Sonic Adventure 2
| Sonic Adventure 2 | |
|---|---|
| File:Sonic Adventure 2.PNG | |
| Developer(s) | Sonic Team USA |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Designer(s) | Takashi Iizuka Eitaro Toyoda Kazuyuki Hoshino |
| Platform(s) | Dreamcast, GameCube |
| Release | Dreamcast June 5, 2001 June 23, 2001 June 23, 2001GameCube  December 10, 2001 February 12, 2002 May 3, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Sonic Adventure 2 (ソニックアドベンチャー2, Sonikku Adobenchā Tsū) is a platform game developed by Sonic Team USA and published by Sega in 2001 as a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is also the first game developed by Sonic Team USA for the Sega Dreamcast video game console.
This is also the only Sonic game where Sonic wears Soap shoes to promote the product. There were also many billboards in the game that promoted the shoes.
It was released in North America on June 5, 2001 and in Japan and Europe on June 23, 2001 to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. This game introduces two new playable characters, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, and is also one of the few Sonic games to officially feature Doctor Eggman as a playable character. Sonic Adventure 2 is a sequel of Sonic Adventure.
Single player
Gameplay takes place between two parallel storylines, the "Hero" story and the "Dark" story; the player has the option of advancing in either one or the other at any time. The "Hero" story featuring Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and the non-playable Amy, while the "Dark" story featuring Shadow, Rouge, and Dr. Eggman. Each hero character plays similar to their respective dark character and vice versa. Levels advance in order for each storyline, alternating between each of the playable characters.
Levels featuring Sonic or Shadow are designed much the same as they were in Sonic's levels in Sonic Adventure,[1] wherein the player's primary objective is simply to get to the end of the level. Levels with Tails or Dr. Eggman allow the player to control a mechanized robot walker and generally blast his way through to the end of the stage, much like E-102 Gamma's stages in Sonic Adventure. Knuckles and Rouge are required to scour their levels for shards of the Master Emerald , again, much like Sonic Adventure. Interspersed between the levels are various bosses, which one particular character must fight.
Within Action Stages, players collect rings and defeat enemies, with a timer counting the time spent within the level. At the end of each stage, the player is given a score based on the number or rings collected and time spent within the level. The more rings and less time, the higher the score is. The player is also given a rank-based performance, a letter grade that is either A, B, C, D, or E (A being the highest and E being the lowest). An A Rank is awarded to players that complete any score-ranked mission with all of the rings from that level in the player's possesion.
There are five missions within each Action Stage, from "find the Lost Chao!" to "collect 100 rings" to simply completing the level successfully.
Emblems are also given within the game; there are 180 Emblems in total. In order to gain all 180 Emblems, players must complete all stages, all missions within all stages, and achieve an A rank in all stages and missions. After collecting all 180 Emblems the player unlocks an extra stage: 3-D Green Hill.
Two-player mode
There are some characters that can only be played on two-player mode. These include, Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, Tikal the Echidna, Chaos, Chao, Dark Chao (Nintendo GameCube only), EggRobo (Kart Racing), and Big the Cat (Dreamcast only). However, using Action Replay these characters can be playable in single player mode.
A multitude of levels from single player are playable. The levels playable in two player mode are mostly the same as the normal game; Sonic, Shadow, Amy and Metal Sonic race, Tails, Eggman, Chao and Dark Chao have a shootout, and Knuckles, Rouge, Tikal and Chaos hunt for emerald shards.
Reception
Opinions of Sonic Adventure 2 are variable among both professional reviewers and fans of the Sonic series. Although the initial Dreamcast release of Sonic Adventure 2 generally received positive reviews[2], the game faced several criticisms over gameplay and various technical issues.
The Nintendo GameCube port (Sonic Adventure 2 Battle) fared considerably worse in terms of reviews[3], despite having no single player gameplay changes from the Dreamcast version.
To date, the game has done well with sales of 1.44 million units in North America alone, making it one of the GameCube's highest selling games,[4] and it is still one of the most popular GameCube games.[5] This game also made it to Player's Choice.
Staff Credits
- Producer: Yuji Naka
- Director / Game Design / Enemy Game Designer / Level Design: Takashi Iizuka
- Level Design / Enemy Game Designer / Game Design: Eitaro Toyoda
- Assistant Director / CGI Movie Producer: Keith Palmer
- Art Director / CGI Movie Director / Character Designer / Enemy Designer: Kazuyuki Hoshino
- Character Design / Character Illustration: Yuji Uekawa
- Enemy Designer / Field Artist: Nobuhiko Honda
- Field Art Director: Hiroshi Nishiyama
- Field Artists: Yoshitaka Miura, Takahiro Kudo, Daizo Kinoshita
- Lead Programmer: Tetsu Katano
- Camera / Story Event Programmer: Takeshi Sakakibara
- Enemy AI / Action Stage Programmer: Tomoyuki Naito
- Action Stage Programmer: Kouji Ogino
- Enemy AI / Chao Programmer: Makiko Nishimura
- Scenario Writer: Shiroh Maekawa
- Lead Story Artist: Michikazu Tamamura
- Event Scene Animation: Mika Okada, Atsushi Saito, Nanako Yarimuzi, Makoto Yonezu
- Lead Chao Programmer: Yoshihisa Hashimoto
- Chao Programmer: Takaaki Saito
- Lead Chao Artist / Chao Director: Sachiko Kawamura
- Chao Artists: Kazuko Ito, Makoto Yonezu
- Music Composers: Jun Senoue, Fumie Kumatani, Tomoya Ohtani, Atsushi Kosugi, Takayoshi Umeno, Kenichi Tokoi,
- Sound Effects: Takashi Endoh, Masaru Setsumaru, Makiko Nishimura
- Recording Engineers: The Riddle, Attic Arcade
- CGI Movie Production: Super 78
- Product Support: Akinori Nishiyama, Masanobu Yamamoto
Voice actors
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
There is an update called Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (ソニックアドベンチャー2バトル, Sonikku Adobenchā Tsū Batoru). This version was released on December 20, 2001 in Japan, February 12, 2002 in North America, and on the GameCube's launch (May 3, 2002) in Europe.
This game is also the first Sonic the Hedgehog game on a Nintendo system, having been released ten days before Sonic Advance in Japan.
Features and Differences
This game changed a large portion of raising Chao, the A-life form available in both Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. A Chao's stats can be viewed from within the game. The player can transfer one Chao from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle to the "Tiny Chao Garden" section in Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2, and Sonic Pinball Party with the GCN-GBA Link Cable. (If a Game Boy Advance is connected without a GBA Game inserted, a version of the Tiny Chao Garden can be copied temporarily into the Game Boy Advance's memory.) Also, the introduction of Chao Karate, in which the Chao stats are used for stats in fighting The Chao fight in a fighting game style, but with minimal influence from the player and very little in the way of actual Karate. The layouts of all three Chao Gardens were changed slightly.
As with the Dreamcast version, after collecting all 180 Emblems, the player can unlock a 3-D version of the Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1, with a remixed version of the music from the original stage. Only Sonic is playable on this stage and while the player is given a ranking, it is not recorded on the map screen.
New "Battle" multiplayer options were added, including the addition of new characteristics to the multiplayer-exclusive characters (whom, in the original, had to be unlocked, but now additional features for the kart mode are unlocked for their previous their requirements).
In the GameCube version, the boxes in the Crazy Gadget level have a red 'x' on them instead of the Dreamcast's version's green 'x'. This is possibly because the Xbox bears a striking resemblance to the boxes with the green 'x'.
Minor special effects were added to the game, such as rain in White Jungle. Moreover, some cutscenes were redone slightly, with different or improved character animations and camera angles.
Strangely, Big the Cat's humorous cameos did not remain in the stages, but he can still be viewed in some story sequences by rapidly pressing the A button throughout the scenes. He no longer appears in the Hero Side story, however, which means he is not in Sonic's opening scene in any form. He was also replaced by the Dark Chao in the game's multiplayer mode.
Another difference in this version can be found on the 5th Mission for the Cosmic Wall stage: as opposed to the requirement of 50,000 points for an A rank, (as was the case on the Dreamcast version), 100,000 points are required instead.
Advertisement
The Dreamcast version is known for its infamous commercial which shows a scientist approaching a hedgehog labeled "Good Hedgehog" and petting it. The camera then goes to a tank labeled "Bad Hedgehog" where a cow is being lowered in. Eating sounds could be heard along with screams from the cow until the screen goes back to the bad hedgehog burping (this is a parody of a scene from Jurassic Park). The Gamecube version's advertisement shows several real life hedgehogs being trained to take on the role of Sonic in the game.
Soundtracks
3 original soundtracks were released for Sonic Adventure 2: The vocal album called "SA2: Cuts Unleashed" the score called "Multi-Dimensional Sonic Adventure 2 Soundtrack" and in North America the "Sonic Adventure 2 Original Soundtrack"
References
- ^ Sonic Adventure 2 review on IGN
- ^ Sonic Adventure 2 on MetaCritic for Dreamcast
- ^ Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on MetaCritic for GameCube
- ^ "US Platinum Videogame Chart". The Magic Box. Retrieved August 13.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); External link in|work=|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Sonic Adventure 2: Battle at GameSpot