Sonic Adventure 2

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Sonic Adventure 2
Development staff
Developer(s)	Sonic Team USA
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Takashi Iizuka Eitaro Toyoda Kazuyuki Hoshino
Video game overview
Series	Sonic the Hedgehog series
Release date(s)	23 June 2001
Genre(s)	Platform, Action, Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E
Platform(s)	Dreamcast
Media	GD-ROM
Input	Dreamcast controller
Game order
Preceded by	Sonic Adventure

What kind of hedgehog are you?
— Tagline

Sonic Adventure 2 (ソニックアドベンチャー2, Sonikku Adobenchā Tsū^?) is a platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega in 2001 as a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is the sequel to Sonic Adventure.

Sonic Adventure 2 was originally released on 23 June 2001. In Japan, it also came with a limited-time Birthday Pack (バースデイパック, Birthday Pack^?) during the first two days of release to mark the tenth 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 feature Dr. Eggman as a playable character.

Development

Sonic Team USA in San Fransisco.

Sonic Adventure 2 was developed by Sonic Team USA, the now-defunct U.S. division of Sonic Team, and published by Sega. After the longtime series contributor Takashi Iizuka brought select members of Sonic Team to America to polish up the English release of the original Sonic Adventure, the team immediately their first project as the U.S. branch of Sonic Team - Sonic Adventure 2- shortly after the release of the American version of Sonic Adventure in 1999. It was designed to be more action-oriented than the slower-paced, more story-driven Adventure. The development team ran the game at 60 frames per second with "tempo", giving Sonic a variety of actions rather than focusing on speed alone. Its levels facilitated this flow, making Sonic seem faster than he was.

Taking inspiration from their Southern California location for the game's levels and environments, the developers were inspired by San Francisco (their headquarters) and other American locations, such as Yosemite National Park (where they vacationed during its development), the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay Area. Sonic Team thus decided to set Sonic Adventure 2 in the fictional "Central City", featuring their own takes on these landmarks. Compared to Sonic Adventure, the sequel was intended to have "more of an American flavor". Although the game's level design prioritized the frame rate, it was more streamlined than Sonic Adventure because of the team's experience with Dreamcast hardware.

Throughout its development cycle, Sonic Adventure 2 changed rather dramatically. Early media and interviews with Yuji Naka point to there only being three playable characters initially: Sonic, Knuckles, and Eggman. After outcry from gamers wondering where certain franchise-staple characters were, Tails, and newcomers Shadow and Rouge were revealed to be playable. The fact that Tails, Shadow, and Rouge were possibly added to the roster later in development may help explain why over half the levels in the game recycle assets from other stages.

A Dark Chao and Hero Chao.

Iizuka described the Chao as a "relative neutral entity" in Sonic Adventure. In the sequel the developers expanded the creatures' presence, adding the ability to raise "Hero" and "Dark" Chao to reflect the conflict between good and evil. For the same reason, all six playable characters have roughly equal gameplay time (unlike Sonic Adventure, where Big the Cat's and E-102 Gamma's stories were short). In Sonic Adventure 2, Chao have the ability to socialize, so they resemble a "real artificial life form."

Other early preview material point to the game at one point having branching storyline pathways; one example given of this in effect was a scenario involving Sonic trapped, underwater, in a submarine. The player would be given one of two options: make Sonic try to pilot the submarine to safety, or open the hatch and take his chances in the water (despite Sonic being unable to swim). Though scrapped for Sonic Adventure 2, branching storyline pathways were eventually introduced in Shadow the Hedgehog. However neither Sonic Adventure 2 nor Shadow the Hedgehog contains any scene with a submarine in it.

Promotional artwork of Shadow and the early logo of the game.

Sega announced a follow-up to Sonic Adventure and a spinoff (which would become Sonic Shuffle) on 4 October 1999. The newly named Sonic Adventure 2 appeared at E3 2000, with Sonic Team adding video shown there to its website on 30 June. Sonic Team posted a trailer and a number of screenshots on 30 May 2001, with Sega promoting Sonic Adventure 2 as the last Sonic game for the Dreamcast and as marking the series' 10th anniversary. Sega held a 10th-anniversary party for Sonic in June 2001, at which attendees could compete in a battle tournament; the winner played against Iizuka.

Sonic Adventure 2 was released worldwide on 23 June 2001, marking Sonic's 10th Anniversary. A special collectors edition of the game was produced, featuring a large blue case that contained the game, a music CD (featuring tracks spanning Sonic's 10 year history), a Sonic the Hedgehog retrospective booklet, and a commemorative coin. Though originally intended to be limited edition, so many copies of it were published that it is fairly easy to find one for relatively cheap.

Gameplay

Single player

The story select screen.

Gameplay takes place between two different points of view 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 features Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and the non-playable Amy, while the "Dark" story features 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, come 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, where 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 two stages where they must find keys into Eggman's base and one 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 beat it.

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 less time is used and the more rings obtained, 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 Level Up Item, 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, a remake of Green Hill Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog game.

Two-Player Mode

Sonic and Shadow in Action Race.

Unlike its predecessor, Sonic Adventure 2 has a multi-player mode. Like the single player mode, 2P Player has action racing (Sonic/Shadow levels), treasure hunting (Knuckles/Rouge levels) and shooting (Tails/Dr. Eggman levels). Each type of stage is played split-screen except for the shooting stages. The conditions for winning in each type are as follows:

• Action Race - The player who reaches the Goal Ring first wins.
• Treasure Hunt - The first player to find two pieces of the Master Emerald wins.
• Shooting - The first player to reduce their opponent's health gauge to zero wins.

There is also a Kart Racing mini-game in the two-player mode, but the player will have to clear the Kart Stages in the Hero and Dark stories in order to enable Kart Racing in 2P Play.

In the two-player mode of the GameCube port, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, along with action racing, treasure hunting, shooting, and Kart Racing, there's also Chao Race, Chao Karate and a random mode that chooses the characters and stages for you.

Big in the Eggwalker, exclusive to the Dreamcast version.

Along with the six main characters of the game, the two-player mode has some unlockable characters that are exclusive to 2P Play. In the Dreamcast version, these include: Amy Rose (playable after beating all of Sonic's levels with an "A" Rank), Metal Sonic (playable after beating all of Shadow's levels with an "A" rank), Tikal (playable after beating all of Knuckles' levels with an "A" rank), Chaos 0 (playable after beating all of Rouge's levels with an "A" rank), a Chao (playable after beating all of Tails' levels with an "A" rank), and Big (playable after beating all of Eggman's levels with an "A" rank).

Shadow's outfit.

Another exclusive to the two-player mode is alternate outfits. In the Dreamcast version, the player could unlock special costumes for each of the six main characters by completing all of their respective missions. Sonic and Shadow's costumes originated from Phantasy Star Online, an online RPG series that was also developed by Sonic Team, while all the other characters had unique outfits. Also on the Dreamcast version were seasonal costumes for Halloween and Christmas, available as DLC in late 2001.

Playable characters

Hero Story

Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic is always on the move. When faced by his formidable enemy Eggman, Sonic wins every time. He thinks that saving the world is no big feat, and he always helps the underdog. Sonic hates boredom and is consistently looking for his next adventure. Sonic lives by his own rules, never thinking twice about what others perceive of him, and driven by his own desires. He was born to run, and he loves to cover as much ground as fast as he can. His demeanor is always cool and calm. When he finds himself in a pinch, he acts as though nothing can stop him. Cool all the way, when faced with a serious situation, he bears down and becomes intensely focused on the challenge.

Miles “Tails” Prower: Tails is a young fox with a knack for building things. He’s as talented as Eggman but has yet to discover the true potential of what he can accomplish. Sonic has taken Tails under his wing and treats him like a younger brother. Tails wants to prove to Sonic that he’s someone Sonic can count on. Besides his ability to fly using his tails, he has become an experienced pilot of his newly designed plane, the “Tornado”. Tails’ natural talent for building things helps Sonic more than ever this time around.

Knuckles the Echidna: Knuckles was born on Angel Island and brought into this world to defend the Master Emerald. This is his destiny. If Sonic exemplifies the wind, then Knuckles is the mountain, stern and unmovable. Wild and tough, his determination is unshakable. Knuckles thinks of Sonic as a rival, but is often envious of the adventurous lifestyle he lives and the fame that follows. He is a well-known treasure hunter versed in the martial arts.

Dark Story

Shadow the Hedgehog: Shadow is the spitting image of Sonic, except for his black body. Created by the world's most intelligent scientist, Professor Gerald, Shadow is ageless and immortal. He has the special ability to harness the power of the Chaos Emerald, which enables him to warp time and space. Sharp-witted and willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants, he always seems to be on the edge. The little girl he grew up with, and who he was very fond of, was violently killed in front of his eyes, gasping her final wish for him to destroy earth to get revenge on humanity for her death. Traumatized by the grief of her death, Shadow is determined to keep the promise he made to her. However, it's later revealed that it wasn't what she wished for at all...

Dr. Robotnik, a.k.a. Eggman: His nickname says it all. He’s a scientist with a body shaped like an egg. With an IQ of 300, he's a certifiable genius, but his childish demeanor makes him believe that taking over the world is easy. Although he seems to think he has a master plan, he’s never quite sure how he’s going to pull it off. Sonic and his friends make fun of Dr.Robotnik by calling him Eggman. In turn, Eggman views Sonic as his archnemesis who always seems to spoil his plans of world conquest. Somewhere deep in his heart, though, he may have a certain fondness for Sonic.

Rouge the Bat: Rouge is a world-famous treasure hunter who loves jewels. The president hired Rouge to uncover information about the mysterious project “Shadow.” This fearless female bat is full of sex appeal and knows how to get what she wants. Although she looks innocent and carefree, she’s always scheming. Once she makes a decision, her motives are always mercenary in nature.

Stages

Normal Stages

Hero Story

1. Stage 01: City Escape - Sonic
2. Stage 02: Wild Canyon - Knuckles
3. Stage 03: Prison Lane - Tails
4. Stage 04: Metal Harbor - Sonic
5. Stage 05: Green Forest - Sonic
6. Stage 06: Pumpkin Hill - Knuckles
7. Stage 07: Mission Street - Tails
8. Stage 08: Aquatic Mine - Knuckles
9. Stage 09: Route 101 - Tails (Kart)
10. Stage 10: Hidden Base - Tails
11. Stage 11: Pyramid Cave - Sonic
12. Stage 12: Death Chamber - Knuckles
13. Stage 13: Eternal Engine - Tails
14. Stage 14: Meteor Herd - Knuckles
15. Stage 15: Crazy Gadget - Sonic
16. Stage 16: Final Rush - Sonic

Dark Story

1. Stage 01: Iron Gate - Eggman
2. Stage 02: Dry Lagoon - Rouge
3. Stage 03: Sand Ocean - Eggman
4. Stage 04: Radical Highway - Shadow
5. Stage 05: Egg Quarters - Rouge
6. Stage 06: Lost Colony - Eggman
7. Stage 07: Weapons Bed - Eggman
8. Stage 08: Security Hall - Rouge
9. Stage 09: White Jungle - Shadow
10. Stage 10: Route 280 - Rouge (Kart)
11. Stage 11: Sky Rail - Shadow
12. Stage 12: Mad Space - Rouge
13. Stage 13: Cosmic Wall - Eggman
14. Stage 14: Final Chase - Shadow

Extra Stages

1. Cannon's Core (Last Story) - Tails, Eggman, Rouge, Knuckles, Sonic
2. Chao World - All Characters
3. Green Hill (Stage Select - Unlockable at 180 Emblems) - Sonic

Boss Stages

Hero Story

1. Bigfoot (After City Escape) - Sonic
2. VS. Eggman (Before Prison Lane) - Tails
3. VS. Shadow (Before Green Forest) - Sonic
4. King Boom Boo (After Death Chamber) - Knuckles
5. Egg Golem - (Before Eternal Engine) Sonic
6. VS. Rouge (After Meteor Herd) - Knuckles
7. VS. Eggman (2) (aboard the Space Colony ARK) (After Crazy Gadget) - Tails
8. VS. Shadow (2) (aboard the Space Colony ARK) (After Final Rush) - Sonic

Dark Story

1. Hot Shot (After Iron Gate) - Shadow
2. VS. Tails (After Weapons Bed) - Eggman
3. Flying Dog (After Security Hall) - Rouge
4. VS. Sonic (After White Jungle) - Shadow
5. Egg Golem (After Sky Rail) - Eggman
6. VS. Knuckles (After Mad Space) - Rouge
7. VS. Tails (2) (aboard the Space Colony ARK) (After Cosmic Wall) - Eggman
8. VS. Sonic (2) (aboard the Space Colony ARK) (After Final Chase) - Shadow

Last Story

1. Biolizard (After Cannon's Core) - Shadow
2. Finalhazard - Super Sonic and Super Shadow

Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot, ending details or any kind of information follow.

Hero Story

Sonic in City Escape.

This story begins with a military helicopter (Sigma-Alpha 2) flying over the city with Sonic being captured aboard it. Suddenly the pilot starts shouting "What?! The hedgehog is gone! He's taking out everyone aboard!" At that moment, Sonic the Hedgehog jumps out of the helicopter, rips off a piece of the wing to use as a snowboard, and then jumps off. After he destroys a military mech, he encounters a near look-alike of himself named Shadow the Hedgehog who has stolen a Chaos Emerald from the bank a while earlier. Sonic realizes that the military is mistaking him for Shadow. Shadow proceeds to use the emerald to transport to a different location, and Sonic is arrested.

At the same time, Knuckles the Echidna and a mysterious character named Rouge the Bat are fighting over who owns the Master Emerald. Dr. Eggman tries to steal the Master Emerald, but Knuckles stops him in his path by breaking the Master Emerald into pieces. Knuckles and Rouge have a hunt for the pieces of the Master Emerald. Knuckles finds the first three pieces in Wild Canyon.

The next day Miles "Tails" Prower comes to Prison Island in search of Sonic, rescuing Amy Rose from Dr. Eggman in the process. Then Amy frees Sonic from his cell, and Sonic escapes on a missile. Knuckles leaves Wild Canyon, and heads for Pumpkin Hill. There he finds three more pieces of the Master Emerald. Knuckles leaves Pumpkin Hill, and heads for the Aquatic Mine. Meanwhile, Sonic gets weary, jumps off the missile, and lands on a small island in a vast jungle. There he confronts Shadow once again.

Sonic soon discovers the jungle is going to explode and leaves just in time. When they get back, Eggman is on televisions everywhere and it is revealed he is being taped from a space-station named "Space Colony, ARK". Suddenly half of ARK comes off, revealing a long pointer called the 'Eclipse Cannon' which shoots out a powerful beam and destroys half of the moon. A timer on screen appears saying 24 hours until mass destruction. Later, Tails discovers Space Colony ARK and the massive power of the Eclipse Cannon. He has to find Sonic, tell the President and escape the military all before it is too late. He eventually finds Sonic and escapes the military.

Meanwhile, Knuckles finds the last three pieces he can find of the Master Emerald in the Aquatic Mine. He later pops out of a manhole beside Tails, who is talking to Sonic and Amy over a phone on loudspeaker. Tails chases down the President, then he and Sonic tell the President about the situation they are in. Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy then head for Dr. Eggman's "secret" base inside the pyramid. Sonic breaks through the security system. Knuckles then has to find three keys to get into the rocket room. Knuckles defeats King Boom Boo, the king of ghosts. After that, Dr. Eggman appears and summons the Egg Golem, which Sonic has to take care of. As soon as he is defeated, they blast off in the rocket.

In all the excitement of the space ship, the cargo bay opens releasing the pieces of the Master Emerald Knuckles had collected. Sonic remarks that only the Master Emerald pieces were inside there. Knuckles thinking quickly takes control of the ship causing it to spin out of control. Knuckles jumps ship and lands on a small planet and finds the pieces he lost, leaving Sonic, Tails, and Amy screaming on the ship which then crash lands into the ARK. He defeats Rouge and gets the rest of the Emerald. Meanwhile, in Space Colony ARK, Tails is heading for the engine of the Eclipse Cannon. He destroys the engine, so it's up to Sonic now. Amy gets kidnapped by Eggman and demands the last emerald in exchange. Sonic, who has a fake Chaos Emerald, makes it to the central control room. Unfortunately for Sonic, Eggman anticipated the likelihood that one of them had the fake emerald, and after tricking Tails into admitting that Sonic had the fake emerald, Eggman then shot Sonic out of an escape capsule that was going to explode in the middle of space. Before being launched out, Sonic encourages Tails to stop Eggman, and tells Amy to take care of herself. Just before the pod exploded, Sonic also considered the possibility of using the fake Chaos Emerald to escape via Chaos Control, due to it having similar wavelengths to an actual Chaos Emerald.

All Tails, Amy and Eggman can see is a capsule blowing up, so they presume Sonic was killed in the vicinity. Tails is so riled up that, in a burst of anger, he defeats the Doctor. Meanwhile, Knuckles (with the full Master Emerald) spots Sonic coming out of a portal. Sonic tells Knuckles how he used Chaos Control to save himself, and speeds to the Eclipse Cannon. Sonic confronts Shadow one last time, and destroys the Eclipse Cannon. Tails, still grieving over Sonic's "death", briefly and half-heartedly attempted to tell his fallen friend that he managed to defeat Eggman. Sonic, having apparently overheard Tails' comment, responds by congratulating him, causing Tails and Amy to learn that Sonic survived, but also distracts them while Eggman grabs the last Chaos Emerald. Sonic then told them to look outside. They then look out the window and sees Sonic at the tip of the cannon smiling and giving a thumbs-up to both of them.

Dark Story

This story begins with Dr. Eggman infiltrating Prison Island in search of the Ultimate Life Form A.K.A. Project: Shadow, a weapon created by his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik. He finds the "weapon" inside a capsule and by using a Chaos Emerald (and the password M.A.R.I.A.), he soon discovers that the weapon is a male hedgehog. The doctor initially mistakes Shadow the Hedgehog for his enemy Sonic the Hedgehog, and nearly fights him. Then, Shadow proves himself by defeating the military guard fighter. After Shadow defeats him, he leaves, heading for Space Colony ARK and tells Eggman to bring more Chaos Emeralds and meet him on the ARK.

Meanwhile, Rouge the Bat is fighting with Knuckles over who truly owns the Master Emerald. Dr. Eggman uses this to his advantage, and attempts to take the Master Emerald. Knuckles stops him by breaking the Master Emerald into pieces. Rouge and Knuckles have to hunt for the pieces of the Master Emerald. Rouge finds three pieces in the Dry Lagoon.

Shadow in Radical Highway.

Later, Dr. Eggman goes to his base to check up on things, and watch the replay of the news. He finds out that the G.U.N. robots are guarding his pyramid base. He destroys them and goes on inside. While he is watching the replay of the news, he discovers that Shadow had stolen a Chaos Emerald from the Federal Reserve Bank yesterday with everyone mistaking him for Sonic. The scene changes to where Shadow is leaving the bank when he has a flashback of what happened on Space Colony ARK with him and his friend Maria Robotnik. He proceeds to speed down the highway, destroying any robot that gets in his way.

He later sees Sonic, explains to Sonic who he is and leaves. The next day, Rouge decides to infiltrate Dr. Eggman's base. To do so, she has to find three keys. Meanwhile, Dr. Eggman and Shadow are on board the ARK. Shadow tells Eggman about Space Colony ARK and the power of the Eclipse Cannon. He then puts in the two Chaos Emeralds. They return to the base at the time Rouge finds the last key. Rouge persuades her conditions to Eggman into helping her by giving him a Chaos Emerald, and telling him where three other emeralds were. Before the deal is closed, she introduces herself to Shadow.

Shadow, Dr. Eggman, and Rouge headed for Prison Island, where the three Chaos Emeralds are. Dr. Eggman breaks through the security system and fights Tails, who happens to be nearby. Rouge finds the three Chaos Emeralds and defeats another Military Fighter. However, the fight leaves her locked inside the room. Shadow rushes through the jungle, plants the bomb, finds Sonic and fights him. It ends in a tie, neither of them win because Shadow has to escape the jungle before it blows up. So he grabs Rouge, and warps onto the ARK.

Later, Eggman is broadcasted on the televisions everywhere and it is revealed to all he is being taped from the ARK. Half of the station comes off, which reveals a long pointer called the Eclipse Cannon which shoots out a powerful beam, destroying half of the moon. Then, there is a timer on the screen saying 24 hours until mass destruction. At the ARK, Rouge explains that she knows where the location of the last Chaos Emerald is: with Tails. Shadow and Rouge try to catch the Tornado (Tails' plane). Rouge can't catch up in her car and Shadow can't catch them in Sky Rail. They head back to the ARK to tell Eggman.

By this time, Knuckles has unlocked the entrance to Eggman's base, so Eggman summons his Egg Golem. However, Sonic damages the head of the golem, causing it to turn on Eggman. Eggman has to destroy his Egg Golem to pass. A while later, he and Shadow (who are still on the pyramid) discovers that Sonic and his friends are on the ARK. Rouge soon discovers that Knuckles is on a small planet with the pieces of the Master Emerald. She finds half of the pieces, then they fight. It is a draw and she gives the pieces to Knuckles.

Eggman in Lost Colony.

Meanwhile, Eggman has kidnapped Amy Rose. A while later, Eggman discovers Tails and Sonic rushes into the room he was in. Eggman shoots Sonic out of an escape capsule which is going to explode and then fights Tails. Despite the young fox's best efforts, Eggman takes the real Emerald. Meanwhile, Shadow witnesses Rouge attempting to take the other six Emeralds and exposes her as a government agent. Rouge then proceeds to show him the results of Project Shadow, with the picture showing an entirely different being. She then asks Shadow that if the picture shows the real Ultimate Life Form, then she wonders who or what is standing in front of her. Eggman contacts Shadow, declaring that someone is attempting to get to the Eclipse Cannon and orders him to stop them before the cannon fires again. Shadow finds it to be none other than Sonic, who he fights and defeats one last time. Meanwhile, Eggman inserts the last Chaos Emerald into the Eclipse Cannon. While he is cheering over his apparent victory, a nearby monitor turns on forebodingly.

Last Story

This story continues from the Dark Story, with an alarm blaring throughout the ARK's central control room. Eggman is confused and frustrated, as the Eclipse Cannon is not firing. Suddenly, an image of Eggman's grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, appears on the computer monitor.

Meanwhile, continuing from the Hero Story, Sonic and Knuckles return to the Ark's interior, where they suddenly feel a large vibration. At that moment, Rouge appears and declares that they are all doomed, revealing that the Space Colony ARK is heading towards earth at a tremendous velocity. On televisions everywhere, including the ARK, a recording of Gerald Robotnik plays; he explains that the ARK will crash into earth and destroy it along with the human race, with the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds.

Eggman comes in and Knuckles starts yelling at him, thinking that Eggman is behind all of this. Instead, Eggman gives Rouge his grandfather's diary and Rouge reads it out loud, revealing that the professor went insane after his granddaughter Maria was killed when the Ark was shut down. Gerald went mad because he loved Maria so much, and was devastated that his own research lead to her death. Wanting revenge on all humanity, he programmed the Ark to crash into the earth when the seven Chaos Emeralds were collected.

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge and Eggman work together to stop the energy from the Chaos Emeralds to stop the ARK from crashing into earth. They quickly hatch a plan a plan to stop the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald. Meanwhile, Amy finds Shadow and tries to convinces him to help them save the world. Though Shadow initially refuses, Amy's words cause him to remember what Maria truly wished for; to protect earth and humanity, and to "give them a chance to be happy". Determined to keep his promise, Shadow rushes off to catch up with the others.

Sonic and Knuckles arrive at the cannon's core, which is designed to resemble the shrine of the Master Emerald, with the Chaos Emeralds there. When Sonic and Knuckles try to get closer to the shrine, Gerald's voice is heard again and a snake/lizard like beast called the Biolizard is awakened. They realize that this is the prototype of the Ultimate Life Form. Shadow appears and distracts the Biolizard, 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 disappears after engaging a fight with Shadow. They hear Eggman's voice saying that the Biolizard is still alive, as it used Chaos Control to teleport and fuse together with the ARK to become the Finalhazard and is keeping it on its crash course towards earth.

Super Sonic fighting the Finalhazard.

Sonic and Shadow use the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and Super Shadow, respectively. They fight the Finalhazard in outer space, defeating it and using a super-powered Chaos Control to warp the ARK back into stable orbit. However, Shadow's power is drained and he falls to earth, content that he has fulfilled his promise to Maria. As the people on earth celebrate, Sonic returns to the ARK alone, giving Rouge Shadow's ring cuff. The credits begin to roll, and the heroes contemplate on everything that has transpired and their plans for the future. As Sonic and his friends leave the ARK to return to earth, Sonic quietly bids a final farewell to Shadow the Hedgehog in the same manner as Maria.

Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure differences

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 three characters are in one story, a lot like Sonic Heroes. There is a 2 Player mode, unlike Sonic Adventure. When treasure hunting, the radar telling the player how close he/she is to the emerald no longer has the color blue as "closer but still not close enough", nor does the radar detect all three Emerald Shards or items at once like in Sonic Adventure, making Hunting Stages' gameplay time consuming. Tails does not roam around any more without a mechanical system, and always is in the Tornado in its 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. A new action was added to Sonic and Shadow, the Somersault. The music to the Power Sneakers and Invincibility are the same musical writing, but with different instruments. Amy Rose appears in the game's story mode but is not playable (although in Versus Mode she is playable) unlike Sonic Adventure. In addition, shuttle loops are no longer scripted, and the player actually have to press forward when using one.

Villains

Biolizard

Biolizard, the Prototype of the Ultimate Life, is a creature which appears as the second to last, and final, boss. 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 raided 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 down 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 killed by the combined power of Sonic and Shadow in their super forms. Together, Sonic and Shadow then used Chaos Control to place the ARK back into orbit, ending the collision course and saving the planet.

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 the sun. If they are touched by the sun's light, they become weaker and open to attacks. When they're not in contact with sun light, they become stronger and gain powers. His powers include throwing plasma balls, shooting a plasma beam from his mouth and turning into a shadow in an attempt to avoid getting hit by Knuckles. He will also attempt to bite the player at close range. He was defeated by Knuckles at Death Chamber.

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 generators. Once all three of them are destroyed, the Egg Golem becomes disabled and sinks down into the quicksand.

Voice actors

Role	English Voice Actor	Japanese Voice Actor
Sonic the Hedgehog	Ryan Drummond	Jun'ichi Kanemaru
Miles "Tails" Prower	Connor Bringas	Atsuki Murata
Knuckles the Echidna	Scott Dreier	Nobutoshi Canna
Amy Rose	Jennifer Douillard	Taeko Kawata
Shadow the Hedgehog	David Humphrey	Kōji Yusa
	Ryan Drummond (Few lines only)
Rouge the Bat	Lani Minella	Rumi Ochiai
Dr. Eggman	Deem Bristow	Chikao Ōtsuka
Omochao	Lani Minella	Etsuko Kozakura
Maria Robotnik	Moriah Angeline	Yuri Shiratori
Professor Gerald Robotnik	Marc Biagi	Chikao Ōtsuka
Chao	Tomoko Sasaki
The President	Steve Broadie	Kinryū Arimoto
Secretary	Sue Wakefield	Mami Horikoshi
GUN Soldiers	Marc Biagi	Kōji Ochiai
	Scott Dreier	Tōru Ōkawa
G.U.N. Computer voice	Sue Wakefield	Mami Horikoshi
News reporter	Lani Minella	Mami Horikoshi
Space Colony ARK Computer voice	Scott Dreier	Tōru Ōkawa
Default menu theme	Shelly Fox

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	83.3%
Metacritic	89%
Review scores
Publication	Score
Edge	7/10
Famitsu	33/40
GamePro	4.5/5
Game Revolution	B
GameSpot	8.6/10 (US) 8.8/10 (UK)
IGN	9.4/10
Dreamcast Magazine	93%

Sonic Adventure 2 received critical acclaim, with scores of 89 percent and 83.3 percent from review aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings. Critics appreciated the game's multiple playing styles. According to Edge and reviewer Four-Eyed Dragon of GamePro, the core game's three styles and bonus features such as Chao gardens made the game engaging to play. Johnny Liu of Game Revolution praised its replay value of multiple playing styles and 180 different goals. Anthony Chau of IGN called it "one of the best Sonic games ever": "If this is the last Sonic game in these declining Dreamcast years, it's satisfying to know that the DC didn't go out with a bang, but with a sonic boom."

Shahed Ahmed of GameSpot criticized Adventure 2's camera for the "cardinal sin" of 3D platformers: forcing a player to jump to an out-of-frame platform. Ahmed wrote that although a player can re-orient the camera with the trigger buttons, it reverts when the character moves. According to Chau and Liu, camera issues were absent in Tails' and Eggman's levels and insignificant in Sonic's and Shadow's, but searching for Emerald shards and items in cramped sections of Knuckles' and Rouge's levels was frustrating. Edge found camera problems permeating the game, with no significant improvement from Adventure.

Liu called the graphics "sweet, sweet eye-crack". Four-Eyed Dragon wrote: "Sonic [Adventure] 2 is simply jaw-dropping beautiful", citing its detailed backgrounds and scenery and the playable characters' and enemies' extensive color palettes. According to Chau, the game had "some of the best textures ever seen" and was one of the most beautiful Dreamcast games. Edge was impressed by the texture detail and draw distance, and Chau, Liu and Ahmed praised its 60-frame-per-second rendering speed.

According to Ahmed, the game's music was a step up from Adventure's "campy glam-rock and J-pop soundtrack", with less emphasis on lyrics, and Liu appreciated its more "understated" approach. Four-Eyed Dragon called Adventure 2's music "an eclectic mix of orchestrated masterpieces, guitar tunes, and melodic hip-hop voices gracefully fill the game's ambiance to a perfect pitch." Reaction to the voice acting was mixed; although Ahmed said "The voice acting, and the lip-synching in particular, is executed quite well", Liu and Chau thought the English voices were inferior to the Japanese ones.

Ahmed criticized Adventure 2's plot: "Throughout the game the plot becomes more and more scattered and lackluster", not focusing long enough on one element to execute it meaningfully. Although Liu agreed that despite the game's ambitious scope and themes it failed to advance the series' core plot beyond the Sega Genesis Sonic games, Edge appreciated the story's presentation from both perspectives: hero and villain.

Sonic Adventure 2 received several accolades, including the 2001 IGN's Editors' Choice Award. ScrewAttack called it the fifth-best Dreamcast game, and GamesRadar rated it the tenth-greatest Dreamcast game out of 25: "Despite trailing off significantly in recent years, the 3D side of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise had a surprisingly stellar start with the Sonic Adventure entries, and the 2001 sequel really amped up the action". In February 2014, IGN's Luke Karmali called the game his tenth-favorite game of all time.

Alternate versions and ports

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle

• GameCube boxart of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.
• Xbox Live Arcade boxart of Sonic Adventure 2.

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Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (ソニックアドベンチャー2 バトル, Sonikku Adobenchā Tsū Batoru^?) is the enhanced port of Sonic Adventure 2 for the Nintendo GameCube.

Digital port

Sonic Adventure 2 was re-released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows in high-definition format via Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Steam respectively throughout October 2012. It also featured the "Battle" DLC, which included all of the added features present in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

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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 (a parody of a scene from Jurassic Park).

Soundtracks

The cover artwork for Multi-Dimensional.

The main theme of the game is "Live and Learn", performed by Crush 40. Some of the character themes were remixes of their Sonic Adventure counterpart. Five soundtracks were released for Sonic Adventure 2:

• Multi-Dimensional Sonic Adventure 2 Original Sound Track contains all of the sound tracks of the game except for the character themes.
• Cuts Unleashed: SA2 Vocal Collection contains all of the character theme songs and "Live and Learn".
• Sonic Adventure 2 Official Soundtrack is the western-released soundtrack containing all of the character themes and some of the action stage themes.
• Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - Sampler is a promotional disc that only contains the tracks from Cuts Unleashed but all of the track's duration is halved.
• Sonic Adventure 2 Original Soundtrack 20th Anniversary Edition contains both vocal and instrumental music tracks from the game to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Sonic series.
• SONIC ADVENTURE 2 OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK VINYL EDITION is a vinyl album of two records with a selection of both vocal and instrumental music tracks from the game.

Trivia

• The two driving levels in the game's story, Route 101 and Route 280, are named after real-world U.S. highways.
• In Tails' "Mission Street" level, it is possible to knock over small three-wheeled cars, reminiscent of parking attendants in real-life San Francisco. The developers of the game occasionally were ticketed by these cars and allowed them to be destroyed in the game as a form of revenge. They have, however, acknowledged that the parking attendants were just doing their job.
• In the "Good Hedgehog, Evil Hedgehog" TV commercial, the "Evil Hedgehog" section is a spoof of Jurassic Park, as the "Evil Hedgehog" ate the cow as it was lowered, similar to how the Velociraptor ate the cow in Jurassic Park.
• This is the first Sonic game to have swearing in the English track. Swear words can be heard in the lyrics of the main theme of Knuckles the Echidna and in the lyrics for the background music of some of the stages he goes through (i.e., "Deeper"). This was also the main reason why the GameCube version has a "Lyrics" warning on the ESRB rating.
• In the game, Eggman blows up half of the moon, but in later games with cutscenes in outer space scenes, most notably Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Colors, it is still perfectly intact. In Colors, it is actually shot again. Also, the earth does not appear to have any gravitational stress by the destruction of half of the moon. However, as recently confirmed by Ilzuka Takashi of Sonic Team at Sonic Boom 2013, in all later games after Sonic Adventure 2, the moon is actually still blown up. However, from Sonic Heroes onwards, you are just looking at the opposite side of the moon, the part that Eggman blew up is on the opposite side of the world, so, if you went across the world you'd see the destroyed section of the moon.
• Sonic Adventure 2 is the only game where Sonic wears the 2G Hi-Speed Shoes in order to promote the Soap product (which the 2G Hi-Speed Shoes were based on) and the new extreme sport, freestyle grinding, that the shoes were made for. There are also many billboards, blimps and benches in the game that advertised the shoes. The 2G Hi-Speed Shoes themselves are a custom version of the Scorcher/Nitro Soap Shoe, while Shadow wears a pair of custom Broadside Soap shoes, as grinding (or "soaping") debuted as an important new gameplay element.
• This is the first non-spin-off game where Dr. Eggman is playable.
• This is the first game in which Eggman points a gun at someone.
• In the cutscene mentioned above, the pilot of the helicopter identifies himself in military talk as "Sigma-Alpha 2", which translates from Greek as "SA2," the game's initials.
• Shadow was originally deemed dead after the events of the Last Story, but his reception from fans caused him to return to the series.
• This is the last main series Sonic game on a Sega console since Sega eventually withdrew from the console market after the release of this game.
• If one were to go to the Theme Select in the Options menu and rotate the Control Stick clockwise for a few moments until hearing a chime sound, they would then see a picture of the President's Secretary and should then be able to select the Secretary's theme.
• Green Hill Zone returns as an unlockable stage, which marks its big comeback in recent Sonic games, as it had not been seen since Sonic Jam. The stage's background music is a remixed version of the original song, and when Sonic destroys an enemy (which are the first Badniks instead of G.U.N. robots), the same sound effects from the original game are played instead of the usual sound effects.
• In the Mad Space level for Rouge, there are two Easter eggs. First, the player must go under the starting platform to its base, and kick open the iron box where they will find a blue defense item container from the Dreamcast game Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II. Also, the player should go to the outlying platform with a circle of Rings and two iron boxes. They have to kick open the nearest iron box and there, they will see a green medical/technique item container from the same aforementioned RPG.
• In the Chao Garden, there is a glitch that makes it possible to reuse an animal or a Chaos Drive from the Action Stages multiple times on a single Chao. While holding your animal, go as close to your Chao as possible without giving it the animal. Then simply drop the animal in front of your Chao and, if done correctly, the Chao will not only do the level up animation, but its stats will go up as if you actually handed the animal to the Chao, only now you can pick the animal up again. This can also be done with Chaos Drives and can be used to quickly raise your Chao's stats.
• Also in the Chao Garden, one of the shows shown on the garden's little TV (achieved by winning all Challenge Races), features a big, mustached, orange cat (Robotnik) chasing a speedy, little blue mouse (Sonic). This is a spoof of the classic cartoon show, Tom & Jerry.
• It is believed that Tails, Rouge and Shadow were not originally planned to be playable, due to the fact that they did not make a significant appearance in trailers until towards the end of production.
• Shadow was originally going to be named "Terios" ('reflection of'), and Rouge was going to be "Nails" (in direct contrast to Knuckles). The prototype names can still be found within the game's (any versions') files.
• In the Chao Garden, some characters will say untranslated lines (mostly Tails and Eggman). Also, the Chao in the Chao Kindergarten sing songs in Japanese.
• Like Sonic Adventure, in the original Dreamcast version of the game, if you insert the disk into a PC then special wallpapers will be available to download as an easter egg. As well as that, there is a list of main series Sonic games prior to Sonic Adventure 2, although Sonic the Hedgehog CD is absent from the list. It reads:

SERIES TITLE:

SONIC the Hedgehog, 1991

SONIC the Hedgehog 2, 1992

SONIC the Hedgehog 3, 1994

SONIC and KNUCKLES, 1994

SONIC JAM, 1997

SONIC Adventure (for Japan), 1998

SONIC Adventure, 1999

SONIC Adventure International, 1999

SONIC Adventure 2 The Trial, 2000.

• The camera can be used to move objects in the game. This is most noticeable in the Chao Garden if you have a fruit in front of the camera and the player walks away from it. The same thing can be done in the Chao Garden in Sonic Adventure.
• In the first cutscene of the demo version, before the player enters City Escape, the man on the radio says, "What the hell?" in the text which marks the first Sonic game to have swearing (although this is not in the final release of this game). In the final release, the script instead says, "What?!"
• Shadow has the least amount of stages out of all the characters, with only 4 (Radical Highway, Sky Rail, White Jungle, and Final Chase).
• This is the only Sonic game where Connor Bringas voices Tails.
• The "Chao in Space 2" movie billboard as well as the billboard advertising for the DVD Edition of "Chao in Space" in City Escape refers to the "Chao in Space" movie billboard near the entrance of Casinopolis in Sonic Adventure.
• In Sonic Generations, Shadow is Sonic's rival. During the opening cutscene, it is a reference to the Sonic Adventure 2: Battle opening, and during the fight, a remix of For True Story plays and if Sonic grabs 2 or 3 power cores depending on the difficulty, Live and Learn plays for a brief time.
• City Escape returns in the console versions of Sonic Generations, as the fifth level in the game, in the Dreamcast Era.
• Radical Highway returns in the 3DS version of Sonic Generations. Oddly enough, Sonic has never been confirmed to have visited Radical Highway before Sonic Generations.
• In the Hub World in Sonic Generations, when in the Egg Dragoon section of the hub, a remix of E.G.G.M.A.N plays.
• Tails is the only playable character in Sonic Adventure 2 that does not fight a major boss (not counting Eggman).
• Sonic is the only playable character in Sonic Adventure 2 who has the most Level Up Items, a maximum of 6, while Knuckles and Eggman have 5 Level Up Items, and Tails, Shadow, and Rouge have a minimum of 4 Level Up Items.
• Shadow before being officially named was internally known as both Dark Sonic and Terios. Dark Sonic was later used in Sonic X as a name for one of Sonic's transformations and "terios" translates into "reflection of".
• In the Chao in Space 2 poster the rating is PG-13 as part of MPAA.
• The Dreamcast version of the game runs a disc check to make sure it is not run from a copied disc. If this check fails, Eggman will fall through the floor when he starts his section of Cannon's Core.

Big the Cat in Heroes' story first cutscene.

• Big the Cat has six known cameo appearances in the cutscenes of Sonic Adventure 2 that can be only seen by pressing ///. These include:
  • During Sonic's escape from the helicopter at the beginning of the Heroes' story. Big can be seen in the Dreamcast version holding onto it.
  • During Sonic and Shadow's first meeting, Big can be seen running around Shadow while Shadow is standing over the F-6t Big Foot.
  • In the cutscene after Knuckles fought King Boom Boo, Big can be seen standing behind the entrance to the shuttle once the entrance opens.
  • During the cutscene after Knuckles and Rouge's fight, Big can be seen wandering around the arena.
  • During the Last Story's intro, Big can be seen standing on the computer's plaform with Eggman.
  • In the Last Story, before Amy tries to persuade Shadow to help, Big can be seen running right and left in the hallway that leads to the room where Shadow is.
• Shiro Maekawa has stated that he found difficulty in writing the story for Sonic Adventure 2.
  • Despite this, the game's story stands to be Maekawa's favorite as he is emotionally attached to it, the game being the first story he wrote for.
  • Maekawa has stated that if he had a chance to rewrite it or change something about the game's story, he would only add the scenes he had to cut.

Videos

Sonic Adventure 2 (Japanese Commercial)

Sonic Adventure 2 Japan Commercial 2001

Sonic Adventure 2 Actual Japanese Commercial (Dreamcast)

Sonic Adventure 2 (XBLA) - Bonus Video Behind the Scenes

External links

• Official website (Japanese)

Sonic Adventure 2

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Main article | Scripts (Hero, Dark, Last) | Staff | Glitches | Beta elements | Gallery | Re-releases (Battle | 2012)

Sonic the Hedgehog console main series games