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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.