Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Solid"

It's not a surprise to see that game sequels can go either of two ways: the first being that the sequel is a complete flop that had its creation in question and the other where the game fully exceeds the original in every way of the word. Fortunately with Sonic Adventure 2, it goes the way of the ladder. Sonic Adventure 2 is one of those platformers that offers more than just the fast paced gameplay that the first one was known for. With this in mind, many fans of the series debate that this game is the best of all the 3D Sonic games.


The game's plot is brought into two different perspectives instead of multiple. The first is the hero story, where you play as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all throughout the story. In this mode you try to prevent Eggman from attacking the world from a weapon capable of insane powers. The dark story, however, takes control of Eggman, and newcomers Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat. The main goal of their plot is to team up and collect all seven chaos emeralds in order to revive a fifty year old weapon that is capable of making the Earth fall into a deadly demise.

Each every two characters have a unique type of mission for all of the thirty-one action stages in the game. Sonic and Shadow have levels that relate to the traditional 3D fast paced levels that were included in the first installment of Sonic Adventure. Tails and Eggman offer a new mode of gameplay that is a shooter, which plays somewhat like the action stages of Gamma from Sonic Adventure, but have some differences (health bar, not timed, etc.) Knuckles and Rouge return to the somewhat infamous master emerald hunting segments that were seen in Knuckles' stages in the the original game (the worlds are significantly upsized in comparison though.) The stages are similar though, mostly because of how in the beginning of development, only Sonic, Knuckles, and Eggman were meant to be playable until the fans requested to be able to play as more.

The gimmick of this game is that it's the first of the 3D Sonic games that includes multiplayer for two people. Sonic and Shadow are a race against one another to the finish with power-ups available to those who collect enough rings for them. Knuckles and Rouge is also a race with enough rings to gain you power-ups, but this time like their action stages where you need to collect a certain amount of emerald pieces. Tails and Eggman are probably the more unique ones as it's a battle duel against one-another with once again, power-ups if you can collect enough rings (unlike the previous two, this mode is not split-screen.)

There are also a Chao Garden that returns from the original Sonic Adventure, but this time it's become a much more deep experience. This time it doesn't need to look like too much of an animal like they originally did in the original, and you can also obtain hero and dark Chao depending on what characters you raise it with the most.

There is also a kart racing game, which is somewhat forgettable, but at least it's there to spice things up a little bit.


The game's visuals are what made Sonic Adventure 2 pretty interesting for its time. It looked a lot better than the first, which was already known for being a visual feat for Sega. The game overall looks polished and clean at a very manageable framerate.


The complete gameplay is something that is shown an improvement as well. The controls are much better than that of what Sonic Adventure had, and the newcomer modes control how the should. What kind of confuses me though is that Knuckles is actually significantly faster than Sonic, which in some sense is kind of ironic.


The sound is to me one of the best soundtracks of the entire 3D generation. Sonic Team decided to experiment with a more technological and rock-based soundtrack for the most part, and all it all comes together very well. The only differentiating tracks are the ones that play in Knuckles and Rouge's stages along with everything that is pretty much associated in the Chaos Garden portion of the game.

This is the second serious Sonic game to include voice overs for the characters. While the first had somewhat cheesy voice acting that wasn't always that good, Sonic Adventure 2 actually has some pretty good and fitting voice acting.


The game will take a little less time to complete than its predecessor was. The game can be completed in about 7-15 hours depending on how you decide to play the game. A lot more if you intend on getting all 180 emblems with an A rank. The game is still even with that in mind worth replaying at least a couple of times.


To be honest I only have one problem with that game that is actually somewhat worth mentioning, and that's the game's (and considerably the series) camera issues, which is most visible in the shooting stages. This seems to be a curse with 3D Sonic games and returns in almost every freaking game before Secret Rings. Sometimes it will just get in the way or not want to cooperate to your advantage like it should.


Sonic Adventure 2 some is labeled as the best 3D Sonic game ever made, while some may easily debate otherwise. The game is overall fun to play and is typically known for the fast paced Sonic and Shadow stages. The game is definitely worth picking up as it's one of the better Sonic games for many years.

Presentation - 9
Graphics - 9
Gameplay – 8.5
Sound – 8.5
Replay Value - 9
Overall – 9.0/10