Sonic Adventure (DC, 1998)
Graphics-7 Sound-7 Control-5 Challenge-6.5 Story-4
Level Design-6 Frustration-9 Fun-5.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-5.5
+
Good variation (snowboarding, rail shooting, fishing)
"Diary" recaps what you've done in previous game sessions
Fast paced
Six different playable characters (unlocked as you find them throughout the game)
New move - homing attack (pretty fun except it stops forward movement after hitting an enemy/object and it sometimes locks onto the wrong target)
Some good boss fights
Replay beaten stages
Auto-saves between stages
Interact with items (pick up/put down/throw, use as keys)
You can pick up NPCs as well
Musical references to the MD series
Hidden stages
Light speed dash move (homes in on and makes Sonic move along patterns of rings)
Unintented (?) super jump (power up a spin dash at the bottom of a hill, let go and jump immediately)
Improved snowboard segment from Sonic 3
Unlimited continues
Several music tracks per stage
+/-
Introduces a hub world
Boss fights outside of stages
Different aesthetics and 'universe' - plenty of non-evil human NPCs to talk to this time around
Plenty of death traps from the get go (water and pits)
Spin dash mechanic is different (replaces the simple roll move so you'll have to boost when you want to roll)
Generic stuff to collect (animals from enemies, chao?)
Mechanics explained and directions given via talking spheres (not as fast and intuitive as before)
Need to unlock some stages via doors or switches
Tails flight upgrade is overpowered
Chao garden (Tamagotchi-style mini-game)
Shower scene (!)
-
Poor camera (unoptimal angles, won't let you rotate through walls, twitches and zooms in/out in a disorienting way at crucial points in the stages)
Cheap deaths (first loop in stage 1 - not holding any directions glitches it out and you end up in the water)
Hit detection glitches/inconsistencies (stage 1 fences - leads to death, stage 1 - palm tree before the first tunnel, can't jump into the underside of robotnik's egg ship anymore, windy valley loops, final Gamma stage grabbing robots, etc.)
Inconsistent/slow/limited camera control (makes diverging from the intended path really tedious, sometimes can't be used, only two directions)
Points of no return in stages
Sonic now talks and is a complete dork (bad voice acting and script overall)
Lots of flashy segments with little to no interaction or skill involved (chase in stage 1, numbered bounce pads, etc.)
Lame story that takes up a lot of time (in unskippable cutscenes)
The hub world is a bit slow to navigate and JRPG-ish (needing to find and talk to the right NPCs which slows the pace down, also there's no map to get a better overview)
The animals you free from enemies should've been faster to collect (slows down game flow when you need to stop for each one)
Some very cheesy and/or corny music (intro, tails, knuckles, amy)
Station square music restarts when moving between sub-areas within it
Some cutscene dialogue drowned out by loud music
Robotnik pretty much helps you beat Chaos 6
Need to redo all the in-between stages exploration with Tails
5+ screens before you can continue a saved game when booting the game up
Slow pinball game with so-so physics (ball sticks to the flipper and moves slowly when close to it)
No special stages
Some bad bosses (character battles, Chaos 4, Gamma's bosses)
Slow charging up of the light speed dash (even with the upgrade, breaks flow)
Poor character animation in cutscenes
Some slow transitions
Some pop up problems
Need to stand in front of NPCs/monitors to talk/read
Some of Gamma's stages are very short
Slow climbing segments
Notes:
-Played the GC DX version
Comment in Swedish (2013):
Kamerakontroll och collision detection från helvetet. Vrålade rakt ut flera gånger. Ogillar även upplägget med hubvärlden (känns som ett mediokert JRPG), och bristen på specialbanor. Efter att jag klarat Sonics del var jag så less på hubben att jag hämtade en full sparning med tanken att spela enbart banorna via trial-läget, men då går en tydligen miste om bossarna också. Surt.
Och banorna i sig då, tja, jag gillade majoriteten av Sonics del... men Sega gör flera missar här som känns väldigt plattformsspel 101, och även Sonic-spel 101 vilket gör att upplevelsen känns både mer ytlig och mindre tajt än föregångarna i 2D.
Har ströspelat de andra karaktärerna lite, och Tails del var helt okej bortsett från att en tvingas dras med Sonics enerverande röstsamplingar och vad som verkade vara rubber band-AI. Gillade även Knuckles del såhär efter en banas spelande. Amy och Gammas delar var underväldigande och Bigs kändes helt malplacerad.
Så just nu känns det som att det landar på 5-6/10 ungefär, och då bortser jag från berättandet, soundtracket överlag, och en del tveksamma estetiska val.
Level Design-6 Frustration-9 Fun-5.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-5.5
+
Good variation (snowboarding, rail shooting, fishing)
"Diary" recaps what you've done in previous game sessions
Fast paced
Six different playable characters (unlocked as you find them throughout the game)
New move - homing attack (pretty fun except it stops forward movement after hitting an enemy/object and it sometimes locks onto the wrong target)
Some good boss fights
Replay beaten stages
Auto-saves between stages
Interact with items (pick up/put down/throw, use as keys)
You can pick up NPCs as well
Musical references to the MD series
Hidden stages
Light speed dash move (homes in on and makes Sonic move along patterns of rings)
Unintented (?) super jump (power up a spin dash at the bottom of a hill, let go and jump immediately)
Improved snowboard segment from Sonic 3
Unlimited continues
Several music tracks per stage
+/-
Introduces a hub world
Boss fights outside of stages
Different aesthetics and 'universe' - plenty of non-evil human NPCs to talk to this time around
Plenty of death traps from the get go (water and pits)
Spin dash mechanic is different (replaces the simple roll move so you'll have to boost when you want to roll)
Generic stuff to collect (animals from enemies, chao?)
Mechanics explained and directions given via talking spheres (not as fast and intuitive as before)
Need to unlock some stages via doors or switches
Tails flight upgrade is overpowered
Chao garden (Tamagotchi-style mini-game)
Shower scene (!)
-
Poor camera (unoptimal angles, won't let you rotate through walls, twitches and zooms in/out in a disorienting way at crucial points in the stages)
Cheap deaths (first loop in stage 1 - not holding any directions glitches it out and you end up in the water)
Hit detection glitches/inconsistencies (stage 1 fences - leads to death, stage 1 - palm tree before the first tunnel, can't jump into the underside of robotnik's egg ship anymore, windy valley loops, final Gamma stage grabbing robots, etc.)
Inconsistent/slow/limited camera control (makes diverging from the intended path really tedious, sometimes can't be used, only two directions)
Points of no return in stages
Sonic now talks and is a complete dork (bad voice acting and script overall)
Lots of flashy segments with little to no interaction or skill involved (chase in stage 1, numbered bounce pads, etc.)
Lame story that takes up a lot of time (in unskippable cutscenes)
The hub world is a bit slow to navigate and JRPG-ish (needing to find and talk to the right NPCs which slows the pace down, also there's no map to get a better overview)
The animals you free from enemies should've been faster to collect (slows down game flow when you need to stop for each one)
Some very cheesy and/or corny music (intro, tails, knuckles, amy)
Station square music restarts when moving between sub-areas within it
Some cutscene dialogue drowned out by loud music
Robotnik pretty much helps you beat Chaos 6
Need to redo all the in-between stages exploration with Tails
5+ screens before you can continue a saved game when booting the game up
Slow pinball game with so-so physics (ball sticks to the flipper and moves slowly when close to it)
No special stages
Some bad bosses (character battles, Chaos 4, Gamma's bosses)
Slow charging up of the light speed dash (even with the upgrade, breaks flow)
Poor character animation in cutscenes
Some slow transitions
Some pop up problems
Need to stand in front of NPCs/monitors to talk/read
Some of Gamma's stages are very short
Slow climbing segments
Notes:
-Played the GC DX version
Comment in Swedish (2013):
Kamerakontroll och collision detection från helvetet. Vrålade rakt ut flera gånger. Ogillar även upplägget med hubvärlden (känns som ett mediokert JRPG), och bristen på specialbanor. Efter att jag klarat Sonics del var jag så less på hubben att jag hämtade en full sparning med tanken att spela enbart banorna via trial-läget, men då går en tydligen miste om bossarna också. Surt.
Och banorna i sig då, tja, jag gillade majoriteten av Sonics del... men Sega gör flera missar här som känns väldigt plattformsspel 101, och även Sonic-spel 101 vilket gör att upplevelsen känns både mer ytlig och mindre tajt än föregångarna i 2D.
Har ströspelat de andra karaktärerna lite, och Tails del var helt okej bortsett från att en tvingas dras med Sonics enerverande röstsamplingar och vad som verkade vara rubber band-AI. Gillade även Knuckles del såhär efter en banas spelande. Amy och Gammas delar var underväldigande och Bigs kändes helt malplacerad.
Så just nu känns det som att det landar på 5-6/10 ungefär, och då bortser jag från berättandet, soundtracket överlag, och en del tveksamma estetiska val.