Windows XP or better, 800 MHz Pentium III, 32 MB Geforce 2 or Radeon SDR, 1.2 GB hard drive space

Sonic Adventure (Sonic Adventure^?) is a video game developed by Sonic Team and released on December 23, 1998 in Japan by Sega for the Dreamcast. One of its development titles was Sonic RPG (although the final product was an adventure game not a standard RPG). The final updated edition, known as Sonic Adventure International, was released on September 9, 1999 in North America, October 14, 1999 in Japan and Europe, October 18, 1999 in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and December 3, 1999 in Australia. It has sold over 2.5 million copies, making it the best-selling Dreamcast game. It was the first Sonic game on a sixth generation console. An enhanced port was released in 2003 as Sonic Adventure DX for the Nintendo GameCube and in 2004 for Microsoft Windows. The game, along with some other Dreamcast games such as Crazy Taxi, will be ported to the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network during Fall 2010.

[edit] Gameplay

The game is divided up into 5 stages: Action Stages, Running Stages, Escaping the Hunter, Catch the Power Ring and Adventure Fields. The division of Action Stages and Adventure Fields was a serious departure from previous Sonic games. In addition, unlike the previous game in the series, Sonic Adventure has six different characters to choose from, providing two more than the four (Sonic and Tails combo being the fourth) available in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Sonic has the most stages of any character, and his levels involve high speed gameplay, while most of Tails' levels are shorter versions of Sonic's, which require him to reach the end of the level before Sonic (or Eggman) can. Knuckles' objective in his levels is to reassemble the shards of the Master Emerald shattered by Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.

Amy Rose's levels involve escaping Eggman's robot ZERO alongside a blue Flicky (nicknamed "Birdie" by Amy) that Dr. Eggman needs because of the Chaos Emerald in its pendant. Her primary weapon, the Piko Piko Hammer, returns (previously seen in Sonic the Fighters), and can be used to paralyze ZERO for a temporary amount of time. Amy is considered to have the shortest story since she has fewer levels than the other characters. The levels involving Big the Cat follow him using his fishing pole to try and catch Froggy, his best friend who has mutated via a Chaos Emerald he swallowed, although he can also choose to try and catch big fish, with score bonuses based on size.

E-102 Gamma is one among a series of robots designed by Eggman to take orders without question. After an encounter with Amy, he suffers a malfunction and gains a "conscience". He then turns his aim to destroying his robotic brothers and freeing the animals trapped inside them. Gamma's levels are shooting levels in which the player races against the clock to get to the end and destroy the target (usually one of the other E-Series robots). Players gain time depending on how many enemies they shoot in a row/chain by using the lock on feature that Gamma has.

Action Stages are basically playable levels. This is the only type of area where Sonic or any of his companions will encounter enemies (most boss battles appear to take place in the adventure fields, but they are actually in Action Stages designed to look like the Fields). There are eleven action stages, accessible by different characters. However, unlike previous Sonic games, Action Stages are not made up of Zones and Acts. Instead, the game plays more like each Adventure Field is a Zone and the Action Stages are the Acts in the Zone. The Action Stages have separate areas that could be considered "Acts", but they are not separate levels, as in previous games.

Adventure Fields are non-linear game stages, generally designed for (light) puzzle solving, exploration, and plot advancement. They contain very few items (enemies, rings, etc.), and each of them has Action Stages which are accessible through certain areas in the Adventure Field. There are three Adventure Fields. The first is Station Square, a big metropolitan city that contains a train station which leads to the Mystic Ruins, a casino, a hotel/restaurant, Twinkle Park, a City Hall area, and the beach, Emerald Coast. The second is the Mystic Ruins, a large mountainous region that contains Tails' Workshop, a jungle, a lake, a few caves, and Angel Island. The third is the Egg Carrier, Dr. Eggman's flying fortress that later ends up crashed in the ocean. Every Adventure Field links to the other two Fields and a Chao Garden. They also have four Emblems each. They are each packed with various powerups for different characters.

The story is told through the perspective of the character the player chooses to play as and as a result the stories tend to diverge at certain points based on the character arc. It is interesting to note that the story takes on a certain Rashomon type structure in terms of dialogue and certain events when more than one of the playable characters is present in a scene. For example, each character has their viewpoint of a certain scene, so the dialogue between versions tends to be different. This perspective also justifies the different outcomes of certain encounters: For example, when Sonic faces E-102 Gamma on the Egg Carrier, through Sonic's perspective, he is about to destroy Gamma; through Tails's perspective, he is about to destroy Gamma; and through Gamma's perspective, he is about to kill Sonic.

A major feature of Sonic Adventure is the ability to raise Chao, who exist primarily in the Chao Gardens as a sort of intelligent virtual pet for the player to raise, an "evolution" of the A-life system from NiGHTS into Dreams... Chao can be taken with the player by downloading the minigame Chao Adventure to their VMU, or in the GameCube version, by downloading the Chao to a Game Boy Advance. The player can also raise their stats by giving them small animals that they found by defeating the robots.

[edit] Plot

[edit] Characters

Much of Sonic Adventure centers on Sonic, a hedgehog who has the ability to run at supersonic speeds, and Miles "Tails" Prower, a two-tailed fox who often accompanies Sonic on his adventures; they are the main characters of the game who are in pursuit of Robotnik. Supporting characters include Knuckles, an echidna who guards the Master Emerald gem on Angel Island, Amy Rose, a pink hedgehog who has a crush on Sonic, and newcomers Big the Cat and E-102 Gamma. Big is a purple, noticeably overweight cat who must rescue his best friend Froggy who became possessed by Chaos' tail, and swallows Big's "lucky charm", a Chaos Emerald, which causes him to mutate. Gamma is one among a series of robots designed by Eggman to take orders without question. After an encounter with Amy, he suffers a malfunction and gains a "conscience". He then turns his aim to destroying his robotic brothers and freeing the animals trapped inside them.

The main antagonist of the game is Dr. Robotnik, also known as Dr. Eggman because of his round body shape, who has formulated a new plan to conquer the planet, this time not relying on his robots alone, but employing a strange liquid creature known only as Chaos. Chaos also serves an antagonistic role in the game, and is the guardian of the Chao. He is apparently water or a plasma-like material and changes form after consuming a Chaos Emerald. After consuming all seven Chaos Emeralds, it turns into Perfect Chaos, which Eggman aims to use in order to conquer the planet. The main antagonist of Amy's story is E-100 Alpha (better known as Zero), the first E-100 series robot who is a large green robot and is considered the prototype.^[3] Zero is one of Dr. Eggman's Robots sent to find Amy's friend Birdie. He follows Amy wherever she goes hoping to capture her and the bird. At one point he succeeds but Amy is rescued by E-102 Gamma. Eventually Zero is defeated by Amy on the Egg Carrier.

Dr. Eggman's E-Series of robots play a large role in Gamma's story, as he is one of them, and is out to destroy or "save" the others. All of them have letters of the Greek alphabet as part of their name. E-101 Beta is a black robot with two gun arms. He is the first boss in E-102 Gamma's side of the story, and is later upgraded into E-101 Beta Mk II, who is Gamma's fifth and final boss, E-103 Delta is a blue robot who is Gamma's second boss, waiting at the end of Windy Valley, E-104 Epsilon is an orange robot who is the third boss of Gamma's side of the story and is fought at the end of Red Mountain, and E-105 Zeta is a purple robot who is Gamma's fourth boss and is located at the end of Hot Shelter. While at first humanoid, Zeta is altered into a cylinder-like form with several turrets made up of a few Dreamcast machines.

Friendly characters who are non-playable include Tikal, a mysterious female echidna who appears whenever Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, E-102 Gamma and Big are sent back in time. She is trying to stop her father, Pachacamac, from stealing the Chaos Emeralds from the Master Emerald shrine. She appears mostly in the form of a red ball of light called a Hint Orb. A major feature of the game are Chao, small creatures who can be raised in the Chao Gardens and play a supporting role in the story.

[edit] Story

Centuries ago, the planet was bestowed the seven Chaos Emeralds. These emeralds were a source of absolute power, and consequently it did not take long before wars broke out over who would control the Chaos Emeralds' seemingly unlimited power. A tribe of echidna (the ancestors of Knuckles) responded by creating a singular Master Emerald, which held powers that could control and neutralize the Chaos Emeralds. With the Master Emerald came a guardian spirit. It was said that a rival tribe of echidnas angered the guardian by attempting to steal the Chaos Emeralds and ruining the sanctuary it was protecting. They were all but completely destroyed within a single night and the guardian was never seen again. What was believed to be the guardian was then named Chaos, the God of Destruction, lending its name to the Chaos Emeralds.

In the present day, Dr. Eggman learns of the legend surrounding Chaos. Believing it to be true,he creates his flying fortress, the Egg Carrier, seeks out the Master Emerald and shatters it, freeing Chaos in the process. Eggman's goal is to control Chaos, and use its destructive powers to collect the Chaos Emeralds and conquer the city of Station Square. To help him, he has created the E-Series robots, a group of robots powered by animals placed inside them and programmed to obey him. When Sonic learns of Eggman's plans, he and his friends spring in to action to stop Eggman and they all start their own separate, but intertwined, journeys for the Chaos Emeralds.

Sonic has defeated Eggman and Chaos, Tails has stopped Eggman from bombing Station Square with a missile, Knuckles has restored the Master Emerald, Amy has rescued a small bird and his family from the clutches of Eggman and his robotic minion Zero, Big has rescued his best friend Froggy, and Gamma has rescued his robotic brothers from Eggman's clutches, self-destructing himself and releasing the bird within in the process. However, shortly afterward, Angel Island falls once again, and Eggman is attacked by a surviving Chaos. Meanwhile, noticing that Angel Island has fallen once again, Knuckles decides to go to Sonic for advice, when suddenly he finds Eggman, bitter and defeated. Knuckles asks him what happened, to which Eggman responds "This is terrible! C-Chaos is...", before being attacked once more alongside Knuckles by Chaos, who steals the latter's six Chaos Emeralds.

Elsewhere, Sonic and Tails take notice that Angel Island has fallen once again, and hurry to the scene, where they find Eggman and Knuckles lying on the ground. Knuckles then reveals to Sonic and Tails that Chaos stole and absorbed the six Chaos Emeralds he was in possession of. Sonic and Tails then decide that they must retrieve the final emerald before Chaos, when suddenly, Sonic is teleported to the past where he witnesses former echidna chief Pachacamac and his warriors attacking the Master Emerald shrine, with the chief's daughter Tikal pleading to them not to attack the shrine before they are all killed by Chaos, who absorbs the seven emeralds and destroys the world. Sonic then returns to Angel Island, where he and Tails return to Tails' plane the Tornado 2, which uses the seventh emerald as a power source. However, they arrive too late and Chaos retrieves the seventh emerald before they do.

Meanwhile, in Station Square, Chaos transforms into his final form, Perfect Chaos, and floods the entire city. Sonic arrives, where he witnesses Eggman attacking Chaos in the Egg Carrier 2. However, Chaos immediately destroys it. Tikal then appears, explaining that Chaos' heart is filled with anger and sadness and the negative energy of the chaos emeralds flows through him. Chaos absorbs the emeralds power completely, leaving the power of the emeralds useless. But, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Big arrive with all 7 emeralds and Sonic's positive heart causes the emeralds to gain their power once again. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and neutralizes Perfect Chaos. Chaos is not destroyed completely, but his heart is filled with joy, happiness and forgiveness. Tikal takes Chaos back with her, but leaves the Chao to live peacefully with humans. Sonic runs off into Station Square and Angel Island is put back to its original state high in the heavens.

[edit] Development

Development of Sonic Adventure began around April 1997 with a development team of 30 members. Then Sega employee Yuji Naka had been unhappy with prior treatment of Sonic, especially in the Sega Saturn racing game Sonic R. After several titles for the Mega Drive, he worked mainly on the game Nights into Dreams.... However, learning of the Dreamcast brought him a renewed interest in creating Sonic games. The development team focused on graphics and high resolution for this game, with Naka reflecting that "[w]e have pushed the Dreamcast as far as we can at present".^[4]

Naka aimed to create levels that would take the player at least five minutes to complete, yet retain similar gameplay to the Mega Drive titles. Following the creation of the basic level maps, Naka wondered "why don't we use this map for other characters?" This led to the introduction of Big and E-102. The development team conducted surveys of fans to ensure that the final product—especially the characters—would please them.^[4]

Sega made it a top priority to keep the game hidden until shortly before its release. Despite these efforts, screenshots were leaked onto the Internet in mid-1998. Naka presented the game to Edge in mid-August, and official announcement fell on August 22 in Japan.^[4]

[edit] Music

Head composer Jun Senoue brought a new sound to the Sonic the Hedgehog series with this game, and as such it features many different styles of music such as jazz, rock, techno, pop and country. Each heroic player character (aside from Gamma) also has an instrumental motif that later translates into a vocal theme song that plays during the end credits of their story. The game contains vocal performances from Tony Harnell, Karen Brake, Marlon Saunders, Dread Fox, Ted Poley, Nikki Gregoroff and Johnny Gioeli, whom the latter would later join Senoue to form the band Crush 40.

The development team preferred the use of "hot, funky, and rock 'n' roll" music over the traditional techno-based music present in earlier Sonic games.^[4]

[edit] Cast

[edit] Reception

The reception at the time of release was overwhelmingly positive, including reviews from GameSpot and GameSpy being above 90%. The current Game Rankings average ranking is 88%.^[5] It became one of the few Sega All Stars games. In Japan, it received an excellent 38 out of 40 from Famitsu.^[6] Although criticized for its camera system, framerate issues and fishing stages with Big (one critic said, "Putting fishing stages in a Sonic game is like buying a Ferrari so you can sleep in the back seat"), the game was still highly praised for retaining the fast and enjoyable gameplay that Sonic was known for in 2D as well as the game's graphics, multiple character storylines and soundtrack. Brandon Justice of IGN rated the game an 8.6/10, criticizing various glitches and voice acting while praising the game's visuals and gameplay.^[7] Similar to its sequel. Despite this, GamePro gave it a positive 5/5 by saying "Sonic is fun, fast, and a great reason to purchase a Dreamcast". However, the later-released GameCube port was criticized by many of the same sources who praised the Dreamcast version, although in this case, Sonic Adventure DX reportedly didn't play as well as the original version did.^[8] Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut averaged a 63% at Game Rankings.^[9]

The game has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling Dreamcast game.^[10] This includes one million sold in the United States.^[11]

[edit] Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut

Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (ソニックアドベンチャー デラシクス, Sonic Adventure Deluxe^?), is a platform game for the GameCube and Microsoft Windows.

The game was released as an enhanced port of the original Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast, with several additional features added. The Windows version was at first released only in Japan and Europe, but later saw a limited North American release. Sonic Adventure DX includes a Mission Mode, which included 60 missions to complete throughout the adventure fields and action stages. It also contains a minigame collection, which comprises twelve Game Gear games featuring Sonic and friends. Also, if all Emblems are collected, then the player can play as Metal Sonic. Also, Cream the Rabbit makes a cameo appearance in certain parts of the game.

Reviews were generally less positive than those of its Sega Dreamcast predecessor, scoring more than 20% lower than the original release.^[12]

[edit] Changes over the original Sonic Adventure

Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut features several changes to the game. They include:

• Enhanced graphics: The main characters were re-created with higher polygon counts and shader technology was also implemented for effects like rippling water (shader effects are not present in the PC version, however).
• The original 60 frame/s frame rate was restored. However, for this to work the game must frequently skip frames, usually in an uneven pattern (causing noticeable choppiness), even in places where few objects are displayed, and/or where the Dreamcast version did not slow down (however, some effects that caused slowdown before do not affect the frame rate in the GameCube version). Cutscenes now run at a lower frame rate, but this seems to have been intended, for cinematic purposes.
• Some sound effects, such as when collecting rings and emblems, are lower in pitch, and the losing rings sound effect is higher in pitch.
• A Camera option was added to the pause menu, allowing the user to select either the original Auto-Camera, the newly added Free Camera, which is usually closer to the character, or the player controlled camera which moves with the C-Stick.
• Changes (mostly minor) were made within the levels themselves in an effort to help solve some of the game's problems concerning collision detection. However, many glitches were not fixed, and various ones were, and some new ones were actually added. Some have to do with inconsistency in the port (for example, some windows still reflect the original Dreamcast graphics).
• The Internet connection feature was removed. Some of the downloadable content from the Dreamcast version was included with the GameCube port.
• Many changes to the Chao System were made, such as more interaction with the Chao, the ability to see their stats, as well as changes to the Chaos´ appearance. The Chao Adventure VMU minigame was removed (instead replaced with a Game Boy Advance connection feature). The Chao System is overall very similar to the Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Chao System.
• 60 Missions were added for an all-new Mission Mode, which task the player with completing certain goals within the Adventure Fields and Action Stages for Emblems, similar to the Mission Mode found in Sonic Jam's three-dimensional Sonic World.
• Metal Sonic becomes a playable character in Trial mode, as a reward for collecting all the Emblems.
• Cream the Rabbit makes several cameo appearances during the main game and Mission Mode to guide player for example finding the "Ice Stone" after Casinopolis Action Stage and when E-102 Gamma first goes to Station Square.
• In the original game all of the animals trapped within the E-Series robots were Flickies. In the port they are all different animals, except for the two in Gamma and Beta.
• As mentioned above, a Mini Game Collection mode was added allowing access to 12 Sega Game Gear games. This is the first time Sonic Drift and Tails' Skypatrol were released in the US and Europe.
• The ability to skip cutscenes by pushing Start was added.
• A map, found on the pause menu while in Adventure Fields, was added.
• The train used to transport from Station Square to Mystic Ruins is now blue instead of red as in the Dreamcast version.
• Some voice effects were changed like when Tails begins to fly or when Amy swings her hammer.
• The characters' mouth movements match up with their lines in each respective language. However, this seems to cause some graphical glitches (such as Tails sliding along the ground in the English Super Sonic story). Only the original Japanese Dreamcast release was lip-synced, the International releases changed it so it didn't match either language.
• Loading time is significantly lower than the Dreamcast version.
• In the opening title sequence, Tails has his mouth open when he flies by the shattering windows. His mouth is closed in the Dreamcast version.
• Oddly enough, the final picture after each character's ending credits still reflects their Dreamcast designs.
• Amy's boots are more rounded in the front, unlike the Dreamcast version where it was squared.

[edit] PSN & Xbox Live Port

In August 2009 the game was classified by Australia's Classification Board, creating speculation it may be re-released in some form.^[13] It was re-released in October 2009 as a part of Sonic PC Collection. According to 360 Gamer magazine, the game is also due to be released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.^[14] Although the release date is unknown for the Xbox Live Arcade & PlayStation Network port, Sonic Adventure and the Sonic Adventure Extend Package DLC have leaked to the internet.^[15] The Extend Package DLC will upgrade Sonic Adventure to the Director's Cut version. The game has been classified in South Korea with Microsoft as the publisher, speculating the game will see releases on Xbox Live Arcade in other areas.^[16] On June 7 2010, Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure DX were rated by ESRB for Windows PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.^[17] On June 10, 2010, Sega officially announced both Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi would be released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in Fall 2010, as the first in a series of Dreamcast titles to be released as digital downloads. Additional features will include enhanced graphics, surround sound, online leaderboards and achievement/trophy support.^[18]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sonic Teams's Sonic Adventure DX site (in Japanese)
• http://oflc.gov.au/www/cob/find.nsf/5c2433d416948a0bca25759f00820d25/c719ed39ae175bc5ca257616005d8e73!OpenDocument