little creatures that can be bred, nurtured and raced! Once a Chao has come of age it sits down and a ring of flowers will grow around it and if you put it with another adult Chao you might get an egg! To nurture a Chao you take it to the big Dreamcast controller and stand on the red button and put the Chao on the trap-door, select a VMS and the game will start downloading the A-life (Artificial life) system and Chao Adventure game to your VMS and you can play games with your Chao, feed it and strengthen it for races.
Emblem challenges: When you play a level you can win 3 emblems in total on it. These challenges are really tough and can keep you trying for months. The mini-games have 2 emblems to win and you play the mini-games through the trial option from the game mode selection screen. The Chao races also have emblems to win. There are 130 emblems in total to win.


The Game Overall!
A superb looking and sounding game that is a great showcase for the Dreamcast that is an essential purchase. Yet another great game from Sonic Team as usual.


The Mark!
Graphics 97%
Sound 95%
Playability 94%
Lastability 95%
Overall 95%

Barry the SuperScot

This page has been visited times.