Sonic adventure
- Thread starter Gunblack
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Sonic Adventure was awesome. Sonic Adventure 2 was alright, but was basically the last good sonic game, followed by a string of awful games (Shadow the hedgehog, 2006, secret rings) until the past couple years when the daytime stages of Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colours and Generations have all been pretty good.
I think the problem Sega had had all along was they couldn't seem to figure out how to bring sonic into the 3D world. Now they've found a winning formula in the style of Sonic Unleashed daytime stages, and I think they're sticking to that for the time being. I doubt there will ever be a new Sonic Adventure, and honestly that's a good thing. Sonic Adventure 2 is 12 years old, and SA1 is even older.
Also, I can't help but notice that neither Adventure game has held up very well by modern standards, especially not SA2. I still love them but I think if I had convinced a friend who had never played SA or SA2 to play one, they'd get frustrated by the many problems the game had that were excusable at the time but aren't so anymore.
I think the problem Sega had had all along was they couldn't seem to figure out how to bring sonic into the 3D world. Now they've found a winning formula in the style of Sonic Unleashed daytime stages, and I think they're sticking to that for the time being. I doubt there will ever be a new Sonic Adventure, and honestly that's a good thing. Sonic Adventure 2 is 12 years old, and SA1 is even older.
Also, I can't help but notice that neither Adventure game has held up very well by modern standards, especially not SA2. I still love them but I think if I had convinced a friend who had never played SA or SA2 to play one, they'd get frustrated by the many problems the game had that were excusable at the time but aren't so anymore.
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Sonic Adventure was never on the NDS. Are you confusing it with Sonic Rush Adventure?
SA1 was a good game for its time. I can't stress the "for its time" element enough. Time hasn't been all that kind to it, but certainly at its release in 1999 it was incredible. It told an interesting story. It made good use of its 3D environment. It was immersive. By today's standards, of course, it's archaic. The camera was more of a threat than any enemies and the inclusion of certain superfluous purple cats was mind-bending.
Then there was SA2, some abhorrent nightmare that inexplicably received laudation. The story was cripplingly bad, foisting a mood of sci-fi/techno grit on a series that had never been about any such thing. Superficially, it was about saving the world, as Sonic has always been about, but SA2 went over the top, presumably just to be edgy and appeal to the angsty teen crowd of which Shadow was emblematic. The execution of Maria? The spiraling descent into madness of Gerald? Robotnik's utterly bizarre decision to blow up half the moon? Yeah, that wouldn't have caused calamity to the world. If anyone can also explain why the ultimate life form is a black hedgehog, I'd love to hear it, especially when the ultimate life form "prototype" is a tremendous brontosaurus with giant purple pimples.
So much of SA2 was committing the same errors from SA1 without trying to fix them. The camera was still unkind. The level design became significantly worse, relying increasingly on bottomless pits in lieu of actual challenge and following absurdly linear paths that did little to encourage exploration. SA2 refused still to answer why Sonic et al. were running around in a human world. Just for fun, SA2 also made the treasure hunting stages worse by limiting the radar's capabilities, as if they were any fun to begin with, and made those stages unnecessarily larger for a bit of controller-biting rage inducement. That's independent from asking why the Master Emerald needed to be broken again. Grinding was a complete and utter sell out to Soap shoes, and between that and the declarations of Awesome! or Great! or Wicked! or whatever other stupid phraseology appeared for destroying many enemies in succession, it felt like this was Tony Hawk: Sonic Edition. That only happened when you were playing as a hedgehog, and considering the name of the game, one would think more time would be spent playing as Sonic. Alas, no! Time had to be given over to putting Tails in a mech for stages that did not contribute anything to the plot.
And that music. That horrid cacophony. There are things that should not be and the SA2 soundtrack is one of them. A majority of it is Jun Senoue thoughtlessly yanking on guitar strings and the rare piece of quality music is lost amidst a sea of discordant notes.
The title of SA3 was originally intended for Sonic Heroes. Heroes is an alpha build of what SA3 was going to be, which is a horrifying thought. The name SA3 was also quietly floated in Japan as the name for Sonic Unleashed before it was changed to Sonic World Adventure. It won't happen anytime soon, and probably never, because the name "Sonic Adventure" is remembered through deeply nostalgic lenses, for better (as with SA1) or worse (as with SA2).
Then there was SA2, some abhorrent nightmare that inexplicably received laudation. The story was cripplingly bad, foisting a mood of sci-fi/techno grit on a series that had never been about any such thing. Superficially, it was about saving the world, as Sonic has always been about, but SA2 went over the top, presumably just to be edgy and appeal to the angsty teen crowd of which Shadow was emblematic. The execution of Maria? The spiraling descent into madness of Gerald? Robotnik's utterly bizarre decision to blow up half the moon? Yeah, that wouldn't have caused calamity to the world. If anyone can also explain why the ultimate life form is a black hedgehog, I'd love to hear it, especially when the ultimate life form "prototype" is a tremendous brontosaurus with giant purple pimples.
So much of SA2 was committing the same errors from SA1 without trying to fix them. The camera was still unkind. The level design became significantly worse, relying increasingly on bottomless pits in lieu of actual challenge and following absurdly linear paths that did little to encourage exploration. SA2 refused still to answer why Sonic et al. were running around in a human world. Just for fun, SA2 also made the treasure hunting stages worse by limiting the radar's capabilities, as if they were any fun to begin with, and made those stages unnecessarily larger for a bit of controller-biting rage inducement. That's independent from asking why the Master Emerald needed to be broken again. Grinding was a complete and utter sell out to Soap shoes, and between that and the declarations of Awesome! or Great! or Wicked! or whatever other stupid phraseology appeared for destroying many enemies in succession, it felt like this was Tony Hawk: Sonic Edition. That only happened when you were playing as a hedgehog, and considering the name of the game, one would think more time would be spent playing as Sonic. Alas, no! Time had to be given over to putting Tails in a mech for stages that did not contribute anything to the plot.
And that music. That horrid cacophony. There are things that should not be and the SA2 soundtrack is one of them. A majority of it is Jun Senoue thoughtlessly yanking on guitar strings and the rare piece of quality music is lost amidst a sea of discordant notes.
The title of SA3 was originally intended for Sonic Heroes. Heroes is an alpha build of what SA3 was going to be, which is a horrifying thought. The name SA3 was also quietly floated in Japan as the name for Sonic Unleashed before it was changed to Sonic World Adventure. It won't happen anytime soon, and probably never, because the name "Sonic Adventure" is remembered through deeply nostalgic lenses, for better (as with SA1) or worse (as with SA2).
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"Certain superfluous purple cats"
Whaaat. Big's levels were AWESOME! /s
But seriously, I'd rather be Big than Knuckles. In terms of gameplay I liked SA2, bar the treasure hunting levels. It was basically an expansion of Sonic and E-102's gameplay in SA1. But yeah, the plot was where the cracks really began to show for the series, and they kept that sort of plot for far too long. I'm glad the stories for both Colours and Generations have been ridiculous and cheesy since that's how I feel Sonic should be. "No copyright law in the UNIVERSE is gonna stop me!"
I really liked the music for City Escape and Live and Learn was pretty good too, the rest of the music was forgettable (sonic soundtracks should never be forgettable!) but I wouldn't have said it was bad.
Whaaat. Big's levels were AWESOME! /s
But seriously, I'd rather be Big than Knuckles. In terms of gameplay I liked SA2, bar the treasure hunting levels. It was basically an expansion of Sonic and E-102's gameplay in SA1. But yeah, the plot was where the cracks really began to show for the series, and they kept that sort of plot for far too long. I'm glad the stories for both Colours and Generations have been ridiculous and cheesy since that's how I feel Sonic should be. "No copyright law in the UNIVERSE is gonna stop me!"
I really liked the music for City Escape and Live and Learn was pretty good too, the rest of the music was forgettable (sonic soundtracks should never be forgettable!) but I wouldn't have said it was bad.
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I doubt that will happen, since Sonic Generations was made to celebrate Sonic's 20th anniversary. However it seems like they'll keep modern sonic's gameplay, as in Colours and daytime Unleashed, for some time at least.
If that's the case then Sega may well have finally pulled Sonic outta the hole its been in since Sonic Heroes.
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SA 1 was an awesome game. I enjoyed every wasteful minute I spent playing it.
Then SA 2 came along. . .aye ._." SA 1 was FAR better since there were free roam elements available at your fingertips. I also like there were 6(?) seperate stories o play and all not just a giant chain of 3 people's stories into 1 giant mega story... As time progressed Sega had a lil downfall, especially with Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. It looked terrible. When they did come up with the boost mechanism (Unleashed?) everything started to go up since they had obviously gotten the hang of the 3D concept. :3
Then SA 2 came along. . .aye ._." SA 1 was FAR better since there were free roam elements available at your fingertips. I also like there were 6(?) seperate stories o play and all not just a giant chain of 3 people's stories into 1 giant mega story... As time progressed Sega had a lil downfall, especially with Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. It looked terrible. When they did come up with the boost mechanism (Unleashed?) everything started to go up since they had obviously gotten the hang of the 3D concept. :3
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Doubt it. Just think of it when you say it...doesn't sound too great. They may make one for sonic's 40th anniversary...but he'll be all old and then there will be teh irony of playing as current modern sonic as classic and playing as some old fart sonic as modern.
