Sonic Adventure

This will have always gotten the most undeserved of raps. Doomed to be followed by a frenzy of creatively bankrupt games and the best version being stuck on a console no one has, it has aged (mostly) gracefully as Sonic's only true Genesis ethos turned next-gen 3D experience.

good game to play when youre high as balls

this game is janky as hell, the plot is stupid, the music is generic buttrock and the graphics are ugly, but the gameplay is also fun jank, the plot is funny and occasionally genuinely heartbreaking, the generic buttrock is glorious, and the graphics are unparalleled in 1998.

Before talking about Sonic Adventure DX itself, I want to give a little bit of backstory about my experience with the Sonic games. I’ve been a fan ever since I was a kid, and to this day I’d say I like most of the Sonic games I’ve played. Some of them were too hard for me, mainly the classic Genesis titles, but they were still enjoyable nonetheless. But I haven’t played all of them, and a noticeable part of the games I haven’t played before are the Sonic Adventure games. I’ve always heard that they’re some of the better Sonic games out there, but I never had the chance to play them since I didn’t own a Gamecube or Dreamcast when I was younger. But these days, I’ve gotten more into PC gaming, so recently I decided to get the two Sonic Adventure games on Steam. I haven’t played Sonic Adventure 2 yet at the time of writing this review, but I’ll probably review that one as well, once I complete that game.

So I’m going to review each of the six campaigns, plus the final section of the game, and talk about all their various aspects. Starting with Sonic, I’d say the game gets off to a strong start, at least in terms of the gameplay. Sonic controls well enough, though he’s rather finicky to control whenever you’re trying to go fast in a straight line. He works best in the more platforming-focused sections. As a whole, Sonic’s levels are generally fun, and one of the best strengths of Sonic’s campaign is that it has the most content out of all six stories. So the gameplay’s all fine and well, but what about the story? Well… the cutscenes are really silly at times, especially in the opening parts of the game. It’s silly in a good way, though; I always found myself laughing at how weird it got, as opposed to being annoyed by it. Ignoring the sheer absurdity and awkward dialogue that can be seen from time to time, the actual plot is quite alright. Robotnik wants all the Chaos Emeralds to power up a strange creature named Chaos, and your mission is to stop Robotnik from getting all the emeralds in his possession. And that’s generally what Sonic’s story is all about. One thing I like about the whole story is that each campaign shows the same story, but from the perspectives of each of the main six characters. It’s a really neat concept, and I can’t think of many other games that do this; I’d like to see more games with this concept.

The next story revolves around Tails, and I’d probably say this one is my favorite out of the main six character campaigns. Tails controls similarly to Sonic, though he’s also able to fly. He can move really fast, and it does make some of the levels really easy, but I don’t mind. He’s really fun to play as, just because of how fast he can move and his flying makes for really good vertical movement. Tails’ levels are pretty similar to Sonic’s, though the level objectives are more specific; rather than simply reaching the goal, you have to make it to the goal first before Sonic (or in a later stage, Eggman) gets there first. While these levels are pretty easy, the opponent does generally do a decent job of trying to catch up to you, so it doesn’t feel like it’s not challenging. The only somewhat weak spot is the two plane levels (which also , where you control Tails’ aircraft to shoot down the enemies surrounding the Egg Carrier. They’re fine enough, but it feels kind of hard to shoot the targets, and they go on a bit too long. As Tails is with Sonic for a lot of the story, he does generally go through the same stuff, but there’s some diversions here and there. I think Tails also has one of the best stories in this game; it’s nothing amazing, but I like how he develops as a character, where he learns to overcome his fears and not depend on Sonic all the time.

Next up is Knuckles, whose gameplay is a bit different. He controls similarly to Sonic, although he also has the ability to climb walls and later gets the ability to dig through the ground. As for the missions, though, they’re more open-ended compared to the linear nature of Sonic’s levels. The objective for these levels is to find the pieces of the broken Master Emerald. There’s three in each level, and they’re generally not too hard to find. Even with the radar telling you how close you are to one, though, it can be annoying trying to figure out where the emerald pieces are. As for the story, Knuckles is tasked with guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island. However, Chaos breaks the Master Emerald into many pieces, and they are scattered everywhere, so Knuckles has to retrieve the missing pieces before Angel Island collapses. Knuckles is kind of a weird character. He has a stubborn and aggressive personality, but this can sometimes make him look really silly, such as a cutscene where he attacks Sonic because he thinks Sonic is trying to steal the Master Emerald pieces, and learns the hard way that Eggman was deceiving him and that Sonic was only trying to collect the Chaos Emeralds. He’s still an enjoyable character, though. One thing I haven’t mentioned yet about the gameplay that I dislike is that there are many instances where the game doesn’t give you any guidance on where you’re supposed to go. This isn’t just a problem with Knuckles’ campaign, I was stuck trying to figure out where to go in all the campaigns at some point or another. This doesn’t detract from the game that much, but it was still an annoyance.

Amy is a bit of an odd character at first, but by the end, I grew to like her campaign. She has slower movement than the previous three characters, which is disappointing, but she moves at a reasonable speed and her gameplay levels keep you on the move. It’s more linear again, except Amy is being chased by a robot named Zero, so she has to keep on moving so she won’t get captured by it. You can, however, use her hammer to temporarily stun Zero, which is useful. I do wish her campaign was longer; all the other campaigns aside from Sonic’s are short, but it feels especially short here. I think by this point, the writing is more competent and overall better. It’s nothing brilliant, but there’s a lot less awkward moments. Amy tasks herself with guarding a Flicky, and Zero continuously attempts to hunt them down. Zero eventually succeeds in capturing Amy, but a robot aboard the ship named Gamma lets her go. Gamma’s a pretty interesting character, but I’ll get to him later.

Now it’s time to talk about Big the Cat... In the past, I’ve heard a lot about how infamous Big was in this game, due to his weird personality and his stages. I went into this with an open mind, much like I try to do with any infamous part of a game. I thought, “Hey, maybe they don’t like the Big levels because they’re completely different from the rest of the game.” Then I actually played the first stage of Big’s campaign. These fishing levels are miserable. The later stages weren’t so bad, but the first level, Twinkle Park, is one of the most insufferable levels I’ve played in any game in quite some time. The controls are really weird, but even once you get used to the controls, it’s still annoying. The story is simple; Big’s friend Froggy swallows a Chaos Emerald and mysteriously grows a tail, and then runs off for some unknown reason. So, you have to go fishing to get him back. So getting Froggy is really hard sometimes. You’ve got to have the fishing hook really close to him and then press the Down button to even ensure that he latches on. But even when you get it close to him, sometimes he just ignores it and swims away somewhere else! And there’s other fish to collect, which I’m sure makes for a decent challenge when replaying the stages, but on my first time through, I just cared about getting Froggy. So it was aggravating whenever I got the bait near Froggy, and suddenly a random fish came in and grabbed the hook first. Also, when you’re reeling up a catch, if you fail, you just lose a life. I guess the logic is that Big’s fishing line breaks, but it’s still annoying to have to start the stage over just because I didn’t reel something in successfully. This campaign’s saving grace was the music, which was really good (except for Ice Cap’s stage). I also liked the ending, too. It’s nothing that interesting, but it was cute to see Big and Froggy hanging out together again. So it was frustrating, but ultimately worth it in the end. Not sure if I’m willing to get all the emblems for Big anytime soon, though…

The last main story revolves around a robot named E-102 Gamma. He has an unusual style of gameplay, where he attacks enemies by shooting missiles at them. But rather than just pressing a button to shoot, you have to hold down the attack button to lock onto an enemy, and then release to fire the missiles. Fortunately, though, if you do lock onto a target, you’ll almost certainly hit them. It’s enjoyable, and I like the emphasis on boss fights (even if most of them are really easy). The only thing I don’t like is that you have a limited amount of time to complete each level. If you run out of time, you lose a life (but thankfully, you don’t start the whole level over). If it’s not Tails, then Gamma has my favorite story of the six campaigns. It’s a bit darker than I thought this game would get, with Gamma coming to realize that he shouldn’t be working for Eggman and wants to free his E-Series friends. The final scene of this story is really good, and it almost made me forget that this is the same game with things like Sonic’s absurd one-liners.

So once you complete all six stories, you get one final story which wraps everything up well enough. The final boss fight is pretty good (though surprisingly easy), though I have no idea why there are two phases. Phase two is exactly the same, except the boss uses a couple new attacks. The main theme of the game, “Open Your Heart”, is a pretty cool song for the boss battle and it was a little disappointing that they opted to make a Phase 2 and change the music, rather than just having one continuous fight where the boss takes six hits in total to defeat. But aside from that, I think it’s a good final battle and the ending makes for a satisfying conclusion. Even taking the weaker parts of the game into consideration, I can see why a lot of people would consider this one of the better games in the Sonic series. Big’s levels are a very low point in the adventure, but as a whole, I like this game a lot, for both the (mostly) enjoyable gameplay and the cutscenes, both hilariously weird and genuinely interesting. This was a game I’d never gotten the chance to play in the past, and I’m glad I finally was able to play it. Here’s hoping Sonic Adventure 2 is even better!

Sonic Adventure is a very interesting title in the Sonic series. Reason being that it is riddled with stupid nonsense... But the game is so good because of it that I can't help but love it

Sonic Adventure was the first real 3D Sonic game to ever be created. It was an extremely ambitious title in the franchise with the goal to redefine and reimagine Sonic as a character and the way he plays.

For starters, Sonic and every character have been redesigned in some minor/extreme ways. All the characters are slimmer, taller, and have colored eyes as well as other changes.

Sonic is now taller, darker blue, and has green eyes.

Tails has lighter yellow fur and has blue eyes

Knuckles has slightly different shoes and has purple eyes

Dr. Robotnik is way taller, has a different designed uniform and is less round

And Amy has the biggest change. Her eyes are blue, she has a new outfit, and her hair is completely changed

None of the redesigns look bad in my opinion and though I prefer the classic designs, I don't hate these redesigns and It helps differentiate the classic and modern feel. This entire game feels extremely different in presentation compared to the previous

The music is drastically overhauled. Like the previous games, the music is great. But this game includes vocal music that screams 90's. Knuckles has rap, Tails has soft rock, Amy has jazz, E-102 Gamma has techno, Big has classic jazz, and Sonic has heavy rock music. All of which fit the characters amazingly and are generally catchy. The main theme, "Open Your Heart" by Crush 40 is by far my favorite vocal Sonic song.

The main gimmick of Sonic Adventure is that you play as 6 characters who each have their own story going on alongside each other. Each playthrough follows that character's perspective. Sonic's story is about stopping Robotnik, Tails' story is about becoming less dependent on Sonic, Knuckles is about finding the missing pieces of the Master Emerald, Amy's story is about protecting a bird from Zero (One of Robotnik's Robots), new character, Big The Cat (A Large not so intelligent cat who is best friends with a frog) is about finding Froggy, and other new character E-102 Gamma (One of Eggman's robots) is about becoming self-aware and trying to save its friends by killing them.

All of these stories come together as a story about stopping the immortal god, Chaos from destroying the world. The story is very cheesy mostly due to the awful writing and hilariously bad voice acting. But it's so stupid that it's great. The story is fun and that's all that matters.

As for gameplay... Tails is about racing Sonic to the finish of the level. It's fun but too easy and horribly designed, Knuckles is a treasure hunt and I enjoy it quite a bit, Amy is about running from Zero. It's fine but too short, E-102 Gamma is an on-rail shooter under a time limit. It's ok but could be better designed with the controls, Big is fishing. Do I really need to say what's already been said. It's awful. Easily the worst part of the game...

Sonic has the best gameplay. They perfectly captured the momentum paced platforming and speed of Sonic and (Maybe besides some bugs) it's fantastically designed

Sonic Adventure is a game with such a cheesy story, music, bad acting, and bad writing. But the gameplay and lack of self-awareness makes the game so enjoyable. The problems in the story is what makes the game so good. Just dumb fun

I refuse to acquiesce to the popular opinion that this game and its sequel suck. I refuse to do this for anyone including people on the internet, my friends who had this game when they were kids like I did, or my Genesis-era older cousin that used to tell me that this game sucked when I was eight years old. This newfound, seemingly unanimous opinion of the Sonic Adventure games does not sway me even a little. Sure, after coming back to this game since I was a kid, I'll admit that some of the aspects of this game are a lot to be desired, but they do not compare to the more recent abhorrent dumpster fires that have been tainting Sonic's legacy. I guess it's just easier for people to group the Sonic eras between his early 2D games and his later 3D outputs which is probably why the Sonic Adventure games are grouped in with the appallingly bad 3D Sonic games.

Sonic Adventure is certainly flawed for sure, but I've heard so many people regard this game as the proverbial guillotine to Sonic's run as a beloved video game character, and this bad reputation is due to what Sonic became of after the Adventure games rather than the direct point of it. I'd fervently argue that the early Sonic Adventure games are exceptions to the unexceptional 3D Sonic games (with Generations and Colours being a few exceptions, but Sonic has had tons of bad 3D games at this point, so the exceptions are very few and far between). Am I defending this game from the barrage of negativity because the Sonic Adventure games were the Sonic games that I grew up with and bear a great level of nostalgia for me? Yes, admittedly so, but nostalgia only goes so far. The heightened feeling of nostalgia only works if whatever it is that you're being nostalgic for still upholds some sort of quality. If it's complete shit, then you just laugh and feel like an idiot for ever liking it. Nostalgia aside, Sonic Adventure, in my personal opinion, is one of the best Sonic outings to date and a marvelous jump to converting 2D Sonic gameplay to 3D, but there are plenty of deterrents that also make this game a flawed experience. I guess I'll be playing devil's advocate trying to defend my favorite Sonic game from its bad reputation in this review.

The late 1990s were a revolutionary period in video games. The radical shift from 2D to 3D became the norm and franchises from the 2D era needed to adapt to this change or become outdated relics. Super Mario 64 is probably the most notable example of this shift to 3D because it was one of the first to make this transition and laid out the design that almost every 3D platformer of this era was based on. Sega developed a Sonic game for the Sega Saturn which didn't see the light of day because the Sega Saturn was a short-lived console that got beat out by the competition. A few years later, Sega released the Dreamcast that also became a short-lived console and the console swan-song of the once almighty Sega. For the short time that the Dreamcast was the exciting new thing, Sega decided to use Sonic Adventure as a stepping stone for the desired success for the console just like Nintendo did for Super Mario 64 for the N64. As far as I'm concerned, Sonic's first 3D outing has aged so much better than Mario's initial stepping stone into 3D. Is this probably because the Dreamcast was technically a much more advanced system than the N64? Probably, but this still holds to be true. Sonic Adventure looks better, feels better, and was much more ambitious than Super Mario 64 in several other aspects as well. Sonic Adventure, at the time, was the cornerstone of what the 3D platformer could do and was also a great shift for Sonic into the prevailing 3D world.

One of the most ambitious aspects of Sonic Adventure was the story. In previous Sonic games, the plot mostly revolved around Sonic stopping Eggman from building a robotic empire made from fellow animal creatures from his homeworld Mobius. This was generally the plot of every 2D Sonic game with maybe an additional character or another kooky Eggman invention to shake things up. In Sonic Adventure, Eggman is in search of the seven chaos emeralds to feed to his new creature Chaos, a creature entirely made out of water that stands on two legs. Eggman's objective this time around is to use all of the chaos emeralds to achieve Chaos's full destructive potential to take over Station Square, the city that the game is set in. It's funny to me that after so many attempts to conquer entire worlds, Eggman decides to downscale to taking over some nameless city with a casino, an amusement park, and a beachfront. It's like a mad scientist trying to conquer Jersey City. I guess having your diabolical plans constantly being thwarted by a blue hedgehog isn't exactly a confidence booster. Sonic's objective is to stop Eggman from getting all seven chaos emeralds while he learns about the history of the creature Chaos in the process. Already, the story sounds like the standard Sonic fare of Sonic stopping Eggman's evil deeds from coming to fruition, but the story itself isn't ambitious; it's the way that it's presented that is. Besides playing as Sonic, you also get to play as five other characters that you unlock as Sonic's story progresses. These characters consist of familiar faces like Tails, Knuckles, and Amy while introducing new characters like Big the Cat and E-102 Gamma. I'll get to each of these characters' individual stories eventually, but the entire game as a whole presents these stories as interwoven sub-plots that connect ala Rashomon. I thought this plot mechanic was brilliant when I was a kid. Even though I've seen other media that have this interwoven style of plot presentation (like the previously mentioned film Rashomon), I can still appreciate the bold choice of presenting the plot of a 3D platformer like this. Is it presented consistently well? Not really. There are several cracks in the story due to trying to keep the interwoven stories connected which lead to needless repetition. If you see three or four different characters in the same scene, you will be seeing this scene two or three more times guaranteed. I could've gone without fighting Chaos 4 three different times, believe me.

Like Super Mario 64, Sonic Adventure implements a hub world that the action stages stem from. The hub world is divided into three different areas: Station Square, Mystic Ruins, and the Egg Carrier. Station Square is a relatively bustling metropolis with the aforementioned amusement park, beachfront, casino, etc. As I said, think Jersey City without the used needles washing up on the shores of the beach. Mystic Ruins is a forest/jungle area directly based on the real-life ruins in Latin America and is probably the most sprawling area of the three hub worlds. This isn't always to its benefit as the deep jungle area where Big the Cat lives is like a maze. Unless you're a character that can glide/fly, good luck trying to find your way around it. The Egg Carrier is Eggman's giant flying ship equipped with a swimming pool, an arcade, a very "Lost in Space" 60's space station, retro-looking bedroom pad, and a smattering of defense weapons including several turrets and a giant laser. Essentially, it's Eggman's bitchin sky crib and the blue fucker Sonic couldn't let him have that either . I used to like the hub-world in this game when I was a kid, but that was back when I used to have fun dicking around as all of the characters without a concise objective over my head. As an adult, I'd rather jump into the action immediately. I can see why the hub world was implemented because of the intricacies of the interwoven stories, but the hub world as a whole feels awkwardly small, empty, and geographically inconsistent. For a Sonic game, it's merely adequate.

Another ambitious, albeit hilariously bad, aspect of the presentation in this game is the voice acting. I can't exactly confirm this to be true, but apparently, there was little to no direction during the recording sessions for the voices in this game, so the voice actors just winged it. It's not like it's any worse than the voice acting from a lot of other games during this time, but it still isn't very good. I'm convinced that no one can pull off Tail's voice without sounding like a crackly pre-teen and Knuckles is about as wooden as a cardboard box. Bless John St. John for taking on the role of Big the Cat. I definitely wouldn't want to be him during those sessions. The only voice that stands above the rest is the voice of Eggman. The quality of the graphics can be excused, but the character animations tend to be choppy and heavily exaggerated. The overall dated presentation of this game tends to be the most common criticism, but I think that it just stems from being a product of its time. The other common and most egregious criticism I see about this game is the glitches. I've had this game for 17 years now, played through the story so many times, re-played the levels hundreds of times just for the hell of it, and have NEVER encountered these glitches not even on accident. I know the glitches these people speak of from watching videos, but they must be exploiting these glitches with some effort. If I couldn't activate these glitches on accident, then it is not a valid point of criticism.

The game's story is divided into seven different parts, one for each playable character and a finale that is unlocked after beating each character's story. Sonic's story is naturally the one you can access first and it is also by far the best section of the game. I've mentioned before that this game might be the best Sonic game there is, but I say this with confidence under a technicality. If this game was only Sonic's story, it could rightfully be considered the best Sonic game. Sonic's gameplay translated marvelously into 3D to the point where I believe that it's much better than the gameplay in the older, 2D games. One thing that I never cared for in the classic Sonic games was the trial and error type of gameplay that is presented. I'm not sure if this type of gameplay was intentional in the classic Sonic games, but it comes naturally when you're in a 2D environment with several obstacles with a character that moves so blazingly fast. Sonic's speed in the 2D games is always compromised with all of the blindspots present in every level which I never thought was fair to the player considering Sonic is supposed to be going as fast as possible. In a 3D environment, there is much more spatial awareness. Sonic's speed isn't compromised and the player isn't punished for trying to take advantage of what Sonic is supposed to excel in. To aid in this, Sonic now has a homing attack to lock onto a chain of enemies which greatly aids with the pacing of the fast gameplay. Sonic also has access to most of the levels in the game and every level in his story is excellent except maybe Sky Deck . There are rarely any awkward pace-breaking obstacles that punish the player for going too fast and they are all varied and versatile. I'd state my favorites of the bunch, but they are all so good.
Sonic Team knew how to make the best of their blue boy in 3D and made something that hasn't been beaten since.

Oh yeah, and there's the rest of the game...

I wish I could declare Sonic Adventure as the best Sonic game there is based on the Sonic gameplay, but that would be like hiding circumstantial evidence from a crime scene at a trial. The other 70% of the game experiments with other gameplay styles in the 3D environment in the form of other Sonic character's stories. Honestly, I don't mind any of the other character's stories all that much, but some are better than others and none of them are even worth the tattered rubber peeling off of Sonic's running shoes.

First up is Tails, a familiar face from the older games that you unlock as early as the first action stage of the game. Tails crash lands on Emerald Coast trying to use a chaos emerald as a source of power for his newest flying machine. He pairs up Sonic for the first half of Sonic's story until they both crash falling out of the sky trying to intercept the Egg Carrier. Tails flies solo (ah-ha, get it? Fuck.) for a while trying to find his path and prove to himself that he is capable of great strides in heroism without Sonic aiding him. He proves this to himself at the end of the game when he stops Eggman from detonating a bomb in Station Square. . The concept of Tails trailing behind Sonic is heavily present in the core themes of Tails not only in the story but in his gameplay as well. The objective of every action stage for Tails is to chase Sonic to the end of the level hence proving he is perfectly capable of besting Sonic at his own game. No shit, Tails, you can fucking fly. This is probably why I've never lost a race against Sonic in this game not even when I was seven years old. Tails can just easily cheese through levels that were designed specifically for Sonic, so they turn out to be insultingly easy. Tails' story is fine, but his stages are severely broken.

Knuckles is another series mainstay that makes an appearance in this game. Like in Sonic 3, he protects over the Master Emerald on the floating Angel Island when the island suddenly crashes lands into the sea one night. A perturbed Knuckles finds Chaos emerged from the Master Emerald as it breaks into pieces as Knuckles has a scuffle with Chaos. Knuckles' story involves him finding the lost pieces of the Master Emerald and restoring order to Angel Island. Knuckles has always been a fun character to play as in any Sonic game's a very versatile character in movement and action. He can dig, glide, and climb up walls. I would say he's also a strong character because that's what he's known for, but his strength doesn't matter in his gameplay. In the Knuckles stages, there are three master emerald pieces per level to collect with the assistance of a radar. These levels usually take about a minute or two to complete because the radar lets you know where any emerald piece is and the levels aren't big enough, so the emerald pieces always sort of near each other anyway. As a kid, I liked playing as Knuckles in the hub-world because of his diverse move set, but should that count for anything? His story is alright, but it could've benefited from providing a greater challenge that arguably doesn't come up until Sky Deck which is Knuckles' last level.

I generally don't like Amy as a character. She's essentially an archetype of every bad teenage girl trope but with pink fur. She's whiny, vapid, and usually serves as a damsel in distress. In her story, she finds a bluebird that seems to be lost. She is then chased down by one of Eggman's robots named Zero whose mission is to capture the bird. Amy's mission is to then protect the bird from Zero and reunite the bird with its family. I'd argue that Amy's story is the worst in the game from a gameplay standpoint. If you don't like the other character's gameplay (except for Sonic), at least the action stages are brief. The same cannot be said for Amy's action stages which are all much longer and slog on because Amy moves like she's on quaaludes. Amy's action stages seem a bit directionless as it's hard to pinpoint exactly what type of gameplay they were going with here. Does it seem like Amy's levels were scrapped Sonic levels that fit a slower character? Amy moves like she's dragging through the mud. The gimmick of Amy's levels is that she constantly has Zero tailing her in every level. Zero makes a raucous every time he's on-screen, but he never poses as a threat. He makes his high pitch robot shriek, targets you, and winds up his cabled robot arm. The only way you would get hit by Zero is if you went to go get a snack and forgot to press pause. Amy's story is a total bore.

If you already know about this game's reputation, you already know that it gets worse than Amy. After Amy, the game introduces Big the Cat, aka the Jar Jar Binks of the Sonic franchise. I cannot fathom why Big the Cat was deemed a necessary addition to this game by the developers. He is a completely useless character in every single way imaginable. Firstly, he has absolutely no stakes in the grand scheme of the story. He's a lazy fat feline with questionable cognitive abilities who lives the simplest life imaginable with his friend Froggy who for some reason in a world filled with anthropomorphic creatures is just a simple frog. Froggy has an encounter with Chaos the night he breaks free from the Master Emerald and swallows a Chaos Emerald possessing him somehow (even though I'm not quite sure of that anyway). Big the Cat's story is him searching for Froggy...and that's it. Big is the only character that has no stake in the interwoven story structure except for the short moment when he tackles Tails and Gamma steals Froggy from him to take him to Eggman. Do these even count as spoilers? . He's about as aware of what's going on around him as The Dude from The Big Lebowski is except, in this case, it's a frog and not a rug. He's just a simple creature who got caught up in something that I'm not even sure he can fully comprehend. His gameplay is a poorly executed fishing game that controls horribly, but at least it's quick if you know what you're doing point the control stick down when Froggy bites the hook, dammit . Big also has a total of one boss fight that only takes about 10 seconds to beat. Fuckin A, Sega.

After Big the Cat comes to another new character that is surprisingly a breath of fresh air and is one of my favorite Sonic characters. E-102 Gamma is a robot made by Eggman in a series of robots that look-alike named after letters of the Greek alphabet. E-102 Gamma proves to be an exceptional robot to Eggman after defeating his robot brother Beta and capturing Froggy. He is placed on the front lines of the Egg Carrier while his brothers go AWOL or are remodeled. After Amy gets captured, Amy senses a glimmer of compassion and strength in Gamma uncommon in Eggman's other robots. Amy befriends him and saves him from getting destroyed by Sonic and Tails when they fight on the Egg Carrier. After the Egg Carrier sinks, Gamma turns against Eggman and searches for his brothers to save them from Eggman's captivity in the form of destroying their robot bodies. The final fight is against an upgraded version of Beta and after his mission is complete, he destroys himself revealing that he's a bid underneath his robot form and somehow related to the bird Amy has been protecting. It's an emotional story that has its strength where the other non-Sonic stories don't. . As a kid, playing as a gliding robot with an arm cannon was a blast, but like Knuckles, his action stages are completely underutilized. Every action stage with exception of Hot Shelter, the last one, is incredibly brief and easy. It's a shame because racking up points with Gamma's arm cannon is fun.

After playing through every character's story, there is a seventh story unlocked called SUPER SONIC with a big golden question mark (as if we don't know what Super Sonic looks like). I forgot to mention another aspect of the interwoven stories because it doesn't matter until this final section of the story. In random instances with every character (even Big), they are transported to a mysterious time and place that looks like the Mystic Ruins before it became a sprawling jungle. From what I gather from these flashbacks, the Echidna civilization that used to preside over the ruins tried to forcefully chase Chaos out of their village when all Chaos wanted to do was to protect the Chao creatures that resided around the Master Emerald in Angel Island. The only member of the Echidna tribe supporting Chaos is a young Echidna woman named Tikal who is also the voice of every glowing hint spark in the game. In the past, the Chao is killed which angers Chaos to the point of wiping out the Echida tribe in a watery inferno. In the present day, Chaos goes rogue and finds the last chaos emerald for himself completing the set. He becomes a watery behemoth that completely obliterates Station Square. It turns out that Eggman was never controlling Chaos as Chaos was becoming more powerful as a means to destroy humanity again stemming from his contempt for the Echidna civilization hundreds of years ago. Tikal appears from the past and gives Sonic the ultimate energy from the chaos emeralds to turn into Super Sonic to beat Chaos. It's an easy, but epic final battle. The story concludes by revealing that Chaos wasn't inherently evil, but misunderstood creature that was a victim of xenophobia that made him resentful. It's a pretty satisfying ending to this game, but after playing through all the milquetoast non-Sonic stories, it feels a bit disjointed playing as Sonic again.

The shift from 2D to 3D proved to be quite a daunting one for many game franchises. It proved well for Mario and Zelda, but what about the blue blur? In my opinion not only did Sonic make the jump to 3D with flying colors, but it is the most exceptional offering that Sonic has. However, it's also a game that is a product of its time as people were still figuring out the staples that we take for granted these days like character animations and voice acting. It's also a very ambitious game that bit off more than it could chew. A shitty game misses the mark completely, and judging by Sonic's gameplay alone, they translated Sonic very well into the burgeoning 3D gaming world. This is a game that I feel a great amount of warmth with, and I don't think it's just regulated by nostalgia alone.