Name: Sonic Adventure
Platform: Sega Dreamcast
Publisher: Sega
Rating: 8.8
The world's fastest hedgehog is back, and he's taking gaming to the next level. When the Sega Dreamcast game console launches today on an alliterative 9/9/99, Sega's flagship title will be Sonic Adventure, a 3D action-adventure game.
The story revolves around six characters as they try to stop the evil Dr. Robotnik from awakening Chaos, the god of, well, chaos. Old friends Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are joined by new characters Big the Cat and E-102 Gamma; each has unique objectives in every stage. Sonic, for example, must merely reach the stage goal, while Knuckles must find three emerald fragments, and Big must go fishing to catch is friend Froggy. The individual storylines are disjointed; only by playing all six characters does the story become coherent.
The Action Stages are separated by Adventure Stages, in which players explore, talk, and discover. The game's dullest moments, Adventure Stages are misfits next to the high-speed action Sonic is known for. You'll spend as much time finding an action stage as you will tearing through it.
Fortunately, those moments of extreme velocity are bliss. Sonic Adventure is the fastest platform game ever, with Sonic sprinting through loop-de-loops, outrunning avalanches, and soaring through the sky.
Only a few graphical problems keep Adventure from being perfect. The camera is severely flawed, occasionally leaving Sonic out of the picture entirely and unable to find the path or fend off any attacks. Hit detection errors can cause the blue hedgehog to pass through a seemingly-solid wall or floor and fall to his death. These bugs crop up irregularly, but are extremely frustrating.
Though graphical presentation is flawed, graphical quality is not. Sonic lives (and dies) in a colorful world that looks as good upon close inspection as it does zipping by at jet speed. The frame rate is smooth, the color lush, and the characters lively. Better examples are sure to come, but Sonic demonstrates the graphic capabilities of the Sega Dreamcast well.
A rocking soundtrack accompanies Sonic's escapades. During cinematic events, a unique theme song heralds each character's appearance and exit, while high-speed sequences have their own pulsing rhythm. The voice acting is fun to listen to, even if the dialogue is corny and the lip-syncing is terrible.
The challenge is variable depending on your goal. Each character can clear their assigned Action Stages three times with increasingly- difficult objectives. It's your choice whether to perfect the current stage or continue to the next. A Trial mode on the main menu allows access to any previously-cleared Action Stage, bypassing the Adventure Stages.
There are several mini-games, though the focused-on one is the virtual pet. During his adventures, Sonic may come across Chao (pronounced "chow"), little smurf-like creatures that he can raise and race. Chao can also be downloaded to the Virtual Memory Unit (VMU) memory card and sent on a Tamagotchi-like Chao Adventure. Competition or cooperation can arise when two VMUs are connected or when Chao are uploaded to the Internet, for the purpose of trading, battling, and mating. The purpose of it all isn't clear, but it is entertaining.
Sonic Adventure sets a new standard for fast-paced platform games. Lackadaisical adventure stages and severe graphical bugs bog down the gameplay, but the number of stages, characters, and mini-games will keep you coming back for more.