Sonic Adventure in Retrospect

And for a moment I thought the obvious Chao-Nightopian connection was going to be pointed out, but I guess not.

Chaining things to influence your score...yeah, I think that may be a stretch. That's a pretty universal game mechanic.

 

I liked some of the extra details in SA2, eg. the better cutscenes, longer levelspan and extra details and upgrades for longevity (eg. extra moves, multiplayer and the aforementioned score mechanic) unfortunately it was all in a somewhat flawed layout and mechanics, and I can't help but feel if you placed most of this stuff in SA1 it would be considered better (which SADX probably should have done). SA2 was more refined and clean in execution but with a worser concept beneath it all.

I also think SA2 wasted a lot of potential, specifically with it's Good and Dark concept. The idea of playing as Dr Eggman to felt like it should have been a bit less underwelming (it was fun but not as much as I think the potential called for). I really would have liked it if the side you chose called for specific mission and gameplay changes, rather than simply a change in cutscene and levels. Say while Sonic got to do heroic deeds and extra bonues for playing things clean, Eggman made areas worse, dominating or wreaking havoc (something like Sonic CD's concept but with the choice to make a Bad Future might be ideal for a true Good/Evil gameplay design).

ShTH looked a bit more into this potential but in an obviously more flawed game.

 

For instance it's in the very first Sonic ever, and even then it was borrowed from Super Mario Brothers.

But SA2 has the NiGHTS hotel. Does that count? :specialed:

 

Here's something that's slightly bugging me about SA2:

Does anyone notice how SA1 had bright colorful levels, while every level in SA2 looks desaturated? Now, I don't have a Dreamcast, so I only have SADX and SA2B, but I played SA2B after SADX, and I thought SADX had better graphics then SA2B. I mean, seriously, that sky in Metal Harbor is like a really dark blue. wtf!?!? And Tails's white fur is grey, Knuckles has a tan in this game (his muzzle), and all of the levels look really dark and/or desaturated. The entire game looks like it has a grey tint or something. Did anyone else notice this?

 

Dark maybe (yeah, Tails' fur does tend to look grey in cutscenes, Knuckles' muzzle isn't bright, and a lot of levels are in shadow, like much of Wild Canyon, or don't take place during the day/outside), but I don't think any level in the game looked desaturated (well, maybe levels like Prison Lane and Iron Gate by nature of being full of grey metal).

There was a lot of gritty texture detail, but I remember the game as relatively colorful.

 

I played Sonic Adventure for the first time yesterday and completed Sonic's and Knuckles's stories and I can honestly say that it is one of the most fun sonic games I have ever played.

I was initially a bit sceptical of it because I have heard you guys talk about the bugs and glitches so I was expecting something terrible but I would say this is one of the best 3D Sonics I have ever played, which really made me think how bad the more recent 3D Sonic games have become. (I havn't played Colours yet but I will soon so I am not including it in this generalisation).

I really wish I had a dreamcast in 1999 so I could have played this on release. I'm still shocked at how much of a positive effect it had on me, it completely reeled me in and had me enjoying it completely (I haven't played as Big yet XD).

Edit: I played SA2 for the first time not too long ago aswell and I will say that it was quiet fun aswell but I personally feel that Sonic Adventure 1 was the better out of the two.

 

I've noticed that with the entire non-Nintendo video game industry.

SA1 was bright.
SA2 was not-so-bright. (but still brighter than other games would eventually turn into)
Sonic Heroes was bright.
Shadow? Not so bright.

So at this point, you can also blame Shadow. But I can't really blame Shadow for the rest of the gaming world. :/

 

Unleashed was bright
Colors was even brighter so...

 

Sonic Adventure has aged poorly. It just "feels" off.

I will definitely concede that the level design was better than the subsequent "Adventure-like" 3D Sonic games for sure (actually, Sonic 06 had some rather decent level design in certain parts but, you know, Sonic 06). But... everything about the movement feels janky as hell to me. I think in terms of physics SA2 nailed it (well, aside from the obvious auto-loop shit that they never stopped using) and it just felt more tight and deliberate, whereas Adventure's controls felt really "loose", if you will. Also, some of the gameplay styles were really sort of lame. I hated racing in every level as Tails, and Big is, well, Big. E-102 was alright but I felt that SA2's mechs improved on it. Amy... Amy I actually think is underrated. I enjoyed her story only less than Sonic's.

The story scenes were crap with horrible voice acting and worse movement and timing, and once again, they never really were super great in most of the series but the immediate comparsion to SA2 stands. (As a side note, I think the acting in SA2 is kind of underrated. In SA1, that cast under-acted, and in Heroes, the cast over-acted, but in SA2 it was pretty well-done all around, IMO.)

I still don't think it's a bad game, mind. This whole thing probably sounds incredibly negative whereas I actually am sorta neutral on SA1. I just think it's aged not that great and people look at it through rose-tinted glasses.

 

Even Shadow generally isn't that desaturated when you're sent places that haven't been blown to bits (or on the menus). Heck, it's the game with two levels that resemble Tron and a circus that looks like it wandered into the wrong game. In the context of the series it might be pretty drab, but judged by the standards of other games, it still isn't terrible.

Well, not terrible in terms of color variety anyway. It's still inexcusably low-poly and shiny.

 

Actually, the the way the mouths move in SA2 still look suspiciously like sock puppets. They're better, but they don't make me laugh like the SA1 animations, and the dialogue's often crammed with way too much exposition for a single sitting. Just listen to Tails' first cutscene, or Knuckles' first cutscene with Rouge and Eggman. That's cherry-picking, though. Everybody else did a much better job than the collective performances in SA1.

When I look at SA1, I'd much rather play its worst parts than play most of the games after SA2, because that at least means I can opt to switch out to a better character to play as. That, and the controls combined with the Adventure Field setup gives me a very satisfying feeling of freedom and exploration, like I can do whatever the hell I want and go wherever without the game getting in the way. The controls felt sufficiently janky during those parts of the levels where I'm running down a long strip of road or something, and moving left or right inevitably creates a too-wide zig-zag pattern that has me running into the sides and stopping or slowing down. Its a definite flaw and a significant lack of polish, but its not difficult to get over and it never really broke the game for me. You want to talk about abominable controls? Two words: Secret Rings.

 

Personally I found this game to be quite enjoyable for what it was back in 2000 and I still do, even enjoy it more than SA2.

The story had the ideal balance, not too bright or kiddy, but neither too grim and dark, but rather lighthearted and as the story progressed the mood would become a bit dark in a more subtle manner.

Gameplay wise, it's a bit of a mixed bag since on one end we have Sonic, and on the other we heve Big (IMO awesome character that saddly had a poor debut)

One thing I loved about Sonic's levels is that they had a decent physics engine for it's time and where not as linear as the ones we would see in SA2, and even got the idea of branching paths to a certain degree (tough it was not on the sam level as those we see in S3&K). Still for all the good things it had there were certain elements that later on would become a problem in the future game such as automated sections (like strategically placed spring chains or dash panels, tyhat even when they look cool I feel they take away a bit of interaction with the game)

Next would be Tails, tough I think sometimes this character gets way too much merit than what he actually deserves since basically while everyone else tried somethinf new (some with better results than others) Tails was just playing safe, basically copying the same gameplay as Sonic, only with shorter and broken versions of Sonic's own levels, which leaves to an aspect I'm not too keen of, being redundant.

Persoanlly I think that besides Sonic's gameplay, the second one with the most potential was Amy's style since it felt more focused towards platforming and puzzle solving, on top of a little mechanic that allowed her to interact with springs (which I love to do in the first Advance and a couple of awesome hacks). Saddly she was one of the slowest characters, which kind of hurted her image in her debut as playable in a main game. However had her speed cap been increased and if she had more levels like Hot Shelter which showed what could be do with her particuar style, she would probably come as one of the best styles. (I really would love to see how she would perform on the same levels as Sonic)

Knuckles was OK since he retained all his trademark abilities and his gameplay fitted his role as a guardian and treasure hunter, as well as the fact that his levels on this game where not as tedious/boring as in SA2 (I still think that honestly the only reason this style got his ticket to the sequel was for pure nostalgia/fanservice reasons, nt because it was really good)

Gamma was fun for what it was, not for what it was not since this was a twist to the concept of a shoot'em up. Plus I always loved his story.

And finally Big the cat. In my opinion he would not be as hated had it not been for one of the most annoying trends that started here: having to play as everyone in order to unlock the last mission (which is more of an artificial way to remind people who the main character is rather than reinforcing this by his own merit). Had he had been an optional mini-game that come as a harmelss extra rather than being forced in order to fully clear the game history for this awesome character would ad been more kind.

 

@OP

Honestly Sonic Adventure still IS a good game, and used to be a great game. It just seems with the new and much better 3D Sonic games today that Sonic Adventure looks pretty bad in comparison causing some people who would otherwise enjoy the game, to turn on it. Still is a fun game and would definetly be worthy of playing these days except for the noticeable glitches. AkA falling through the ground and such. The glitchy camera was pretty bad too but the overall gameplay/storyline is good. Some of the additional characters are probably kind of pointless to have, as mentioned before it was an attempt at variety but if Big the Cat and as much as I don't wanna say it, Amy were removed from the game Sonic Adventure would be much better off.

All in all even for the first good 3D Sonic I would still rate this best 3D Sonic game of the series. Although my opinion may be flawed as I have not played Sonic Colors or Unleashed yet.

 

I'm sorry, what?

 

Well it just seems with the new and obviously highly tested levels in the newer Sonic games people would be expecting a higher quality of Sonic gameplay in the 3D series making the glitches and crappy camera THAT much more noticeable upon returning to a older game like SA1 be it first time or just for old time sake.

 

I think you'll find that there are a lot of people who greatly prefer Unleashed and Colours to the Adventures. Myself included.

 

Colors is more 2D than 3D, and Unleashed has the medal collecting and the Werehog. o.o

 

I prefer collecting over 9000 medals rather than all the Big levels.