Oh Sonic, you’ve had your up and you’ve certainly had your downs. 11 years ago you released your last game on a Sega made console, the Dreamcast. For many, but not all, the Dreamcast era was the last time they saw a “good” Sonic game. With Sonic Adventure 2 HD just released on the PSN and Xbox Live, does this game live up to the nostalgia of long time Sonic fans? Or perhaps this game was never good to begin with?
Sonic Adventure 2 is cut into two parts, Hero Side and Dark side. Hero represents Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles; Dark representing Eggman and the debut of Shadow and Rogue. Beating both sides unlocks a joint mission that ends the story. It’s interesting to see both perspectives of this adventure and witnessing why Eggman does what he does, but I think Sonic Adventure 1 did it better with each character getting there own story. Sonic and Shadow represent traditional Sonic gameplay, and honestly that’s where the most fun to be had is. Tails and Eggman are in these weird bipedal robots that are slow and bulky but can be fun at times. The worst levels are Knuckles and Rouge. Once again, the Master Emerald is shattered and Knuckles has to find 3 pieces per level to put it back together a la Sonic Adventure 1. Rouge plays the same way; she just wants the emerald for herself. These levels can be extremely frustrating, the your meter tells you Knuckles is right on top of an emerald piece, only for it to take you 15 minutes to realize it’s a level below you and the only way to get there is to go all the way around the level… Ya, it’s annoying. And let’s not forget the surprise drop down enemies that you can’t avoid unless you already know they are coming.
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However, there are good sides to this game. The colors are bright and beautiful and runs smoothly. I always thought SA2 looked worse than SA1 and it shows here in HD. Same music is back and still get’s stuck in your head, in a good way. (?Fallow me, set me free?) As I said before, Sonic and Shadow are the most fun. Zippy through space grinding on rails or running through the jungle is pretty rad. And once again the Chao are back. I can’t lie, I find it really enjoyable to raise my Chao, maybe because I’m an animal lover and don’t have to clean the poop up for them. There’s also a lot for relay value trying to get better scores and emblems. Camera angles will sometimes go wonky but I didn’t have too much trouble with it. This game is fun, you just have to put up with the frustration as well.
The last Sonic game to be released on a Sega owned platform before the company bowed out of the console wars. Sonic Adventure 2 for its time was a fun game, but with Sonic lost in the realm subpar games, SA2 seems like it might have been turning point from great, to mediocre. It’s still fun and better than a lot of Sonic games we’ve had to deal with in this generation (Sonic the Hedgehog on PS3 and Xbox is garbage) it still has its problems. Sonic Adventure 2 for the PSN and Xbox Live runs straight down the middle with a 3 out of 5.