I went up to Software, Etc. and decided to pick up a copy of Sonic Adventure 2 for the GameCube. Im a big fan of Sonic, so I was looking forward to this game, and I didnt own a Dreamcast so I had never played it on that. Since I never played it on Dreamcast, I cant compare the two different ports of the game, which makes me mad because that would be a big part of this review and I would most likely get some super fly honeys for writing about both of them. So Ill have to stick with the GameCube version and hope for the best. Anyways, I got home and had to watch the Simpsons and read the new issue of Ultimate Spider-Man (its what I do, all right?) but after that I was ready for some hot hedgehog action.

The graphics are really smooth and good looking, and the sound effects are well done. I fairly liked the music, but I guess you have to have a certain taste in order to enjoy it. The story is pretty much your basic Sonic story: Dr. Robotnik is out for world domination using the Chaos Emeralds and Sonic has to stop him. There are two different quests in the game: You can be good or evil. Along the good quest you have to save the world, and in the evil quest you have to take over it. In the good, or hero, quest you play as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. In the evil, or dark, you play as Sonics doppelganger Shadow, Dr. Robotnik (or as the game calls him, Dr. Eggman), and Rouge the Bat. The Sonic and Shadow missions are fairly similar, giving you the high-speed hedgehog action going through loops and whatnot. In the Tails and Robotnik missions you go around in this robo-walker armed with laser-guided missiles and go through levels blowing crap up. In the Knuckles and Rouge missions you have to go around levels finding crap with a really sucky radar that uses a hot-cold system of finding things. Oh how I despise the Knuckles/Rouge levels. I like the Sonic/Shadow levels the most, but sadly they only make up about 1/3 of the game. The Tails/Robotnik levels are fairly fun at first, but they get pretty repetitive with shooting robots to make them die. After you get so far in the hero quest, you unlock a kart racing mini-game thats nearly impossible to beat after you get through the beginner course. Another feature in this game is Chao raising. Chaos are these little guys you get to raise with different abilities and whatnot that you choose. In each level youll find glowing tube thingies and animals that you use to give to your Chao. Depending on the animals and tubes you give your Chao, the different abilities he gets. Your Chao can also turn out good or evil, depending on the characters you raise it with. The next thing in the Chao raising is in the 2-player mode. You battle your little critters in Chao Karate and race them with a friend. I find this part of the game fairly entertaining. If you like seeing weird creature things pound the crap out of each other, this is for you! Now that Ive gotten into the 2-player stuff, I might as well cover it. Like the single player, there are three main types of 2-player action; Racing through levels, blasting through levels, and finding crap. You can play through many of the single-player levels that youve cleared, and several levels made for multi-player. I didnt like the multi-player all too much on account that its just not all that fun.

Another problem that really made me frustrated was the crappy camera system. When youre in the middle of a big battle with robots or trying to get somewhere, the camera thinks its funny to pan so you cant see your enemies or where youre going. I think if it wasnt for the crappy camera, the game would be so many times better than it is. I did have fun playing through this game, but I was frustrated too many times to count; Mostly on the Knuckles/Rouge levels that can get nearly impossible with the radar system they made. With everything factored in, I give Sonic Adventure 2 a 6.5 out of 10.