Our Spiky Blue Friend is Back!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great new storyline; awesome graphics; exceptional gameplay

Cons: Annoying videos; short adventures...

The Bottom Line: 
Sonic Adventure is a must-have for any Dreamcast owner. It is a truly great game, and it costs under twenty bucks. Is there really any reason not to?

Author's Review
If you are reading this review, I'd assume that you are interested in Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast. I bought this game with my Dreamcast, and it has kept me solidly entertained for months.
The game is centered on a couple of "Adventure Fields," areas where Sonic is free to test his abilities, interact with people, and find out where his adventures will lead him next. The six characters each have separate adventures, many of which intermesh very well to give the player a great understanding of the storyline. The characters each have their own special moves, which are earned in Adventure Fields and are sometimes difficult to master. Each character has his/her own objectives in each level, and thus the game is not at all monotonous. The character, once finding his/her way into a level, or "Action Stage," can achieve up to three levels of completion, ranging in difficulty. The game also has a new area where you can train and grow Chao creatures, though I never particularly took to them. After the completion of each Stage, a Trial mode allows the player to replay the levels and play mini-games without going through the sometimes annoying Adventure Fields.
Graphics in Sonic Adventure are overall very impressive. One area in particular that dropped my jaw for an extended period of time was in the first level when Sonic is chased by a killer whale. In this scene the true graphical possibilities of the Dreamcast are demonstrated. The game always maintains a very smooth and fast framerate, and the graphics at all points in the game are sharp and realistic.
I have only two major beefs with this game. Firstly, in order to explain and facilitate the complexity of the adventure, the game implements very horribly-dubbed videos (which you CANNOT skip through). This is extremely annoying. Secondly, I would have expected the main character's adventure to be long, not just 12 levels, most of which are relatively easy. Once you finish with Sonic, however, you still have five other characters to play!