Anime Forum Games Links Movies Music Profiles Survivor TV Shows The excitment got to me when I heard about this game. Finally, a new Sonic game and not just rehashed ports. Of course I played the demo and thought the game was subpar, at best. I quickly rented the game though since it couldn't be that bad and there was plenty of time to fix some stuff before the final version came out. Sega has finally delivered a good product, something they haven't done in a year. There are four groups of characters, each with their own story line. Sonic and friends want to defeat Eggman, Amy and friends want to find Sonic and other friends, the Chaotix team is on a mission to find certain items and I don't know what Shadow's story is because I didn't play through his game. The storys are basic and they don't go anywhere until the end and even then it isn't all that great. A better question is how did Amy and Cream meet? Maybe that was explained in Sonic Advance 2 but I didn't beat that one with everyone either... The graphics are pretty poor actually. I mean they look nice and all, no slow down or anything like that but they aren't great. The cut scenes look like crap compared to the amazing opening from the first Sonic Adventure game. If you can handle so-so graphics then good for you but it shows not a lot of work went into them. The sound is a mixed bag. The music is good but the theme songs stink, oh and the music has ben slightly changed from the Japanese version, from what I hear anyway. The sound effects are nothing special. The voice acting is a mixed bag. I believe each team has a horribly voiced character. Tails has the nasal whine going on and Big sounds like a mentally handicapped kid. However, you can switch the language so you don't have to listen to the English voices but I didn't listen to any of the others. The control is simple and feels like it was made just for the Gamecube. You move around with the control stick, c stick moves the camera, A jumps and B attacks, X and Y switch characters. Pretty simple, nothing beyond that really. Remember how Sonic and Shadow had the cool, super fast levels in Sonic Adventure 2? Now everyone has those and they are exactly the same, except they end at different spots. Each team is really just a difficulty setting. Amy is easy, Sonic is medium and Shadow is hard. Chaotix team is out on it's own. Basically you'll just need to race to the end of a level, swapping characters when needed to get past certain areas. Nothing too hard, it's actually really easy. The Chaotix team is more goal oriented. Their first level has you collecting 10 hermit crabs as you go along. The second has you finding a lost chao at the end of the level. Pretty simple but it spices things up a little bit. There's also two player and as you collect emblems in the game you unlock new modes like battle. Pretty good and if you have friends it's fun to play and it's much better than the crap they offered in Sonic Adventure 2. I'm fairly certain that the chao garden is missing from this game, which is disappointing. The replay value is kind of high. Over 100 emblems to find, 4 stories to play through and a final "secret" level. Not too bad but the emblems are pretty easy to find and don't take a whole lot of skill. It's also pretty easy to get A ranks in the game which I think are needed for unlocking something or other. This is a good game to start the year with, it's flawed, yes, but it holds it's own against crap like Jak II which I don't even think is a platformer. Sonic fans should run to the store and grab a copy, casual gamers should just rent it since it's kind of short. Either way, you'll get a game that delivers a fun time. Control: 9 Game play: 8 Graphics: 7 Replay: 7 Sound: 6 Story: 3 Final Score: 80/100 Reviewed by Americanpieflute Reviewed on January 15th 2004