Sonic Adventure 2

Sonic Adventure 2 is a platform game developed by Sonic Team USA and published by Sega in 2001 as a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the last good game put out by Sonic Team to date.

Sonic Adventure 2 is a sequel of Sonic Adventure. It is also the only game where Sonic wears Soap shoes to promote the product. There were also many billboards in the game that promoted the shoes.

It was released in North America on June 7, 2001 and in Japan and Europe on June 23, 2001 to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. This game introduces two new playable characters, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, and is also one of the few Sonic games to officially feature Doctor Eggman as a playable character. On December 10, 2001, a port of the game called Sonic Adventure 2 Battle was released onto the Nintendo GameCube in Japan, followed by North America on February 12, 2002 and Europe on May 3, 2002.

Single player
thumb|300px|left|Sonic Adventure 2 Trailer

Gameplay takes place between two parallel storylines, the "Hero" story and the "Dark" story; the player has the option of advancing in either one or the other at any time. The "Hero" story featuring Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and the non-playable Amy, while the "Dark" story featuring Shadow, Rouge, and Dr. Eggman. Each hero character plays similarly to their respective dark character, and vice versa. Levels advance in order for each storyline, alternating between each of the playable characters.

Levels featuring Sonic or Shadow are designed in much the same way as they were in Sonic's levels in Sonic Adventure, wherein the player's primary objective is simply to get to the end of the level. Levels with Tails or Dr. Eggman allow the player to control a mechanized robot walker and generally blast their way to the end, much like E-102 Gamma's stages in Sonic Adventure. Knuckles and Rouge are required to scour their levels for shards of the Master Emerald (with the exception of 2 stages where they must find keys into Eggman's base and 1 stage where chaos emeralds are located), again, much like Sonic Adventure. Interspersed between the levels are various bosses, which one particular character must fight. The main story line can only be finished when both "Hero" and "Dark" story modes are finished, and an extra story feature is revealed where the player must use all the characters to win.

Within Action Stages, players collect rings and defeat enemies, with a timer counting the time spent within the level. At the end of each stage, the player is given a score based on the number or rings collected and time spent within the level. The more rings and less time, the higher the score is. The player is also given a rank-based performance, a letter grade that is either A, B, C, D, or E, with A being the highest and E being the lowest. Irrelevant to any other factors, an A Rank is automatically awarded to players that complete any score-ranked mission with all of the rings from that level in the player's possession.

There are five missions within each Action Stage; in order to obtain the second mission, the player must complete the first one, to unlock the third, the second mission must be finished, and so on. In order from first through fifth, the missions are to complete the level, collect 100 rings, find a "lost Chao" using the Mystic Melody upgrade, finish within a time limit, and complete a "Hard mode" version of the Action Stage.

Emblems are also given within the game; there are 180 Emblems in total. In order to gain all 180 Emblems, players must defeat every mission within every stage, achieve an A rank in all stages and missions, etc. After collecting all 180 Emblems the player unlocks an extra level 3-D Green Hill level. 3-D Green Hill is a remake of Green Hill Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog game.

Two-player mode
There are some characters that can only be played on two-player mode. These include, Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, Tikal the Echidna, Chaos, Chao, Dark Chao. On the dreamcast version these extra characters are unlockables, they do not come with the special abilities they get on the Gamecube: EggRobo (Kart Racing), and Big the Cat (Dreamcast only). However, using Action Replay these characters can be playable in single player mode.

A multitude of levels from single player are playable. The levels playable in two player mode are mostly the same as the normal game; Sonic, Shadow, Amy and Metal Sonic race, Tails, Eggman, Chao and Dark Chao(or Big) have a shootout, and Knuckles, Rouge, Tikal and Chaos hunt for emerald shards.

There is also another secret that is able to unlock on both Dreamcast and the Game Cube version.If you get an A rank on every character's missions (Game Cube Only), or beat every characters mission (Dreamcast Only) in one player mode you get a secret suit that you can only use in two player mode. These suits also look different in each version of the game, but Tails' and Knuckles' suits look the same in both (except Knuckles gets tribal marks with his suit in the Dreamcast version).

Reception
Opinions of Sonic Adventure 2 are variable among both professional reviewers and fans of the Sonic series. At its initial release on the Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure 2 was the recipient of very positive reviews, averaging an 89% according to critic compiler Metacritic. However, the Nintendo GameCube port (Sonic Adventure 2 Battle) fared considerably worse in terms of reviews, despite having no single player gameplay changes from the Dreamcast version and only an 8-month gap between their releases.

To date, the game has done well with sales of 1.44 million units in North America alone, making it one of the GameCube's highest selling games, and it is still one of the most popular GameCube games. This game also made it to Player's Choice.

Hero Story:
It begins with a Military helicopter (Sigma-Alpha 2) flying over the city. "Hedgehog] captured", the pilot said. Suddenly he starts shouting " Hedgehog is escaping! Repeat, hedgehog is escaping!" And at that moment Sonic the Hedgehog jumped out of the helicopter, ripping off a piece of the wing to use it as a snowboard, and then he jumped off. Then after he destroys a Military Fighter, he encountered a near look-alike of himself named Shadow the Hedgehog who had stolen a chaos emerald from the bank a while earlier. Sonic realizes that the military are mistaking him for Shadow. Then Shadow uses the emerald to transport to a different location and Sonic is arrested. The next day Knuckles the Echidna and a mysterious character named Rouge the Bat are fighting over who owns the Master Emerald. But then Dr.Eggman tried to steal the Master Emerald but Knuckles stopped him in his path by breaking the Master Emerald into pieces. Knuckles and Rouge had hunt for the pieces of the master emerald. Knuckles found the first three pieces in Wild Canyon. The next day Miles "Tails" Prower came to Prison Island in search of Sonic, rescuing Amy Rose from Dr.Eggman in the process. Then Amy freed Sonic from his Prison Cell, and Sonic escaped on a missile. Knuckles left Wild Canyon, and headed for Pumpkin Hill. There he found three more pieces of the master emerald. Knuckles left Pumpkin Hill, and headed for the Aquatic Mine. Meanwhile, Sonic got weary, jumped off the missile, and landed on a small island in a vast jungle. There he confronted Shadow once again. He soon discovered the jungle was going to explode. He left the jungle just in time. When they got back Eggman was on T.V everywhere and it was revealed he was being taped from the old space colony, ARK. Suddenly half of ARK came off which revealed a long pointer called the Eclipse Cannon which shot out a powerful beam which destroyed half of the moon. Then there was a timer on the screen saying 24 hours till destruction of Earth. Later, Tails discovered Space Colony ARK and the massive power of the Eclipse Cannon. He had to find Sonic, tell the President, and escape the military all before it was too late. He eventually found Sonic, and escaped the military. Meanwhile, Knuckles found the last three pieces he could find of the master emerald in the Aquatic Mine. He later popped out of a manhole beside Tails, who was talking to Sonic over a phone on loudspeaker, and Amy. Tails chased down the President, then he and Sonic told the President about the situation they were in. Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy then headed for Dr.Eggman's "secret" base inside the pyramid. Sonic broke through the security system. Knuckles then had to find three keys to get into the rocket room. Then Knuckles had to defeat King Boom Boo, the king of ghosts. After that, Dr.Eggman appeared and summoned the Egg Golem, which Sonic had to take care of. After that, they blasted off in the rocket. Knuckles sensed the pieces of the master emerald, and in his excitement, he opened the cargo bay, and spun the ship, which crash landed into the ARK. Knuckles landed on a small planet and found the pieces he lost. Then he defeated Rouge and got the rest of the master emerald. Meanwhile, in Space Colony ARK, Tails was heading for the engine of the Eclipse Cannon. He destroyed the engine, it was up to Sonic now. Just to spice up the adventure, Amy got kidnapped (again). Sonic, who had a fake chaos emerald, made it to the central control room. Just then, Sonic was shot out of an escape capsule that in the middle of space was going to explode but then Sonic remembered that Tails said the fake chaos emerald had almost the same power so Sonic used Chaos control just at the right time before the capsule exploded. All Tails, Amy and Eggman could see was a capsule blowing up so they thought Sonic was killed. Tails was so riled up, in a burst of anger he beat Dr.Eggman bad. Meanwhile, Knuckles (with the full master emerald) spotted Sonic coming out of a portal. Sonic told Knuckles what happened, and how he used a fake chaos emerald to save himself, and speeded to the Eclipse Cannon. Sonic confronted Shadow one last time, and destroyed the Eclipse Cannon. Tails, grieving over Sonic's "death", looked out the window and saw Sonic at the tip of the cannon smiling.

Dark Story:
It begins with Dr. Eggman infiltrating Prison Island In search of the Ultimate Life Form A.K.A. Project:Shadow, a weapon created by none other than his grandfather Gerald Robotnik. He finds Shadow, released him, using a chaos emerald, and the password M.A.R.I.A. and soon discovered that he was a hedgehog. So, he mistook Shadow the Hedgehog for his enemy Sonic the Hedgehog, and nearly fought him. Then Shadow proved himself by defeating the military guard fighter. After Shadow defeated him, he left, heading for Space Colony ARK and told Eggman to bring more chaos emeralds and meet him on the ARK. Meanwhile, Rouge the Bat was fighting with Knuckles the Echidna over who truly owned the Master Emerald. But Dr.Eggman spotted their bickering, and took the Master Emerald. Knuckles stopped him by breaking the Master Emerald into pieces. Rouge and Knuckles had to hunt for the pieces of the Master Emerald. Rouge found three pieces in the Dry Lagoon. Later, Dr.Eggman went to his base to check up on things (and watch the replay of the news). He found out that the G.U.N. robots were guarding his pyramid base. He destroyed them and went on inside. While he was watching the replay of the news, he discovered that Shadow had stolen a chaos emerald from the bank yesterday (everyone mistaking him for Sonic). It then to where Shadow was leaving the bank when he had a flashback of what happened on Space Colony ARK with him and his friend Maria Robotnik. He was speeding down the highway, knocking any robot out of his way. He later saw Sonic. Shadow explained to Sonic who he was, and left. The next day, Rouge decided to infiltrate Dr.Eggman's base. But to do so, she had to find three keys. Meanwhile, Dr. Eggman, and Shadow were on the ARK. Shadow told Eggman about Space Colony ARK and the power of the Eclipse Cannon. He then put in the two Chaos emeralds. They returned to the base at the time Rouge found the last key. Then, Rouge persuaded her conditions to Eggman into helping her by giving him a Chaos emerald, and telling him where three other emeralds were. Before the deal was closed, she introduced herself to Shadow. Shadow, Dr.Eggman, and Rouge all headed for Prison Island (where the three Chaos emeralds were). Dr.Eggman broke through the security system, and defeated Tails, who happened to be there. Rouge found the three Chaos emeralds (and defeated another Military Fighter). Shadow rushed through the jungle, planted the bomb, and found Sonic. He didn't have time to finish him off because he had to escape the jungle before it blew up. So he grabbed Rouge, and warped onto the ARK. Later Eggman was on T.V everywhere and it was revealed to all he was being taped from the old space colony, ARK. Suddenly half of ARK came off which revealed a long pointer called the Eclipse Cannon which shot out a powerful beam which destroyed half of the moon. Then there was a timer on the screen saying 24 hours till destruction of Earth. At the ARK, Rouge explained that he knew where the location of the last Chaos emerald was, with Tails. Shadow, and Rouge were trying to catch the Tornado (Tails' plane). Rouge couldn't catch up in her car, and Shadow couldn't catch them in Sky Rail. So they headed back to the ARK to tell Eggman. By this time, Knuckles had unlocked the entrance to Eggman's base, so Eggman summoned his Egg Golem. However, Sonic damaged the head of the golem too many times, causing it to turn on Eggman. Eggman had to destroy his Egg Golem to pass. A while later, he and Shadow (who were still on the pyramid) discovered that Sonic and his friends were on the ARK. Rouge soon discovered that Knuckles was on a small planet with the pieces of the master emerald. She found half of the pieces then they fought but it was a draw and she gave the pieces to Knuckles anyway. Meanwhile, Eggman kidnapped Amy Rose. A while later Eggman discovered Tails, and Sonic went into the room he was in. Then Eggman shot Sonic out of an escape capsule which was going to explode, then at the last minute he snook up behind them both and took the real emerald. Meanwhile, Shadow (who was shocked that Sonic survived) saw Sonic run up next to him. Shadow defeated Sonic one last time, and headed for the control room. Meanwhile, Eggman was putting in the last Chaos emerald. While he was cheering over his "victory", a screen nearby was flashing WARNING!! WARNING!!

Last Story:
It continues from the Dark Story where the eclipse cannon is flashing WARNING!! WARNING!! Eggman is puzzled and doesn't know what to do but then he see's his grandfather Gerald Robotnik tied to a chair on the screen of the eclipse cannon. Meanwhile it continues from the Hero Story where Sonic and Knuckles enterd the room Amy and Tails were in but then they heard a rattle and suddenly Rouge came out of the bloom. "You just don't know when to give up, do you?" Knuckles said but then Rouge said that they are all doomed because the Space Colony Ark is heading towards Earth at a tremendous velocity. Then on T.V everywhere, including the Ark, you see Gerald Robotnik tied to a seat explaining how the Ark will crash into Earth and destroy it among the savage humans, with the power of all seven chaos emeralds. Then Eggman comes in and Knuckles starts giving out to him, thinking that Eggman is behind all of this. But then Eggman gives Rouge his great grandfather's diary and Rouge reads it out loud revealing that the professor went insane after his granddaughter Maria was killed. When the space colony ARK was shut down, Maria was killed in the process. Gerald went mad because he loved Maria so much. He wanted to curse all humans, so he made the Eclipse cannon, and when having enough power (the 7 Chaos Emeralds) would be programmed to make space colony ARK fall to Earth. It is revealed that Gerald made Shadow for good, to benefit man-kind but space coloney ARK was destroyed, and as a result, so was project Ultimate Life Form A.K.A. Shadow. He was able to complete his research and finish Shadow, and he says that you may awaken it "if you wish to fill the world with destruction". The gang have to stop the energy from the Chaos Emeralds to stop the Space Colony ARK from crashing with Earth. They then have a plan to stop the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald. Amy finds Shadow and convinces him to help save the world. Shadow then has a flashback of Maria telling him the same, and launching him out of a shutte down to Earth, so he wouldn't be destroyed on the ARK. He then takes off saying "I must keep my promise to Maria, and you." Sonic and Knuckles are seen at a shrine that looks somewhat like the Shrine of the Chaos Emeralds, with the Chaos Emeralds there. When Sonic and Knuckles try to get closer to the Shrine to stop the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald, Gerald's voice is heard again, and a snake/lizard like beast is awakened. They realize that this is the prototype of the Ultimate Life Form, Shadow being the finished product. Shadow appears and defeats the Biolizard (prototype of the Ultimate Life Form), while Sonic and Knuckles get to the shrine and find a space for the Master Emerald. Knuckles does the chant to negate the power of the Chaos Emeralds, and the Biolizard is then transported to outer space. They hear Eggman's voice saying that the Biolizard is controlling the Space Colony ARK for a crash course to Earth. Space Colony ARK, is no longer being powered by the Chaos Emeralds, but now by the Biolizard. Sonic and Shadow use the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and Super Shadow. They fight the Biolizard in outer space, and are about to unleash the final blow, when Maria's voice rings in Shadow's head again about giving people chance to be happy. Both Sonic and Shadow use Chaos Control to warp the crashing space colony ARK, and the Biolizard back to its normal place, but his power was drained and he fell to Earth, realizing that he had fulfilled Maria's requests in his 'dying' moments. Everyone thought that Shadow died, but he was saved by one of Eggman's robots, which was later revealed in Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog.

Differences Between Sonic Adventure and SA2
For Sonic and Shadow, instead of jumping on a capsule, the end of a stage is cleared when jumping into a giant ring with the word "GOAL" flashing in the middle. Adventure fields do not return in Sonic Adventure 2, but alternate stories come back. This game, though, does not have alternate stories for each character, and 3 characters are in one story, a lot like Sonic Heroes. There is a 2 Player Gameplay, unlike Sonic Adventure. When treasure hunting, the radar telling you how close you are no longer has the color blue as "closer but still not close enough." Tails does not roam around any more without a mechanical system, and always is in the Tornado in it's walking-robot mode. Although when roaming around Chao World, both Eggman and Tails run around without their walking robots, and Tails can fly around again, without getting tired as quickly as it is in Sonic Adventure. A new action was added to Sonic and Shadow, the somersault. The music to the speed up shoes is the same musical writing, but different instruments.

Biolizard
Biolizard, the Prototype of Ultimate Life, is a creature which appears as the second to last, and final, boss; it is also seen briefly in a flashback in Shadow the Hedgehog. The Biolizard appears as a giant and alien looking lizard with a life support system on its back with tubes running down its neck to its head. According to Sonic X, the Biolizard is 85 meters long, 30 meters wide, 19.5 meters tall, and weighs 87.5 tons. The massive creature can either attack by trying to bite its enemies with crushing jaws, or attempting to hit them with its tail. Biolizard can also generate large black orbs from its mouth, create smaller, but extremely numerous, pink egg-like orbs that it can shoot at a target and manipulate gravity. Additionally, as a product of Project Shadow, the creature can use Chaos Control. The Biolizard was an earlier version of "Project Shadow", a government project run by Professor Gerald Robotnik that was intended to create an "Ultimate Lifeform" as a first step towards humanity discovering the secret of immortality. Due to the experiments, it later needed a life support system. While the Biolizard was successful in the way that it was could regenerate and restore itself, and could self-reproduce, it was also unruly and dangerous. It was locked away when Gerald, with the aid of the alien Black Doom, produced a more advanced being: Shadow the Hedgehog. The military, on Earth, began to worry and fear about what Robotnik was building on the ARK. When GUN came to Space Colony ARK in order to put a stop to Professor Gerald's plans, they found the Biolizard and captured it. It didn't go without a fight, however, and it killed almost all of the GUN soldiers.

The Biolizard remained encapsulated aboard the ARK until Doctor Eggman placed the seven Chaos Emeralds into the Eclipse Cannon. This initiated a hidden program by Gerald, that would use the Emeralds to power the ARK into a doomsday causing collision with the planet below. The program released the Biolizard to defend the Armageddon plan from tampering by the combined forces of Eggman, Sonic the Hedgehog and friends. But Amy Rose had convinced Shadow to help save the Earth, and he engaged and defeated the giant reptile in battle by damaging its Life Support System. Knuckles rushed in afterwards and used the Master Emerald to negate the power of the Chaos Emeralds, supposedly putting a halt to the collision course. However, the Biolizard then used Chaos Control to teleport outside and fuse with the space station itself, becoming the Finalhazard. Its body mounted on the eclipse cannon, it continued the rush towards Earth by pulling it there itself. As Finalhazard it attacks with the pink orbs and firing out energy beams from its damaged Life Support System. It was, however, weakened by the loss of its Life Support System, revealing slight weak points on its body, and was destroyed by the combined power of Sonic and Shadow in super form. Together, Sonic and Shadow then used Chaos Control to place the ARK back into orbit, ending the collision course and saving the planet. If an Action Replay code is used, it is easy to ignore the Finalhazard, and the screen will start to get red. This means its entering the atmoshpere. Sonic's friends and Eggman tell the player when the colony will enter the atmoshpere.

King Boom Boo
King Boom Boo is the king of all ghosts. He has ghost powers, but he and his ghost minions can lose power because of an artifact with a sun and moon side. When the "sun" side is up, it creates light and they lose power. When the "moon" side is up they become stronger and gain powers. These powers include throwing plasma balls and shooting a plasma beam from his mouth. He will also attempt to bite you at close range. He was defeated by Knuckles at the Death Chamber in Sonic Adventure 2 as a boss. He relates very much like Nintendo's King Boo, but King Boo was created after Boom Boo. When you fight him, you can see on the wall a picture of a Nintendo regular Boo, and a regular Boom Boo.

He appears on an episode of Sonic X, haunting an old mansion with his minions but doesn't appear in the Pyramid like he did in the game.

Egg Golem
The Egg Golem is a boss character appearing in Sonic Adventure 2. After Knuckles the Echidna defeats King Boom Boo, Eggman appears and summons a giant animated statue called the Egg Golem to battle Sonic. To defeat the Egg Golem, Sonic must run to his back, jump across the platforms that stick out, and attack the Golem's control mechanism atop its head.

In the Dark Story, Sonic immediately jumps up and kicks the control mechanism, causing the Egg Golem to go haywire and attack Eggman. In order to defeat it, Eggman has to use his Volkan Cannon to destroy its internal power genorators. Once all three of them are destroyed, the Egg Golem becomes disabled and sinks down into the quicksand.

According to an eyecatcher card from Sonic X, The Egg Golem is 57 Metres tall and weighs 250 tons. The Egg Golem fights by smashing its hands and head against the circular platform that Sonic or Eggman are standing on. It can also create an electrical field around itself to repel attacks, or spin its arms around itself to sweep enemies off the platform.

The Egg Golem also appeared in the Sonic X adaption of Sonic Adventure 2. It was remotely controlled by Bokkun who used it to fight Sonic and Knuckles. The two heroes had a hard time with the golem, but eventually Cream the Rabbit stole the remote control from Bokkun just after he took Agent Topaz hostage, and made the Egg Golem chase Bokkun into the desert. It later appeared standing on top of Doctor Eggman's pyramid During Super Sonic and Super Shadow's fight against the Finalhazard, with Bokkun standing on its head. A similar character was also used in the game Sonic & Knuckles as the first act boss in the Sandopolis Zone. Like the Egg Golem it was an animated statue, vulnerable only on its head, and although it was not named, it may have been a partial inspiration for the later character.

Advertisement
The Dreamcast version is known for its infamous commercial which shows a scientist approaching a hedgehog labeled "Good Hedgehog" and petting it. The camera then goes to a tank labeled "Bad Hedgehog" where a cow is being lowered in. Eating sounds could be heard along with screams from the cow until the screen goes back to the bad hedgehog burping (this is a parody of a scene from Jurassic Park). The Gamecube version's advertisement shows several real life hedgehogs being trained to take on the role of Sonic in the game.

Soundtracks
3 original soundtracks were released for Sonic Adventure 2: The vocal album called "Sonic Adventure 2 Vocals Collection: Cuts Unleashed" the score called "Multi-Dimensional Sonic Adventure 2 Soundtrack" and in North America the "Sonic Adventure 2 Official Soundtrack" Additionally, one of the Major Theme Songs of this soundtrack made it into Sonic and The Black Knight.