Hot Coldman
Banned
- Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
- Release Date: PSN- October 2nd (NA), October 3rd (EU), October 4th (JP); XBLA- October 5th (WW); PC- TBA 2012
- Price: $9.99/£6.80, 800 Allards; DLC: $3/240 Allards
Sonic Adventure 2? What is that?
Sonic Adventure 2 is Sonic Team's second foray into the world of the 3D platformer- much like its system showcase predecessor, SA2 is all about running, jumping and smashing your way through evil robotic forces at supersonic speed!
...Except, well, not really. Much like Sonic Adventure got its Rashamon on and had you play as 5 other characters to fill in all that essential backstory, Sonic Adventure 2 gets you playing as the Blue Blur's best mates, doing the things our spiky hero can't! Or won't. Whatever. This splits the game up into 3 chunks:
- Platforming levels- homing attacks, spindashing, light speed dashes, all that jazz.
- Levels where you shoot the fuck out of anything that moves with your mech suit- reinforcing that, yes, this was made in Japan and, yes, is aimed at children
- Treasure hunting levels, set in large, open environments that you must traverse to collect the three shards of the Master Emerald
So you only really play a third of the game as Sonic?
Um... not exactly. There's two stories in this game- Hero and Dark. Sonic is only on the Hero path, so you only play a sixth of it as Sonic. *cough*
So what inexplicably anime woodland animals do I get to play as, then?
Sonic the Hedgehog
Still the most radical, badical, no-guff-taking animal hero thing on the market. Jumps out of helicopters with the carefree air of a mascot that's pretending the Saturn never happened. Probably clinically depressed.
Shadow
Miles "Tails" Prower
In this game, Tails has a mech suit that jumps like crap, and stomps around blowing shit up. Yeah, Super Tails isn't in this game, I just posted that to rub it in. And listen to what they did to his theme! Ughhhhh
Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik
Eggman plays identically to Tails, robot suit and all, but with the benefit of his amazing voice actor, Deem Bristow. R.I.P, man! Pour one out by running around the Chao Garden as this fat ass, saying "GORRSSH" a lot.
Knuckles the Echidna
Knuckles is pretty G, guys.
Rouge the Bat
The world's sexiest treasure hunter, her charms know no bounds. No, we still have no idea what Sonic Team were thinking with this one, either.
The Battle Mode DLC also lets you play multiplayer as Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, Tikal the Echidna, Chaos, and the Light and Dark Chao in big robot suits.
So, I assume there's a fantastic story to necessitate this epic gathering of heroes and villains?
Spoilers!
...wat
Yeah, that's about the normal reaction.
Is the Chao Garden still around?
Yup! And of your two A-Life options available this week, this is obviously superior. For the uninitiated- remember how when you smash robots in Sonic the Hedgehog, little animal critters popped out? Well, in this game they're actually useful. You sweep them up, find the Chao Garden Key hidden in every level, and then get warped away to take care of your little Chao buddies. SA2 introduced Light and Dark Chaos to the mix- now, depending on what character you are, you can turn your adorable Chaos into maniacal devils, or angelic darlings.
What's important, however, is you make them into god damn KILLERS. This version retains the stat info of SA2: Battle, so you can go Chinese Olympic gymnastics coach on their arse and mold them into the perfect athlete from the cradle. You're going to need a killer to beat the Chao Racing and Chao Karate- seriously, if you're not this good, just get out. The VMU/GBA options are gone, obviously. Oh, and Chao Karate is DLC.
DLC? For a 10 year old game? Seriously?
Hey, don't look at me, I'm not the one who shat away all of Sega's money. Battle Mode DLC will run you $3, or 240 MS Points, and will get you the multiplayer options from the GCN version of SA2, plus Chao Karate. (I think, the wording on Sega's blog about this is odd, but it sounds like there's no multiplayer with the base game.)
What's special about this version, anyway? Or different.
- 16:9 widescreen visuals
- Remastered in High Definition
- Cheevos
Yeah, it's not NiGHTS. Sorry.
Got any images? Video? How's it looking?
Pretty good. SA2 is still a decent looking game, it's held up well, and the HD updating seems legit.
JP Trailer
PAX Prime Gameplay (Cam)
OK, let's wrap this up. Reviews?
So, yeah. Sonic Adventure 2 is back! Hope you all enjoy the game, and the OP for that matter. Make some noise!
Much thanks and love to OMG Aero for the header and Mama Robotnik for that glorious plot synopsis!
