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Sonic Adventure 1 & 2

Stronty said:
No mention yet of the Nights Pinball level of SA yet. I bought a monitor to play in VGA.
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Gah, SA pinball in the casino? There's a reason no one's brought it up. That shit bored me to tears.
 
Stronty said:
No mention yet of the Nights Pinball level of SA yet. I bought a monitor to play in VGA.
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I loved it, though it was kind of easy. At the time I'd never played NiGHTS and really dug the music.
 
I loved these games... they make me super nostalgic, awesome stuff. But fucking furries and bitter old sega fans are hell bent on shitting on my memories... well, fuck you!!

Gah, SA pinball in the casino? There's a reason no one's brought it up. That shit bored me to tears.
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I think I played that for an entire day non-stop. The music + the NiGHTs stage bonus + I'm a sucker for pinballs = uber addiction.
 
RocketDarkness said:
That was due to the interesting, but ultimately flawed, "level up" system combined with the wonky homing attack. The way it worked is when you homing attacked, if your partners were close enough, they'd follow in your trail, and thus you'd deal damage each time one of them hit. The issue being, of course,t hat sometimes your partners would not be close enough, and then it would just be Sonic, ramming his head against the enemy repeatedly...combine that with the fact that the leveling of your characters adds to the damage they deal, and you can easily take down a 5HP enemy in one homing attack, and then have to spam the attack button for what seems like ten seconds to take down his friend of the same type.

Sonic Heroes did have a lot going for it, though. Some great level design (BINGO Highway, Bullet Station, Lost Jungle, Hang Castle, and the epic Final Fortress), combined with another quality soundtrack, helped a lot. I enjoyed it far more than SA1, most definitely. It also managed to have the only Amy theme that didn't make me ears bleed upon hearing it.
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See, I thought that at first, but I'm talking about times that JUST sonic is hitting it... Sometimes Sonic would take something out in one hit, and all three of them took two hits each on the very next enemy! I just couldn't get my head around it.

Of course, the absolute worst part of the game, that made it 100% unplayable for me, was when you were trying to multi-enemy hop across a gap and suddenly Knuckles decides to kill the enemy in front of you before you can get to it. I couldn't finish the game because it just kept happening this one part in the haunted house level thing.
 
For the most part the voice acting was silly but darn it I thought it was top notch!

BEST SCENE here ~http://youtube.com/watch?v=wNMei0gGFRo~ @8:04 for the awesomeness! Want even more awesomeness? Switch over to Japanese voice acting and you got stuff better than most anime out now. Ok, ok that's not true :lol However if you have a Dreamcast and this game watch it!
 
Back in early 1999 I didn't have a home based source for the Internet, so I could only go by screenshots in magazines, but then I caught a glimpse of some preview footage of Sonic Adventure in a local Game shop and I was blown away. After the disappointment of no "real" Sonic games on the Saturn, this got me extremely excited. Then a few months before the Dreamcast launch my local cinema got a Dreamcast display cabinet with a playable preview version of the game. Me and my mates would go up there as often as we could to play it, playing all the levels on the demo until we could speed run them, it was awesome.

Finally got my Dreamcast that October 1999 with Sonic Adventure bundled with it, and was playing it right through into the new year. Loved it to pieces.A particular favorite moment for me story wise was the ending to Gamma's story and that last boss. It's certainly hasn't ages gracefully and had it's moments of pure hate (all of Big's levels, for example) but every so often I go back to my old save file and play through all of Sonic, Tails and Gamma's Levels.

Sonic Adventure 2 managed to blow me away just like the first did before it. The graphics really were at the top end of what has been seen on the Dreamcast (alongside the likes of Dead or Alive 2) and were far more impressive than anything seen on the PS2 in it's first few months. Everything was just so much smoother and slicker than SA1, and the character animation in the in-game cut scenes had improved tenfold. It still looks mighty impressive today to me, unlike SA1. Overall though, I think I preferred SA1's stages. The game certainly had it's moments of brilliance, though.

I decided to play through the dark story first and about three-quarters of the way in there was a cut scene where Sonic is trapped in a capsule by Robotnik, who shoots him into space and watches him explode. When I saw this I thought HOLY SHIIIIT I JUST KILLED SONIC HAHAHAHAHA. Of course a really crappy plot device later on showed that he survived, but I found it incredibly funny at the time.

Another great thing about the Dreamcast games were the FREE downloadable content. I remember a Nike/Adidas(?) competition that turned SA1's Emerlad Coast into a time attack challenge, which was rather awesome. There was also a bunch of kart racing tracks for SA2, including one that gave you a ***-*** shaped kart and Fantasy Zone music. :D
 
I was all aboard the SA hype train before its release. The videos were sweet, and I couldn't wait. Then I played it. While it had some moments that were very, very cool, and I played through all the characters, I remember thinking, "This series needs to stay 2D or 2.5D a la Klonoa." Some of the music is also quite good... some of the best in the series (Windy Hill, Twinkle Park). When SA2 came out, I couldn't play it past the first level for some reason, and nothing compelled me to go back. I enjoyed the Sonic Advance games on the GBA, and Sonic Rush on the DS, but in terms of nostalgia, Sonic Adventure 1 was significant. It just needed more time to cook and tighten up.
 
nincompoop said:
SA and SA2 don't look nearly as good as SH graphically, are you joking? Their polygon counts are more along the lines of PSX-era games than PS2-era games, and some of their effects (the bullets that enemy robots fire at you) are downright embarassing.
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The levels maybe, but it's more to do with the actual design of the characters:

sonic_gc7_640w.jpg


1.jpg


Characters were stupidly shiny in Heroes, and the textures were more detailed.

The guy who was playing is not bad. Good game.
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Thanks, that's me :)
 
I have great memories of SA, if only because it was the game I got xmass 98 and all my friends were wowed by it. SA2 was great except for the non sonic sequences.
 
I think they should have still had Adventure fields like in Sonic Adventure one so you wouldn't be "forced" to go to another character - I didn't mind them, although Knuckles levels towards the end were tedious...

I actually thought Tails levels in SA2 were pretty ok.
 
Honestly, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for the Gamecube is probably the only 3D Sonic I really enjoyed. Had a lot of fun playing with the Chaos, in particular. Me and my girlfriend got pretty addicted with raising those lil' guys for a good two months. :lol

Story wasn't anything amazing but I enjoyed the game play (didn't like the Tails and Robotnick levels, though). And I never really hated Shadow. Thought he was alright (despite the shitty voice acting).

Music was epic, though.

The epic cheese that was Escape from the City, Pumpkin Hill, and Live & Learn = <3.
 
TenshiOni said:
Music was epic, though.

The epic cheese that was Escape from the City, Pumpkin Hill, and Live & Learn = <3.
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I'd really love to see the 3D series's great themes (It Doesn't Matter, Live and Learn, Open Your Heart, What I'm Made of, Never Turn Back) on Rock Band. They'd be absolutely perfect for it, and so fun to play with fellow Sonic fans.
 
RocketDarkness said:
I'd really love to see the 3D series's great themes (It Doesn't Matter, Live and Learn, Open Your Heart, What I'm Made of, Never Turn Back) on Rock Band. They'd be absolutely perfect for it, and so fun to play with fellow Sonic fans.
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Next best thing: They might be in Samba De Amigo Wii :D
 
I think the last time I enjoyed playing those games was in 2003. Its like a switch flipped on and I can't find anything good about them. Besides the Mystic Ruins theme.
 
If there's one thing I think hasn't declined in quality much, if at all, it's the soundtracks for the games. Even the trainwreck Sonic '08 has a few super-catchy themes that I can't help but love. Shadow's soundtrack in particular was criminally underrated.

Never Turn Back: I absolutely LOVE this theme, in no small part due to the piano intro. Plus it's not horribly emo or XTREEEEEME
like some of the other themes he ended up with. It reminds me of Sonic's themes, and that's probably why it ended up as his "true" theme.

~From this moment on
I am moving on
And I'll never turn baaack~

Consider it Shadow's anthem of saying "Sayanora" to all that angsty crap.

The Doom: Yeah, you can try and guess how the theme goes based off the name, but you'd be wrong.

Sky Troops: Just plain catchy.

The Ark and Space Gadget: Awesome remixes to the old SA2 themes.

Lost Impact: Chill piano theme, very reminiscent of Metroid, to me.

Cosmic Impact: Fast-paced music for a fast-paced (and very creative) level.

GUN Fortress: So, the premise of the level is this: you're busting into GUN's main headquarters to either steal the last emerald, or protect it. You can pick up chainguns, mechs, and all manner of heavy weaponry. And your background music? A mellowed-out jazz theme. I can dig it.
--
Shadow's soundtrack turned out really great, considering I expected it to be 50+ tracks of hard rock & emo music.
 
I loved those games on the Dreamcast. They both had amazing soundtracks to boot. Good times indeed. Did anyone beat SA2 100 percent and unlock Green Hill Zone?
Sadly, I did not. That's gotta be one of the most hardcore gaming challenges out there.
 
I was about 5-10 emblems behind in getting Green Hill Zone, but I gave up once I realised I needed a Hero AND Dark Chao in order to open those damn races :lol

I Action Replay'd my way in on the Gamecube version
 
RocketDarkness said:
If there's one thing I think hasn't declined in quality much, if at all, it's the soundtracks for the games. Even the trainwreck Sonic '06 has a few super-catchy themes that I can't help but love. Shadow's soundtrack in particular was criminally underrated.
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It's taken me a long time to warm up to ShtH's soundtrack. So much of it is pretty generic (or based off of SA2, which also doesn't have many tracks I like), and the good stuff is stylistically very different from anything else in the series. I finally did realize that there are some great tracks in there, though most of what I like doesn't seem to be the same stuff you like. ;p

But Never Turn Back is wonderful. So is the rest of Senoue's piano work, which has been consistently better than his rock since day one (and his rock is usually very, very good).

.

I should get back to doing writeups for the music appreciation topic.
 
I loved them when they first came out. But, I tell you the truth, the camera on SA1 is the most broken thing I've ever seen. Like, Superman 64 broken.

But, I remember when my friend, (gaffer Beelzebozo) brought it on a trip to NY in 9th grade, and we played the shit outta that. And Code Veronica. It will always have a place with me, because that trip was the shit.
 
biggkidd32 said:
I loved those games on the Dreamcast. They both had amazing soundtracks to boot. Good times indeed. Did anyone beat SA2 100 percent and unlock Green Hill Zone?
Sadly, I did not. That's gotta be one of the most hardcore gaming challenges out there.
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I was probably 90% done with it, had about 70 hours put into the game and I just couldnt any more. I just downloaded a safe file on the web and used that to play it.
 
Sonic Adventure 1: A good transition game into 3d. Good cgi and good gameplay overall. Camera sucked and parts of the game play felt slow but overall very good.

Sonic Adventure 2: Sonic team learned from SA1 that they needed more speed in the game so they got rid of the mid level (a good thing in my opinion) and added the rail system. Overall was very good except when you played other than sonic and shadow levels. An improvement over SA1. Finally seemed to realize that the two important things about a sonic game are speed and level design.

Sonic Heroes: WTF!! Forgot everything they learned from the previous games. Good concept but the game play didn't feel fast and the level design was too on rails. The controls were frustrating. Had potential in the idea that you can use multiple characters but fell flat.

Sonic 360: Utter garbage and a waste of my money. Completely got rid of shadows speed in order to differentiate him from sonic. Shadow wasn't fun to play with at all. Silver was a good concept character but he controlled like a truck. Camera wasn't forgiving at all. Sonics controls and levels were broken. The only thing that got me through the game was being a sonic culter. Tons of loading and evidently unfinished content (the crystal stuff). If I remember correctly one of the developers even apologized for how crappy the game was.

Now I don't even know if I will ever buy another sonic game after dealing with the crap Sega has put out for a buck.
 
Sciz said:
It's taken me a long time to warm up to ShtH's soundtrack. So much of it is pretty generic (or based off of SA2, which also doesn't have many tracks I like), and the good stuff is stylistically very different from anything else in the series. I finally did realize that there are some great tracks in there, though most of what I like doesn't seem to be the same stuff you like. ;p

But Never Turn Back is wonderful. So is the rest of Senoue's piano work, which has been consistently better than his rock since day one (and his rock is usually very, very good).

.

I should get back to doing writeups for the music appreciation topic.
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These aren't necessarily my favorites, but I thought they were a good spread depth to illustrate my point. Then again, I'm pretty open-ended in my enjoyment of music, as long as it doesn't make my ears bleed ("My Sweet Passion", I'm looking at you), I can probably get into it. I suppose in terms of overall quality, I'd have to go Adventure > Heroes > Adventure 2 > Shadow > '06, though they all have some standout tracks. I absolutely love "His World" and "Dreams of Absolution", for some reason.
 
God, I loved this series. The fall of the Sonic franchise has been one of those that hit me hard. I can still remember the sense of accomplishment as I zipped around Green Hill zone in SA2. Awesome game. Awesome franchise. Well, it was.
 
I really wish they never put the 'adventure' in the sonic games. I hate going through towns and they WOULD of gotten it right with SAII if they didn't flipping add those shooting and wild goose chasing stages(which I think are more numerous than the fun speed stages).

I tried playing the last level of SAII and just quit cause I had to go through it as robotnik. That was the last damn anvil[like a straw but heavier].
 
Going WAY back.

20010625h.gif


Sonic Adventure 1 is pretty awesome. SA2 is damn good but being forced to play as the other characters (instead of choosing to play as them) really takes away from the game.

And also

20011226h.gif
 
I don't think I've ever been as impressed by graphics since seeing Sonic Adventure running on an imported DC at the local game shop.
 
I still have fond memories of both games myself. I remember playing a demo of Sonic Adventure on my Dreamcast in 1999... was an awesome, awesome game even if it was flawed. Picked up the GameCube version too and still have it to this day.
 
I remember back when I played Sonic Adventure 1 on the Dreamcast, I thought that no game could ever possibly look better. Yeah...I was pretty young.

Still, it was a really good game and I thoroughly enjoyed it. At least it's better than the junk that Sega passes for Sonic these days...
 
Great Rumbler said:
I remember back when I played Sonic Adventure 1 on the Dreamcast, I thought that no game could ever possibly look better. Yeah...I was pretty young.

Still, it was a really good game and I thoroughly enjoyed it. At least it's better than the junk that Sega passes for Sonic these days...
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Thats actually something I think a couple times a generation. :lol It always amazes me how far graphics have come, and what I used to think was crystal perfectness.
 
Green Shinobi said:
Some of the Knuckles/Rogue levels in Sonic Adventure 2 literally gave me migraines. I hate scavenger hunts. Why couldn't Sega have just made action-based stages using the flying characters?

SA2 had some pretty epic boss fights though. This one in particular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtcGddc_JLI
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I just notice that the sound of shadow jumping is ripped from Axel´s MAgic Hammer on Commodore Amiga, when Axel throws hammers, it´s the exacttly same sound!
 
I think people truly do overexadurate the "shitty friends" saying.

The gameplay of the sub characters in Sonic Adventure were pretty good for what they were IMO - even Knuckles treasure hunt was pretty enjoyable.
 
Struct09 said:
I remember renting a Dreamcast from Hollywood video before they were released (anyone else do that?). Sonic Adventure was the first game I put in, and the graphics shocked me. The next day I went and preordered a Dreamcast from TRU :D

I actually own a copy of Sonic Adventure: Limited Edition (which I believe what Hollywood Video was renting out). Not sure what the differences are, or if it's even worth anything.
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Ya, I did that as well, I was so looking forward to the game and system. Hollywood Video neglected to include a memory card in the rental, so I left the system on for 5 straight days and beat it with every character. I thought it would melt down for sure. The game was so amazing to me at the time.
 
Christopher said:
I think people truly do overexadurate the "shitty friends" saying.

The gameplay of the sub characters in Sonic Adventure were pretty good for what they were IMO - even Knuckles treasure hunt was pretty enjoyable.
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Problem is now that they intend to bring in brand new characters in every single game - and a lot of them completely useless. Cream, Silver, Emerl, The Black Arms, Jet, Wave, Storm, Princess Elise, Mephiles, Shahra the Ring Genie, Eggman Nega (FFS), They're all crap!

There have been a few shining moments at least - Blaze has become a favorite and I liked Marine more than a lot of other people did, but the rest of them - particularly Cream, Silver and Eggman Nega - are horrible characters.

Hell they want to throw Silver into everything and anything. He's in Nextgen Sonic, but also Sonic Rivals, Sonic Rivals 2, Sonic Secret Rings Multiplayer, SEGA Superstar Tennis in the background, and even a background character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl!
 
Rlan said:
Problem is now that they intend to bring in brand new characters in every single game - and a lot of them completely useless. Cream, Silver, Emerl, The Black Arms, Jet, Wave, Storm, Princess Elise, Mephiles, Shahra the Ring Genie, Eggman Nega (FFS), They're all crap!

There have been a few shining moments at least - Blaze has become a favorite and I liked Marine more than a lot of other people did, but the rest of them - particularly Cream, Silver and Eggman Nega - are horrible characters.

Hell they want to throw Silver into everything and anything. He's in Nextgen Sonic, but also Sonic Rivals, Sonic Rivals 2, Sonic Secret Rings Multiplayer, SEGA Superstar Tennis in the background, and even a background character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl!
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Sonic games have always incorporated new characters, for better or worse.

Always.
 
Rlan said:
Problem is now that they intend to bring in brand new characters in every single game - and a lot of them completely useless. Cream, Silver, Emerl, The Black Arms, Jet, Wave, Storm, Princess Elise, Mephiles, Shahra the Ring Genie, Eggman Nega (FFS), They're all crap!

There have been a few shining moments at least - Blaze has become a favorite and I liked Marine more than a lot of other people did, but the rest of them - particularly Cream, Silver and Eggman Nega - are horrible characters.

Hell they want to throw Silver into everything and anything. He's in Nextgen Sonic, but also Sonic Rivals, Sonic Rivals 2, Sonic Secret Rings Multiplayer, SEGA Superstar Tennis in the background, and even a background character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl!
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Silver needs to die. I'm all for new characters, especially if they're interesting, but there's so many that start coming back after they've worn out their welcome. Jet/Wave/Storm need to stay in Riders only (they've managed this so far, at least), Silver needs to disappear since his game was at least polite enough to write itself out of the storyline, Blaze needs to ditch the alternate dimension so we never have to see Marine again...yeah...

For me, the core characters that need to stick around are the trio STK, Amy (grudgingly), Shadow, Rouge, Blaze, and Eggman. That seems like a fairly diverse cast that covers a lot of the bases. Oh, and Big, because he's...I dunno. He just needs to stay to annoy people that hated him in SA1. Beyond that, one timers are okay as long as they stay gone until they have a DAMN GOOD REASON to return.
 
Sciz said:
Sonic games have always incorporated new characters, for better or worse.

Always.
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Admittedly yes - 2 had Tails, 3 had Knuckles, CD had Amy and so on. But with such a vast set of characters now they're introducing characters that are essentially the same as previous ones, or changing characters to be exactly like another one (ie; What Sonic Heroes and SA2 did)
 
Rlan said:
Problem is now that they intend to bring in brand new characters in every single game - and a lot of them completely useless. Cream, Silver, Emerl, The Black Arms, Jet, Wave, Storm, Princess Elise, Mephiles, Shahra the Ring Genie, Eggman Nega (FFS), They're all crap!

There have been a few shining moments at least - Blaze has become a favorite and I liked Marine more than a lot of other people did, but the rest of them - particularly Cream, Silver and Eggman Nega - are horrible characters.

Hell they want to throw Silver into everything and anything. He's in Nextgen Sonic, but also Sonic Rivals, Sonic Rivals 2, Sonic Secret Rings Multiplayer, SEGA Superstar Tennis in the background, and even a background character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl!
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly you're an Aussie so it's no surprise you like Marine - I liked Marine too, though.

Silver it seems they want to make a major character. Sonic/Shadow/Silver as it was Sonic/Tails/Knuckles in the old days, with the others supporting. This I can kinda get behind if they just fucking ditch Rogue, E10-whatever he is now, Cream and the others.

The only characters I will recognise in the Sonic series are:
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Robotnik, Shadow, Silver (He plays differently!), Blaze, Chaotix & Metal Sonic.

Fuck all others. Let them be supporting characters or whatever, just never let anyone outside of that group be playable (or in the case of Robotnik/Metal Sonic be major villains.)

Bring back Robotnik as a credible villain! Chaos turning on him for the final chapter of SA was cool. As was being stuck on the Ark about to crash into the Earth - he had real reasons to help you - he doesn't want to destroy the planet, he wants to control it. Ever since then he's just been a fucking pussy and only a villain by circumstance - or worse - a victim! Also bring back the fat design. That Sonic 2K6 design is a fucking disgrace.

In an ideal world they should split Sonic, Shadow and Silver the way Nintendo split Mario, Wario and Yoshi.

Sonic can have classic Sonic style, with speed, platforming and multiple routes. Tails & Knuckles also playable. Amy supporting cast but not playable.

Shadow should still be a platformer, but in a Ratchet & Clank style. Giving him guns wasn't a bad idea - it was just terrible in it's execution with that good/evil bullshit. Like I said. Ratchet & Clank. Make him a tad (but not much) slower, and give him more combat-based platforming. Make him play like he did in Sonic 2K6 minus the shitty ass bugs/controls. But essentially large combat sections with the odd few weapons thrown in. Chaotix supporting. Comperable to the difference between Super Mario/Wario Land.

Silver should obviously be the Yoshi, with the slightly different, outside the box games. He's fucking psychic, so give him a puzzle-platformer game, using his mind powers to move shit around to progress forwards, and make it slow. I know it's in the Sonic Universe, but fuck, not everyone moves at supersonic speeds. The reason he sucked in Sonic 2K6 is because the game was designed for fast characters, then they made him slow as shit. He needs a game designed around him, with Blaze/Amy supporting.

Hell, if they took this path, I wouldn't even mind them keeping some of the shitty characters (Rogue, Cream etc) to support in the games.

I mean one of the reasons nobody ever shouts "Mario & his Shitty Friends" is because really it's very rare you see Mario & Wario together. Or even Mario & Yoshi these days. They all have their own little individual genres within the series, which is one of the keys to the Mario series' success. Sonic should emulate it.

Shadow the Hedgehog fucking sucked, but the idea of giving the different playstyles different games is a damn good one. They should just try and define the styles more and improve the formula.
 
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