Yeah, I know I said I was going to post every Thursday, but I decided to get my first review up early. In preparation for the release of Sonic Adventure next week on the XBLA, I decided that I was going to fire up the original version and play it. For old times sake, you understand, before a potentially better version replaces the original Dreamcast version. I wanted to see, to experience again, the feel of the original as an adult before I played on the ‘updated’ version. Whereas I had played the Dreamcast version as a young teenager, I was now approaching it with a cautious cynicism that only adult life can bestow on you.
I had a good start when I loaded it up. My Dreamcast, once proud flagship of my console collection, once the most technologically advanced piece of machinery I had, made horrifying noises, like it was alternately chewing my Sonic Adventure disc and having an electronic heart-attack at the same time when I turned it on. I waited with bated breath, like I was overseeing some kind of fragile ritual, as the screen coalesced into the Sonic Team logo eventually, and then the power chords kicked in, indicating the opening screen of Sonic Adventure had indeed decided to load up with only a few noises sounding like my Dreamcast was having sex with the TV.
I’m going to take a step to the side here, and discuss the music independently of the game. An odd choice, you may agree or disagree, but the in-game music can be analyzed independently of the game itself. It does nothing to really set the mood. Unlike previous Sonic games, where the music has fit the theme of the level, Ice Cap Zone being twinkling icy synths over by a powerful bass, or Casino Night Zones jazz-inspired moody midi bouncing around everywhere, mimicking the feel of the level, to give two random arbitrary examples, the music in Sonic Adventure doesn’t fit at all. There are a few theme songs that are good, like Super Sonic’s wailing guitar solo theme or Amy’s ridiculously girly song which fits her personality like a glove, but there are some that are totally random. Like Knuckles’ theme, or Big the Cat’s theme. When I look at Knuckles, I don’t immediately think, “Hey, what we need is some crap rapping over the top of a dodgy beat. That’ll express his character amazingly.”, I reach for the mute button. And don’t even get me started on Tails’s theme. Dear lord above. The rest of the music is bland, uninspiring and as stated above, doesn’t fit the theme of the level that I happen to be playing. Why oh why Sonic Team did you have to **** up the music to the first Sonic game on your new flagship console? One of the crucial parts, and you majorly ballsed it up even before I’ve really scratched the surface.
This was the first major Sonic game to feature more than three playable characters, and this sparked off a trend that carried on for some time, whereby Sonic was slowly phased out and more friends introduced with each game, all the while retaining the Sonic title. Which to me is a bit suspect, as if the game is called Sonic, I expect to play as Sonic for more than 5 minutes. Thankfully for me, I do get more than 5 minutes of gameplay as Sonic, as he has the biggest part of the storyline in Sonic Adventure. All the other characters seem to be designed to explore different parts of the overall storyline, and do cross over at times, for example, Tails meeting Froggy, Big’s frog friend who forms the core mechanic of playing as Big. However, this is executed sloppily, with cutscenes in the game apparently being majorly different, depending on who you are playing as.
Big the Cat, and his dead, dead eyes
One example of this is Dr Robotnik hunting Chaos Emeralds. After a boss fight, specifically the Egg Hornet, he’s in his flying machine, lying on the floor, gently smouldering away. Now, if you’re playing as Sonic, Tails will be a muppet, and just seemingly wander over to Robotnik, holding aloft a Chaos Emerald, and Robotnik grabs it. Like taking candy from a baby, the expression goes I believe. However, playing as Tails, and you get a cutscene of him wandering away from Robotnik, holding the Emerald aloft still, but at least walking away. Dialogue changes from cutscenes, again, depending on who you are playing as, lending to a headache and the occasional “Wasn’t that different when I was playing as XXX?”, which serves to further accentuate the fact that there apparently is some kind of crazy space-time continuum ****-up going on, and that there is less of a cohesive and stable storyline than, say, a bouncy-castle seated on the San Andreas fault.
The dialogue ingame is also appropriately cheesy, or at least, would be if it was delivered with any kind of emotion. This is my second main gripe with the game, as the voice acting is atrocious. The lips move, the voice sounds, but you tell that behind Sonic and co’s dead, empty eyes, that all emotion has ceased. Sonic exclaims surprise in tones that could be mistaken for someone making a dull question. And it’s not just Sonic, it’s everyone, with the exception of Big. Big just sounds like he’s a bit special in the head, and so, delivers every line in a sort of slow drawl, like he’s just learning that he can read AND speak at the same time. The facial expressions for the dialogue are also terrifying, in that body parts move in unnatural ways whilst characters are talking, and quite frankly, seeing someone’s eyebrows and mouth move in ways that are an abomination unto nature whilst talking in a monotone is the beginning of nightmare fuel.
This is the most emotion he ever shows. It doesn't quite capture the horrifying facial movements though.
The controls, I am pleased to report, are still as clunky as they were 10 years ago, and time has not improved them at all. The camera spins around as if it’s barely in control of itself, and trying to get it to spin to a decent angle to see the action is about as rare as unicorn farts. This would be excusable, if the game ran at a snails pace. However, as this is Sonic, the action is high-speed, or at least, would be if you didn’t have to stop every few seconds to make sure you’re not about to run face first into a spike pit or an enemy. Which kinda ruins the fun, especially as it’s supposed to be high-octane. Fortunately, the moves for the characters, such as the newly introduced homing jump attack for Sonic, means that the camera flaw can at least be moderately rectified.
The graphics are good for a ten year old game, appropriately shiny and cartoony for a Sonic game, and as this is Sonic’s first proper 3D outing, not counting the isometric Sonic 3D, it does hold up. Mostly. There is the occasional graphic glitch, and it is possible at times to angle characters so they’re pushing on thin air, which is down to the detection box being less than stellar. Actually, scrap that, the collision detection in this game is downright shocking at times, which is a bit of a shame as it was a major development, and should have blown everything out of the water at the time, but didn’t.
Despite these major flaws, I still found it a mostly enjoyable experience. The storyline, without giving anything away, is ridiculously over the top, the locales are very varied and aren’t really challenging to any experienced player, and despite the horrific grinding and chewing noises coming from my Dreamcast, the loading screens were over fairly quickly, which makes a nice change from both old and new games taking minutes to load up a new area, giving you ten to fifteen seconds or so of peace before throwing you back in the action. Each character feels distinct from the other, all having different objectives, and the Chao gardens are a nice little distraction from the main game, allowing you to kick back, chill out, and raise your own little pet Chao creature for fun.
Despite their cutesy and occasionally freaky looks, the Chao are good fun
All in all, it’s a bit of a shock to come back and see one of my fave teenagehood games somewhat standing the test of time. A lot of things are bad about it, that I can’t figure out why my 12 year old self didn’t just throw the controller away in frustration, or just accepted, but I guess it must have been blind acceptance of the fact that it was clunky, especially in comparison to the games of today. Here’s hoping that next weeks re-release of it fixes the godawful controls at least. I doubt I’ll be getting an update to fix the nightmarish expressions any time soon.
