Published by: SEGA
Developed by: Sonic Team
Genre: Platformer
Number of Players: 1-2
Release Date:
US: February 12, 2002
Japan: December 20, 2001
Europe: May 3, 2002
MSRP: $19.99
Media Size: 1 Mini-DVD
Emulators: Dolphin?
Also Available On: Dreamcast
Features: Stereo Surround, GCN-to-GBA Link, Memory Card
Ever since Sega decided that the Sonic series needed to be revived and put onto more sophisticated
consoles, games have been going down hill. With the release of Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast,
Sega did well to debut Sonic onto a decent console graphic wise, and did well to fully capture the
speed and the blue blur of their mascot; Sonic The Hedgehog. Although this game had a great debut,
it still had problems, and these problems were not fixed, even with sequel of Sonic Adventure II.
Although, this game was actually a port of the original, and put on the Nintendo Gamecube, back when
Sega finally surrendered in the war and handed over their license as third-party material. Sonic Team,
completely sucked with making 3D sonic games. Back in 1992, when Sonic Team was on a role with
2D sonic games, other people in the team left afterwards, and it shows by the new Sonic games
that are being released today.
Sonic Adventure II - Battle, is a Gamecube port of the original game made for Dreamcast, back in
2001. This time around, they only added a 4 player function to the game, which is why the game has
"Battle" on the end of it. This addition does hardly any justice to make this game better. The errors
on the Dreamcast version still remain in this one, and they did little to improve the graphics.
Red, or Blue pill?
Going further into the game, as you start off, it's with Sonic on some sort of a Skateboard.
Apparently, the cops have mistaken Sonic, for Shadow, who is a black and red hedgehog.
Either the FBI is colour blind, or just plain stupid, because I can distinguish blue from black.
Anyways, the storyline does not have much depth, even if you tried to understand it, it wouldn't
be very interesting. Sonic Team is always known for making very bland plot lines. In this game,
there are a few more characters added, like some bat character, Shadow the Hedgehog, and some
other characters not worth mentioning. These characters were made up to clash with the Sonic heroes,
including Knuckles and Tails. Ever since these characters were added, the future games sucked and
lacked originality.
Wow!, that sure does look fun!
The game runs on constant missions. It takes out the free roam feature, that was in SA1, and just
makes them all stages. The Sonic and Shadow stages are decent, because they are actually about
running at high speeds. Then there are the others, which are mediocre at best.
Others include playing with Tails/Knuckles/Bat/Eggman/Robot, which consist of either finding the master
emerald pieces, or walking around in a robot shooting other robots.
Is this really what Sonic games are about? No!
What's with all of the attachments?
These missions are boring and troublesome. The missions that include finding all 3 master emerald pieces are time consuming,
tedious, and boring. The Sonic/Shadow missions give you a breath of relief, because they always include
what Sonic games are all about, RUNNING.
Yeah, have fun carrying them everywhere.
Each stage, has A,B,C,D mission types. Once you complete a stage, you need to complete the stages
3 or 4 more times in different ways, to get emblems. Getting all emblems can unlock some things, but
the reward for doing this isn't very enjoyable. This is basically all the game has to offer 1 player wise.
However, we cannot forget the Chaos mode, where a player can customize their little Chaoses. This
revolves around either making good, evil, or in between ones. You can increase their stats, and this matters
because it helps them when races and other mini games. But that's about all you can do with them. You
could also link your GBA to your Gamecube, and transfer your Chaoses from their onto the Gamecube
which saves work. Attributes and animals can be collected throughout story mode, you can collect only
a certain amount, and you need to acquire the Chaos key, to be able to visit the room after the level is
completed. You can also buy new eggs, take them to the doctor, and even put them in Kindergarten I think.
No comment for this one, apparently.
The 4-player includes some battle modes, and also a race mode. The race mode is the same as the Genesis versions,
where both players are racing to finish the level before the other person does. This is decent, but it's about the
best mode there is on the game. You can also race with automobiles, but why? Why would racing with automobiles
be necessary in a SONIC game, where people run FASTER than cars? You tell me, because I am lost.
Sweet
I am know going to comment about the major cons of the game. There are too many opportunities for you to
fall to your death. In some instances, you are required to precisely land on a rail or a platform, and mostly,
the controls or the game does not want to cooperate, which makes you fall often. The camera completely sucks,
and can only be fully understood by actually playing the game yourself. The voice acting is terrible, everything
sounds so artificial and stagnant. The missions are repetitive, you can find yourself finding 3 master emeralds over and over
on occasion. The boss fights are actually fine, and the last boss of the game includes you and Shadow turning into Super
Hedgehogs, trying to defeat some overgrown beast. So in the end, Eggman isn't really the main foe.
Look at how good the effects look for the grinding sparks.
The graphics,..., are the same as the Dreamcast, nothing much has changed here.
The music however, is great, I find myself actually coming back to the soundtrack every once so often, just to listen
to the music from the game. It mainly consists other electric guitars and such, but I still like the music for the most part.
Coming to a close, this game was really worth it to ported to another console. They still didn't try to fix any of the major
problems from the original port. Do not but this game, but if you want to play it, use an emulator.
Graphics - D
Presentation - D
Gameplay - C
Sound - B
I give this game, a C-.