This review contains spoilers
Everything great about Sonic Adventure 2 is represented here functionally (movement and jumping that feels good when the camera is behaving, big levels with various routes through them, the way that it follows a racing game-esque progression where later levels are more about picking the spots to not go full-speed on) and aesthetically (butt rock with on-the-nose lyrics at pivotal moments, a dope-ass super saiyan final boss fight). Doesn't really have the budget or manpower to get all the way there - and struggles to find a reason to keep the combat mechanics from the first game - but damn does it get close, especially considering it was largely made by one guy.
zerei com umas 4 horas de jogo, e é melhor q a maioria dos sonics 3Ds
REALLY LOVE THIS GAME but it is. very apparent it is the first 3d game and many levels are painful to get through. its ok fark is still so dear to me
Um declínio bem grande comparativamente ao primeiro jogo. Eu zerei em pouco tempo, grande parte por que fiquei voando pelo cenário e ignorando completamente os inimigos. As boss fights também são bem fáceis e entediantes. Sem falar que eu não vi uso nos power ups do Fark, prefiro bem mais a campanha dele no primeiro jogo.
best parry in gaming
Pretty ambitious to go straight from Sonic 1 to Sonic Adventure 2.
In truth I played this game a few months ago, and I had completed it, with the plan to check out any post-game stuff. I put off playing it again until today (turns out there's not much post-game stuff), so my review is largely based on not so fresh memories.
For one thing the game does control really well. It's smooth, has some great mechanics for speed and momentum. The stages themselves are fun, and have a feel very reminiscent of the games inspiration.
Unfortunately the amount of weapons has been stripped down massively, to only 5. That could have been compensated by each power being used vastly differently, especially in a 3D space, but they mostly feel the same and I never felt more or less advantaged when using one power over another no matter what stage or boss I was fighting. That's not to say there's no differences between them, it's more just that I don't feel the game gave any reason to bother switching once you find the one that's 10% more your style than the others.
It's a pretty short sprint to the end of the game, and replayability largely comes down to each stage having 4 total medals to collect. 2 medals for time attack, and 2 for score attacks. If you know me at all you'll know I'm not a big fan of collectables that are essentially pointless by themselves, and only give any kind of reward when you get every single one. It means if you're not going for 100%, there's no reason to go for anything except the bare minimum. In this case, getting every medal unlocks "Super Fark", basically Super Sonic, for use in the game. Getting 119/120 medals (I don't remember the exact amount) does absolutely nothing.
But the biggest question about all of this is...what's the point of gold medals at all?? If medals do absolutely nothing without collecting all of them, and platinum medals are just higher criteria versions of gold medals, then even collecting every gold medal in the game gives you absolutely nothing.
I get that some games have (generally) pointless rankings at the end of levels, including Sonic itself, but this isn't even that. These aren't bronze-platinum medals based on how well you do, they're 2 tiers of the same challenge, even the lower of which is unlikely to be completed on a first blind run.
It's ultimately not an important criticism because it doesn't affect a casual run of the game, but all-or-nothing collectables kinda bug me. And this game does it in a way even weirder than most.
Other "rewards" are also kind of lame. There's a shop between levels where you can buy any of the power-ups. But they're so abundant in the levels, and I don't think you can lose them except to switch with another (and you can hold 3 of them at a time, so you're only missing out on 2 in any case). Combined with the "no level needs one power-up more than another" thing, the amount of times I felt the need to buy a specific power-up in the shop was exactly 0. You can also buy a random art piece of the gallery. It's like concept art and the like. Not too bad, but also as the only real thing to spend the money on, it's a bit of a let-down. You can also find these art pieces in stages, and I'm not sure if it's like specific ones you can get in stages and specific ones you need to buy from the shop, or you could technically just buy them all and the stage ones may even be randomized.
Completion rewards unlock a few new modes, like "complete all stages in a row with 5 lives", "complete all stages in a row with 5 lives and no power-ups" and "boss rush". I guess boss rush is an obligatory and nice mode, but the rest can just be self-imposed challenge runs basically.
It's a fun enough game to just run through, even if short. It's mostly just lacking any extra meat beyond that, and the stuff it did add just feels lazy.
In truth I played this game a few months ago, and I had completed it, with the plan to check out any post-game stuff. I put off playing it again until today (turns out there's not much post-game stuff), so my review is largely based on not so fresh memories.
For one thing the game does control really well. It's smooth, has some great mechanics for speed and momentum. The stages themselves are fun, and have a feel very reminiscent of the games inspiration.
Unfortunately the amount of weapons has been stripped down massively, to only 5. That could have been compensated by each power being used vastly differently, especially in a 3D space, but they mostly feel the same and I never felt more or less advantaged when using one power over another no matter what stage or boss I was fighting. That's not to say there's no differences between them, it's more just that I don't feel the game gave any reason to bother switching once you find the one that's 10% more your style than the others.
It's a pretty short sprint to the end of the game, and replayability largely comes down to each stage having 4 total medals to collect. 2 medals for time attack, and 2 for score attacks. If you know me at all you'll know I'm not a big fan of collectables that are essentially pointless by themselves, and only give any kind of reward when you get every single one. It means if you're not going for 100%, there's no reason to go for anything except the bare minimum. In this case, getting every medal unlocks "Super Fark", basically Super Sonic, for use in the game. Getting 119/120 medals (I don't remember the exact amount) does absolutely nothing.
But the biggest question about all of this is...what's the point of gold medals at all?? If medals do absolutely nothing without collecting all of them, and platinum medals are just higher criteria versions of gold medals, then even collecting every gold medal in the game gives you absolutely nothing.
I get that some games have (generally) pointless rankings at the end of levels, including Sonic itself, but this isn't even that. These aren't bronze-platinum medals based on how well you do, they're 2 tiers of the same challenge, even the lower of which is unlikely to be completed on a first blind run.
It's ultimately not an important criticism because it doesn't affect a casual run of the game, but all-or-nothing collectables kinda bug me. And this game does it in a way even weirder than most.
Other "rewards" are also kind of lame. There's a shop between levels where you can buy any of the power-ups. But they're so abundant in the levels, and I don't think you can lose them except to switch with another (and you can hold 3 of them at a time, so you're only missing out on 2 in any case). Combined with the "no level needs one power-up more than another" thing, the amount of times I felt the need to buy a specific power-up in the shop was exactly 0. You can also buy a random art piece of the gallery. It's like concept art and the like. Not too bad, but also as the only real thing to spend the money on, it's a bit of a let-down. You can also find these art pieces in stages, and I'm not sure if it's like specific ones you can get in stages and specific ones you need to buy from the shop, or you could technically just buy them all and the stage ones may even be randomized.
Completion rewards unlock a few new modes, like "complete all stages in a row with 5 lives", "complete all stages in a row with 5 lives and no power-ups" and "boss rush". I guess boss rush is an obligatory and nice mode, but the rest can just be self-imposed challenge runs basically.
It's a fun enough game to just run through, even if short. It's mostly just lacking any extra meat beyond that, and the stuff it did add just feels lazy.
me after playing spark 1 : maaan this is the best sonic 2D i've ever played, there's no way this can get any better
me now : HOLY SHIIIIIIII
what if we get 3D sonic and tell the devs to actually trust the players ? no level that plays itself, no locking the character anywhere, no glitchy rails that kill you more than any boss in the game, just your character, your moveset and a biiiig physics based level where you can go absolutelly nuts.
i love games that if youre skilled enough you can tell the level design to F off. this game doesn't just have parrying, it IS parry, parry the enemy, parry the level hazard, parry the bottomless pit, parry the boss, parry death ! it honestly feels like the dev just sat down and kept scribbling ''what would be really cool to add ?'' and just went ahead and added it in the most competent way possible.
this is the evolution of 3D sonic, level design that trusts and never restricts, a cheesy story that hypes itself up while going full swing, you can't help but find it endearing.
this is what i was hoping sonic adventure 2 was going to be.
its not all sunshine tho, the menu config is very limited and the level select is a bit bland, but those nitpicks really do not make the experience worse in any way.
me now : HOLY SHIIIIIIII
what if we get 3D sonic and tell the devs to actually trust the players ? no level that plays itself, no locking the character anywhere, no glitchy rails that kill you more than any boss in the game, just your character, your moveset and a biiiig physics based level where you can go absolutelly nuts.
i love games that if youre skilled enough you can tell the level design to F off. this game doesn't just have parrying, it IS parry, parry the enemy, parry the level hazard, parry the bottomless pit, parry the boss, parry death ! it honestly feels like the dev just sat down and kept scribbling ''what would be really cool to add ?'' and just went ahead and added it in the most competent way possible.
this is the evolution of 3D sonic, level design that trusts and never restricts, a cheesy story that hypes itself up while going full swing, you can't help but find it endearing.
this is what i was hoping sonic adventure 2 was going to be.
its not all sunshine tho, the menu config is very limited and the level select is a bit bland, but those nitpicks really do not make the experience worse in any way.
Meh
idk what happens in the story but i sure do like going fast
FAST
best game demo ever made
It'd be nice if they told you how the shadow costume makes getting good times infinitely easier.