Sonic Adventure
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| Sonic Adventure | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Sonic Team Sonic Team USA (International) |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Designer(s) | Yuji Naka, Takashi Iizuka |
| Platform(s) | Dreamcast, GameCube, Windows |
| Release | Dreamcast GameCube PC |
| Genre(s) | Platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player, limited multiplayer (Tails can be controlled in Sonic's stages with controller 2) |
Sonic Adventure (ソニックアドベンチャー, Sonikku Adobenchā) is a video game created by Sonic Team and released on December 23, 1998 in Japan by Sega for the Sega Dreamcast and is the first game in the Sonic Adventure series. One of its development titles was Sonic RPG, (although the final game was an adventure game not a standard RPG)[citation needed]. The final updated edition, known as Sonic Adventure International, was released on September 9, 1999 in North America, October 14, 1999 in Japan and Europe, October 18, 1999 in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and December 3, 1999 in Australia. A director's cut version was released in 2003 as Sonic Adventure DX for the Nintendo GameCube and in 2004 for the PC CD-ROM. It has sold over 1 million copies in the United States alone, making it the top selling Dreamcast game.[1]. It is the first ever Sonic game on a sixth generation console. Its sequel is Sonic Adventure 2.
Plot
Centuries ago, the gods bestowed upon the planet seven Chaos Emeralds. These emeralds were a source of absolute power. However, absolute power corrupts absolutely — and it did not take long before wars broke out over who would control the Chaos Emeralds' seemingly unlimited power. This angered the Gods, and so, they created one singular Master Emerald, which held powers that could control and neutralize the Chaos Emeralds. And with the Master Emerald, came a guardian spirit. It is said that a single tribe of Echidnas angered the spirit by attempting to steal the Chaos Emeralds and ruining the sanctuary it was protecting. They were all but completely destroyed within a single night, and the guardian spirit was never seen again. The monster was then named "Chaos", the God of Destruction.
In the present day, Dr. Eggman learns of the legend surrounding Chaos. Believing it to be true, he seeks out the Master Emerald and shatters it, freeing Chaos in the process. Eggman's goal is to control Chaos, and use its destructive powers to collect the Chaos Emeralds and conquer the city. To help him, he has created the E-series robots; one of them however, named E-102 Gamma, has a malfunction which slowly makes him develop a sense of right and wrong. When Sonic the Hedgehog learns of Eggman's plans, he and his friends spring in to action to stop Eggman and they start another journey for the Chaos Emeralds.
Characters
Unlike the previous action game in the series, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Adventure has six different characters to choose from, providing two more than the four (Sonic and Tails combo being the fourth) available in the earlier Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Playable heroes
Sonic the Hedgehog
The main hero of the game with supersonic speed. Sonic's story revolves around Dr. Eggman releasing Chaos from the Master Emerald. Sonic battles Eggman and Chaos in an effort to save Earth, as well as finding the Chaos Emeralds before they do. Sonic has the most stages of any character, and his levels involve high speed gameplay. In the final level, he turns into Super Sonic.
Miles "Tails" Prower
After Sonic rescues Tails from Emerald Coast after a "Tornado" prototype experiment goes wrong (and crashes), the latter sets out to help Sonic collect the Chaos Emeralds and stop Chaos. Most of his levels are abridged versions of Sonic's, which require him to reach the end of the level before Sonic (or Eggman) can.
Knuckles the Echidna
Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald and one of the main protagonists after Sonic and Tails. The Master Emerald shatters when Eggman frees Chaos and Tikal's spirit from within it, causing Angel Island to fall out of the sky. Knuckles' goal is to reassemble the shards of the Master Emerald. His stages are enclosed areas where Knuckles must find shards of the Master Emerald. He can glide through the air and scale most walls.
Amy Rose
Amy Rose is walking through Station Square one day when a tiny blue Flicky falls from the sky and lands on her head. It is discovered that Dr. Eggman needed this Flicky (nicknamed "Birdie" by Amy) because of the Chaos Emerald in its pendant. Amy and Birdie must escape ZERO (Other wise known as ALPHA), one of Eggman's robots. Sonic Adventure is Amy's first appearance in a Sonic game since Sonic R and it is the game which increased her popularity and put her in the spotlight where she remains with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles as one of the main characters. Her primary weapon, the Piko Piko Hammer, returns (previously seen in Sonic the Fighters). Amy is considered to having the easiest gameplay, since she has the fewest levels than the others.
Big the Cat
Big the Cat is a newcomer to the Sonic series. Big's best friend is a frog who became possessed by Chaos' tail, and swallows Big's "lucky charm", a Chaos Emerald, which causes him to mutate. The frog then runs off, and Big's story begins. His levels involve using his fishing pole to try and catch Froggy, although he can also choose to try and catch big fish, with score bonuses based on size.
E-102 Gamma
E-102 Gamma is one among a series of robots designed by Eggman for the purpose of taking orders without question. After an encounter with Amy, he suffers a malfunction and gains a "conscience." He then turns his aim to destroying his robotic brothers and freeing the animals trapped inside them. "Gamma" is one of the letters in the Greek alphabet. Gamma's levels are shooting levels in which the player races against the clock to get to the end and destroy the target(usually one of the other E-series robots). Players gain time depending on how enemies they shoot in a row/chain by using the lock on feature that Gamma has.
Super Sonic
Super Sonic is unlocked after the stories of the other characters have been completed. The story is a continuation of Sonic's story and brings all of the characters together to face Perfect Chaos. When in Super form, Sonic moves faster and attacks by gaining speed and ramming into Perfect Chaos. Chaos is much more desperate in phase 2 of the battle and starts to rapidly fire different colored blasts than of phase 1.
Metal Sonic
Metal Sonic is a secret character in the Gamecube/PC remake, Sonic Adventure DX, and is unlocked by getting all the emblems. He is only playable in trial mode on Sonic's levels. He has all of Sonic's moves and has no involement in the story whatsoever.
Villains and unplayable characters
Dr. Robotnik
Dr. Ivo Robotnik, also known as Dr. Eggman because of his round body shape, has formulated a new plan to conquer the planet, this time not relying on his robots alone, but employing a strange liquid creature known only as Chaos (who ends up betraying him).
Note: This is the game which popularized the name "Eggman" in the West. Although there were other games which used the name internationally, Sonic Adventure is the game that usually receives credit for renaming Dr. Robotnik.
Chaos
Chaos is the guardian of the Chao. He is apparently water or a plasma-like material and changes form after consuming a Chaos Emerald. After consuming all seven Chaos Emeralds, it turns into Perfect Chaos and starts destroying the city, until Super Sonic "defeats" it (in actuality, he neutralizes the evil within Chaos's heart, which was causing it to function within a state of blind rage).
Tikal the Echidna
A mysterious female echidna who appears whenever Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, E-102 Gamma and Big are sent back in time. She is trying to stop her father, Pachacamac, from stealing the Chaos Emeralds from the Master Emerald shrine. She appears mostly in the form of a pink ball of light called a Hintball.
Zero/Alpha
Zero is one of Eggman's Robots sent to find Amy's friend Birdie. He follows Amy wherever she goes hoping to capture her and the bird. At one point he succeeds but Amy is rescued by E-102 Gamma. Eventually Zero is defeated by Amy Rose on the Egg Carrier. Zero is the antagonist of Amy's story due to him trying to catch the bird.
Chao
Chao are featured in the flashbacks, said to be Chaos' children. They exist primarily in the Chao Gardens as a sort of intelligent virtual pet for the player to raise, an "evolution" of the A-life system from NiGHTS into Dreams... Chao can be taken with the player by downloading the minigame Chao Adventure to his VMU, or in the GameCube version, by downloading the Chao to a Game Boy Advance.
E-100 series
Dr. Eggman's E-100 Series series of robots play a large role in Gamma's story, as he is one of them, and is out to destroy or "save" the others. All of them have letters of the Greek alphabet as part of their name.
- E-100 "Zero" (Description above). Note that E-101 Beta is the first in the E-100 series in this game. The anime, Sonic X, later established Zero's model number as "E-100" (thus moving E-101 to second in the series, mildly contradicting Sonic Adventure). Note, all the E-100 Series are named after letters in the Greek Alphabet, Therefore due to being described E-100, he is given the name Alpha as well as Zero, due to Beta being the second letter in Greek Alphabet, making Zero/Alpha a letter before him due to being E-100.
- E-101 Beta is a black robot with two gun arms. He is the first boss in E-102 Gamma's side of the story, and is later upgraded into E-101 Beta mkII, who is Gamma's fifth and final boss. Beta is the antagonist of Gamma's story.
- E-103 Delta is a blue robot who is Gamma's second boss, waiting at the end of Windy Valley.
- E-104 Epsilon is an orange robot who is the third boss of Gamma's side of the story and is fought at the end of Red Mountain.
- E-105 Zeta is a purple robot who is Gamma's fourth boss and is located at the end of Hot Shelter. While at first humanoid, Zeta is altered into a cylinder-like form with several turrets.
NiGHTS
NiGHTS makes a cameo in the Casinopolis stage where there is a pinball stage based on the NiGHTS video games. The pinball table is also mentioned by another citizen to be very popular and new.
Story Structure
The story is told through the perspective of the character you choose to play as and as a result the stories tend to divulge at certain points based on the character arc. It is interesting to note that the story takes on a certain Rashomon type structure in terms of dialogue and certain events when more than one of the playable characters is present in a scene. For example, each character has their viewpoint of a certain scene, so the dialogue between versions tends to be different. This perspective also justifies the different outcomes of certain encounters, for example, when Sonic faces E-102 Gamma on the Egg Carrier, through Sonic's perspective Sonic is about to destroy Gamma, through Tails' perspective Tails is about to destroy Gamma and through Gamma's perspective, Gamma is about to kill Sonic.
Gameplay
The game is divided up into two stages: Action Stages, and Adventure Fields. The division of Action Stages and Adventure Fields was a serious departure from all previous Sonic games.
Action Stages
Action Stages are basically playable levels. This is the only type of area where Sonic or any of his companions will encounter enemies (most boss battles appear to take place in the Adventure Fields, but they are actually in Action Stages designed to look like the Fields). There are eleven Action Stages, accessible by different characters. However, unlike previous Sonic games, Action Stages are not made up of Zones and Acts. Instead, the game plays more like each Adventure Field is a Zone and the Action Stages are the Acts in the Zone. The Action Stages have separate areas that could be considered "Acts", but they are not separate levels, like in the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Emerald Coast (Played by Sonic, Big, and E-102)
- Windy Valley (Played by Sonic, Tails, and E-102)
- Casinopolis (Played by Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles)
- Icecap (Played by Sonic, Tails, and Big)
- Twinkle Park (Played by Sonic, Amy, and Big)
- Speed Highway (Played by Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails)
- Red Mountain (Played by Sonic, E-102, and Knuckles)
- Sky Deck (Played by Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles)
- Lost World (Played by Sonic and Knuckles)
- Final Egg (Played by Sonic, Amy, and E-102)
- Hot Shelter (Played by Amy, Big, and E-102)
Additionally, every character has access to the Twinkle Cart minigame after beating Super Sonic's story.
Red Mountain has many yellow beacons scattered through out the level, giving an idea of a police-guarded fortress.
Red Mountain has characteristic red soil and many unusual fire-related devices.
At several points in Red Hot Skull, the player can glimpse vast prison cells cut into the rock, many containing unusual ghostly prisoners.
At several points in Red Hot Skull, there are various graves and a lava-defense system that raises the level of the level (when played as Sonic) when approached.
Adventure Fields
Adventure Fields are non-linear game stages, generally designed for (light) puzzle solving, exploration, and plot advancement. They contain very few items (enemies, rings, etc.). Every Adventure Field links to the other two Fields and a Chao Garden.(Except Echidna City) They also have four Emblems each.(Except Echidna City) They are each packed with various powerups for different characters.
There are four Adventure Fields:
- Station Square: a large, metropolitan city, and is the location of Sonic's first fight with Chaos. Eggman plans to destroy it and construct "Robotnikland" on its ruins. This is where Tails fights his final boss. Perfect Chaos floods the city at the end of the game. The citizens are heard cheering at the end proving they survived the flood.
- Mystic Ruins: a large mountainous area and the largest Adventure Field in the game, containing the (crashed) Angel Island. Deep in the jungle, a Ziggurat can be found. It also has a base home to Eggman. This is where Sonic fights his final boss.
- Egg Carrier: Eggman's massive flying airship. This is the Adventure Field where most characters fight their final bosses (except Sonic and Tails).The Egg carrier has 2 layouts and multiple transport devices unique to this field. The Egg Carrier eventually crashes into the ocean and remains there for the rest of the game. Eggman did create an Egg Carrier 2 in case of Chaos rebelling; it was short-lived as it was shot down by Perfect Chaos.
- Past: Echidna City: A field that consists of the Echidna city,(In the present it is the Ziggurat in the jungle)and the Emerald shrine (Now on Angel Island) It is a strange field that cannot be manually accessed. It is playable though, and also has the attacked Emerald Shrine area.Tikal sends the player here to witness events of the past.
Reception
The reception at the time of release was overwhelmingly positive, including reviews from GameSpot and GameSpy being above 90%. The current Game Rankings average ranking is 88%.[2] It became one of the few Sega All Stars games. In Japan, it received an excellent 38/40 from Famitsu.[3]
Voice actors
| Role | English Voice Actor | Japanese Voice Actor |
|---|---|---|
| Sonic the Hedgehog | Ryan Drummond | Junichi Kanemaru |
| Miles "Tails" Prower | Corey Mitchell Bringas | Kazuki Hayashi |
| Knuckles the Echidna | Michael McGaharn | Nobutoshi Canna |
| Amy Rose | Jennifer Douillard | Taeko Kawata |
| Big the Cat | Jon St. John | Shun Yashiro |
| E-102 Gamma | Steve Broadie | George Nakata |
| Doctor Eggman/Doctor Ivo Robotnik | Deem Bristow | Chikao Ōtsuka |
| Tikal the Echidna | Elara Distler | Kaori Asō |
| Pachacamac | Steve Broadie | Tōru Ōkawa(?) |
Dreamcast versions
Sonic Adventure
The original game released in 1998.
Sonic Adventure: Limited Edition
Exactly the same as the above version, except without the Internet.[citation needed]
Sonic Adventure International
Shortly after the U.S. launch of the Dreamcast, Sonic Team released Sonic Adventure International. This was the same game, but with additional features that provided a more complete experience:
- The complete English voice track and the complete Japanese voice track were included.
- A new option was added to the Options screen, giving the user the choice of text in five different languages: English, Japanese, French, Spanish, and German.
- A few glitches were fixed.
Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut
Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (ソニックアドベンチャー デラシクス, Sonikku Adobenchā Derakusu), is a platform game for the GameCube and PC.
The game was released as an enhanced port of the original Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast, with several additional features added. The PC version was at first released only in Japan and Europe, but later saw a limited North American release. Sonic Adventure DX includes a mission mode, which included 60 missions to complete throughout the adventure fields and action stages. It also contains a minigame collection, which is comprised of twelve Game Gear games featuring Sonic and friends.
Reviews were generally less positive than those of its Sega Dreamcast predecessor, scoring more than 20% lower than the original release.[4]
Unlockable games
The game features many unlockable games previously available on the Game Gear. If the start button of the second controller is pressed, the game screen will split, and two games will play at the same time. Additionally, Gear-to-Gear cable emulation is present, enabling the games that have two-player modes to be played if both players access the proper options within the game. These games were to be included in the Dreamcast version, but were scrapped due to time constraints. The same goes for the reintroduced feature of being able to play as Metal Sonic. A new Game Gear game is unlocked for every 20 Emblems the player gets, up until 100, then every 10 after that, or by completing 20 more of the 60 missions.
Games unlockable (in order):
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Sonic Drift
- Sonic Chaos
- Sonic Labyrinth
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Sonic Spinball
- Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
- Sonic Triple Trouble
- Sonic Drift 2
- Tails' Skypatrol
- Sonic Blast
- Tails Adventure
Changes over the original Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut includes everything that was added to the original version of the game as well as several additions/changes. They include:
- Enhanced graphics: The main characters were re-created with higher polygon counts, resulting in smoother models. Shader technology was also implemented for effects like rippling water (shader effects are not present in the PC version, however).
- The original 60 frame/s frame rate was restored. Unfortunately, due to the unstable nature of the Sonic Adventure engine, the game frequently skips frames, usually in an uneven pattern (causing noticeable choppiness), even in places where few objects are displayed, and/or where the Dreamcast version did not slow down (however, some effects that caused slowdown before do not affect the frame rate in the GameCube version). Cutscenes now run at a lower frame rate, but this seems to have been intended, for cinematic purposes.
- Some sound effects, such as when collecting rings and emblems, are lower in pitch.
- A Camera option was added to the pause menu, allowing the user to select either the original Auto-Camera, the newly added Free Camera; which is usually closer to the character, or the player controlled camera which moves with the C-Stick.
- Changes (mostly minor) were made within the levels themselves in an effort to help solve some of the game's problems concerning collision detection. However, many glitches were not fixed, and some new ones were actually added[citation needed].
- The Internet connection feature was removed. Some of the downloadable content from the Dreamcast version was included with the GameCube port.
- Many changes to the Chao System were made, such as more interaction with the Chao, the ability to see their stats, as well as changes to the Chaos´ appearance. The Chao Adventure VMU minigame was removed (instead replaced with a Game Boy Advance connection feature). The Chao System is overall very similar to the Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Chao System.
- 60 Missions were added for an all-new Mission Mode, which task the player with completing certain goals within the Adventure Fields and Action Stages for Emblems, similar to the Mission Mode found in Sonic Jam's three-dimensional Sonic World.
- Metal Sonic becomes a playable character in Trial mode, as a reward for collecting all the Emblems.
- Cream the Rabbit makes several cameo appearances during the main game and Mission Mode.
- As mentioned above, a Mini Game Collection mode was added allowing access to 12 Sega Game Gear games. This is the first time Sonic Drift and Tails' Skypatrol were released in the US and Europe.
- The ability to skip cutscenes by pushing Start was added.
- A map, found on the pause menu while in Adventure Fields, was added.
- Various other glitches were fixed, while some new ones were added. Some have to do with inconsistency in the port (for example, some windows still reflect the original Dreamcast graphics).
- The train used to transport from Station Square to Mystic Ruins is now blue instead of red as in the Dreamcast version.