Sonic Adventure

Sonic Adventure is where the Dreamcast officially started for me having first purchased mine in October 1999, This game along with it's successor, Sonic Adventure 2 are considered to be one of the best Sonic games ever created. This game was one of the first games to appear on the Sega Dreamcast. Sonic Adventure was the first Sonic game ever to depart from it's traditional formula. It also introduced two new characters, who were big the cat, and E-102 Gamma. It had also introduced Amy Rose as a playable character in canon, along with her Piko-Piko hammer, which depending on your opinion of Amy Rose may be good or bad.

It was also the first of the Sonic Games to introduce 5 different types of stages consisting of action stages, running stages, escaping the hunter, catch the power ring and adventure fields which would be used for many of the Sonic Games to come. This game was considered a classic ever since it was made. Since the time it was made it has already seen many remakes, one of the earliest was a Gamecube port of the game entitled Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, created in 2004.

There are even recently updated versions of the game for the PS3 and Xbox 360, via their gaming networks. These will be covered later and in more detail. Sonic Adventure is one of the most prized gems in the gamer-sphere, not unlock the chaos emeralds in the Sonic-verse, but, why is it so popular, what sets it apart from the Sonic games that came before it, and sadly those that came after. Why is the Sonic Adventure considered, the pinnacle, the ideal Sonic Game?

Storyline: The Storyline of Sonic Adventure was the first to deviate from the formula, in introducing a bigger bad then even the eggman himself, this monstrosity would become known to the Sonic-verse as Chaos, a former chao mutated by the power of the Chaos Emeralds to become it's guardian, sealed by Tikal, after it was corrupted by it's hatred of the Echidna tribe. Below this all encompassing master plot, each character also has a storyline. Amy who along with a Flicky named Birdie has to escape from Dr. Eggman and his creation named ZERO, Big who chases after his friend "froggie" whom had become corrupted by the tail of chaos, and E-102, an E series machine who developed a conscience fights against his fellow bethren to free the woodland creatures trapped inside them. There's no doubt that Sonic Adventure, contributed many things to the Sonic canon, including one of the greatest antagonist's in the series history. However, this is also where the Sonic storylines became more complex, and had a darker edgier tone. Despite, this during that time, the more involved storyline was welcomed, and it was marvelously done.

Gameplay: The Game play combined the best of the action adventure platformer with the speed and feel that the Sonic the hedgehog series was known for, it pushed the genre in previously unexplored directions. I laughed (to myself) when I saw Mario Sunshine attempting to copy this some of game's smooth mechanics. It was a great leap forward in how open the world was. Even today, more then ten years later this is what sets it apart. It's fast pace mixed with the expansive universe, made Sonic Adventure's mechanics the standard against which future action adventures (Mario, Sonic, etc.) would be measured.


Graphics: For it's time the graphics of the first Sonic Adventure game was considered revolutionary. It ran extremely smoothly, too me they looked just as good as some of the early PS2 graphics, and in my memory was the first one that could do 3d this smoothly, why? simply because the developers wanted to clock the Dreamcast for all it was worth, and gave us this beautiful game.

Overall it was a cherished part of my childhood memories, the game was way ahead of it's time and is still used today as an industry standard.