has an industrial harbor level but features zero intermodal containers. if you put meteor herd OR mad space in a 10/10 game, either would drag it down to a 7/10. the tails stages are like filing unemployment paperwork and the knuckles stages are like having dreams about your old department store job, which makes the sonic stages like the distant dying memories of your fondest ten minute smoke breaks. ive watched SOV basement gore movies with better audio mixing. anyway its pretty good. i like rouge the bat.

So after like literally 3 playthroughs beforehand where I disliked a significant portion of this game, I really didn't expect anything to change here. I thought I'd come out of this last chance I gave this game the same as the last. But something just... finally clicked here. This is to say, I can now appreciate this even with the pretty significant flaws I think it has.

If I had to compare this game to it's predecessor in one phrase it would be "One (huge) step forward, two (small) steps back." On every front this game takes SA1 up to 11 but is brought down by some strange and honestly frustrating decisions that were made in the Mech and Treasure Hunting stages. Mainly that; Tails and Eggman feel significantly worse to control for me than Gamma, and the radar in treasure hunting is only able to track one emerald at once. These are definitely still issues to me but I was able to finally slightly overlook them now? Even still I'm definitely going to be playing with mods that fix these from now on (in addition to a mod that tunes down the mech noises cause holy shit the aiming noise hurts my ears LOL)

Aside that this game's got the vibes of all time. From City Escape to Cannon's Core, the game has a sense of style that's really unparalleled by any other Sonic game. Fantastic soundtrack cranks it up even further.

So yeah, finally like this game. It's got its annoyances but it kinda makes up for that. Can't comment on the chao garden because (god forbid) it hasn't really interested me yet, maybe I'll come back to do it sometime. Even if I'm gonna just be replaying the speed stages mostly, rest of the game is still pretty alright and thankfully all my issues with those are easily fixed with mods. So glad I'm finally able to like Sonic Adventure 2!

Oh yeah, and happy 100th review, me!

Sonic Adventure 2 foi o último jogo do Dreamcast, sendo a sequência do grandioso Sonic Adventure 1 lançado para o mesmo console, Sonic Adventure 2 foi uma comemoração dos 10 anos de Sonic, porém, nessa época, a SEGA estava passando por grandes problemas financeiros, então eles decidiram que parariam na produção de consoles e a partir de agora irão se focar na criação de jogos para os outros consoles e o primeiro jogo do Sonic com essa nova visão da SEGA foi o Port do Sonic Adventure 2, agora chamado de Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, mas será que ele é um bom jogo ? É o que vamos ver !

Começando pelos gráficos, para o Dreamcast são muito bons e detalhados, com certeza um dos jogos mais bonitos do console e no Gamecube até que não fazem nada mal, claro que não é o jogo do Sonic mais bonito do Gamecube mas para um Port faz bem.

Sua história sempre foi considerada a melhor de toda a franquia pela maioria dos fãs do Sonic, já na minha opinião é um pouco diferente, ela é boa sim, mas têm algumas coisas que eu acho estranho, por exemplo a Rouge trabalhar para a G.U.N. justamente por ela ser um morcego e a G.U.N. só ter humanos, o presidente participar da história apesar de não ter a maior importância, mas por outro lado ela têm coisas muito legais, como por exemplo a história do Shadow, do Gerald Robotnik, do Biolizard e o amadurecimento do Tails, nunca fui fã dos humanos que não são o Eggman participarem da história, prefiro o jeito que são no Unleashed, outra coisa legal é a opção de escolher o modo Hero e o Dark, que contam perspectivs diferentes e coisas que acontecem no jogo.

O jogo possui três estilos de Gameplay, Sonic e Shadow que são as fases de velocidade, Tails e Eggman que são as fases de tiro, Knuckles e Rouge que são as fases de exploração, as duas jogabilidades funcionam bem, mas as fases de exploração foi um grande regresso em relação ao Adventure 1, pelo fato das fases serem bem maiores e radar de esmeraldas agora só detecta uma esmeralda por vez e os controles do Tails e Eggman são mais lentos em relação ao Gamma mas não é necessariamente um problema, outra coisa da Gameplay que volta são os Upgrades, são itens que você pega e melhora suas habilidades, o Light Speed Dash por exemplo só é possível usar ele se você encontrar ele, mas dessa vez você só encontra eles nas fases já que os Adventure Fields não retornaram.

O Level Design é muito bom, apesar das fases de velocidade serem lineares, elas são bem feitas e possuem alguns segredos (como por exemplo os Upgrades), as fases de tiro receberam um grande salto de qualidade, já que as fases do Gamma apesar de serem boas, eram bem curtinhas, já as fases de exploração são bem mais chatas por serem bem maiores, você pode pegar dicas mas em algumas fases como a Mad Space, elas mais atrapalham do que outra coisa.

A trilha sonora desse jogo é EXCELENTE, tanto as músicas cantadas e não cantadas são uma maravilha, as minhas favoritas são Live and Learn, It Doesn't Matter, Believe in Myself, E.G.G.M.A.N. , Throw It All Away, Pumpkin Hill, Metal Harbor, Pyramid Cave e Supporting Me.

Uma coisa que retorna nesse jogo é o Chao Garden e ele continua a mesma coisa de sempre, nunca fui fã do Chao Garden apenas uso ele para propósitos de 100%, porém, uma coisa nova são os Ranks, eles são o resultado da sua performance na fase, você pode pegar Rank E,D,C,B e A que é o melhor, é meio difícil pegar Rank A pois você precisa ir muito bem na fase e principalmente não morrer.

Os chefes de jogo são bem legais, acho que são uns dos melhores da série, o primeiro chefe que você vai enfrentar ambos no lado Hero e Dark vai ser o Big Shoot, que é simples, mas chefes como King Boom Boo e Biolizard são bastante marcantes e divertidos.

Basicamente o novo conteúdo do Sonic Adventure 2: Battle é o multiplayer, mas não posso falar dele pois infelizmente nunca tive a chance de jogar o modo multiplayer dele.

A minha maior crítica é se você quer fazer 100% do jogo, eu só fiz uma vez, mas é bastante cansativo, já que uma fase possui mais quatro missões alternativas e você precisa pegar Rank A em todas elas, além do Chao Garden que acho bem chato, então eu recomendo apenas zerar normalmente ele que acho bem mais divertido.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle é um ótimo jogo, não é o meu favorito, mas ainda sim é muito bom, suas fases são divertidas e sua música até hoje é lendária, uma boa história e uma excelente reta final, eu só não gosto mesmo das fases de exploração e fazer o 100%, tanto o Sonic Adventure 2 e o Sonic Adventure 2: Battle são jogos muito bons !

Sonic Adventure 2 is amazing, but it's also terrible. Sonic Adventure 2 is a great sequel, but is also a horrible sequel. Sonic Adventure 2 has an outstanding story, but it also has a substandard story. Sonic Adventure 2 is everything I want in a Sonic game, but it's nothing I want in a Sonic game.

From that opening, I have many conflicted feelings about this game. It's a game that I want to like a lot more but I'm glad I don't hate it anymore. I feel this game is overhyped yet somewhat overrated, so let’s begin.

The Story in this game is nearly amazing, but fails in certain aspects. The Character writing is onpoint, especially with Shadow’s & Rouge’s characters and arc, also giving Knuckles & Tails some well needed development near the end of the story after the previous game, i feel like the Adventure games needs to have a sympathetic villain which is why i don’t games like Heroes or 06 to be SA3, despite taking many aspects from these games tone & gameplay wise. There’s also some standout moments such as the opening of both stories, The Big Time Dr Scene and its aftermath, Rouge & Knuckles cute moment after the second rival battle, The confrontations between Shadow & Sonic and the entirety of The Last Story, especially that Ending & Credits scene. However, it feels like at many times in the story things just happen and your going to have to except it, like how Sonic uses Chaos Control one time and it works flawless despite only seeing it once in the story, i think Sonic having the chance to use chaos control in Prison Island and it doesn’t work for I don’t know, he’s not worthy or he didn’t believe in himself which leds to him building the confidence to do it at basically in do or die situation. There’s also how there’s a random shuttle in Eggman’s Pyramid despite having a teleporter and people confusing Sonic & Shadow for the same person despite looking completely different (Though it might have had something to do with Terios being just a Black Sonic lol). But I would have put that aside for the god-awful voice acting, Lip-syncing, Translation and sound mixing (Plus Amy is annoying at first). The Voice-Acting for Ryan & Deem (who was already pretty good in SA1) has significantly improved, Jennier Dillard is still consistent with her vocal performance and the new additions of David Humphrey and Lani Milnella are welcome if not a bit wooden for my liking, but putting that aside the story is probably one of my favourite in a Sonic Game, though is probably the most flawed one to date due to the unfortunate circumstances of the game release and the treatment of the VAs from Naka

Gameplay wise, SA2 takes a different yet great direction by refining the 3 best gameplay styles from SA1 (Speed, Shooting and Hunting) which is good but in my opinion falls flat in many areas.

Speed stage wise this is SA2s best attribute both expanding what was there in the original game and just in a standalone way. Sure levels are more linear and feel one note due to having a big action set piece in each stage, boiling it to one big thing that's memorable, everything else being a bit mid or boring but I had fun with the speed gameplay due to throwing more consistent level qualities, outstanding physics and varied and fun gimmicks however i had more fun with Sonic's stages over Shadows since he has more stinkers like his space/jungle stage and lack of Bounce Bracelet. The Bosses are also pretty bad apart from the Egg Golem and sometimes pretty jank but overall a decent improvement from the gameplay set from SA1 though leaves a lot to be desired.

Mech Shooting sucks ass, like it's crazy just how bad it is, they not only did Tails dirty once again by putting him in a Mech (Though makes sense as he wasn't planned in the beginning along with Rouge) but Eggman an interesting character with heaps of gameplay potential slammed in this boring style of gameplay. It's fun to shoot things I guess but there's barely any substance or strategy to this due to how the enemies barely put up a fight or challenge, and they sometimes come as an unfair annoyance, the worst thing have to be the control & physics, they feel way too heavy, turning feels way too stiff/awkward and it doesn’t feel good gaining speed with them. I think Eggman’s stages were better designed overall since they had a more fair challenge curve. I overall thought this playstyle brings down the game for me, though the Bosses are probably the best in the game apart from the final bosses in the last story

Treasure Hunting is in the middle of this, it wasn’t the worst but certainly should have been a lot better. I feel the level design baring the space stages and rouge’s desert stage is really good as now Emerald shards don’t feel piss easy and borderline brain-dead to find, but is bogged down by the gimped emerald rader (which doesn’t make sense given how SA1s radar works fine with these stages) and the damn near cryptic secrets these stages sometimes have with its Emerald shards and the useless hints they have, also security hall, just security hall. But i think all in all, i had some fun with Treasure Hunting, more so with Knuckles portion instead of Rouge’s as his levels feel more unique, fairly challenging and fun. Overall, while it is a bit boring sometimes it did expand treasure hunting from SA1 really well and is really fun at points, bosses are fine i guess lol.

Presentation wise, i can’t complain, we did lose a bit of the varied ost SA1 had but we have instead a more focused ost that double downs on the rock, Jazz, Rap (which is ass) & Pop, the vocal themes are just as good as SA1 if not more so as it feels like each song perfectly embodies each character’s personality. And the graphics while obviously are dated and does the realistic artstyle in sonic which i’m personally not a fan of, the environments look more sonic like imo with pretty varied level locales.

Overall, SA2 is a game i feel very conflicted about, it takes one step forward and either one or two steps back in everything, though discounting the slight melo-drama i think SA2 is good, not great or outstanding but an enjoyable enough game, there’s many flaws in the game but what it does well is enough for me to enjoy it, mainly it’s story & the 2 other gameplay styles. I really wish Sega had another stab at focusing and condensing a few different gameplay styles, like imagine having Boost Gameplay, Werehog type Beat-em Up Gameplay and some other successful enough gameplay styles in a new game. But i like base SA2, it’s a flawed but somewhat fun game. (Though all the problems i listed can be fixed with mods so there’s that lol).

Anyway, next time i’ll be taking a look at the controversial yet masterful game, Sonic Heroes (yeah I’m one of those people lol)

I’ve come to make an announcement. Shadow the Hedgehog’s a bitch ass motherfucker. He pissed on my fucking wife. That’s right he took his hedgehog quilly dick out and he said it was ‘THIS BIG’ and he pissed on my fucking wife. Well I’m making a callout on my Twitter.com, Shadow you got a small dick it’s the size of this walnut except way smaller and here’s what my dick looks like… BOOM
That’s right no points, no quills it looks like two balls and a bong. You pissed on my wife so you know what I’m gonna piss on the Earth with my SUPER LASER PISS! Except I’m not pissing on the Earth I’m gonna go higher… I’m pissing on the moon! Take that Obama I pissed on the moon you idiot! You have twenty three hours before the piss droplets hit the fucking Earth now get out of my sight before I piss on you too.

Sonic Adventure 2 is a perfect example of a game I wish I could enjoy more. Is it a bad game? No, and I can admit that I was a little harsh on it the last time I tried to replay it. I can see why people love it so much, hell, I even agree with some of their points; Adventure 2 does have one of my favorite stories in the Sonic series, so many cutscenes are perfectly memorable with so many lines that are hard to forget once you hear them. The music, as always, is fantastic, each character's theme works wonders (though Knuckles had a bit of a downgrade) for the cutscenes mentioned previously. so wonderful that they end up completely drowning out the actual dialogue half the time.
Despite all that, I just... can't get into it as much as I'd like? Especially with how much I love Adventure 1, it feels weird not being able to feel that same love and appreciation for this one. I think the easiest way I can go over it all is by detailing my thoughts on each play style, which will absolutely include comparisons to the first game, so sorry.

Speed Stages --- Sonic & Shadow

This is probably where I feel the most divisive with the levels. Sometimes, they work pretty well, allowing for fast movement as well as a nice selection of tricks and opportunities for high scores. Other times, you'll be in the middle of a damn puzzle with stages like Crazy Gadget, or the hellscape of leaps of faith in Final Rush/Final Chase. No matter the level, though, one thing stays consistent. The physics are... not what they were in Adventure 1. The hedgehogs feel so much clunkier for some reason, almost floaty. It makes platforming way more dangerous than it should ever be. Don't try to course correct, either, because God forbid you rely on the homing attack to hit what you're actually aiming for.

Mechs --- Tails & Eggman

Take that clunky movement, make it worse. It's not impossible to enjoy these stages, I'll admit that going brain off in certain segments and just watching the bullets fly as big number in the corner goes up certainly hit a spot every once in a while, but actually playing the stages and maneuvering around them was a nightmare. There is almost no speed to be built up ever, and if there ever is, it will be immediately discarded as soon as you turn the slightest of corners. It's too choppy to have any fun for more than like, 10 seconds, made worse by the fact that each of these stages are usually about 6 minutes at least. Have fun with those beep and explosion sound effects.

Treasure Hunting --- Knuckles & Rouge

This is the one that confuses me the most. Loading into each hunt places three objects around the stage, and each reset moves them to a different spot. To make up for how much more expansive these treasure troves are, you are given... very vague hints on their location through floating TVs. Hints that only apply to the next item in line... and the radar will only go off for that specific item.
Why is this a thing? This wasn't a thing in the first Adventure, with that, you could search for the emeralds in any order you'd like, and they'd allow you hints from the radar no matter the order. So why couldn't they do that here? It's not like they only spawn in one at a time, they're all there from the start. It really only serves to make the hunts last longer, which, again, is not ideal with how big they all are. Especially later on, with Meteor Herd/Mad Space jesus fuck i could not begin to go off on mad space with this review. It is a straight downgrade from something that had zero problems to begin with, a downgrade that had no reason to even be made. I do not understand these two...

Last Story

Filler section of the review, it's a single stage that's like 9 minutes long and then 2 bosses that are fine enough. Thankfully, they were nice enough to not go so hard on the worse aspects of each character for their final level. I could not imagine the Knuckles segment without the air necklace though.

I don't hate Sonic Adventure 2! I don't! I thought I did, but this replay had me feeling just a little less cynical, I guess. The story is fantastic, the soundtrack is too, Chao Garden is fun, but god if this game is anything, it's disappointing. A good, disappointing game. A good game that I wish was better.

but damn i love sonic the hedgehog.

I wanted to make a review Sonic Adventure 2 because I've not expressed myself about it enough. It has been my favorite game of all time for a long while. It inhibits so many parts that I can identify with and appeal in regards to in video games, even if throughout the years where I'm recognizing flaws in the game and in the writing. From the tight and instant gameplay loop, to the charmingly conveyed narrative, it will always have something for me to go back to. The constant tension and creative movement is sublime from any other action game I've played, and the story while having a bad translation and its own set of problems, is still a personal piece that tells a message of purpose and the potential good in humanity. Sonic Adventure 2 is a byproduct of its time; originally released just at the end of the Dreamcast's twilight, at the start of the early 2000's, and just when the 3d platforming genre started to expand. So much has gone past this era of the franchise that I can't help but appreciate SA2 for how it passionately paved the series and placed its mark on the genre. It's an incredibly tight game that thrives off its edgy appeal.

The gameplay keeps you at the heart of the action at every single turn; level hazards, enemy patterns, higher paths, maneuvering rails and multiple pathways all play into the ranking system. It rewards players that mastered their movement and combat options and make sharp turns according to the level layout, and this in turn lets them get the best out of a level. It's like an arcade game, and you could say this replaces the level direction on Adventure 1's open movement with SA2's linear obstacle course level design, though in my opinion it justifies this in creating scripted set pieces that are engaging enough mechanically and visually. It streamlines intersections of levels that involve action and movement while still having enough of a skill ceiling to create replay value. It's less about translating movement to level design elements like in the classic games, and more about flowing through different segments of level design. It's cathartic. I feel like Sonic games since its wake ignored this and instead chose to hyper focus on the latter to exacerbate this design even more to the point that it's all scripted inputs. Despite all the oddly quirks it has in its movement and gravity, and the level design in some of the later parts, there are no games can draw me in as easily as candidly as SA2 has, and still have a fun time out of it.

Diving into SA2 by the first core idea you get greeted by the box art and the opening cutscene; good and bad, heroes and villains, organic and artificial, nature and industry. This is the main idea it spreads throughout the game in small ways to enhance the whole experience. Like how it uses its absurd gameplay pieces to portray how G.U.N corrupt is, it's kind of farcical that way. The characters have a wide range of vocal themes highlighting their motives or their thoughts in a certain point in the story, contrasting their interests. The U.I blends and interacts with the style of the game perfectly, it has a digital neon aesthetic that represents themes of advanced technology in the game. The character art is angular and has exaggerated proportions. It sings its edge and style the game was going for, it can get corny at some points but the energy can still hit you.

It's hard writing genuine reviews for these games without slowly drifting into being argumentative, because I need to vindicate Sonic games of all things in order to truly ask myself that I loved them like I've always had, due to the new standards and views in the side of discussion. I asked myself to see the other side of the coin many times, because I did share some of the problems when I've started to get conscious about the game in contrast to SA1. Sonic Adventure had loose, floating movement that often was extremely satisfying to take advantage in levels. Sonic Adventure 2 had strict movement that will mostly lean towards one direction and hard to control anywhere else. SA1 had 5 different characters that were easy to digest due to the the short amount of levels they each had and free story progression between them. SA2 had only 2 of them with played out story progression, and with 3 different gameplay types. SA1 had the premise almost summed up in the opening, had a straightforward story that had its plot beats told in each side of the story, and had satisfying development wrapped up by the end of most campaigns. SA2 had a story that to some felt convoluted and had a lot of plot holes. It's very easy to pin point the disconnect here. But then, when I started to play the game beyond its flaws I began to experiment with it. I saw how all these aspects flow and understood the direction it was going for. The Speed stages were becoming less aggravating and I started to appreciate how it used all of its mechanics as the focal point for each level. The Mech stages weren't sluggish and I saw how much potential there was in stacking enemies together, and the annoying room encounters were much more satisfying to approach. The Emerald Hunting stages which were the hardest part for me to sit down and play on my own, began to grow up on me. I started to learn the level layouts and tracked a pattern order where I search each section of the level. Once I did that it became a really fun time to replay over and over to find out niche parts of them that I've never considered. I watched the story through the Japanese translation and it's jarring to see how it enhanced the story with all the baggage of the English script. It had great voice direction, the interactions were more grounded, the story actually hit me emotionally. There is so much more that SA2 has to challenge the player beyond trial and error, and the story is worth delving into beyond its short comings. I mastered this game 3 times over because there is so much that isn't on the surface that keeps me entertained. Seeing all these things elevate placed itself as my favorite game of all time.

"What you see is what you get; just a guy who loves adventure! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Sonic Adventure 2 is a game that while I'm not head over heels for, I can still confidently enjoy it any time I boot it up. Sonic and Shadow are undoubtedly and unsurprisingly the best parts of this game. Compared to the Sonic stages in the first game, the speed stages here feel more fast-paced, more linear, but unlike Sonic 2 where it forgot to be fun, Adventure 2 succeeds in going in this direction. There's a much higher emphasis on skill with shit like the ranking system and I love it.

I don't have much to say about Tails and Eggman's mech stages other than the fact that they're.. mindless, for the most part.. but I still found them fun. I don't know, dude, I just found it fun trying to go for the highest chain possible, and the platforming is neat enough. Shame people generally can't get behind the controls, I don't have much of an issue with them, but I understand a lot of other people do.

The treasure hunting with Knuckles and Rouge in this game is by far the most flawed out of the three playstyles. My issue with Knuckles' stages in Adventure 1 was that his levels generally felt too small, and too easy. Trust me, they definitely wanted to fix that.. and ended up screwing things up in the opposite direction. These stages at their worst include annoying gimmicks that make the stage more frustrating, and needlessly enormous stages that make it a chore to find the emeralds, unless you're Death Chamber/Egg Quarters, in which case you get a really shitty maze level instead. Pumpkin Hill and Security Hall (you got filtered if you disagree on that last one, bite me) are pretty good, but that's about it.

I can certainly see why everyone hails this game to have one of the best stories in a Sonic game, and I can't agree any more. I'm not popping off every second at this game's plot, but regardless it's very well-written and this game does get raw as fuck when it wants to be. Do yourself a favor, though, and play this game with the Retranslated and Cutscene Revamp mods + Japanese audio. I love the English Adventure-era voice cast, I really do, but a lot of lines are very awkwardly delivered and people cut each other off a lot of the time because the lip flaps and timing don't match the English audio. Plus, sometimes the translation itself is kind of shitty. But most importantly.. it's because the Japanese voice actor for Shadow's got a damn good voice, dude. I want that man to read me a bedtime story.

Despite the occasional jank, and some poor design choices, I do still enjoy this game a lot. This game's peaks are some of the highest in 3D Sonic, very possibly the whole damn franchise, even. And it's not like Sonic Team's ever gonna make another game that goes as raw in its presentation as this game does on multiple occasions since they're too busy making Sonic anything but raw these days, so you might as well see what we were robbed of all those years ago. No, I'm not disappointed that Sonic's pretty much lost all of his edge, why do you ask?

"A new day brings a new adventure.. but for now, rest easy heroes."

This game is so fucking cool, man. If you think this game is cringe, then you're cringe. This isn't just a product of the 2000's, this is a product of sincerity. SA2 wears its' heart on its sleeve, from the over-the-top story to the action-packed setpieces to the killer soundtrack. This isn't just a fun game, this is Fun Personified. Sonic ripping off the blade of a helicopter and using it as a skateboard is fucking awesome, and the fact that it's attached to one of the best Sonic levels of all time just adds to it. Shadow was so cool back when he was mysterious and enigmatic, and the fact that you get to blaze through Radical Highway and White Jungle as him, two of the most badass levels in Sonic history, makes him the coolest. The corny dialogue is awesome because it has the confidence and charisma to willfully and earnestly be lame. It is not afraid to be dorky, and that actually makes it so fucking cool, because SA2 is a product of sincerity and passion and eagerness. This game is the perfect amalgamation of everything a kid thinks is cool, and if you don't think it's cool, then you're the lame hedgehog around here.

The fact that there's actually a solid game tucked away inside of SA2's radical exterior makes this game even more special. I wouldn't call it a great game - the Tails/Eggman and Knuckles/Rouge sections are improvements upon the Gamma & Knuckles stuff from SA1, yes, but they're still pretty meandering and clunky compared to Sonic and Shadow's sections of the game, which are more-or-less just as great as the Sonic stuff was in SA1 (I think I prefer Sonic's levels in SA1 over the ones he has in SA2, but SA2 still pumps out a lot of bangers regardless). But SA2 is so much more consistent and focused than SA1. The controls are tighter, the jank is less frequent, the boss battles... try, and then you have two exceptional bonus modes in the form of SA2B's stellar multiplayer (this is one of the best multiplayer games on the Gamecube) and the Chao Garden, a pet sim so good and so shockingly intricate that Sonic Team's too afraid of digging it up again for fear of fucking it up.

SA2B is a classic from top to bottom, a game packed with enough good ideas and enough genuine improvement over the finicky template set by SA1 that you eventually stop caring about the game's very notable flaws. Because even at its worst, SA2B never stops being an interesting and entertaining game to play. It makes you feel like a kid again, and it makes kids feel like the coolest dudes on the planet. "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog" is one of the unambiguously best final lines of all time, and if that doesn't tug on your heartstrings even a little bit, if you don't think that's Sonic's coolest moment ever as a character, having the confidence and empathy to say a simple but tender farewell to his rival, then you are dead inside.

Mad Space sucks, though. We can actually all agree on that pretty unanimously.

Built from the same engine as its predecessor, Adventure 2 made its way jam packed with the equal formula of diversifying gameplay styles into a more linear narrative with dank, edgy and so cheesy it's good vibe tale of good and evil goes to space and Knuckles.

The added score system ties itself into the three seperate styles of gameplay in different ways but generally in how you perform in stages by doing small tricks, chaining comboes, time bonuses. It feels awesome when you nick a good chunk of points, but can be pretty demotivating when you get low ranks.

On replays I really enjoy trying to go for good ranks and aestetically Sonic Adventure 2 feels like a very arcade authentic game of grabbing good scores while the story mode itself isn't particulary long either. It's well paced and very dynamic.

As for completion and getting all the emblems now that is another story, this can easily rack up the gameplay time for another 60-70 hours of completing all the challenges for emblems, as well as going into the tamagotchi inspired chao garden of pretty insane depth and mundane, but oddly addictive grinding.

I still think Sonic Adventure 2 has the best and most addictive/rewarding ranking system in the series and while there are a short few couple of stages that are borderline awful, the great ones stands as some of the best in the franchise and the Sonic/Shadow stages are a pure delight of thrill and challenge with an incredible sense of speed.

Adventure 2 is at times more challenging than SA 1, but also a blast to play especially when you get better at it.