After several years in video game retirement, Sonic the Hedgehog returns as the star of a graphically stunning 3-D adventure game that blows away every other game in the genre. Sonic is joined by five of his friends in a massive quest that spans over 50 game levels filled with remarkable visuals and a pulsating soundtrack. Taking full advantage of the unprecedented processing power of the Dreamcast, Sega's development crew, Sonic Team, has designed several gravity-defying game levels that will keep gamers hooked. Our favorite level is Windy Valley, which requires you to survive the stormy perils of a tremendous tornado. This tyrant of nature chases you relentlessly before ultimately sucking you into the air and up through its eye. During the chase, the tornado manages to tear up just about everything on the screen. This dizzying visual spectacle moves so fast that you will literally hold on to the game controller for dear life.
Assuming you survive the tornado, there are several more challenging areas to conquer, including a level that requires you to snowboard directly in the path of a fast-approaching avalanche. During the Emerald Coast level, you will race across a precarious dock as a killer whale attacks from below, destroying the wood planks underneath your feet while you attempt to outrun the crazed creature.
We also liked the numerous mini-games scattered throughout this title. When you least expect it, Sonic Adventure tosses in some old-fashioned arcade action, such as pinball or bumper car racing. In between, you can raise virtual pets, known in the game as "Chao." These characters, which are saved using the optional Visual Memory Unit (VMU), can be combined with other Chao characters exchanged between friends or downloaded via the Internet.
Gamers looking to show off the strong processing power of the 128-bit Dreamcast will definitely want to pick up this title. Simply put, Sonic Adventure's graphics surpass those of any other game currently available on any home video game system. Let the Sonic assault begin. --Brett Atwood
Pros:
- Strong replay value
- Stunning graphics
- Bonus virtual pet game
- Six different game characters
Cons:
- May be too fast-moving for some players
- Awkward camera angles can inhibit gameplay in some areas
Customer Review: Sonic Adventure an "All time Classic"
This is the game that started it all for the Dreamcast. Sonic got a new look and a whole new level of appreciation. To bad after Sonic Adventure 2 things started to turn sour as he got ported to other Systems. Almost a decade later and I still have my appreciation for this title. Yes not everything is perfect, but it's still way above average. If you never played it before, please pick it up if you have a Dreamcast. You will not be dissapointed at all and it is well worth the $10 you will spend for it.
Customer Review: Buy it.
It was the best selling game on the Dreamcast for a reason. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this game. Buy it.
It was a few weeks ago when a lone nutcase bought a few guns and killed 32 people in one of the worst massacres in U.S. history at Virginia Tech. So far, there have only been a few mumblings here and there that the media is to blame in all of this, most predominately by Dr. Phil. He accuses the videogame industry of being somehow complicit in this one crazed gunman's actions, which is obviously unfounded and ridiculous. But there are always congressmen in office who are otherwise ineffectual in getting anything done to stop guns from getting in the hands of mental patients, who go on tirades against the entertainment community when something like this happens.
Thankfully, most people are waking up and seeing that mental psychosis is responsible for these crazy people's actions, not the latest Rob Zombie horrorfest. The movie studios for the most part capitulated to congress' need for a better system of screening out hard "R" rated movies that are unsuitable to kids under 18 years old. They now force i.d.'s to be shown at all ticket windows to allow teenagers to buy tickets to r-rated movies. Now that another massacre has occurred, they might be encouraged to force even stricter guidelines on r-rated movies.
The Federal Trade Commission regulates video game ratings, and is the watchdog for the movie industry, making sure that r-rated flix are not seen or bought on dvd by kids under 18 years old. The FTC chairman, Deborah Platt Majores states "The latest FTC report shows improvement, but also that the entertainment industry has more work to do." The FTC conducted a research group whereby they sent a variety of children into a retail store to buy r-rated dvds. Eighty-one percent of kids 16 and younger were able to buy R-rated movies in 2003, and that number dropped just 10 percentage points to 71 percent in 2006.
Based on these statistics, and in light of the shootings at Virginia Tech, there is reason to believe that retail video chains like Blockbuster will be in the headlights of watchdog groups like the FTC to make sure movies like "Hostel" and "The Devil's Rejects" do not get into the hands of 12-year-olds.
Hopefully, a massacre like Virginia Tech will never happen again, and R-rated movies should be given the freedom to grow as a genre so movies like "The 300" can be made for the vast movie-going audience's never ending appetite for extreme, well made action.
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