Sonic Adventure 2 is Pretty Banger, IMO
I played SA2 for the "first" time. It was great.
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Prelude
Once upon a summer day, a young boy was allowed to play his sister’s boyfriend’s Gamecube. What did that boy do? Open City Escape, run terrified from a truck, and bumble to the exit.
And then select Aquatic Mine, ruining any further interest he had in the game.
Well, not really. He went to the Chao Garden, messed about, and got in trouble for “ruining” a save file. He was forevermore condemned to play only the racing minigame (which he hardly played, since Mario Kart DS was a much more appealing option).
As expected, he quickly lost interest.
But now, I’m at least twice as old and double as transgender! What could go wrong, for my first Sonic game?
Version notes
I played the Steam release of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, with a few mods. I hadn’t touched the game in many, many years–so that may sound sacreligious to play for the “first” time with mods installed! But I like to play the best version of a game so that I can enjoy it the most that I possibly can. Here’s a list of the ones I played with:
| Mod name | Author | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sonic Adventure 2 Animated | Totally Not A Skeleton | Animation tweaks |
| Sonic New Tricks | Sora | Less spindash lag, control remaps |
| Mania Drop Dash | Henrykado | Adds Mania’s drop dash |
| SA2 Input Controls | Shaddatic | Analog stick fix |
I also played with infinite lives, because lives are outdated.
The only major gameplay changes were the halved spindash lag and the drop dash, which felt seamless in their implementation. I had drop dash mapped to a hold input on the Bounce Bracelet button (X, on a Nintendo Pro controller), spindash and somersault on Y, and A for jump/homing attack.
I’ve played through each of the stories once, at time of writing.
Booting up
Once you boot into SA2 and get past the opening movie, you’re dumped into what’s arguably the sickest, most rad title screen ever. It screams 2001! You hear a sick guitar rendition of the game’s theme, Live and Learn, as you watch art of the game’s characters slowly fall down. It’s the mark of a game that’s so earnest, you can’t help but smile.
Demonstration of SA2B's main menu.
After the arcade-racer-esque voice asks you select a file, you’re dropped into the main menu, which features a :slightly different version of the theme. But all of this sheer style and pizazz leaves a single impression on me: this is going to be a kick-ass game.
The perfect introduction
For my first run, I jumped into the Hero story. And–Wow! Holy Helicopter-Hopping Hedgehogs! I love everything about this intro: the ska-inspired guitar and brass, the way the pilot cuts off the air traffic controller in surprise as–who guessed it–Sonic busts out of the chopper; the witty one-liner Sonic quips before he falls, spinning downwards in line with the rotors above him.
Even from the first line, Sonic Team is making jokes:
Sigma-Alpha 2 heading due south over the city.
Sigma-Alpha 2. Sigma. Alpha. Two. SA2. Sonic Adventure 2!!!!!!!! :D
And, God, Sonic’s smirk to the camera. He’s having a blast, and wants you to know it.
I hope he kisses Shadow by the end of this.
…
Escape From the City hits its groove right as Sonic lands into his first stage, City Escape. And what a :great first stage it is! New players are dropped into a snowboard section–which automatically moves Sonic. All they have to do is steer as Sonic plummets down the incline, which simplifies gameplay, while the speed and the song establish the tone as “rolling around at the speed of sound”.
Sonic’s then dropped into a walled garden, where I got used to the controls.
A bit after, there’s some ramps and more inclines, but this time Sonic runs instead of scraping asphalt in metallic cacophany. But while the stage always moves you down, the music stays upbeat–being snappy and :fast-paced, it perfectly sets the mood alongside the cars whizzing by. Charming posters and signs adorn Sonic’s getaway–if you could only slow down enough to read them.
The stage ends with the aforementioned Big Ass Truck barrelling down the slope, chasing Sonic. And then you fight the GUN mech! The GUN mech that has a Big Ass Gun! In Public Streets!!!!!
God I love America.
The other characters
It’s not just Sonic in SA2! There’s Shadow, who appears after you beat the Public Nuisance, and also Tails and Eggman in their mechs, and Rouge and Knuckles (the great Emerald’s power allows him to feel). Both of these alternate levels have different properties, layouts, and gameplay styles.
Tails’ and Eggman’s stages
Let’s get it out of the way: the Mech’s controls are sluggish to respond in comparison to the other characters. But what wouldn’t be faster than a tanky mech? My only gripe with the movement specifically is that you can’t change directions and keep your momentum, as you would expect with a slower character.
Level-design wise, the Mech’s stages are… not slow, but long and linear. Sometimes, you’re literally locked into place on rails. But oftentimes, you’re just moving through tunnels and shooting missiles at everything in your path. Alternate routes were scarce to come by, and I don’t recall any large, bombastic set pieces. The mechs did make me feel powerful at first, but it became a slog near the end. Eggman’s final stage, Cosmic Wall, took me about ten minutes to complete–but felt even longer, as there was little variety in the gameplay.
I wish that these stages had different routes, enemies that don’t go down in singular aimbotted missiles, and large, memorable setpieces. I wanted Tails’ mech to drive and fly as we see in the cutscenes! I wanted Eggman to pull out the big guns on a heavily-armored GUN mech. I yearned to not retread the same song and dance in a different space.
But unfortunately, that’s what we got. :P
Knuckles’ and Rouge’s stages
If the Mech’s stages were a slog, the Hunter’s stages were tedious. These were the levels that took me the longest to complete. These exploration-based levels have Knuckles or Rouge collect three items placed in random positions in a large area, with hint monitors strewn about to help guide you.
There are two levels I want to talk about in particular: Death Chamber for Knuckles, and Rouge’s Security Hall.
They’re waiting for you, Knuckles. In the Death Chamber.
Death Chamber is set inside a desert pyramid, and has four main sections connected by hallways, each of which is blocked by a timed door on either side (and often more inside). This makes traversal difficult, as you need to locate the hourglass-spring-button-thing before you can progress to the next room–and if you don’t make it to the door in time, you’re forced to try again. There are also countless enemy robots firing at you that you must do away with if you want to get any searching done.
Do you remember how I said the objectives are randomized?
Yeah, this level was not fun for me. It took at least half an hour to find each of the three hidden keys. Three frustrating, tedious keys.
At least the music’s nice.
Security Hall, or as I like to call it, Security Hell
Security Hell is Rouge’s most frustrating level. You’re told to collect three Chaos Emeralds… under a five minute time limit. Granted, the area is much smaller than other hunting levels. But.
Did I mention the three objectives are randomized?
And that they’re randomized every time you die or reset?
So, in this level, every time you fail to find an Emerald, you have to begin anew?
Worst of all, Eggman’s yelling in your ear about how you need to Get The Fuck Outta There ‘Cause It’s Gonna Blow The Fuck Up!!!! I think I would have skipped this level, if you lost all the Emeralds you’ve previously collected upon death. But that didn’t stop me from racking up over half an hour in a single room! Dying! Over and over!
Did I mention there’s a doohickey in the ceiling you have to activate almost each time you reset? No?
No?
How I’d fix hunting stages
These stages would be much better in my opinion if, instead of three randomized positions, you collected many more, smaller-value items. Think of Super Mario Galaxy’s purple coin missions–you’re given a space to run about in, and there are groups of coins laid out for you to collect. This would prevent the reset cheese provided by the :randomness, and also make A-ranks of the stage easier to route.
Learning how to play
Before playing SA2, I’d hardly touched a Sonic game. The closest I got was the Sonic: Lost World demo on the Wii U, and that was :years ago. I found Omochao’s implementation as a tutorial system interesting–for such an old game, it implements tutorials in an optional-but-still-useful way! You can just run into Omochao, and it’ll tell you about controls, levels, context for the environment, and general game tips. I found it useful as a tool when I wasn’t in call with my Sonic freak of a partner. <3
Final thoughts
SA2 is a great game, for all the flaws I found with it. I loved the speed sections, the music is killer, the cutscene dialogue is funny… I didn’t even touch on the rest of Sonic and Shadow’s levels, or Chao Garden, or the racing minigame, or anything! But… this is all I feel I want to talk about for now.
Just remember, kids:
The real Sonic was the Adventure 2 we made along the way.
Nutshells
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: Live and Learn notes
Live and Learn’s main riff is really fun! There’s three bars of rockage, then four distinct quarter notes: a simple step down the scale each time. The main menu’s version instead steps upwards. The main menu also has a second melodic guitar tapping over the main riff, which adds some nice rhythmic contrast with the stop-and-go main guitar.
Main Menu version
Furthermore, the Stage Select version of this theme drops that tapping guitar–replacing it with some high chord stabs–which lets you better differentiate the direction the guitar steps.
Stage Select version
For reference, here’s the Title Screen’s version, which steps downwards (just like the vocal version by Crush 40).
Title Screen version
: What makes a great first stage?
Personally, I think that first stages need to do three things:
- Establish the tone of the game/section
- In this case, City Escape establishes Sonic as a character
- Teach the player what to do without being overwhelming
- Do the above seamlessly
- Without game-stopping tutorials (looking at you, Sonic Unwiished)
And, ideally, with the player still feeling like it’s fun!
: Escape from the City
How has nobody created a rendition of this song where the second verse starts with syncopated, ska strumming?? It’s the exact perfect moment to shift into a lower gear before ramping back up. Am I going crazy? Could a ska break not fit here?
: Randomness is bad
According to Murphy’s Law, anything that can go wrong, will. Likewise, if your level relies on RNG, something will go wrong for a statistically important number of your players. Something will be frustrating.
Design RNG out of your systems. Please. I beg you.
: Other games
Other Sonic games I played as a kid:
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (DS)
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii)
Scratch Sonic (Web)