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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3014 in Video Games
• Released on: 2001-06-19
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Sega Dreamcast

Amazon.com Product Description
When longtime Sega mascot Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut on the Dreamcast console in Sonic Adventure, gamers were stunned. Sega had not only used the game to show off the tremendous possibilities of the then-new hardware, but they had reinvigorated the platform-style arcade adventure genre with massive, intricate levels, gleefully distracting minigames, and even a new kind of virtual pet, called a Chao, that could be combined with other pets, traded with friends, and even exchanged over the Internet. Sonic Adventure 2 ups the ante of its predecessor with all-new puzzles and levels, and even faster action reminiscent of the early Genesis-era games. Knuckles and Tails are back, as are the Chao pets (who can now talk!).

DailyRadar Review
The season indeed calls for greediness. Sega's Christmas present, perhaps the best gift ever sent to anyone at any time, arrived early this year. It was, of course, only a tease, a small snippet of what promises to be an altogether delightful whole. It was a preview copy of Sonic Adventure 2 for the Sega Dreamcast.

It was marvelous.

The preview, which contains only the "City Escape" portion of the game's "The Trial" stage, begins with Sonic held captive in a helicopter. He quickly escapes from his unnamed captors and plummets to the ground on a snowboard with an evil grin on his face. Players begin to control Sonic once he hits the ground in what is obviously San Francisco.

Immediately, players will be struck by how beautiful the game looks. The hilly, cable car track-laden streets hold an incredible wealth of detail and color. Every tree and every car reeks of careful design and rendering, and in-game textures (from the patterned grass to the faded brick walls) have been crafted to simply overwhelm the eyes.

Sonic himself now moves faster and more fluidly than ever. At a sharp 60fps, Adventure 2 is a seamless rollercoaster -- and the sense of speed it imparts is staggering. At one point, Sonic begins running down the side of a building, picking up massive amounts of momentum; when the camera shifts, it shows our hero zooming right toward the front of the screen as a blue blur. In fact, Sonic zips along like comic book hero Flash on speed, and some of the speed effects are simply breathless.

A new helper Chao named OmoChao appears once Sonic has cleared the snowboard portion of the preview. Omo will introduce Sonic to new moves, such as the somersault and the grind, and this cute little metallic blue creature reappears throughout the stage. Sonic can even pick the little sucker up and hurl it at enemies or, in a cruel but comic maneuver, toss it over a ledge.

Expect all the requisite nods to the Sonic canon. At one point, our hero can use speed strips to race through a loop-de-loop. Ring collecting is prominently featured as well, as are crate smashing and bumpers that hurl our hero into the air. Simple moving platforms pay homage to the early Sonic titles, and a rampaging truck chase scene is a direct nod to the rampaging killer whale scene from the original Sonic Adventure.

Cool new features allow Sonic to use ramps to leap into the air and perform tricks. Pressing the "A" button on the Dreamcast controller while Sonic is moving up a ramp makes this possible, and the various front- and backflips, spins and twists are suitably amazing. These leap tricks can be combined with Sonic's new grinding ability; players can leap onto a rail and race down it, dismount with a 360 front flip and begin to grind on another rail.

Time will tell if the rest of Sonic Adventure 2 can maintain this level of excellence throughout. What hasn't been shown of the game, however, lends us to believe that this title will deliver in the biggest of ways. Sonic Team has promised new Chao virtual pets, five playable characters (including Knuckles and Dr. Robotnik), a devastatingly beautiful jungle stage and a villain worthy of Sega's greatest creation.

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Customer Reviews

Pete's Point of View
I'm a twelve year old gamer who first found "Sonic Adventure 2" on a demo disk after buying "Phantasy Star Online." I have the original game "Sonic Adventure" and I have to say that the game has much improved. I found in a magazine that the game runs a smooth sixty frames per second and has 6 playable characters including Sonic's pals, Knuckles and Tails. Sonic's adventure is mainly an action/adventure platform, Tail's adventure is a shooting platform, and Knuckles is a rare somewhat of a "hiding go seek" platform. The music for the game is fantastic especially for each action stage since the music sort of sets the mood for each stage. Oh yes, there are more than 30 action stages! The game also has some elements of the original game such as the blasting through each stage as fast as possible or just exploring, but now it is faster, the characters have new moves, new action stages, and basically all of the glitches in the original game are removed such as the falling through the floor. Over all, this game is really exciting, fast paced, fun, and is sure to please any Sonic fan. If you're not a Sonic fan, then this game definitely will make you one. I highly recommend buying this game. It makes you feel proud that you bought that Dreamcast.

Sonic Adventure 2 is the best Sonic game I've ever played
Sonic Adventure 2 is 10 times better than the first one. In this game you get to play as the evil guys in story mode.(Come on you know you've always wanted to.) You get to play as the good guys in story mode. Now that we've all finally grown out of that Crash phase, Sonic reminds us that he's the coolest character in all of gaming with the fastest and coolest levels you've ever played in your life. You get a 2 player versus mode featuring running, shooting, and hunting(Knuckles rocks!) that puts Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 to shame. You get 2 player Kart racing with all the characters and new levels that can be downloaded with the Dreamcast's modem. You also get a totally revamped Chao raising game. The A-Life game has been greatly improved and I guarantee it will keep you coming back to Sonic Adventure 2 for a long time. You also get Chao Adventure 2 to play on your VMU which the kids will love. There are so many options it's amazing what Sonic Team has included. There's even a Boss Battle mode where you can fight all the bosses in the game at once to see what your fastest time is. You can even download new menu themes, view all the cutscenes for the game and watch secret SA2 commercials. You also have aside from the story mode an action stage mode which features 5 missions each ala Super Mario 64 which will have you gladly going back to the levels over and over again trying to earn all 180 emblems. And trust me folks SA2 is overflowing with secrets to unlock. Getting all 180 emblems is very rewarding. Much better than getting to talk to Yoshi for 5 seconds. After you complete that you can go for all 'A' rankings on the levels and again more awesome secrets are unlocked. And trust me these levels are all wonderfully designed and amazing fun so you will want to go back and play them again especially Shadow and Sonic. The great thing about Sonic Adventure 2 is that you decide how much effort you want to put into it. Unlike most N64 platformers that force you to play and collect everything with no reward until the end, SA2 rewards you at every step of the way as you unlock all the awesome secrets of the game. The more effort you put into SA2 the more you are rewarded. This is definetly the best Dreamcast game I have ever played and will sadly be Sonic's last game ever to appear on a Sega console. This is the ultimate collectors item, but more importantly this is the ultimate game. Graphically this game is tops on Dreamcast as well. Shadow rules!

Wow! And It Just Gets Better
I first saw this game on Tech TV an have played the demo. I did not think Sonic Adventure could get any better than the first but I was so wrong. The graphics on this game are undescribable and unthinkable. The levels are much better and so are their plots, stages, and missions. The place that had the most improvement was the Chao homes. They are just unbelievable. I'm telling you now if you like action, long game play time, extreme graphics, and getting your money's worth then this is your game. This is a definite buy!