After the untimely demise of the Dreamcast, Nintendo and Sega called a truce and In 2002,
Sega re-released this game from the Dreamcast, marking the first Sonic game on Nintendo’s
GameCube, signaling the end of the bitter rivalry of two video game publishers.
This is Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, on the Nintendo GameCube, a fun game with a good
bit of variety, though a few oddball things tossed in.
Sonic Adventure 2 introduces us to two new playable characters: Rouge the Bat, who’s
a gem-obsessed government spy seeking the Chaos Emeralds, and Shadow The Hedgehog, a
creation of Dr. Eggman’s granddaddy who touts himself as the ‘Ultimate Life Form.’
Everyone gets Shadow and Sonic confused during this game and other games as well, and that
always confused me.
They look NOTHING, NOTHING alike!
You can choose which group of characters you’d like to play as, choosing to save the world
or conquer it, and once you complete both stories, a final story to conclude the game
becomes available.
I always start with the Dark story, since it’s fun being the bad guys.
With 6 characters to play as, Sonic Adventure 2 has to do a few things different to keep
things interesting.
Sonic and Shadow have speed-focused action stages, which are probably the most fun to
play.
Sonic and Shadow don’t have very many levels though, which is sad, because just when you’re
finally getting into the game…they hit you with the treasure hunting stages for Knuckles
and Rouge. which are just not fun at all, to me.
The camera in the whole game is a little wonky, but it’s downright frustrating in these
levels as you can probably tell here.
You follow a radar to find keys and emeralds in these stages, with vague hints to assist
you.
There are far worse levels in other games I’m sure, but these levels just are not
all that fun, they’re kind of boring.
Tails and Robotnik or Eggman or whatever his name is have the biggest difference in gameplay
from the other characters, walking around in giant mechs and shooting enemies in slower,
longer stages.
These are pretty fun, since you get to blow up a ton of stuff and in some cases, are more
difficult than other levels and it’s pretty cool that this is the first game we get to
play as everyone’s favorite immature animal-hating mustache.
Every character has upgradeable gear that grants new abilities or firepower, and most
of the levels are pretty well detailed with cool stuff going in the background, like the
equipment in the space colony or the advertisements in the city.
The 3D models for characters are a little awkward in some cut scenes, like Shadow in
this cutscene, but overall it’s a decent looking game.
Overall, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is a fun game with a good bit of variety in it, even
if it has a bit of an oddball story about Eggman’s revenge focused Grandfather, Shadow’s
status as the Ultimate Life Form, and why everyone can’t tell the damn difference
between a blue and black hedgehog.
There’s also a pretty awesome soundtrack in my opinion, though I’m not a huge fan
of the Knuckles Rap for some of his stages.
Sonic Adventure 2 is getting another re-release on PSN and other services in widescreen HD
later this year, and it’s a game worth looking into if you’re into Sonic, but just be ready
to get used to different controls and gameplay styles if you just got done playing the newer
Sonic Colors or Sonic Generations.