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Sonic Adventure 2 BattleBy Malik Zafar - 02-21-03 Print  EmailWho would have thought ten years ago that Sonic would appear on a future Nintendo console? Well anything is possible. Sonic Adventure 2 marks the debut of your favorite blue hedgehog on Gamecube. Thought SA2: Battle (Sonic Adventure 2: Battle) is basically the thing as the original Sonic Adventure 2 for Dreamcast; the Sonic Team has added a few pluses. The major upgrade here is the multiplayer mode, with games like kart racing and action racing. The gameplay in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle is nothing really special. It’s similar to previous Sonic Adventure games. The game adds the element of speed and adventure with a dose of puzzle and treasure hunting. You take control of many characters, which isn’t always a good thing. You would think that since this game is called ‘Sonic Adventure’ that Sonic would be used more often. Quite frankly, Sonic only has a few levels in the game like everyone else. Shadow’s and Sonic’s levels consist of speed and actually kind of just flow. Mostly you just run and go around loops and such. You do fight robots that are scattered throughout levels. Sonic and Shadow’s levels are probably the levels most people will enjoy. They’re fun, exciting, and fast. But every now and than, you will be have to find something. That is where Knuckles comes in, or if you’re a bad guy, Rouge. These two are the worlds greatest treasure hunters. They can glide for a certain period of time, climb walls and dig into the ground and walls. Treasure hunting can be fun if you know what your doing. There are clues scattered throughout the level and a helpful radar that helps you. Green means your somewhere near the emerald/key or whatever your looking for. Yellow means your getting closer and red means your right there. When you get an exclamation mark on top of your head it means your right in front of the object your looking for. Treasure hunting can get challenging and boring at times but other times its actually fun. Tails and Dr. Eggman also have a few levels here and there. They both ride in robots that walk and shoot out missiles. Usually Tails and Eggman get stuck in levels filled with a lot of robots and enemies. But they’re still simple. Usually are you have to do is press the action button numerous times and you’ll kill everything around you. With all that said and done, there is till more. Chao raising is fun to a certain point. You start off in the regular Chao garden where all the Chaos are neutral. If a particular Chao is influenced more by a bad guy (Shadow, Rouge, Eggman) it will turn evil and a staircase will be created for him, which leads downstairs. If Sonic, Tails and/or Knuckles interact with one Chao a lot, than it will turn good and a separate Garden will be made for it upstairs. So after all this happens you get three main categories of Chao. You have the good Chaos, the bad Chaos and the neutral Chao. All of them demand for your attention and need proper care and raising to become strong, powerful and healthy. But you raise your Chaos for a reason. When you think they’re ready, you can have them compete in karate tournaments or races. Winning a race or karate match makes your Chao happy and will boost its self-esteem. But remember, time only flies in the garden when you’re in it. And with the addition of GBA connectivity, you can bring your Chao on the road with you! From Chao raising to completing the story mode, you still have more. The main concentration of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle was the multiplayer mode. You can play various games such as action racing and treasure hunting. They’re actually fun if you’re bored. The biggest let down has to be the camera. The camera does not allow you to feel that 3D adventure thing. The camera may even be the cause of you dieing at times. You can use L and R to rotate the camera but usually when you let go the camera moves back. The Sonic Team really needs to improve in this area but overall you learn to live with it. Compared to the original Sonic Adventure, the graphics have not been lifted drastically. The Sonic Team could have definitely spent a little more time improving the graphics. But even without the facelift, the graphics are still nice. Especially when you’re Sonic and your speeding past a level and around loops. The framerate is steady and runs smoothly. All the characters from the game are nicely detailed, nothing special though. A few affects have been added in the game though. For example, when Sonic is speeding down a hill you can see his spikes move or when Knuckles flies you can see his hair slightly move. Without a doubt the game doesn’t excel in this area but you will probably be happy with what you got. The music in the game is nice. You’ll find nice beats and songs filled with great lyrics. Sonic’s level consist of nice, cheery and motivating songs that are great. Knuckles has rap songs that really suck but have nice beats. Tails has a nice, serious beat to go along with his robot. This goes for Shadow, Rouge and Eggman as well. With the music being promising, the voice acting is definitely the opposite. It’s done horribly. The voice and the characters lips don’t even match. The characters sound very dumb. I guess voice acting is better than reading text though, and the effort is definitely visible. The replay value was only saved by one thing and that was Choa raising. Even the multiplayer mode gets somewhat played out after a while. The Choa raising on the other hand, it's totally unpredictable and fun to see what will happen next. Since you can customize your Chao in almost every way from attributes to looks, you will feel in control almost the whole time. Sine the Chao raising wasn't a big part of the game; it did fall short in some lengths. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle could have been an excellent game. It was great, just not everything I hoped for. I was really annoyed by most of the levels, the only enjoyable ones were Sonic and Shadow's levels. I thought the game title was "Sonic Adventure" but sadly, you only play with him a few times. I even found myself enjoying the choa raising more than the actual levels, which is dissapointing. Choa raising on the other hand is definitely fun. The Sonic Team has done a great job with it and hopefully they'll expand their horizons on the feature in future Sonic titles. The multiplayer mode was not anything to brag about or invite a few friends for. It's okay but not as fun as I'd hope for. Ratings |
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