Sonic Adventure 2 first impressions

[Mutt]

Ugh... My post disappeared. So I'm gonna hafta write my initial impressions of Sonic Adventure 2 again. This time I'll spare you the details of my trip to Gamestop and my shoddy treatment by the snooty clerk.<P>First off, guess what Cary! They did include the little extra bonus thingy with the American release of SA2! It's pretty darn nifty if you ask me. It's a black case with the Dreamcast logo on the front. Inside is a gold audio CD with selected tracks from all the previous Sonic games over the last decade, including various tracks from the Japanese release of Sonic CD (DAMN you Spencer Nielson, for changing the music for America!). Also in the case is a commemerative 10th Anniversary gold coin with a picture of Sonic on it. And last but not least, a little white booklet about the origins of Sonic and the various games he's been in over the past decade. The text is in both Japanese and English. It's a pretty nifty little thing to have.<P>Now on to the game. You can tell Sonic Team spent ALOT of time on this game. Well, no duh, they've been working on it for a year and then some. It has to be the best Sonic game I've played since Sonic CD, and I only played it for no more than 20 minutes thus far. First things first. Gone are the adventure fields. This game's just straight action with the occasional cut scene to keep the story moving. And this time, instead of picking a character and going straight through the game with that one character, it cuts to another character and scenerio when you finish a level. <P>And there's also two different types of storylines: Hero and Dark. Hero is where you play the good guys, AKA Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails. Sonic's levels are pretty straightforward, running through a level, smashing enemies, ect, to reach a goal just like any game he's been in. Knuckles' stages are in just the same style as SA1 where you go around a free-roaming level searching out hidden shards of a shattered emerald. Tails' scenerios are different. This time he's piloting a mech, which is actually a transformed version of his airplane, the Tornado. You pretty much stomp around, targetting enemies with your laser and launching heat-sinking missles at them, much in the tradition of E102's scenerio from SA1. It's pretty silly seeing the cutscene where the plane turns into a mech and Tails yells "Tornado Hen-shin!".<P>I haven't really tried the Dark storyline yet unfortunately, since I only spent about 20 minutes on the game. This is where you play the bad guys, including Dr. Robotnik/Eggman in a mech version of his eggmobile, Rouge, a busty treasure hunter/thief bat who has a lust for diamonds, and Shadow, a clone of Sonic created by the military. From what I saw from a friend's review demo, the Dark characters pretty much play like their Hero counterparts, just with different levels. <P>There are a few minor complaints about the game though. First off is the music in Knuckles' levels. It's this godawful rap music that makes me wanna plug my ears. The rest of the music in the game is badass though. Also, I've noticed a little bit of censorship on Sega's part. Back at A-Kon, I had a friend that had a review demo of SA2 that had one level for each character and this or that cut-scene thrown in. The cut-scenes were just rife with cussing and Rouge's boobs were particularily bouncy. In the retail version, the cussing has been completely nixxed and Rouge has gone from "boingy boingy" to "Man, is she perky". Not that it detracts from the game any, but it still woulda been cool if they left those two aspects in.<P>Anyways, these are my first impressions. I'll give ya'll a full review when I get to play this game for more than 20 minutes.<P>------------------
Mutt,
Creator of Perki Goth/Candi Raver
<A HREF="http://mutt.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>http://mutt.keenspace.com</A>
And founder of Peachy Keen Studios
<A HREF="http://www.furnation.com/mutt" TARGET=_blank>http://www.furnation.com/mutt</A>
<p>[This message has been edited by Mutt (edited 06-20-2001).]

[Klonoa]

Cool, I thought all that Sonic extra stuff was only going to be available in Japan. <P>But wait...you think it would be cool for a game that's targeted for all ages to have cuss words in it? I don't think so.<P>Hey Mutt, you may want to look at a GBA game called Pinobee: Wings of Adventure. It was developed by ex-Sonic Team members, and it shows! Everything from tbe title screen to the power-ups and even the enemies scream Sonic game. Only thing missing is the speed and the ingenious 2-D level design. But at least Pinobee's graphics are bright enough that it's not hard to see stuff.<P>The other two games I get to review for the paper are Konami Krazy Racers and PSX Atlantis. You all know how I like Krazy Racers, but what of Atlantis? Surprisingly, the game is better than what I thought it would be. It actually held my interest with some of its problem solving gameplay. You control all the team members to make use of each members' skills. Of course, there's some issue with control and I still wouldn't recommend this game to anyone unless they REALLY liked the Atlantis movie. But it is a good game for kids.<P>Speaking of reviews, here's one from today's paper. Did you ever get a chance to play this game, Yamcha?
<A HREF="http://www.dallasnews.com/technology/398511_techgames1_21p.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.dallasnews.com/technology/398511_techgames1_21p.html</A> <P>Anyway, back to Sonic Adventure 2. I'll definitely have to get that one. Although by the time I manage to be able to go to the store and get one, I'm sure all the extra goodies Mutt got will be gone. Oh well. I've got a Sonic something Mutt would die to have anyway (Tails plush). I'm not the biggest Sonic fan in the world, but I did enjoy the first Sonic Adventure game. Further proof that Tails is the coolest Sonic character is that now he gets to tromp around in a giant mech. <P>--Klonoa<p>[This message has been edited by Klonoa (edited 06-20-2001).]

[Mutt]

I should look into Pinobee. The art style and what I seen in the screenshots looks like the classic Sonic stuff. I haven't heard or seen enough about the game to warrant a purchase though.<P>As for SA2, I managed to find the time to sit down and play that game for a good 3 hours and just when I thought it couldn't get any cooler, IT DOES!! And I'm not even halfway out of the Hero storyline. It's awesome cuz there's one level where Tails' mech turns into a car and you gotta chase down the President's limousine and when you finish the level, you unlock a hidden kart racing game!! And the bosses are a sight to behold! The silliest one is this ghost you hafta fight with Knuckles in the pyramid level. The noises it makes just crack me up. Then after you beat it and a short cut-scene, you gotta fight this 10 story golem with Sonic. Oh! And also, the graphics on this game is a sight to behold!! The characters are rendered seamlessly and you almost can't tell they're made of polygons. And the way they move and their facial animations are seriously realistic, especially in the cut-scenes. I think they used motion capture or something to animate them. Dang this game is godlike.<P>------------------
Mutt,
Creator of Perki Goth/Candi Raver
<A HREF="http://mutt.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>http://mutt.keenspace.com</A>
And founder of Peachy Keen Studios
<A HREF="http://www.furnation.com/mutt" TARGET=_blank>http://www.furnation.com/mutt</A>