Sonic Adventure

Sonic Adventure is a video game created by Sonic Team and released on December 23, 1998 in Japan by Sega for the Sega Dreamcast. The final updated edition, known as Sonic Adventure International, was released on September 9, 1999 in North America, October 14 in Japan and Europe, October 18 in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and December 3 in Australia.

Plot
The game follows the story of Chaos, a mysterious liquid creature released from the Master Emerald by Dr. Eggman on the floating Angel Island. Eggman plans to use Chaos as part of scheme to make Station Square his own robotic city. If Chaos gets the seven elusive Chaos Emeralds, then he will transform into a powerful monster with unstoppable strength. Unfortunately for Eggman, our hero Sonic the Hedgehog gets involved in the scheme and plans to stop the doc from completing his goal. Eventually, Tails gets involved in the situation, and helps Sonic find the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles is also in this adventure as the Master Emerald was shattered and the pieces scattered, when Chaos was unleashed. Amy Rose saves a Flicky bird named Birdie from one of Eggman's robots, E-100 Zero as it been captured before by Eggman. E-102 Gamma, is an artillery robot built by Eggman who gets caught up in the madness, after having to retrieve a certain tailed frog, who belongs to the layedback Big the Cat, who has left his peaceful life to rescue his pollywog pal, Froggy.

Every now and again, an odd orange light transports the six characters to a odd shrine where they meet a mysterious echidna girl and the Chao. Can Sonic and Tails unravel Chaos' past and stop him from getting the Chaos Emeralds? Will Knuckles restore the Master Emerald and find out what killed his ancestors? Can Amy save Birdie and herself from Zero and reunite with Sonic? Can E-102 escape Eggman's control and save his brothers from destruction, and can Big find Froggy?

Production
This is the first full 3D game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise (outside of the cancelled Sega Saturn game) and was generally considered the most impressive display of graphical prowess the genre had seen at the time. It was one of the first titles to be released on the Sega Dreamcast and was also the first "true" Sonic game (produced by Sonic Team) since Sonic & Knuckles in 1994. It was largely considered by fans to have been a major comeback for Sonic after a series of bad, poorly-designed games released in 1995 - 1997 (Sonic 3D Blast, Knuckles' Chaotix, etc.). Also unique is the ability to take a Chao creature found and hatched within the game and place it onto a VMU device for adventure, fighting, and breeding with other Chao on other VMU devices (they can be interconnected).

This was the first game in North America and Europe where the main villain was referred to as Doctor Eggman. Previously in these locales he had been named Doctor Ivo Robotnik (video games back when Sonic began named villians like Russians, due to the end of the Cold War, i.e Mega Man 4), with Sonic and friends using the nickname "Eggman". The manuals now refer to him as "Doctor Eggman aka Doctor Robotnik" with Sonic Adventure 2 where he starts going by the name "Doctor Eggman".

Sonic Adventure was re-released on the Nintendo GameCube under the title Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut on June 17, 2003 in North America, June 19 in Japan, and June 27 in Europe, and later made available on PC CD-ROM. The update includes enhanced graphics (including a change in Knuckles' appearance to resemble more the Sonic Adventure 2 Knuckles), a new Mission Mode, and the playability of every Sonic the Hedgehog Game Gear game. However, Sonic Team didn't remove all the glitches, add other features, or even include the original level designs of some of the stages that were either removed or completely redesigned, which can be considered a bad point for some.

Characters
The game, unlike the previous game, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Adventure has six different characters to choose from, being two more than the four (Sonic & Tails combo being the fourth) avaliable in the earlier Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Sonic the Hedgehog/ Super Sonic
The main hero of the game with super sonic speed. Sonic's story revolves around Dr. Eggman releasing Chaos from the Master Emerald. Sonic battles Eggman and Chaos in an effort to save the world. Sonic has run ins with the other five main characters and must find the Chaos Emeralds before the villains do. Sonic's goal in levels is to either collect a Chaos Emerald or free animals from a capsule.

Miles "Tails" Prower
Sonic's twin-tailed sidekick, who starts to believe in himself. After Sonic rescues Tails from Emerald Coast, the two-tailed fox sets out to help Sonic collect the Chaos Emeralds and stop Chaos. Tails' final battle is against Eggman's Egg Walker. Tails' goal in levels is to race Sonic (except for his last stage, in which case it will be Eggman) to the target (Chaos Emerald, missile, capsule, etc.)

Knuckles the Echidna
Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald shatters when Eggman frees Chaos from within it, causing Angel Island to fall out of the sky. (the chunk of the island containing the Master Emerald Shrine somehow separates from the island on impact, and a long bridge connecting it to the main Island then appears, possibly constructed by Knuckles). Knuckles' goal is to reassemble the shards of the Master Emerald. His levels are large, explorable areas in which you must hunt about the various Action Stages for three shards per stage using a sort of "Emerald Sense" radar to detect nearby Emerald shards. Knuckles is the only character able to dig (Hold B then press A,after gaining a powerup), Glide, or climb walls. He will later be joined by his rival in Sonic Adventure 2 with these abilities by Rouge the Bat.

Amy Rose
Amy Rose, Sonic's eternal girlfriend (in her own mind), is walking through Station Square one day when a tiny blue Flicky falls from the sky and lands on her head. It is discovered that Dr. Eggman needed the Flicky (named 'Birdy' by Amy) because of the Chaos Emerald in it's pendant. Amy and Birdy must escape ZERO the Chase Master throughout the levels until Amy confronts ZERO during the final battle.

Big the Cat
Big the Cat is a newcomer to the Sonic series of games. Big the Cat aptly fits his name as he is a rather large, blue cat. Big's best friend is a frog that he has creatively named "Froggy." Froggy becomes possessed by Chaos' tail, and swallows Big's "lucky charm", a Chaos Emerald, which causes him to mutate. Froggy then runs off, and Big's story begins. Big's levels are fishing minigames, in which Big must fish for, and catch, Froggy. Big may also catch a number of other fish for additional points. If you get a Hit while fishing, be careful not to lose the fish, because if you do, you will lose a life.

E-102 Gamma
E-102 Gamma is one among a series of robots designed by Dr. Robotnik for the purpose of collecting Chaos Emeralds. However, after an encounter with Amy, he suffers a "malfunction"; he gains a "concience". He then turns his aim to destroying his robotic brothers and freeing the animals trapped inside. Gamma's levels are shooting levels. There is a time limit and if it expires the player loses a life. Gamma can gain extra time by destroying multiple enemies in a single lock-on. His missions end when he destroys a certain target (Other E-Series robots usually.).

Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik
Doctor Ivo Robotnik, also known by Sonic and the gang as Doctor Eggman has formulated a new plan to conquer the planet, this time not relying on his robots alone, but this time employing a strange liquid creature only known as Chaos.

Chaos
Little is known about Chaos, except that he is liquid, and mutates into different forms when in contact with Chaos Emeralds. It is later revealed near the end of the game, that Chaos is the guardian of the Chao.

Tikal
A mysterious echidna girl who keeps appearing whenever Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, E-102 and Big are sent back in time. She seems to be trying to stop her father, Pachacamac, from stealing the Chaos Emeralds from the Master Emerald shrine. In the end, Tikal appears in the destroyed Station Square, to help Sonic defeat Perfect Chaos. She appears in levels and the adventure fields as a reddish-white glowing, floating orb.

Chao
Chao are featured in the flashbacks, said to be Chaos's children. They exist primarily in the Chao Gardens as a sort of intelligent virtual pet for the player to raise, an 'evolution' of the A-life system from Nights into Dreams. Chao can be taken with the player by downloading the minigame Chao Adventure to their VMU.

Game Play
The game is divided up into two stages: Action Stages, and Adventure Stages. The division of Action Stages and Adventure Stages was a serious departure from all previous Sonic games, as before all games had been a continuous stream of playable levels, which was returned in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes.

Action Stages
Action Stages are, very basically put, playable levels. This is the only type of area where Sonic or any of his companions will encounter enemies. There are eleven action stages, accessible by different characters; Sonic has the most of them, accessing 10 out of 11 (except Hot Shelter); The character who accesses the least is Amy with only three. The best thing to compare Action Stages to would be the levels of all previous Sonic games. However, unlike previous Sonic games, Action Stages are not made up of Zones and Acts. Instead, the game is more like one continuous zone that may have a few parts to it.

List of Action Stages:
 * Emerald Coast
 * Windy Valley
 * Casinopolis
 * Ice Cap
 * Twinkle Park
 * Sand Hill
 * Speed Highway
 * Red Mountain
 * Hot Shelter
 * Sky Deck
 * Lost World
 * Final Egg

Adventure Fields
Adventure Fields are non-linear game stages, generally designed for (light) puzzle solving, exploration, and plot advancement. They contain very few items (enemies, rings, etc.). The purpose of the Adventure Field is not unlike Overworlds found in RPGs. Every Adventure field links to the other two fields, and they also connect to all of the Action Stages. There are three Adventure Fields:

Station Square
Station Square is a large, metropolitan city. Robotnik plans to destroy it and construct his Eggman Empire ("Robotnikland"), on its ruins. It contains a train station that connects it to the Mystic Ruins, and a boat landing (hidden until the area is available) which leads to the Egg Carrier. Station Square also contains a casino, a beach, and a hotel. The elevator in the hotel on the left, leads to the Station Square Chao Garden. The station square Chao Garden is the only chao garden where you are able to purchase items for your Chao using the rings you have collected. Contains: Emerald Coast, Casinopolis, Twinkle Park, Speed Highway.

Mystic Ruins
The Mystic Ruins is the largest Adventure Field in the game. It has a clearing with a train station that goes to Station Square, and below is a boat landing that goes to the Egg Carrier. Tails' Workshop is located here, and nearby that is the entrance to the Chao Garden disguised as an abandoned mine. There is also an ice cave, as well as the inevitable landing point of Angel Island (first seen in Sonic 3). A more dense jungle is hidden away, which offers an older Echidna temple of some sort, but also the launch platform for the Egg Carrier. Contains: Windy Valley, Ice Cap, Red Mountain, Sand Hill, Lost World, Final Egg.

The Egg Carrier
Dr. Robotnik's massive flying airship. It has two modes, and depending on which, access to certain areas may become available. Other than that, the stage is quite self-explanatory. Notably, this is the Adventure Field where most characters fight their final bosses, all except for Sonic who fights the Egg Viper (in Mystic Ruins), Tails who fights the Egg Walker (in Station Square), and Super Sonic who fights Perfect Chaos (also in Station Square). There is also a large Chao garden in the Egg Carrier. You can access this garden by typing in the password (Eggman) at the door with the letters in front of it. Contains: Hot Shelter, Sky Deck.

Reaction
The game has a very 'love-hate' feeling to it, with reception at the time of release being overwhelmingly positive, including reviews from GameSpot and GameSpy being above 90%. The current Gamerankings overall status is a respectable 87%. Many now do not like the game, and see it as not living up to the previous games on the Genesis, this is mainly down to when the game was ported later in 2003 it was largely slated for the retained bad camera and other issues, which largely are down to the 'lazy' port. This created a rather warped view of the original game which, being a Dreamcast exclusive, not a wide amount of people have played.

Easter Eggs & Trivia

 * Conceptualized by Takashi Iizuka (who would later go on to form SonicTeam USA), he originally envisioned this game as a "Sonic RPG", leading to many rumors of a "Sonic & Knuckles RPG" prior to the game's unveiling.
 * Originally, this game ran at 60fps; However, it suffered from bouts of slow down - so the framerate was later lowered to 30fps.
 * At least one boss was cut from the game: A giant, three-headed robot dragon that would attack Sonic & Tails during the Sky Chase minigame.
 * Many stages under went repeated heavy revisions as Sonicteam got a feel for how Sonic should play in 3D; One of the stages that recieved the most changes was Windy Valley.
 * Just before Sonic transforms into Super Sonic, you can hear a crowd of people chanting "Sonic! Sonic!" - the japanese language chants were actual people chanting, recorded live when Sonic Adventure was unveiled publically in 1998. Japanese Sega Saturn mascot Segata Sanshiro was responsible for getting the crowd to chant.
 * SonicTeam actually took a business trip out to ancient Mayan Ruins, to get a feel for the jungle/ruins locations in the game. During the trip, Yuji Naka became very ill. Many of the textures for the ancient ruins locations in the game were created from real photographs the team took during their trip.
 * This was the final game Naoto Ohshima was credited for. It is rumored he left the company after a dispute with Yuji Naka over the direction they wanted the Sonic series to take after Sonic Adventure. Naoto Ohshima's name was mysteriously removed from the credits for Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut.
 * When Amy Rose remembers "the good old days", she is actually remembering the time Sonic saved her from Metal Sonic in Sonic CD.
 * Both Metal Sonic (Sonic CD) and Mecha Sonic (Sonic 2) are on display in the Adventure Field for Final Egg.
 * This game seeked to unify the different storylines between the Japanese and American versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and create one world-wide continunity; as such, this is the first game in which American Gamers hear Dr. Robotnik being refered to as "Eggman". Similiarly, we learn that The Floating Island is infact named Angel Island, and the airplane Tails pilots is called The Tornado.
 * The main enemy of the game, the water beast "Chaos", was designed specifically with the concept in mind of doing a type of enemy that would have been impossible to do on the previous generation of hardware.
 * This was the first game to implement Yuji Naka's "revolutionary" new camera system. The idea is that when the player is idle, the camera would automatically adjust itself to always point in the direction the player was supposed to go next. It is this very camera system that lead to many of the complaints the 3D Sonic games have suffered reguarding camera controls.

English voice actors

 * Ryan Drummond - Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Corey Bringas - Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Michael McGaharn - Knuckles the Echidna
 * Deem Bristow - Doctor Eggman
 * Jennifer Douillard - Amy Rose
 * Steve Broadie - Pachacamac and E-102 Gamma
 * Jon St. John - Big the Cat
 * Elara Distler - Tikal the Echidna