It’s a LOT harder than it sounds, but also a lot more fun than it sounds. And then to get 100%, each stage has to be beaten with the best rank. Each stage is completed an initial time for the main story, but you can go back to each stage for five different objectives. I literally shut the music off every time a Knuckles course comes up. We’re talking C-grade rap music that was put together for a Sonic game. And we’re not talking Tupac or um, some other good rapper. All except for Knuckles.įor some reason the developers thought that Knuckles needed rap music for his stages. As soon as you turn the game on you are hit in the face with an awesome rock beat, the opening selection screen has great music that is played later at the final boss, Sonic’s courses have music you’d hear on the radio, and most of the characters music fits their game style well. The audio is where this game is most divided. Once you get to the space courses and the ARK then it really becomes quite the spectacle. The cut scenes are animated flawlessly, except for the horrible dialogue. The courses that Sonic and Shadow run through are beautiful, and really set the ambiance for the fast paced action. The graphics are as good as you’d expect from a 3D Sonic game.

Their gamestyles feel very fun if they had just spent more time focusing on course design. Rouge and Knuckles feel solid as well, which makes up for their otherwise forgettable playing experience. You have great control over Sonic and Shadow and how they jump and do their platforming.

Other than that, each character and their stage types handle really well. You are trying to steer your car in one direction and end up flying off the edge because you have no real control. It’s almost like they purposely made it to be a cross between Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. The controls actually feel pretty solid, save for one thing: The kart racing. There’s other stuff in there, but I’d rather not spoil it for you. In the end, they realize Shadow’s true intentions, and even he decides that the death of everyone isn’t worth it. Eggman’s Grandfather to be the harbinger of death, and Shadow uses everyone around him to his own means to accomplish this. Sonic is mistaken as being Shadow, “The Ultimate Weapon”, who had recently escaped from a military complex. The story in this game is pretty clicheic, as well as being lackluster. It sounds simple but it’s actually very in depth, and if you’re the type of person that likes that kinda thing, it’s a lot of fun. They can go to school to gain different skills, grow up and evolve and take on the forms of other creatures. You can raise little creatures, called Chao, to become world class racers and karate masters. It’s kind of a mix between Tamogotchis and RPGs. The other element in this game is my personal favorite: the Chao world. There is little to no skill involved in playing their courses, which is sad because the tanks themselves are fun to control. Eggman and Tails stages are really as simple as pumping the “B” button and moving forward. Knuckles and Rouge handle quite well, but this doesn’t mean that their missions feel any more fun to play. The treasure hunting stages with Rouge and Knuckles feel like they were thrown in for story sake, and none of the courses are at all memorable. The other two gameplays don’t fare as well though I’m afraid. This is where you will probably want to spend most of your time. Sonic and Shadow transition flawlessly from running to grinding to spin dashing. Jumping controls are spot on, save for the levels with the weird bouncy helicopter things. The music also goes really well to set the pace of the upbeat action. They are fast paced and the environments are beautiful. You can tell that the most effort was put into the Sonic/Shadow levels. The levels vary a little but basically has you running through the same game just with the good and bad version of the character. The game is built around this “Good guys versus Bad guys” theme and has a light and dark side story to boot. There is the fast action platforming that Sonic games are known for, there are weird treasure hunting stages, and there are sets of levels that have you running in a mini tank blowing the crap out of everything. In the main game, there are three different styles of play. But at that point I had already fallen in love with a Sonic game: Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. It wasn’t until I was older and the Internet had become a part of my life that I learned about the great 16 bit wars. I thought Mario was the best because I wasn’t even aware that Sonic existed.

Sonic adventure 2 battle rouge levels