Developer : Sega
Release date : 2003
Synopsis :
Sonic Adventure is a 1998 platform game for Sega’s Dreamcast and the first main Sonic the Hedgehog game to feature 3D gameplay. It follows Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Big the Cat, and E-102 Gamma in their quests to collect the Chaos Emeralds and stop series antagonist Doctor Robotnik from unleashing Chaos, an ancient evil. Controlling one of the six characters—each with their own abilities—players complete levels to progress the story. Sonic Adventure retains many elements from prior Sonic games, such as power-ups and the ring-based health system. Outside the main game, players can play minigames like racing and interact with Chao, a virtual pet.
Sonic Team began developing Sonic Adventure in 1997, after the cancellation of the Sega Saturn game Sonic X-treme. Led by director Takashi Iizuka and producer Yuji Naka, the team strove to reinvent Sonic for the 3D era of video games. Adventure features a stronger emphasis on storytelling and role-playing elements in contrast to previous Sonic games, while Yuji Uekawa redesigned the series’ characters for their transition to 3D. Sonic Team attempted to demonstrate the technical prowess of the Dreamcast with realistic graphics and drew inspiration from locations in Peru and Guatemala. The soundtrack was primarily composed by Jun Senoue, who preferred rock music over the electropop of previous Sonic games.
Following its reveal at the Tokyo International Forum in August 1998, Sonic Adventure was highly anticipated and was released in Japan in December 1998 and worldwide in September 1999. It received critical acclaim and became the Dreamcast’s bestseller, with 2.5 million copies sold by August 2006. Reviewers considered Adventure a major technical advancement and praised the visuals and gameplay. Though critics noted glitches and camera problems, and reactions to the audio were mixed, critics considered Sonic Adventure an exceptional game; some speculated that it could help re-establish Sega as the dominant console manufacturer after the unsuccessful Saturn.
Journalists have retrospectively ranked Sonic Adventure among the best Sonic games, and it is recognized as an important release in both the series and the platform genre. Many characters and concepts introduced in Adventure recur in later Sonic games. A sequel, Sonic Adventure 2, was released in 2001. Adventure was ported to the GameCube and Windows in 2003 with altered graphics and more challenges, while a high-definition version was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010 and for Windows in 2011. Reviews for these releases were less positive; critics felt the game had not aged well and ran at an inconsistent frame rate.
Doctor Robotnik seeks a new way to defeat his longtime nemesis Sonic and conquer the world. During his research, he learns about an entity called Chaos—a creature that, thousands of years ago, helped to protect the Chao and the all-powerful Master Emerald, which balances the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds. When a tribe of echidnas sought to steal the power of the Emeralds, breaking the harmony they had with the Chao, Chaos retaliated by using the Emeralds’ power to transform into a monstrous beast, Perfect Chaos, and wipe them out. Tikal, a young echidna who befriended Chaos, imprisoned it in the Master Emerald along with herself. Robotnik shatters the Master Emerald to release Chaos and tests the creature’s natural form on the city of Station Square.
When Sonic sees local police fail to defeat Chaos, he and Tails work to stop Robotnik from empowering it with the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles, the only remaining echidna, sets out to find the shards of the Master Emerald and repair it. Robotnik activates a new series of robots, including one named Gamma, and orders them to find Froggy, an amphibian who ate a Chaos Emerald. Froggy’s owner, Big, seeks to find him as well. In Station Square, Sonic’s friend Amy finds a Flicky being pursued for a Chaos Emerald in its possession, and decides to protect it. When both are captured, Amy convinces Gamma not to work for Robotnik; Gamma helps her to escape before seeking out and destroying the other robots in his series, sacrificing himself in the process.
Although Sonic disrupts Robotnik’s plans, Chaos manages to absorb all the Chaos Emeralds and transforms into Perfect Chaos; it rebels against Robotnik and destroys Station Square. Through flashbacks from Tikal (who was also released from the Master Emerald), Sonic realizes that Chaos has been in constant torment and sorrow, and that imprisoning it again will not stop it. He uses the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and defeats Perfect Chaos. Chaos calms down when it sees the Chao living peacefully in Station Square, and Tikal takes it somewhere safe to live in peace. Afterward, Sonic pursues a fleeing Robotnik.
Source : Wikipedia
