Sonic Adventure

Sonic Adventure
2000 version of the North American Dreamcast cover art.
Developer(s)	Sonic Team Sonic Team USA (international) NOW Production (additional DX staff) Sega Studios Shanghai (360/PS3 ports)
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Takashi Iizuka (Director/Level Designer)
Artist(s)	Kazuyuki Hoshino (Art Director) Yuji Uekawa (Character Design)
Writer(s)	Akinori Nishiyama
Composer(s)	Jun Senoue (Sound Director) Kenichi Tokoi Fumie Kumatani
Platform(s)	Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Network, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade
Release date(s)	December 23, 1998 Dreamcast JP December 23, 1998 NA September 9, 1999 EU October 14, 1999 AUS December 1, 1999 GameCube NA June 18, 2003 JP June 19, 2003 PAL June 27, 2003 Windows JP December 18, 2003 PAL February 6, 2004 NA September 14, 2004 Xbox Live Arcade: NA September 15, 2010 PAL September 15, 2010 JP September 29, 2010 PlayStation Network: NA September 20, 2010 PAL September 22, 2010 JP September 29, 2010
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ACB: G8+ CERO: A ELSPA: 3+ ESRB: E PEGI: 3
Media/distribution	Optical disc, Download
System requirements Windows XP or better, 800 MHz Pentium III, 32 MB Geforce 2 or Radeon SDR, 1.2 GB hard drive space

Sonic Adventure (ソニックアドベンチャー) is a 1999 platform video game developed by Sonic Team and released on December 23, 1998, in Japan by Sega for the Dreamcast. The final updated edition, known as Sonic Adventure International, was released as a launch title on September 9, 1999, in North America and on October 14, 1999, in Europe. It has sold over 2.5 million copies, making it the best-selling Dreamcast game.

An enhanced port was released in 2003 as Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the Nintendo GameCube and in 2004 for Microsoft Windows. The game was ported to Xbox Live Arcade on September 15, 2010 and PlayStation Network on September 20, 2010. The game was featured on Dreamcast Collection, a four-game bundle released in 2011.

Gameplay

Sonic being chased by a giant Orca in Emerald Coast, as seen in Sonic Adventure.

This game is the first in Sonic series to feature free-roaming 3D gameplay. The game is divided into three types of stages: Action Stages, Adventure Fields and Subgames. 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: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big and E-102 Gamma; each with their own style of gameplay. Only Sonic is playable at first, but other characters are made available after encountering them in his story. When all stories have been completed, a final story is unlocked.

Sonic's stages involve high speed gameplay, whilst Tails' stages require him to reach the end of the level before Sonic (and in one case, Robotnik) does and Knuckles' stages see him searching the area for shards of the Master Emerald. All three of these returning characters retain a lot of their trademark moves from previous Sonic games. Amy's stages require her to escape from the E-100 Zero robot chasing after her, Gamma's stages involve shooting through levels to reach a target and Big's stages involve fishing for his friend, Froggy.

Action Stages are the main playable levels for each character, where the player must face various enemies in order to complete their respective goals. Adventure Fields split up the action, where players can explore the surroundings to advance the plot, discover new levels or search for items which enhance a character's ability (for example, the Light Speed Shoes allow Sonic to run across a path of rings). Subgames deviate from the main gameplay of the character, which include minigames such as kart racing and snowboarding. Players may also find hidden Chao Gardens, which allow them to raise Chao, a sort of virtual pet. Chao can be taken with the player by downloading the minigame Chao Adventure to their VMU, or in the GameCube version, a Game Boy Advance with Sonic Advance or various other Game Boy Advance Sonic games. The player can also raise their stats by giving them small animals that they found by defeating the robots, which improves their performance in Chao Races. There are also eggs hidden throughout the Adventure Fields which can produce special types of Chao.

By playing through Action Stages and Subgames, searching through the Adventure Fields or winning Chao Races, players can earn Emblems. In the case of Action Stages, each one has three Emblems, which can be earned by replaying the stages and fulfilling certain objectives, such as beating the level within a time limit. In Sonic Adventure DX, these can unlock hidden extras such as Game Gear games.

Synopsis

Characters

Further information: List of Sonic the Hedgehog video game 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 /DR.Eggman. Supporting characters include Knuckles, an echidna who guards the Master Emerald 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, he 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. 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. 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 pink 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.

Plot

3000 years in the past, the echidna empire, ruled by Pachacamac, desires the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald - mysterious gems with unlimited power. Pachacamac's daughter Tikal befriends the Chao in the emeralds' shrine and their guardian Chaos, a water-based creature. Tikal tries to explain to her father that attacking the shrine and killing the Chao to gain possession of the emeralds is not the way to peace, but Pachamac and his men do so anyway. He and his men, however, did not know about Chaos, the guardian of the shrine, and the enraged Chaos uses the power of the emeralds to transform into Perfect Chaos and destroy the echidna empire. Tikal survives and seals the angered Chaos and herself inside the Master Emerald for eternity.

In the present day, Knuckles the Echidna is guarding the Master Emerald on the floating Angel Island when Chaos is released from the emerald by Dr. Robotnik. Chaos later appears in Station Square, and is confronted by Sonic the Hedgehog, who defeats him in a fight. The next day, Miles "Tails" Prower crash-lands in the city after testing his Chaos Emerald-powered biplane. Sonic and Tails go back to the latter's workshop in the Mystic Ruins, where Dr. Robotnik appears with Chaos. Dr. Eggman feeds Tails' emerald to Chaos, transforming Chaos into a stronger form; Dr. Robotnik explains that Chaos will grow stronger with each emerald he eats and will eventually become invincible and destroy Station Square for him. Sonic and Tails decide to go searching for emeralds so that Eggman cannot take them, but later lose the ones they find to Chaos. Dr. Robotnik flies away in his aircraft, the Egg Carrier, which shoots down Sonic and Tails' pursuing plane.

Dr. Robotnik has his E-Series robots including E-102 Gamma search for Froggy, a frog who has absorbed Chaos' tail and a Chaos Emerald. Gamma finds Froggy but is chased by Froggy's owner Big the Cat back to the Egg Carrier. Tails finds another emerald and prepares the Tornado II plane to find Sonic. Sonic himself lands in Station Square where he reunites with Amy Rose, who has taken it upon herself to protect a Flicky bird named Birdy from E-100 Zero. Zero captures Amy and Birdy, escaping to the Egg Carrier. Sonic reunites with Tails and they manage to board the Egg Carrier. Knuckles also boards the aircraft after collecting pieces of the Master Emerald and seeing an image of the Egg Carrier in the emerald.

Onboard the Egg Carrier, Dr. Robotnik eliminates the rest of the E-100 robots and sends Gamma to fetch Birdy. Gamma wanders into the wrong room and witnesses his brother E-101 Beta being rebuilt, and then unexpectedly allows Amy and Birdy to escape their prison. On deck, Sonic and Tails confront Dr. Robotnik who flees down the ship, Sonic fighting Gamma but spares him at Amy's request. Tails, Amy and Gamma evacuate the ship when it begins to malfunction and lose altitude, whilst Sonic confronts Chaos who has swallowed two more emeralds gained from Birdy and Froggy. Sonic and Big rescue Froggy whilst Knuckles finishes off Chaos. Gamma tracks down his brothers and destroys them to free the animals inside, eventually confronting Beta on the Egg Carrier. He defeats Beta but is wounded in the process, both robots exploding, releasing two Flicky birds in the process. Birdy reunites with its friends when Amy visits the ship.

A day later, Knuckles restores the Master Emerald but Angel Island collapses into the sea when Chaos attacks him and Dr. Robotnik. Chaos absorbs the collected Chaos Emeralds and locates the seventh where the Tornado II crashed after Big tried to pilot it off the downed Egg Carrier. Chaos transforms into Perfect Chaos and destroys Station Square. Tikal appears, having taken each main character into the past beforehand, demanding that Chaos must be sealed back in the Master Emerald but Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds' positive energy to become Super Sonic and defeats Chaos. Chaos survives in his basic form but discovers the Chao have lived on in Station Square, departing peacefully to the past with Tikal. Dr. Robotnik flees, with Sonic in pursuit.

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^{[citation needed]}. 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".

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. 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.

Sonic Adventure also introduced a drastic shift in the overall art style of the games that continued to be used over the next few years. The more detailed, modernized redesigns of Amy Rose and Dr. Eggman probably best reflect this. The characters resemble graffiti art in their official artwork, striking more dynamic and extreme poses. In the game, there were some unused items, such as the unused boss, Sky Dragon from the level Sky Chase. The level Speed Highway is included in console versions of Sonic Generations and Emerald Coast is included in the 3DS version. Perfect Chaos is the subsequent boss in the console version of the game.

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.

Ports

Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut

In 2003 an enhanced port was released for the GameCube and Windows titled Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (ソニックアドベンチャー デラシクス, Sonikku Adobenchā Derakkusu). 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 an unlockable compilation, which comprises twelve Game Gear games featuring Sonic and friends:

• Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit)
• Sonic Drift
• Sonic Chaos
• Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
• Sonic Labyrinth
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
• Sonic Triple Trouble
• Sonic Drift 2
• Tails' Skypatrol
• Sonic Blast
• Tails Adventure

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 Dreamcast predecessor, scoring more than 20% lower than the original release.

Sonic Adventure DX

On June 10, 2010, Sega officially announced Sonic Adventure would be released on both the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in Fall 2010. Sonic Adventure DX was released on Steam, as the first in a series of Dreamcast titles to be released as digital downloads. Additional features include enhanced graphics, surround sound, online leaderboards, achievement/trophy support and unlockable Avatar Awards, consisting of a Sonic Adventure T-Shirt and Sonic's "Speed Shoes".

Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions

Sonic Adventure was released on Xbox Live Arcade on September 15, 2010, while the PlayStation Network version was released on September 20, 2010. The initial release is based on the PC version of Sonic Adventure DX despite the game simply being called "Sonic Adventure". The DLC package, simply titled "Sonic Adventure DX Upgrade", has launched alongside the game on XBLA, and PSN, which upgrades the game to include all of the features from the GameCube and PC versions with the exception of the Game Gear games and Dreamcast DLC.

Reception and legacy

The reception at the time of original Dreamcast version was very positive, with reviews from GameSpot and GameSpy being above 90%. The current GameRankings average ranking is 88%. It became one of the few Sega All Stars games. In Japan, it received an excellent 38 out of 40 from Famitsu. Although criticized for its camera system, framerate issues, and fishing stages with Big, 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. On the other hand, GamePro gave it a 5/5 saying, "Sonic is fun, fast, and a great reason to purchase a Dreamcast". The game has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling Dreamcast game. This includes one million sold in the United States.

The GameCube version received less positive reviews. IGN gave the DX version a 5/10 criticizing the game's glitches, poor framerate, and clunky camera making it less fun to play in contrast to its original Dreamcast version but praised the overall presentation of the game.

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports received even less favorable reviews. While some critics viewed it as a good piece of nostalgia, others criticized the lack of improvements and the game's more noticeable age, with IGN giving it a score of 3.5 out of 10, calling it "so fundamentally flawed that it borders on unplayable", making it the lowest scored Sonic game on the site since Sonic and the Black Knight. 1UP.com gave it a D rank, criticizing its lack of improvements and touchy controls. Retro Gamer gave the Xbox 360 port 63%.

In 2009, GamePro listed the game as the seventh best platformer of all time, asserting that while it had not aged well in certain respects, its core gameplay "is still some of the best" in the entire series, and its visuals and scope were "hip and cutting-edge" for the time.

Promotion and tie-ins

Sonic Adventure received a comic book adaptation courtesy of Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog on-going series. The story arc took place in issues #79-84 and Sonic Super Special #13, originally published from November 1999 to May 2000. This adaptation is notable for its permanent integration of characters and story-lines from the video game into the pre-existing continuity of the comic series, providing explanations for the altered character design for Amy Rose and the history of Station Square hidden beneath Sonic's planet, Mobius. Selected portions of these issues (with the exception of issue #79) were reprinted in Archie's Sonic Super Special Magazine #2 (February 2012).

Franco-American's Sonic the Hedgehog pasta featured Sonic Adventure inspired labeling for a limited time and offered consumers a chance to obtain a free Archie Sonic comic book.

In 2000, Toy Island produced multiple lines of Sonic Adventure toys, featuring 5" action figures, 10" talking figures, and 3" bendy figures. Many of these figures were later reissued as part of their Sonic X lines in 2004.

External links

• Sonic Retro page on this game