Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
Most Sonic the Hedgehog games are specifically for Sega related platforms but Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is an original game made for the Nintendo GameCube. Sonic and crew need to stop Dr. Eggman from his nasty tricks again. There’s new characters brought into the Sonic universe! A mysterious dark hedgehog called Shadow and a bat named Rouge. The Sonic Adventure 2 Battle has been enhanced with graphics, doubling the framerate and now is set as a multiplayer system.Sega’s mascot made his 3-D debut on the Dreamcast, but with the demise of that system the zippy blue hedgehog is popping up everywhere–including on the GameCube. Unfortunately, his first next-gen appearance, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, is marred by the same 3-D camera problems that plagued the Dreamcast version, and the multiplayer “battle” component isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
Right out of the gate, players have the option of choosing Hero (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles) or Dark (Dr. Eggman, Shadow, and Rouge) quests, which are completely different. Sonic and his dark counterpart Shadow traverse levels at warp speed colleting coins and power-ups while fighting enemies in the game’s most exhilarating moments. Unfortunately, the other characters are nowhere near as fun to play. Dr. Eggman and Tails fight through levels that require little more than constant button-mashing to shoot an endless procession of enemies, and Knuckles and Rouge participate in seemingly endless levels that require searching for a variety of objects.
Graphically, the game is a bit of a letdown considering the processing muscle of GameCube. Models are fairly simplistic, and level textures are sometimes bland. Game Boy Advance owners can use a link cable to download Chao from the game and train them on the go, but the rewards for doing so are minor considering the time investment involved. The main feature this game offers over its Dreamcast predecessor is the variety of multiplayer modes, which are fun but offer none of the depth or replayability of standalone multiplayer games like Super Smash Bros. Melee. Still, they are nice additions–especially the racing games–and round out a flawed single-player component. Sonic addicts who missed this game the first time around on the Dreamcast will definitely want to check it out, but the finicky camera, tedious non-Sonic/Shadow levels in single-player mode, and surprisingly shallow multiplayer components (especially the Chao games) turn what could have been a great game into a mere good one. –T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
- Plenty of variety
- Sonic/Shadow levels are pure, unadulterated fun
Cons:
- Knuckles/Rouge levels are tedious
- Multiplayer aspects could use some more depth
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars The best 3-D Sonic game the Dreamcast and Gamecube have to offer
I have been a huge fan of Sega for some time. The Sonic series debuted on the Genesis in 1991. There were many sequels and spin-offs that eventually followed. It fully appeared in 3-D for the first time in Sonic Adventure on the Sega Dreamcast, and was the best selling Dreamcast game. Because of it’s success, a sequel was released when the Dreamcast was about to cease production. It begins immediately after the events of the first one. Dr. Eggman infiltrates the G.U.N. base on Prison Island and releases the ultimate life form, Shadow the Hedgehog. When Shadow steals a Chaos Emerald from a Station Square museum, Sonic was mistaken for Shadow and captured by G.U.N. and escapes into the city and captured again after a run-in with Shadow. Meanwhile, a thief known as Rouge tries to steal the Master Emerald from Knuckles who caught up with her in Egypt. When Eggman tries to steal it again, Knuckles shatters it to prevent it from being stolen and he and Rouge compete to find the shards. Tails and Amy break into the base and free Sonic. Sonic encounters Shadow in the woods and Rouge takes the Chaos Emeralds from the vault. After they escape Prison Island before it explodes, the villains reveal a doomsday weapon on the abandoned space colony A.R.K.(does the bible have anything to do with this?) These chains of events set another adventure in motion. The Sonic and Shadow stages are the high-speed action stages the franchise is known for. The Tails and Eggman stages are the shooting stages like Gamma’s from the first. The Knuckles and Rouge stages are the treasure hunting stages returning from the first as well. In addition to these stages, there’s the new kart-racing mini-game and the enhanced chao garden. The kart controls are a little tough to steer if you are not careful. They move like any typical car. If you move too fast at a turn, you could hit a wall. The Chao Garden also has some new features as well. It retains the Chao Races, with a Chao Karate mini-game and a Chao Kindergarten. While the branching backstories of the first vary on an individual character, in this one, it varies on three characters on two sides, Hero and Dark. The Hero side revolves around Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles and the Dark side centers around Shadow, Dr. Eggman, and Rouge. The free-roaming environments were replaced with a simple menu. What made up for the few flaws, it had better graphics, a more stable framerate, more challenge, more stages unique to each character, a multiplayer mode, and the dark and edgy feel from the second cartoon based on the comics. In conclusion, it was a bit of an improvement over the first game, but that’s not saying that much. The first was still awesome nonetheless. If you critics think the Gamecube port was worse, yeah, right! It was virtually the same game, so what?! I would recommend either version if you have a Dreamcast and/or Gamecube.
5 Stars Best Sonic game ever made
I’ve had this game for years and I still play it. It’s so much fun and one of my favorite GameCube games. This game is better than any other Sonic game ever created. It’s a must buy
5 Stars The kids love it
The kids enjoy this game. It is good that we can still use it on the wii. The game has the usual running/racing you have come to know from sonic, but it also adds “choa would”. The choa world is a good divertion from the hectic racing.
1 Stars NOT SATISFIED
The game did not work when we received it. In the future, please be sure the game works before advertising it works and is in good condition.
5 Stars Awesome!
This game is amazing! The two-player battles are fun, the singe player missions are fun, caring for chao is fun, everything is fun except for one thing. Tails is stuck in a stupid machine like Eggman while everyone else roams around freely and quickly. I can’t believe Tails has to lug around a giant machine, unlike in Sonic Adventure, where Tails could fly around and walk. Tails’ missions have to be the worst and the most boring, especially how he has to use a bazooka/cannon rather than using combat. It just makes Tails look as lazy as Eggman. Other then that, the game is fun. The car missions are also fun and challenging. Two player races are also fun, my favorite character being Metal Sonic. His shield is intimidating, threatening, and just plain awesome, even though he doesn’t have any speed-up/freezing/attack moves, the shield makes up for it. Collecting emblems and rings isn’t bad either, and it’s very cool how you get to care for your own chao, similar to Sonic Adventure. The chao races are EXTREMELY challenging, though, and, since I don’t think the prizes are very valuable and worthy since only one of my chao gets to play with them, I don’t enter my chao into those much. The game is very well done and I would buy it again.
Filed under: Nintendo Wii Games Reviews