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Review: Sonic Adventure
It's a fact that every system needs a mascot. Nintendo has Mario, Sony has Crash Bandicoot, and Sega has Sonic, who makes an amazing comeback in Sonic Adventure (SA), his first real sequel since the old Genesis days. So how does it stack up? Read on...

SA stays very true to its' 16-bit roots. Colorful environments, a fat scientist in a red coat, blistering speed, and those famous gold rings will make each Sonic fan feel what he or she felt when they first played the game on the Genesis. This dog has plenty of new tricks, so don't worry, as SA still brings a lot of new cards to the table. For starters, six characters are playable: Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, as well as new-comers Big the Cat, Amy, and E-102 Gamma. Each one has his or her own story line that ends up weaving together with everyone else's. Also, the game is divided into two sections, Action Stages, and Adventure Fields. Action Stages are traditional levels strewn with enemies and other hazards, while Adventure Fields serve as hubs for Action Stages and help evolve the story line.

Graphics in SA are simply wonderful. Sonic and the crew are beautifully rendered and the environments are a pleasure to gape at. Playing this game is akin to watching a Saturday morning cartoon, and the experience is very immersing. After watching Sonic burn down the side of a building or run from a rolling boulder, you'll need some help picking your jaw off the floor.

Besides being a pleasure for the eyes, SA is a great aural experience as well. The sounds are crisp and faithful to the original Sonic games. Music is cheezy but catchy, in that weird I-can't-get-this-damn-Alanis-Morisette-song-out-of-my-head way. I often found myself humming (and even singing) along to the tunes. Voice acting is pretty lame, but if you've ever seen a Sonic cartoon, you'll feel right at home. The cool thing is that you can change the voices to Japanese, which sound much better.

SA is a surprisingly rounded package. After you've completed the six characters' adventures, you unlock Super Sonic, who has a quest of his own. It's short, but ties up all the loose ends. You receive emblems for completing stages under certain conditions, and with 130 emblems in all, you should be quite busy. Sega also included a cool little virtual pet VMU game called A-Life, as well as Internet options to connect to the SA website.

A few problems arise as you play through SA. For one, the game slows down at times, but not too badly and only for a moment. Also, the collision detection is a problem. Sonic will sometimes clip through a wall and fall to his death, while you pull your hair out from frustriation. A bigger problem is the camera, which can sometimes be problematic. It might get stuck behind a wall, but this can be fixed by adjusting it with the shoulder buttons. Finally, some of the characters are terribly unexciting. C'mon, a purple cat that fishes for his amphibious pal, Froggy. Someone pass the Valium.

SA is not perfect, but what game is? If you can deal with the finicky camera and have some patience, SA is definitely for you. Once again, not a pinnacle of gaming, but c'mon, it's Sonic, and no Sega console is complete without a Sonic game in its' library.

--- ElDuderino