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Sonic Adventure 2: Battle vs. Super Mario Sunshine, best GameCube 3D platformer?

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle vs. Super Mario Sunshine

  • Total voters
    108
Paperclip Killa

Paperclip Killa

Banned
In 2002 two of the best selling platformers on the GameCube would release (in English) the same year. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle was the 'upgraded' edition of the short-lived Dreamcast favorite that died along with the console, becoming one of the GameCubes best-selling games. The other was Super Mario Sunshine, attempting to change and refine the issues with camera and controls of the previous game on the N64, as well as it's bland and empty level design and decided to fill it up to the brim (for better or worse depending on who you speak to) with content.

Both games in the USA at least, sold very close to each other, and were the subjects of many entertaining online fights among older fans of these series and the new younger fans back then (those younger fans are in college now or about to enroll) but what about looking back in 2023?

Which game did you prefer and what reasons stood out to you as for why one was better than the other?

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N

Nvzman

Member
Dude, I love me some Sonic, but Adventure 2 is not better than Sunshine lol

Adventure 2 isn't even really good, period. Adventure 1, Heroes, Unleashed, Colors, Generations, and Frontiers are probably the only 3D Sonic games I'd categorize as "good". None of them really on the level of Sunshine or Galaxy though.
 
MiguelItUp

MiguelItUp

Member
I honestly didn't play either, neither of them really appealed to me. I loved Sonic, and I loved Mario, I mean, I grew up with them both. Though I did love Mario more, lol. But I wanted a straight forward sequel to 64. The water pack stuff in Sunshine just didn't do anything for me at all. But everything I saw looked like a more impressive game than SA2.
 
K

krumble

Member
Not even a contest. I was HUGE Dreamcast owner back in the day, had the console in my hand in U.K. 3 days after Japanese launch and LOVED SA1
Never bought SA2 on Dreamcast as the demo put me off
Picked it up on GameCube when I was starved for games near launch (again Japanese launch import not PAL launch.)
Had some fun with the game I guess but those f***ing Treasure hunt stages, gave up on that crap, wasn't fun, and never felt the san Fran stages anyway

Mario sunshine needed more polish, the controls and camera were a bit janky and chasing the paint mario round was annoying, but could have been amazing with more time in the oven and some better endgame / secrets that actually unlocked something if you got all those blue coins,
Picked it up again on switch when it was available and have to say it's still a great game, just between GameCube coming out last and needing to get this to market to save the system it was a casualty of war, still a great game, but not really groundbreaking like smb1, smb3, smw, Mario64, galaxy or odyssey
 
Pelao

Pelao

Member
I'm of the opinion that the 3D Mario games are infinitely better than Sonic's, but Sunshine is a game I hated playing so much compared to Sonic Adventure 2, which I still enjoy to this day, that this is the only comparison I'd give the win to Sonic.
 
SteelCurtain 59

SteelCurtain 59

Member
Mario Sunshine was super underrated imo (or at least it has now become super underrated), the platforming was great, the music was great, the water nozzle added a unique fun gimmick and created some fun platforming challenges. Super it wasn't as good as 64 but that's the best 3D platformer of all time imo, it was far better than either Galaxy imo (at least for me, as I hated the complete linearity of Galaxy)

I don't even know of Sonic Adventure 2 was the best 3D Sonic game, considering that 2/3 of the game was either boring or terrible (the non-Sonic levels)
 
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BlackTron

BlackTron

Member
I was a huge Sonic geek and loved Sonic Adventure 2. I also had a huge problem with Sunshine and wished the entire game was made of the no-FLUDD warp zones.

But the non-Sonic gameplay was very mediocre, and forced upon you without choice, unlike in its predecessor. I also played through it completely on DC, it's not even a Gamecube game. I knew my siblings would get a lot of value out of the multiplayer and chao garden enhancements so I bought it anyway (they did).

Generally speaking. I like Mario 64 and Sonic Adventure and see Sunsine and SA2 as more flawed sequels. But between the two Sunshine is much better.
 
Celcius

Celcius

°Temp. member
Sonic Adventure 2 was amazing. Both the regular story, the chao mini game, the music, the graphics for the time, etc...
It's the best 2D Sonic game ever made. EZ choice.
 
01011001

01011001

Banned
you can use any 3D Sonic and pit it against any 3D Mario game, and Mario will always win.

newest Sonic vs Mario 64? Mario Wins...
Sonic Generations vs Mario 3D Land? Mario Wins...

any combination of Sonic vs Mario, 2D or 3D, Mario Wins.
 
Last edited:
Skifi28

Skifi28

Member
01011001 said:
you can use any 3D Sonic and pit it against any 3D Mario game, and Mario will always win.

newest Sonic vs Mario 64? Mario Wins...
Sonic Generations vs Mario 3D Land? Mario Wins...

any combination of Sonic vs Mario, 2D or 3D, Mario Wins.
Click to expand...
What if you combined two Sonic games and compared them to only one Mario game?
 
Seider

Seider

Member
I would prefer Mario Sunshine if it would have been a 60 fps game. But being a 30 fps game im going with Sonic Adventure 2 and its 60 fps.
 
Dr. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson

Member
I wouldn’t even call sonic adventure 2 a platformer, let alone in the same ballpark as Mario Sunshine.

Very odd choice to try comparing the two. I don’t think they have any similarity in game design at all.

Like, don’t get me wrong, my buddies and I spent a lot of time playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle multiplayer. It was great fun, for the time. But seeing as we only had a Gamecube, options were limited. I would not pit that game against Mario Sunshine any day of the week
 
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Jeeves

Jeeves

Member
Kind of comparing an apple and an orange here. But unlike the infamous SA1 vs SM64 thread, this Sonic game actually aged fairly gracefully.

I gave my vote to Sonic because it's by far the game I played most of the two and had more fun with. Although I mostly got my fun out of the chao garden, so that's not exactly platforming...but I did have a good time improving my clear times, too. Overall when I think back to SA2B I remember the good times and even feel an urge to replay it, and when I think of Sunshine I think of an "okay" game that I don't care to revisit, so it's hard for me to vote otherwise.
 
M

Madserb2023

Member
Probably the worst 3D Mario up against arguably the best 3D Sonic and I would still just give it to Sunshine if only for its bizzareness.
 
SF Kosmo

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Neither, obviously. Sunshine is a fucking chore of a game and probably the worst mainline Mario. I thought so at the time and playing it again on Switch only affirmed that.

Sonic Adventure 2 was and is a lot of fun, but it's uneven, buggy, and doesn't hold up the best.

Of course a lot of the GC platform library is... flawed. Billy Hatcher, I-Ninja, Wario World, Rayman 3... All games I enjoyed but all pretty mid in terms of critical consensus.
 
E-Cat

E-Cat

Member
SteelCurtain 59 said:
Mario Sunshine was super underrated imo (or at least it has now become super underrated), the platforming was great, the music was great, the water nozzle added a unique fun gimmick and created some fun platforming challenges. Super it wasn't as good as 64 but that's the best 3D platformer of all time imo, it was far better than either Galaxy imo (at least for me, as I hated the complete linearity of Galaxy)

I don't even know of Sonic Adventure 2 was the best 3D Sonic game, considering that 2/3 of the game was either boring or terrible (the non-Sonic levels)
Click to expand...
The music was 'meh' by Mario standards. Sunshine is the black sheep of the series in terms of innovation, but it's still good because the bar is so high. Refining the already great mechanics from SM64 was the best part, really. I wish later entries went even further in this direction.
 
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blacktout

blacktout

Member
AREYOUOKAY? said:
Really makes you think doesn't it?
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Click to expand...

Wonder if OP is the OP of that thread reincarnated, given how he inexplicably shoehorned criticisms of SM64 into a post that's putatively comparing Sonic Adventure 2 and Sunshine.

That said, at least this is a less lopsided fight than that thread, given Sunshine is a polarizing game that some love, others hate, and others think is just kind of mid, rather than a nearly universally beloved masterpiece that profoundly changed gaming and is still hugely popular among speedrunners and streamers, some of whom weren't even born when it originally released.
 
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coffinbirth

coffinbirth

Member
Sunshine by a country mile.

Aside from the OOOOOHS and AHHHHHS on 9/9/99, I've never cared for a 3D Sonic game. SA on Dreamcast has a special place in my heart though.
Super Mario Sunshine was the first mainline Mario game I didn't complete. So there's that, I guess.
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
Sonic adventure 1 and 2 are basura. Sunshine was uncharacteristically rough around the edges but they are not tin the same universe. Billy chicken fucking hatcher is better than sonic adventure.
 
A

Acidjuice

Neo Member
I guess im gonna be that guy here, Sunshine was so boring I remember hating playing it as a kid. Meanwhile i liked sonic adventure 2 for the most part besides those awful 3 person levels. The mini-games and single player levels were fun and i think the worlds were cool too. I specifically remember being pissed off in sunshine about the limited water tank and the boring enemies and the fact that the main mechanic was "wash stuff off".
 
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