Sonic Adventure: Then & Now

[...]

Hello, sexy and beautiful people of the Sonic Stadium. It's the one time where a member celebrates their won special occasion of theirs. Their post that is numbered at 1,000! Today, we are going to be looking back at Sonic's first full-fledged entry into the third dimension, and triumphant return to the gaming world, Sonic Adventure!

Sonic Adventure was released exclusively for Sega's latest, and all-new console, the Sega Dreamcast in Japan in December of 1998, with the international release following in September 1999. Many years before, since the release of the 32X, Sega had been trying to slowly introduce Sonic to the 3D world, Sonic Mars, a planned game for the system that was meant to bring Sonic to 3D was cancelled, due to the console's limitations and commercial failure.

Then, when the Sega Saturn was released, and it was failing in the US as well. Sega attempted to create the first 3D Sonic game, Sonic X-Treme, which was meant to sell the Saturn, and compete with the Nintendo 64's Super Mario 64, and the PlayStation's Crash Bandicoot. But alas, the game was also cancelled due to time limitations, few resources, and people getting sick from overworking on the game. Due to this, Sonic would not see a return to the gaming world since Sonic & Knuckles, and the cancellation of the game became one of the main reasons for the Saturn's failure.

But then, with the Sega Dreamcast underway, Sonic Team took it as the ultimate opportunity to reintroduce Sonic back to he world of gaming, and to a new generation. But, many things were going to change for the franchise, either attracting, impressing, or alienating many fans of the series. One of the most notable changes of SA1 was the minor/major character redesigns. Most of the promotional art of the game, by Yuji Uekawa was meant to take cues from graffiti art, and put them in more outlandish poses. Each character's core design was mostly there, but had slight changes, like Sonic having longer arms and legs, longer quills, soles on his shoes, and green eyes. The more major redesigns are with Amy & Eggman, with their designs almost completely rebuilt from the ground up.

The story and tone of Sonic Adventure is also different from that of the classic games. The game puts Sonic and his friends in a more realistic universe, in the urban city of Station Square, even with Sonic & co. being able to talk to various pedestrians throughout the city in the game's hub world, between from when you go zone to zone. (I also loved stopping in front of cars just to piss people off)

The game has a heavier emphasis on storytelling, and this is most supported by the fact that you can play as six different characters, each with their own story, somehow intertwining with the other. The game focuses on what the Classics' story was "eggman is doing something bad, go stahp him and save the world", but with much more to it. Eggman (or Robotnik, if that tickles your fancy) wants to gather the Chaos Emeralds to power up a being made completely of water, named Chaos, to defeat Sonic, take control of Station Square, and eventually the world. Tails' assists, then later losing Sonic, and gaining courage to take on Eggman by himself, Knuckles' regaining the shards of the Master Emeralds, and finding out about the Echidna tribe in Mystic Valley, Amy trying to heal an injured bird, while trying to stop one of Eggman's robot goons, E-102 Gamma turning away from Eggman, and destroying his robot "brothers", and Big.... trying to find his lost frog. Nice. This is also the first Sonic game to have full-fledged voice acting, including cutscenes, with each character having their own voice and personality. And the thing is, it was piss poor then, and it's piss poor now, but hey, at least it's entertaining, and the terrible lip syncing just makes it pure gold.

(spoiler'd for size)

Each character plays differently from each other, with Sonic retaining his platforming, and speedy gameplay from the classics, and running around loops and destroying badniks, along with a new move, called the Homing Attack, which can target enemies in your vicinity while pressing the jump button twice. Sonic also occasionally gets onto Tails' plane, the Tornado to shoot down enemies in the sky. Tails retains his abilities from the classics, such as flying with his twin tails, but losing his spin dash. Knuckles is different than the other two, and instead, you fly around an area, with a radar helping you to find the broken shards of the Master Emerald. Amy runs around the zone, from one of THOSE EGGMAN'S ROBOTS Eggman's robots named ZERO while wacking enemies with here Piko-Piko Hammer, and using it to perform special moves, such as going high in the air. E-102 plays like a hit-and-run shooter, just move along and blow any shit up that comes in your way, and then we have Big The Cat, with his piss-poor and incredibly boring fishing levels!

Another thing I've gotta give credit is the game's incredibly badass intro, I still get goosebumps from watching it, seeing as I got Sonic Adventure DX for my Gamecube back in '04.

C'mon, you CAN'T say this wasn't amazing for something in 1999. Another thing is the game's soundtrack, which is still a joy to listen to to this very day, with great vocal tracks like Open Your Heart, It Doesn't Matter, among others, and great in-level tracks like Speed Highway, Windy Valley, Twinkle Park, Lost World, and others. I can almost remember EVERY track in this game, and listen to them, and never get tired of it.

With the game being in development for more than a year and a half, Sonic Adventure was finally released to the masses in September of 1999, meeting massive critical acclaim for it's great visuals, fast and enjoyable gameplay, multiple stories, and soundtrack. As a result of this, it is to this day, the best selling Dreamcast game, selling over 2.5 million copies worldwide. Sonic Adventure also helped respark Sonic's popularity to a majority of gamers, and the game has become so popular among fans that it is seen as one of Sonic's best, if not the best 3D entry in the series, and the game has been ported to 4 other systems, and even had a sequel, named simply Sonic Adventure 2, released in 2001.

But nowadays, people have seen the game has highly aged, and with the game's somewhat recent XBLA/PSN port in 2010, it had gotten mostly negative reviews from critics because of this.I had first played Sonic Adventure DX for the Gamecube in September after I got Sonic Heroes for my PS2 in January of 2004. I played the HELL out of this game. Seriously, it was a blast to play, especially the Sonic & Tails levels, with myself even enjoying the Knuckles', Amy, and E-102 ones. I still hated Big's levels (and still will), and they prevented me from completing the game until 2009. But nowadays, though I will admit it has not aged that well, I still enjoy the Sonic & Tails levels, and can tolerate the other characters' levels, except Big. I still see SA1 as an overall good game, despite Big's levels, voice acting, and glitches/bugs.

For those who did play SA1 back in 1999/early 2000s, what were your thoughts on it then, and what are your thoughts on the game now, and what aspects of the game do you enjoy, and not enjoy, and which parts of the game aged badly for you?

And, that's a wrap to my 1000th post on the SSMB!

Edited October 15, 2012 by Ratchet

[Wentos]

Let's see... what's changed for me over time...

Well, I still don't like Big.

Other than that my opinion hasn't really changed. I still love it to death and prefer it to SA2IMEAN--

Edited October 15, 2012 by Natsuru Senō

[Wraith]

I used to think Sonic Adventure 2 was a godsend.

Now I think it's boring, glitchy, and introduced some of the most horrible habits the franchise had in the future.

I still like Sonic Adventure though.

[Soniman]

I recently played SA1 briefly to gauge Sonic's controls, and I have this to say.

I don't know what it is about SA1' Sonic controls and how they can be amazing and terrible at the same time. Whenever im in a wide open space with Sonic he controls so wonderfully he moves at a great pace and I don't have to fight the controls to get him wheere im want him to go. But in smaller, tighet areas? Jesus lord, it's a friggin nightmare, always crashing into the walls and slowing and down/getting stuck.

It's like I love them, but at the same time I can't stand them. Seriously, moving around in the first area of Mystic Ruins is a breeze due to how wide open it is, but once you get to the jungle area, my god.

SA1 hasn't aged well, that's just how it is. Still a better game than SA2 overall though.

[Blue Wisp]

Sonic Adventure is still one of my (if not the) favourite game from the series. I barely find any glitch and it just has a lot of replay value be it as time-attack or just a normal run. Also I for one do not mind Big's levels.

Yeah Sonic Adventure is awesome. And Sonic Adventure 2 is shitty.

[StaticMania]

The only thing I dislike about it is that I can't complete speedhighway in Sonic's story, but when I completed Sonic's story I still go to every level except speed highway.

[Shane]

C'mon, you CAN'T say this was amazing for something in 1999.

Don't you mean we CAN'T say it wasn't amazing?

Yeah, despite all its flaws, I still love the game (especially on Dreamcast), for properly pulling off the "Sonic" feel, which is something we didn't get again for a very long time. It just had heart and imagination, and that's something I can't say for anything that came after it until Unleashed HD.

I wouldn't dare suggest it to someone who doesn't have nostalgia for it, though. Even for its time it did a lot of wrong.

[Stritix]

I don't think it has aged that bad. It was my second 3D Sonic game. I still really enjoy it.

But I prefer Sonic Adventure 2 over it. It improved the gameplay a lot (Except for the treasure hunting stages), plus was no where near as glitchy, tighter controls, better Chao World.

[...]

Don't you mean we CAN'T say it wasn't amazing?

Yeah, despite all its flaws, I still love the game (especially on Dreamcast), for properly pulling off the "Sonic" feel, which is something we didn't get again for a very long time. It just had heart and imagination, and that's something I can't say for anything that came after it until Unleashed HD.

I wouldn't dare suggest it to someone who doesn't have nostalgia for it, though. Even for its time it did a lot of wrong.

Whoop, apologize for the typo. XD

[Gregzilla]

Over the years I've seen this game age horribly. The glitches became much more present, and the poor design choices started to show their negative impact on the game.

Despite this, I think my love for this game has actually grown over time.

As a kid, I think my favorite game was SA2. It had seemed like an improvement over the first one at the time. But recently it's become clear what that game did wrong in comparison to SA1, a topic I'm sure we've all heard quite enough of.

Nowadays, despite the technical problems and odd design choices, I still love to play SA1. I've learned to see the good things about every character's gameplay (except Big's), and I can enjoy all of them (except Big) at pretty much any moment (excluding Big).

The music is phenomenal, and that's one aspect I think has not changed over time. Well, the vocal themes, maybe, but pretty much all the instrumental tracks are brilliant. It's my favorite game soundtrack, bar none.

As for things that have aged poorly....well, technical issues, obviously. That, and I don't find myself having as much fun with Gamma's gameplay as I did as a kid. It's still fun, better than the SA2 mech stages, but it certainly isn't one of the better parts of SA1.

Overall, I really love this game. It's got its problems, but I can still enjoy it any day.

[Endy]

Sure, this game has aged terribly, the graphics are becoming noticeably worse, the hub worlds are a mess, and very glitchy, but I'd be lying if I said this still wasn't a good Sonic game. Its arguably one of the best 3D Sonic games, if not the best. Still not a fan of the other characters you can play as though, and they just felt like concepts that should have been in other games but too weak to hold their own.

[Lady Soniko]

It still has the greatest Intro and trailers to any Sonic game, ever.

[Solkia]

Yep.

[Frogging101]

I haven't played it so I can't really give my opinion on it. So instead I'll just congratulate you on such a great post. You've done it again, Felix. First with the NiGHTS thread and now this SA1 thread. The content is top-notch and accurate (to my knowledge). I learned a few things from it, too.

[Chili Dawg]

Sonic Adventure is a game I will love forever, no matter how cruel time may be to it.

There's just something about this game... It has a lot wrong with it, I make no attempts to deny that. But there's something present in this game, a soul, so to speak, that I just find most of the other 3D Sonics lack, even the ones that are technically far better games (ie Colors and Generations). Maybe I'm just overly nostalgic. I'm probably just overly nostalgic. But I'm nostalgic for a lot of games that i find myself disliking eventually as I get older, and something about SA1 just makes it avoid falling into that trap.

[Wraith]

Sonic Adventure is a game I will love forever, no matter how cruel time may be to it.

There's just something about this game... It has a lot wrong with it, I make no attempts to deny that. But there's something present in this game, a soul, so to speak, that I just find most of the other 3D Sonics lack, even the ones that are technically far better games (ie Colors and Generations). Maybe I'm just overly nostalgic. I'm probably just overly nostalgic. But I'm nostalgic for a lot of games that i find myself disliking eventually as I get older, and something about SA1 just makes it avoid falling into that trap.

I agree with this. Sonic Adventure is one of the few Sonic games that doesn't just fall apart after I come back to it after a few years.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I love Sonic Adventure. Even the HD port, which was the worst port out of them all, was still enjoyable and fun. I love it a million times more than Sonic Adventure 2. Gosh Adventure 2, I found it mediocre when I played it before, but now after playing the HD version the game is more irritating!

I don't know why Sonic Team changed the set up for Adventure 2. It bugs me a lot. No hubworlds, no separate character story, the Knuckles levels I enjoyed in the first game has been murdered, Sonic's homing attack is more broken than the first, Tails and Eggman becomes the new E-102...

When I see people saying "Adventure 2 is the best game ever!!!" sure it's their opinion, but I have to scratch my head. I prefer playing Unleashed to this game (and I hate the Werehog).

If Sonic Adventure 3 comes out, I beg for Sega/ST to change the set up BACK to the way it was Adventure 1 style.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Ming Ming Shana

[Chaos Warp]

Eh, despite it showing it's age at this point, I still love this game. To be honest it's one of my favourite 3d games. Despite feeling really twitchy at high speeds, Sonic felt amazing at more regluar speeds, and I still think the controls in the Modern games could take quite a few cues from it (at least where lower speeds are concerned). Sonic's stages often have great balanced level designs that manage to feel quite open (out of all the 3d games I feel it comes closest to the elusive "Classic in 3d"), and I actually enjoy all the playstyles except Big.

I also liked the story. To me it had the "just right" tone, and I liked the expansion on the Classic mythos with the echidna tribes and Chaos and everything. Each character has their own motive (for example: Sonic has the basic, "Stop Eggman", goal, Tails wants to become less reliant on Sonic, Gamma wants to rescue the animals inside his robot friends, etc), and Tails and Amy get actual, decent character development here.

I for one also love the music. Lots of variety, all based in a sort of "electronic rock" style which I still love to this day.

All in all, I still love SA1 and it remains one my my favourites in terms of 3d.

[Burnt Ash]

I am either indifferent towards Sonic Adventure, or I just dislike it. Sure there are things that I like about it, but there are lots of things that I dislike about it. I can't say that I enjoyed much of the Sonic stages, I can't claim to like much of the Knuckles stages, I can't claim to like any of Amy's stages, and I'm very indifferent towards all of E102 and Big's stages. I liked all of Tails's stages though. Overall, I just find a lot of the game to be boring or frustrating. I don't want to say that I hate it, but I don't want to say that I like it either. I do know where to go if I want to have fun with SA1, I just go to Sonic's Emerald Coast, Sonic's Speed Highway, or any of the Tails stages.

Probably the odd one out here, but I genuinely like the SA2 stages either as much or more than the SA1 stages. Basically, I like SA2 a lot more than SA1.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Burnt Ash

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Ah, the music. I must be the only one here who likes Eggman's Adventure 1 Theme than E.G.G.M.A.N., and Open Your Heart more than Live & Learn...

And who can ever forget:

"Here I come, rougher than the rest of them

the best of them, tougher than leather.

You can call me Knuckles, unlike Sonic I don't chuckle

I'd rather flex my muscles

I'm hard as nails, it ain't hard to tell

I break'em down whether they're solid or frail.

Unlike the rest I'm independent

It's my first breath, first test

feel the right then the worst's left!" <3

Not saying Adventure 2's OST was rubbish...I like all Knuckles raps in there, City Escape, Security Hall, Metal Harbor and White Jungle.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Ming Ming Shana

[Nintendoga]

Seeing a topic like this is like the Ice Cream Truck breaking down in front of my house. So Gooooooooooooood.

Sonic Adventure? Well howdy boy ain't that a good game. Wait it isn't? Well why not?

First off, how about the gameplay? For Sonic, Fast speed platforming in 3D is a good idea, but unfortunately no momentum based physics made it lacking in execution. They replaced freedom of exploration with gameplay with the idea that "Sonic must go faster". What used to be fun loop-de-loops were changed to scripted events. Simple things like spin-dashing off a hill, changed to running into a speed booster and unable to move while Sonic carries himself forward for a pre-determined set of time. And if you even THINK about moving the control stick during scripted events, you'll die/fall through the ground/glitch/go backwards/stop awkwardly and fall to your doom (Stand up and take a bow Speed highway and Emerald Coast!).

The mechanics/controls are just...awful. I'm not gonna google up a synonym for awful and use it once to "proof" my intelligence. I'm just gonna straight out say it. I fucking hate the way Adventure moves and controls and feels. I hate the scripted events. there's way too many of them. The amount of times I have run into the side of a wall, clip through a wall I was being forcefully pushed against, have the camera fizz out and have a heart attack for a few seconds, and particularly Big's tank controls (Look just because Duke Nukem is the voice of you, doesn't mean you have to play like him) are all examples THAT EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER PLAYED THE GAME CAN AGREE TOO. Don't even reply to this post saying "I have played the game for 11 years, and X has never happened to me." Bull fucking shit.

Oh, I suppose I should talk about the other characters too? Well fuck.

Tails is...well a race to the finish. I like the idea because hell, when I was a kid sometimes during the classics I'd pretend to have a race with the AI (Tails) while running through the zones, so It was kinda cool to see them do something like that. The mechanics and shit though, apply just the same as Sonic.

Knuckles is strange. Why treasure hunting? I guess since they already had Tails copy Sonic, they couldn't do the same with Knuckles. The treasure hunting isn't very good. It's ironically the least buggy, because the radar works for the most part (keyword: MOST). That's all I can say I guess. No Shit Rock Yeah in this game.

I hate Amy's Tactical Espionage Shit. You walk (Ohoho, not run, power-walk at the most) throughout the stage, avoiding Zero while grabbing a balloon. Enemy gets in your way, just STOP and use your hammer. All of this shit is so damn slow. And boring. it makes me wish I was playing anybody else's gameplay except her's.

Big. We've all been over this. Hundreds of times. Gamma's I'm...indifferent. There's nothing bad about it, but the challenge and difficulty just isn't there. You just walk through the stage and press B most of the time.

The Story and Voices aren't good. The voices have incredibly awkward pauses and the cheesy bad writing just tops it.

*Sonic "Aha, I was on a Snooze Cruise I guess." Tails stares at him "Good thing you're okay.......Knuckles something something something.......COME we have to find the Master Emerald."

Sonic "Hey Knucks..................................What's up?"

Tails "Welp, All's well that ends well." Sonic then proceeds to jumps off into the still flooded city with millions dead, jumping from rooftop to rooftop into the horizon.

They were trying to tug my heartstrings at the Chaos dying when Tikal's father attacked them. I'm watching the scene right now and laughing my ass off. This unfitting music along with hearing "CHAO CHAO CHAO CHAO" gets me everytime.

It's also funny when people try to defend the VA and Story with the excuse that "It was their first time" or "This wasn't common back then".

Ladies and Gentlemen may I present to you, three brilliant story driven games also released in 1998, put your hands together for-

(Yeah yeah yeah, Crash 3 wasn't technically story driven, but it did arguably have good voice acting. Better then Sonic Adventure....)

Story and Voices were definitely the norm back in the 1990's. It's ridiculous to me how this game's story and voice acting makes Darkseed 2 or Kirby Return to Dreamland look like the fucking Star Wars trilogy.

But I love the music. Lost World, Gamma's Theme, and Casino Sewers Theme right off the top of my head. Damn good music man. Graphics on the Dreamcast are good, but the DX port could've looked much better. Speaking of ports, remember all those glitches, bugs, and problems with the Dreamcast versions that I mentioned earlier?

Still there in the DX port, and HD ports. So they had not one, but TWO times to fix the problems, yet they didn't. Why?

So back then, this game wasn't amazing. What was so "amazing" about it? The Grade A platforming that put Crash Bandicoot 3 to shame? The wonderful and not time consuming and boring Hub Worlds that would make Shenmue and Super Mario 64 cry with fear? Or the graphics, which when people talk about them they mainly point to the CGI Intro and nothing else in game?

I consider it a bad game. I'm just comparing it with not only other games that came out in 1998, but also other Sonic games. It's cool if you like this game for nostalgic purposes "Which seem to be the main reason for most people up here today" but calling it the best 3D Sonic game is pretty damn sad. For obvious reasons. I honestly don't care if you like SA1, or consider it the best or worst, I'm just saying I've felt about the game for the past 14 years it's been out.

I won't say SA2 is a good or bad game, but I will gladfully say that it did fix many of the issues and problems SA1 had.

I could elaborate on most of my points more, but I'm getting hungry.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Nintendoga

[Soniman]

It's also funny when people try to defend the VA and Story with the excuse that "It was their first time" or "This wasn't common back then".

I will always, always say that SA1 had a great story, it was just utterly marred by the horrible cutscene animations and voice work.

The mechanics/controls are just...awful. I'm not gonna google up a synonym for awful and use it once to "proof" my intelligence. I'm just gonna straight out say it. I fucking hate the way Adventure moves and controls and feels. I hate the scripted events. there's way too many of them.

And this I find pretty funny, because SA1 is one of the 3D Sonic games that's actually pretty lax with the scripted events when compared to future Sonic games. Also there are a good number of places where Sonic can use genuine momentum, for example in Emerald Coast you can have Sonic run up the side of a wall into a small cave at the top. And you can even use the spin dash + jump technique to cut through the levels and reach areas quicker.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Soniman

[Burnt Ash]

Come to think of it, I think Nintendoga explained my views of SA1 and SA2 better than I did.

[Chili Dawg]

I will always, always say that SA1 had a great story, it was just utterly marred by the horrible cutscene animations and voice work.

Yeah, there's really nothing wrong with SA1's plot in theory. If you just sat down and summarized it wouldn't sound bad at all. It's just a poor performance of poor dialogue that makes it so much harder to swallow.

But perhaps that's for the better. I mean, who wants to live in a world where we don't have such timeless quotes as "Aw yeah, this is happenin'," "Oh no, our weapons are useless," "GET A LOAD OF THIS," and of course, "Watch out, you're gonna crash, ah."

[Solkia]

SA1's story kind of expanded on S3K's story, with the origins of the Master Emerald and shit. I do like the story in SA1, it's one of the best if not the best stories in the 3D games.