Collection essentials #465: Sonic Adventure (DC)

Sonic the Hedgehog burst onto the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive at the start of the ‘90s, and quickly became one of the most iconic characters in video gaming, providing a mascot for Sega to rival Nintendo’s Mario and catapulting the popularity of the console up to being pretty much neck-and-neck with the Super Nintendo outside of Japan. In the mid ‘90s, things took a turn for the worse for Sega to put it mildly, and their next big console, the Sega Saturn, failed to gain any traction in America or Europe. There were a variety of reasons for this, but one can’t help but consider the absence of a true mainline Sonic the Hedgehog sequel as a major missed opportunity, and one that seems rather baffling. There was Sonic 3D Blast, but that was primarily developed for the Genesis/Mega Drive and was merely spruced up a little for a Saturn port which wasn’t going to make a big splash. A Saturn exclusive, Sonic X-Treme, was planned, but the early stages of its development were troubled and led to the game’s cancellation.

Sega wasn’t going to make a similar mistake with the Dreamcast. The Western release of their new, powerful and fancy console was going to have the next big Sonic blockbuster on store shelves from day one. This game would be fully in 3D, would feature lots of voice acting, many returning and new characters, and an impressive rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack. Sonic was back with style, and so was Sega.

The story of this game involves Sonic and his friends trying to stop the evil Dr. Robotnik from powering up an evil creature called Chaos by collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds. You initially can only play as Sonic, but as more of his friends come into the picture, you will then be able to freely choose to play as them and start their own story mode from scratch. In order to get the true ending, you’ll need to finish every character’s story.

Sonic Adventure is a 3D platformer, and it sticks a little more to its roots than Super Mario 64 did. The basic structure of the game is different, though, as you primarily explore hub areas rather than play a series of linear levels. Within the hub the player can find levels which will give a more linear area and objective to complete. The game’s characters all have different abilities, and their level objectives are different too. Some elements from the 2D Sonic games are present, such as “rings” which are similar to Mario’s coins but more important because having at least one ring lets you take an attack before dying. There are also power-up boxes to give players a little boost of some kind. There are some mini-games such as pinball present, as is common in this type of game. There’s also a virtual pet mechanic introduced in this game, as players can raise a cute little creature called a “Chao.” I can’t say much about this as I’ve never bothered with the virtual pet stuff, but some really like it, and Chao-raising went on to be a recurring thing in Sonic games after this.

This is probably the point where you expect me to tell you that this is one of those universally-revered, incredible video game classics that’s mandatory for anyone with a Dreamcast. And, well…this game didn’t quite reach that status. That’s not to say it isn’t a good game or that it wasn’t successful. There was a lot of hype for this game upon release, critic reviews were largely positive, and it went on to be the best-selling game for the console. However, as the hype settled down, not everybody wound up being so fond of Sonic Adventure. There are plenty of things about it to complain about. The voice acting isn’t the worst you’ve ever heard, but it isn’t especially good, and it’s not lip-synched very accurately. The game is glitchier than it should have been, and the camera (which is tricky to get right in a 3D platformer) is not always well-placed. The hub world is not especially fun to explore, and I remember sometimes being frustrated not knowing where I’m supposed to go next. 

The game’s reputation is perhaps hurt a little bit by the fact that the game’s ports to newer systems have generally been poorly done. This probably has led many to think that the game is worse than the original actually was. If you want to play this game, sticking with the original Dreamcast release is still one of the best options.

This game was huge in shaping Sonic’s identity (as a series) going forward. The general design of the characters and gameplay became a new norm for 3D Sonic. Sonic is voiced (in English) by Jun’ichi Kanemaru for the first time, and he has voiced Sonic ever since, for over 25 years, and his voice is now strongly associated with the character. 

Sonic has obviously continued to be successful to this day, but unfortunately Sonic video games have not generally been held to the same standard of quality that you’d expect from gaming’s most iconic characters. There have been a great many Sonic games since, but it seems that most of them are met with only mixed critical reception. Some do rise above and are considered by fans to be very good games, but even those don’t tend to reach the territory of “all-time classic”. So you will not be seeing a whole lot of the blue hedgehog on this blog going forward. I think most would agree that the best Sonic games are still the ones on the Sega Genesis, and you can count me among them.

As a kid, I do remember Sonic Adventure being one of the big games when the Dreamcast came out, and I was certainly interested in it and got to try it here and there. When I got my own Dreamcast, the game didn’t suck me in as much as I had hoped. I think I did get through Sonic’s storyline, but not the other characters. So I actually let the game go, and the copy you see in the photo is not the one I had back then. I am interested in actually seeing the game through to the end at some point, though…even though there are so many other games competing for my attention.

Sonic Adventure isn’t my favorite Sonic game or my favorite Dreamcast game, but the good does outweigh the bad, and it’s a very significant game for the console and the series and it wouldn’t feel right for me not to own it.