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Sonic Adventure - Open Your Heart

RK128

Member
Gotta say a lot of tracks weren't composed by Senoue though. For example, Egg Carrier and Gamma's theme were Fumie Kumatani doing. Lost World track was Kenichi Tokoi I think? and more tracks follow this trend. SA1 started the formula of having a lot of composers on the same soundtrack we see on a lot of Sonic OSTs.

Oh, okay. Will edit my post then. Sorry for the confusion everyone :(.
 

jennetics

Member
Nice write-up!

Always liked Tails gameplay since it was fun to try and "break" maps with the flying. Windy Valley with Tails is the best. Sonic levels are easily my favorite in the game.

Best sonic hub world too. In large part because you can carry around a statue of a random guy.


Also love Eggmans heavily repeated lines in the game. "Get a load of this" and "Now way! I can't believe this" are classics.

I think it's "No way..." lol even so, just reading the quotes made me hear it in my head. Good times :)
 

Koppai

Member
The game has not aged well, but I admit, I love it anyway. Had it on dreamcast when it came out and bought nearly every subsequent re release. I replay this game almost every year. Its not great, and broken to a some times frustrating degree, but it still holds a special spot in my gaming career.
People shit on this game so much and it's one of the few games I have replayed so many times over the years.
 

Ferr986

Member
Oh, okay. Will edit my post then. Sorry for the confusion everyone :(.

no problem man, i mean you were right, Jun Senoue was the soundtrack director and a composer. It's just how Sonic OST works, they have different people working on it.

I think it's one of the key parts on why the Modern Sonic OSTs tend to be this good.
 

RK128

Member
no problem man, i mean you were right, Jun Senoue was the soundtrack director and a composer. It's just how Sonic OST works, they have different people working on it.

I think it's one of the key parts on why the Modern Sonic OSTs tend to be this good.

Thank you for clarifying that though :). Always nice learning new stuff :D!
 
Up and down and all around.

People shit on this game so much and it's one of the few games I have replayed so many times over the years.

I think it's like the old Pokemon games that recently were re-released.

People were "oh, these games are bad now, basically unplayable because they've aged so poorly" and then we all picked them up again and still loved them because even if there's a few minor issues from being so old, at their core, they're still fun games.

Sonic Adventure is a fun game. And yea, it's a little dated. And yea, it's a little janky and glitchy, but it's still a fine game.
 

RK128

Member
People shit on this game so much and it's one of the few games I have replayed so many times over the years.

People just like to crap on games they never played or have a hard time coming back to.

I agree with SA1 being aged, but it still is a really fun action platformer :). It has issues like the camera, glitches at points and presentation aging a bit but overall, its one of my favorite 3D Sonic's that I can go back to with little issue :D.

I have a lot of respect for it due to trying new things while also knowing "Yah, this is a SONIC game, not Sonic & Friends game. Lets focus mainly on Sonic while giving everyone screen time". Sonic Adventure 2 didn't honor this and Sonic 06 sure as hell didn't honor this. I really love Sonic Adventure because it knows its a Sonic game and rolls with it, rather then trying to be something it isn't.
 
What's even the point of that tiny little urban neighborhood you run through for like 5 seconds at the end of Sonic's Speed Highway?

Was it just there because they needed Knuckles' stage to be in Sonic's stage to help with optimization?

Generations just cuts that entire part out, and it's not even noticeable that it's gone.

Generations' Speed Highway is really great.
 

RK128

Member
What's even the point of that tiny little urban neighborhood you run through for like 5 seconds at the end of Sonic's Radical Highway?

Was it just there because they needed Knuckles' stage to be in Sonic's stage to help with optimization?

Generations just cuts that entire part out, and it's not even noticeable that it's gone.

Generations' Radical Highway is really great.

I guess they figured "Um......lets thrown Sonic in the Knuckles level! It works :D."

I noticed that when I played Generations (wished Classic Sonic would of ran through that towards the end of his stage). Loved Speed Highway in Generations :).
 
Oh right, Speed Highway.

Radical Highway is Shadow's stage in SA2. I get their names confused.


My memory of the stage was a little foggy when playing Generations, and I knew some part was missing, but I couldn't quite remember what it was.

But it's not like the stage even needs that tiny part at the end. It's basically just a waste of load time, even if it's kind of cool looking.
 

Vitacat

Member
I loved Sonic Adventure. I think to some degree you had to be there at the time to get it.

The Dreamcast was new and shiny, and eclipsed everything that had come before in terms of visuals. Sonic Adventure was mind-blowing stuff at release. And despite any flaws, it was FUN, looked amazing, and had great music.
 
My first time with Sonic Adventure was incredible. I couldn't even touch the control because the game looked unreal at the time. That smoothness, that enormous world, the speed of the levels, the set pieces... god what a game.

I think it's very enjoyable even today. I really love the atmosphere, the sense of adventure, the artistic choices and overall desing... and the music. It's SO Sonic, so iconic and memorable. Those beach level music, The heavy rock of Speed Highway, the melody of the valley levels. Just incredible. Same level that Sonic 1 has.

I love Red Mountain, Ice Cap and Final Egg levels. The last one is a incredible well designed level still today.
 
I loved Sonic Adventure. I think to some degree you had to be there at the time to get it.

The Dreamcast was new and shiny, and eclipsed everything that had come before in terms of visuals. Sonic Adventure was mind-blowing stuff at release. And despite any flaws, it was FUN, looked amazing, and had great music.

I don't know if you necessarily had to have been there at the right time.

My first (real) experience with SA was SA:DX on the Game Cube. I had played a bit of the Dreamcast version, but not much. The Dreamcast was my sister's and she didn't like other people using it (wasting her precious VMU battery)

By then I was playing games like Metroid Prime, Wind Waker and other stuff, which are way more advanced than Sonic Adventure, but I still enjoyed it.

I like SA2 a lot more, but I think SA is a great game if you understand it came out in the late 90s and was the first real try at 3D Sonic.
 

muteki

Member
First played it prior to the NA release at Epcot, back when SEGA took over one of the exhibition areas and let you play Genesis/32X/CD/Arcades all you wanted for free. I guess they got a few JP Dreamcasts to show it off too.

Blew my mind at the time. Still love it today, that intro...
 
This game was the start of Crush 40's involvement in the series, and their songs almost feel defining for 3D sonic for me :p.

Open your Heart
Live and Learn
What I'm made of
Shadow the Hedgehog's OST, which still had a wonderful OST
I even prefer their version of His World

I'm hoping them doing an "Anniversary project" is referring to something to do with Sonic.
 
I don't really get anyone who says SA1 is better than SA2. That hub world was a hot mess, and so was the game's pacing throughout. SA2 was far leaner and meaner in its focused game design because of its lack of hub worlds, and things like Sonic and Shadow's levels were so much more challenging, interesting, and creative than what was seen in SA1 (City Escape, Final Rush, the night time city level, etc) And I actually liked Knuckles/Rouge levels. And the plot was actually quite interesting to follow at the time.

That ending was feelstation plus. SHADOW NOOOO

Pretty much, although I remember loving SA's story back in the day too. I also played SA2 last year and it really felt like they listened to the previous game's criticism. Still heavily flawed (you're screwed if you realize what's going on in context), but enough to render it "pretty good" in my book.
 

Neff

Member
It's buggy, janky and bloated with fluff, but I don't care. It's a fucking masterpiece and I wouldn't change a thing.
 

Sciz

Member
A game everyone remembers the 10% great parts fondly, and completely forgets or ignores the 90% that was awful... Still worth it for that 10% though.


But only one time. It's never worth it for that double dip.

Nah. It's one of those games that's more fun on a replay. When you've already been through the tedious bits once, it's much, much faster to blow through them a second time.
 
This game has the best soundtrack outside of Sonic Generations. Every level is simply amazing, and I love all the extra composition the OST has.

Also, this may be an unpopular opinion but I enjoyed playing as every character (besides Big, but his story is done within a half-hour so whatever). Yes, even Amy. Hammer-jumping everywhere was a blast and it's a shame that that ability has only been showcased in the Advance series since.

I do think that Sonic/Shadow and Knuckles/Rouge control a lot better in SA2, though. However, Tails/Eggman in that game is a far, far inferior version of Gamma.
 

Ferr986

Member
So, who completely lost his shit the first time viewing this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_efv7ZGAdjo

I remember seeing it for the first time in a mall without knowing it was SA, starting with the city flooding and then with the Sonic Adventure title I was like "sheeeeeeit" no way this is the new Sonic game. Blown my fucking mind.
 
This game blew my mind in 99. I got the game at launch with the Dreamcast and all I wanted to do was stay for home from school at play it for hours on end. I loved the game when it was released; the storyline, the characters,and even the chao garden. Between this and Adventure 2, I spent countless hours on the dreamcast doing anything and everything in the game; I 100% completed both games on the dreamcast, and then again in their GC ports.

Today, It's a great game that hasn't aged all that well unfortunately. Sonic's levels are still really fun to play through, but even they show their age and they're not quite as good as their counterparts in Adventure 2. The Knuckles, Gamma, and Big levels are downright chores to play through now, and even Tails and Amy's levels are a bit of a push.

That said, it was an incredibly ambitious title that served it purpose: to bring Sonic in 3d in a creative and fun way. It may not have been the leap other classic franchises received, but at the time it was a great leap for the time.
 

Geist-

Member
Best Sonic game ever IMHO, but that's probably the nostalgia talking. It's what made the Dreamcast for me, I literally played it for hundreds of hours and kept my Dreamcast just for this (until it finally broke).

Other Sonic games might be objectively better, but they just don't measure up to my childhood memories. XD
 

RK128

Member
latest


This character was introduced in the Sega CD Classic Sonic CD and this is her first ever playable role in a mainline Sonic platformer. She was playable in other games before this, like Sonic the Fighters and Sonic Drift 1 & 2, but never in a platformer.

Her gameplay style is slower paced compared to Sonic & Tails, with her running slow. But she makes up for this with her Piko Piko Hammer. She uses this giant, massive hammer to scare Sonic....I mean defend herself from foes. You can use the hammer in the air for a spin-jump like effect, slam it on the ground when running to do the hammer jump for great height, and use it normally (spinning it around on the ground or just hitting someone on the head.

The goal in every level is to avoid this robot:
maxresdefault.jpg


To do this, you head to the goal balloon at the end of every stage:
hqdefault.jpg


Her core level design is more platforming focused, with it being more Mario-like in some respects. She has only three stages (Twinkle Park, Hot Shelter and Final Egg) and one major boss fight but it was very enjoyable :).

2376049-you__too__amy.png


She is a character that while not the best thing about the game, is a lot better then expected.

A robot is coming up next, so stay tuned :).
 

Ogodei

Member
I'm not sure why they never went back to the Adventure games' formula. Especially in recent years with fans clamouring for it.

I played SA2 first, so I'm more attached to that game, but SA was still great too.

I agree with all of this post, though my guess is the negative receptions to Shadow and especially Sonic 06 forced them to look in a different direction, when the fundamentals weren't the problem with either game (Shadow is pretty competently put together, too, it's problems are tone and that some of the branch missions are fucking terrible, while Sonic '06 could have been a worthy SA3 if they had waited until Christmas '07 to release it).

This game loses out to Adventure 2 because it's a lot rougher around the edges and because the "adventure" parts were pretty ill-conceived, though you could do some legitimately cool stuff with physics in the overworld, like running on ceilings if you got the right amount of speed.
 

RK128

Member
I agree with all of this post, though my guess is the negative receptions to Shadow and especially Sonic 06 forced them to look in a different direction, when the fundamentals weren't the problem with either game (Shadow is pretty competently put together, too, it's problems are tone and that some of the branch missions are fucking terrible, while Sonic '06 could have been a worthy SA3 if they had waited until Christmas '07 to release it).

This game loses out to Adventure 2 because it's a lot rougher around the edges and because the "adventure" parts were pretty ill-conceived, though you could do some legitimately cool stuff with physics in the overworld, like running on ceilings if you got the right amount of speed.

I think its that Sega feels like they have to pair Sonic with SOMETHING for every game, and this was painfully apparent during the Dreamcast era.

Sonic Team:
We have 3D Sonic.....but lets add five other characters to show off the Dreamcast.
We have 3D Sonic again!........but lets throw back in Treasure Hunting and Mech levels because, reasons.
Lets refine 3D Sonic to work on all platforms....but lets add a team dynamic into the mix.
Lets go back to using Sonic only gameplay!.......but lets thrown in guns and edge into the mix.
Lets do Adventure 3!.......But have 10 different characters and 18 different gameplay styl.......why are you crying in a corner now?

3D Sonic during this era was clustered with too much 'fluff' when we just wanted the core gameplay. But they didn't realized this early enough, so rather then go back to what worked with SA1 and SA2, they said "Fuck it, lets start over again" after Sonic 06 & Shadow got panned everywhere.

Not a bad move, as Unleashed, Colors and Generations are all really enjoyable games :). But still, there is a lot of potential with the Sonic formula in SA1 and SA2 that they could really tap into with current gen platforms.
 
I always felt like the gamecube version ruined the sonic character model, the dremcast version has a nicer feeling and more over-the-top face expressions, you can tell that's what they wanted to do with sonic before adventure 2 took over.
 

jett

D-Member
I really liked this game for its time. I remember being blown away by several of the game's stages/set-pieces. Going from PS1/N64 to this shit was just mindbending. And the music was outstanding. In hindsight, it might've been mostly the audiovisual presentation that made me like the game. :p
 

The Orz

Member
Sonic Adventure holds a special place in my gaming heart. It was late 98 and I was in a pretty unpleasant relationship. My girlfriend (an otaku to the extreme) convinced me (kind of an idiot) to buy a Japanese Dreamcast and a handful of games off some guy for a pretty hefty wad of cash. Up until then my only impression of the system came from some time spent playing Godzilla and Virtua Fighter 3tb, neither of which impressed me. But, like I said, I was kind of an idiot and agreed to the deal.

I honestly don't remember which games came with the package but at some point I picked up Aero Dancing which kind of became an escape for me. Still, it wasn't exactly mind blowing. Regrets, I've had a few...

Then comes December and she imports a copy of Sonic Adventure from NCS. This changed everything. It's like I suddenly saw the system's potential. Everything from the glam rock intro to the exploration to the soundtrack to the super fast (albeit 30 fps) stages was perfect. The Egg Carrier stage where the ship keeps dropping underneath the clouds has always been one of my favorite stages in gaming period.

Of course the game wasn't actually perfect but that didn't stop me from playing the hell out of it. Not being able to read Japanese made the Adventure part of the game more challenging than it should have been but that just made it even more special.

Of course, after Sonic Adventure came a whole batch of amazing games that made that initial painful investment worth it. Still, SA was the game that first stood out as being "next generation" to me.
 
Aside from how difficult fishing with Big always was, I had nothing but fun with Sonic Adventure. Playing the import in-store sold me on a Dreamcast and I got it day 1. I never thought about it being the best or worst at anything.

I love the pictures from Sonic Team's South America research trips

*snip*

Those are the best. Thanks for posting them.
 

Blueblur1

Member
So, who completely lost his shit the first time viewing this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_efv7ZGAdjo

I remember seeing it for the first time in a mall without knowing it was SA, starting with the city flooding and then with the Sonic Adventure title I was like "sheeeeeeit" no way this is the new Sonic game. Blown my fucking mind.

That video melted my 12-year old brain when I first saw it. My brother rented the system and game from Hollywood Video for me on a Friday night and I couldn't believe how cool it was. While it sounds silly it's a small moment of my life that I will never forget.
 
It was an interesting time to have a 3D Sonic game without the existence of the edge. There was way too much Amy emphasis though. Is this because of Sonic CD?
 

RK128

Member
It was an interesting time to have a 3D Sonic game without the existence of the edge. There was way too much Amy emphasis though. Is this because of Sonic CD?

You mean my post? I just commented on her gameplay due to her style being different from everyone else.
 

RK128

Member
when Perfect Chaos appears out of the building, woo boy. And that song.
chaos_large.jpg


Best boss battle in Generations as well. I had such nostalgia during this fight, I'm not sure they could have picked a better fight to represent this era.

But really, who was Chaos' competition for that slot? Neo Metal Sonic and Biolizard? Yawn

My favorite part about that boss is that, well, it was a full-on level. And it was mostly 3D too! That rocked and it was one heck of a way to represent the Dreamcast era.

The Biolizard boss could of worked well if they wanted a fun space level for the Sonic's.
 

RK128

Member
I love Amy's stages. I wish she'd get her own game based on this play style.

She sorta got this but in 2D. Sonic Advance had her as a playable character and she felt completely different from everyone else. While Sonic/Tails/Knuckles were Sonic 3&K styled with an extra melee attack with B, she brought over her moveset from Adventure (hammer attack, air hammer spin) alongside being able to slam hammers on springs to get higher in the air.

Never liked playing as her in Advance but appreciate how different she felt from everyone else.
 
I love this game to bits. It's pretty much a mess in a number of ways, but it's still fun to load up and blow through in a few hours every once in a while. Fun soundtrack, a fun overworld, and some fun levels. It's good times.
 

Nudull

Banned
Was it ever explained in series canon why Amy wasn't as fast as most of the other characters, being a hedgehog and all?
 
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