Following Sega’s briliantly crafted 16-bit adventures, it was time to jump into the third dimension, and out came Sonic Adventure on the Sega Dreamcast, later ported to the Nintendo Gamecube.
While Sonic Adventure was received rather well, the general opinion on it is rather split. On one hand, it’s considered one of the best 3D Sonic games ever made, while the other deem it as an insult to programming that strayed too far from the Classics. So let’s find out if it deserves these claims.


SADX’s story hasn’t aged the best. The voice acting gets the job done, if a little cheesy, the animations look awkward and stiff, there are a lot of ugly assets, such as Eggman, Big and Gamma, and there’s no English lipsync. I would excuse these were I talking about the Dreamcast version, but Sonic Team made no effort to improve the presentation in this port, and since the game is trying to tell multiple overlaping stories, you are going to watch a lot of the same cutscenes across all campaigns, though at least the dialogue is slightly changed.
What is improved however, are the character models, looking a lot of better than their Dreamcast equivalents. Assets are now also higher quality, and the draw distance has improved by quite a bit. You can also skip cutscenes in this version, which is a major godsend on repeat playthroughts.
Overall, the story isn’t as important as the gameplay itself, so I won’t knock the game too much for it, but I will admit future Sonic games do a much better job.


Moving on, I’d say SADX is visually appealing to the eyes. There are a total of 11 stages, each with multiple sections, all of them different from one another. There are also 3 Hub Worlds that act as a means of getting used to the controls and also access stages. I find them largely inoffensive, they’re small enough that you won’t get lost in. The worst I can say is that some assets are rather polygonated.
Thankfully, even after 23 years, Sonic Adventure’ Soundtrack is still wonderful to this day. There is a lot of genre variety, and they perfectly fit what is happening on the screen. This is also the first Sonic game to feature vocal tracks for each character, summing up their personality quite well. And of course, the main theme, Open Your Heart being an absolute banger, only second to Live and Learn in my eyes.

Sonic Adventure contains 6 playable characters, each with their own unique gameplay style. So let’s evaluate each one and see how good they are.

•Sonic: Sonic’s gameplay is straight forward and simple. Your objective is to get to the end of stage as fast as you can, while collecting ring, dodging and killing baddies, and interacting with the level design. Sonic also controls really well. He’s responsive, fluid and he doesn’t feel slippery. His classic Spindash is back, now being able to be activated at any time. What is new, however, is the Homing Attack. Pressing jump again in mid-air will allow Sonic to do an air-dash to pick up speed, or home-in and destroy the nearest enemy. Good stuff.

•Tails: Tails’s gameplay is largely the same as Sonic’s. He can’t Spindash, but he controls well, is reasonably fast, can still curl up into a ball or do a tail attack to destroy enemies. Also like the classics, Tails can fly for short periods of time. The objective remains the same, get to the end of the stage, however this time you are racing Sonic. As long as you make use of the Tails only shortcuts, you should have no problem clearing his campaign.

•Knuckles: Expanding on his classic-era gameplay, Knuckles’s stages are more open-ended than others. He’s fast, can climb up walls and glide, punch up enemies, and later on dig for optional goodies. Your objective is to find three pieces of the Master Emerald scattered throughout the level with the help of a Radar. If you’re lost, finding one of those pink orbs will point you in the right direction. I’d say Sonic Team expanded wonderfully on his classic abilities.

•Amy: Returning from Sonic CD, Amy Rose. The objective remains to get to the end of the stage. Amy can’t curl into a ball, but she can attack enemies with her Hammer. At full speed, she can also do a hammer flip to get in the air. Even so, Amy herself isn’t that fun to play. Her acceleration is pretty bad, she’s slow and trying to change directions too quickly will kill any speed you had.

•Big: I’m not gonna beat around the bush, Big is the worst character to play as. You have to run around stages at a snails pace to find Froggy and fish him out of a pool of water. Yep, fish him out. And that is if you can even put up with the awful fishing controls. You have to cast your lure, move the lure to get Froggy’s attention, pray he bites, and when he does, flick the control stick to reel it in. Believe me, it’s a lot worse when you play it yourself.

•Gamma: Oh hey, playing as a robot! Gamma is also a fun one. Your goal is to get to the end of the stage and fight an easy boss within a set time. Gamma can shoot enemies to destroy them and also replenish said timer, a higher bonus being awarded to you the more enemies you lock on at once.

So we have 4 good playstyles, one meh and one terrible one. I’d say for their first try, Sonic Team delivered a competent experience.
Throughout the game you’ll also find upgrades for each character. While they don’t add much to the game, they also don’t take away from it, so they’re harmless.
The Camera is mostly competent, it does a good job at pointing you in the right direction, though if needed you can rotate it yourself.
Bosses are easy, not much to say.
SADX introduces Maps to the Hub Worlds, which can be useful if you get lost.
Sonic Adventure offers a good ammount of optional content. Each stage has a C,B and A objective, rewarding you with Emblems. Emblems can also be found in Hub Worlds, getting them all will allow you to play as a fan-favourite Sonic character. SADX improves on this, adding a Mission Mode. Essentially, you run around the Hub Worlds collecting Key Cards(?) that will assign you with a task. Doing said task will complete it, rinse and repeat, though you may need to consult a guide for some of them due to their... ahem, Engrish. For every 20 Missions you complete, you will unlock a Sonic Gamegear Title, and the same goes for Emblems.

SADX on the three mentioned platforms is a mostly competent port of an older port on PC. That’s a lot of ports. And as you’d expect, it’s not good. The issues from SADX Gamecube remain, but my biggest complaint, however, is the lack of HD Widescreen. Was it that hard to implement it in 2010? It’s sad to think that Sonic Adventure 2 did get some of those improvements, but it’s even sadder that we have to use mods in order to do what Sonic Team couldn’t. If you’re going to play SADX on Steam, please download the SADX Mod Manager in order to make your experience better. Trust me, it doesn’t take too long and it’s by far the best way to play this game.

All in all, Sonic Adventure is a really good Sonic game. The controls are tight and responsive, the visual are pretty, the stages are fun and not as linear as they’re made out to be, and the game has a buttload of extra content for you. Certainly there was room for improvement as mentioned above. Now... Would I recommend the DX Port over the original? Yes. Is Sonic Adventure a good game? It’s one of the best Sonic games ever made that I still find myself revisting over and over again.

Overall: 9/10