Sonic Adventure - All Filler, No Killer - IMPLANTgames 

One of Eggman's lines during Speed Highway as Tails is "I'll take the whole city with me", implying that he actually was just going to blow himself up with the city. Eggman always seemed a bit more unhinged in SA1, like a lot more of a madman than most other games.

18:49 Let's be honest, none of us pushed those stairs. We just jumped awkwardly into the hole in the wall.

What makes SA1 endearing to me is how different it feels from other entries in the series, even SA2. I especially love the free roaming adventures fields, with Mystic Ruins being one of my favourite areas in video games.

You didn't say something along the lines of "Sonic the Hedgehog has always had a rocky transition to 3d", so 0/10: not a true review. Get off of RU-vid, faker.

Never thought I'd see the day someone compiled data on playtime for each character. Eye opening!

"player already knows this" You're missing the fact that the stories can be played out of order, so the player might not already know this. In fact as the challenge ramps up, it becomes natural to check out other stories before progressing the Sonic story. The easy filler becomes welcome. You boot up Sonic Adventure for just half an hour every day and are immersed in the world and advance something at least a tiny bit, and the spaced out cutscene repeats are not annoying at all. Very little of the overworld has an actual gameplay function, but it feels believable for this reason, as if it was more of an actual place that could exist than an artificial obstacle course. Furthermore the stories all have cute little touches, the cutscenes differ ever so slightly in tone while conveying same information, or continuity is deliberately broken, adding to characterisation, which granted, makes everyone prone to lying, which isn't very deep, but i'll take that, i thought it was mildly humorous at the time. The main inspiration is i believe Rashomon, a Japanese classic that was about to turn 50 and features several unreliable narrators with interweaving and merging stories. Now naturally Sonic Adventure is not about to ever be viewed as a comparable narrative masterpiece, but i think the ambition is admirable in a way. The way i see it, Sonic narratives are all about character caricatures, usually without any character development because they have to be these unchanging toys, lovable and adored by everyone based on their core character traits, and story and continuity are basically a myth. Whenever someone goes on about continuity in Sonic universe, i really want to slap them pretty hard. Now naturally these elements which i believe worked well enough at the time have not aged very well. We are viewing the game through the lens of busy lives and 35+ years of game backlog that we are yet to get back to, while more games get added to the backlog every year. You may be subject to reviewer fatigue, where a game that was intended to last several months is raced through within mere days and things that aren't actually bothersome at normal pace become quite grating. You also have the skill to complete so many things on first try that a 9 year old which encounters the analogue controller for the first time probably didn't, so for you the game is 80% filler, for a child, it used to be 80% falling down bottomless pits or running out of rings, with a welcome calm respite in between. Playing games can get really, really tiresome if you're not terribly good at them! Makes me wonder, should old games be reviewed against modern sensibilities or the circumstances at the time of their release? And i still like it a lot more than SA2. Then again i love Rouge so there's that. OK i love her cutscenes, when it comes to her stages, i don't actually care about them at all.

Easily my 3rd favorite Sonic game behind 3K and Unleashed I'm glad that you took an in-depth look at what did and didn't work instead of blindly bashing it like most people. While we may disagree, I really liked this review.

2015: "Sonic Adventure is an awesome game.... [It] is enjoyable." 2020: "Sonic Adventure is a *chore* to play through." Now that takes guts, deciding to take the time to look at something you've reviewed before in a new perspective. I don't believe in calling out contradictions between your old review and this one, but I will admire that you decided to give your current thoughts in what you think is your most possibly objective stance on this game. Keep up the good work.

This video is incredible! I love these sonic analysis, have just to say that the word "terrific" was very confusing to me, its clear during the video that its something very awesome, but I was confused with terrible during the whole video, almost fell at floor when he said that for the soundtrack... and then I was just "wow, he was telling a good thing, ok"!

you’re amazing, thanks for uploading

Dude I'm so glad I finally get to watch this I had to work all day and take the kids to basketball finally I can sit down and watch!!!

Yes! Another Sonic review! There are also other ways to get rings in Casinopolis, like via the dump (14:01)

"This sort of combo system would be a great addition to the sky chase sub stages." It was part of them. I don't know how I figured it out but I figured it out pretty early on as a 5 year old come on.

I love your videos dude. awesome review. 🦔💙

Thank you for this retrospective!

Awesome work man, that’s some dedication. Still waiting for the reboot of the and/or you reviewing The Sly Cooper Series podcast ;-)

Yes been waiting on this one. I loved this series as a teen.

Tails figuring out about the positive energies of the chaos emeralds from Tikal was something I never picked up on, even after all this time having played the game. Good review and strong insight.

Man I love this channel SA1 was super fun for me as a kid. But I was the kid who would just run around Hyrule Field and Peach's Castle, so I loved running around the adventure stages. Haha I actually remember groaning when I accidentally stumbled upon an action stage.

“Character battles pad out the length” Are you serious? It takes a couple seconds

Awesome video! Only complaint is that some of those optional upgrades (particularly the one for Tails) are really useful, and not talking about them felt a bit disappointing. Otherwise, a great analysis as usual Kris! ^o^

Even though I don’t agree with everything said here this is still a pretty great video. Deserves more views honestly

Yes yes yes! I’ve been waiting! God bless you Kris! Made my whole night! Edit: I wanted to go back after watching and give some of my opinions to add to the discussion. I have to say, right off the bat, I felt like I watched 41 minutes of my own thought. As a child playing through this game was a blast, every last bit of it. Those CGI cutscenes were everything to me for some reason and just helped bring the game to life a little more. The music is fantastic. And while I do agree that this is a video game and so gameplay should have most of the focus I do enjoy some of the adventure field moments. Flying super high in the jungle as Knuckles was always a favorite as a kid to kill time and mess around. Maybe by today’s standards their rather boring but for their time I think they’re fun and engaging enough. My rose tinted goggles keep me protected from most of the hate, but I do acknowledge the downfalls of the game. As you said, it’s a chore to play through but it’s my chore and I still love it. Great video and keep up the work as always!

I was the weirdo who liked Big the Cat's section of the game.

Regarding the 'bad port job' of SADX, I agree overall, however most of the complaints that this game is glitchy, ugly, has weird controls and bad audio mixing come from the PC version, not the Gamecube version. Most people that buy Sonic Adventure today go and purchase it on the PC, understandably. After all, why should you prefer having to play on the Dreamcast over having a 16:9 aspect ratio, high resolution textures, a smooth and consistent framerate and all of the other extras that having it on PC provides? Simple - the PC version is not only a port, but it's actually a port of the Xbox 360 and PS3 version, which itself is a modified version of the Gamecube port of the original game. Not only did the game not take very nicely to being reoptimised for each system over and over, but it actually deteriorated and became exponentially worse with each version. So the criticism of the DX port is not centred towards the Gamecube version (which is a fine version to play if you don't mind the change of artstyle), but the Frankenstein's monster of bad ports that is being sold on PC.

Well said ! I personally like the game despite not growing up with it, I looked at it more as a kids game which helped alleviate the pain of walking around as well as the story not being too serious.

This is my favourite Sonic game so it was kind of difficult to analyse your complaints, but at the end of the day, I'm glad I did. I still love the game, but this review helped me understand why so many people don't, and that's okay! It only makes me more excited for a possible remake that could potentially make this game the masterpiece it could've been. You should've touched on the chao garden though, that's like half of the game's playtime for some.

you are the best reviewer on youtube, by far

It is indeed a game with several flaws, but oh man was it mindblowing at the time. I remember a kid me jaw dropping over the whale, I was like "games can't get better than this"

I usually avoid reviews that pass the 30 minute mark at all cost, but i did an exception with your unleashed review and i just loved your objectivity and the way you put things into perspective. The sonic franchise is one filled to the brim with overreactions (from detractors and fans alike). Thank you for bringing new perspectives and going in deep what makes these games tick (and what doesnt)

Great review. Haven't played this since the time it came out & was blown away by it back then but looks a slog to get through now. Its looks have aged well tho, still a pretty game. Do you still have any plans to cover the Banjo Kazooie games at some point?

Sonic Adventure is my fav Sonic game and I grew up on the 2D games, that's how much I loved the game.

I love the hub worlds. It makes Sonic Adventure feel like an actual Adventure which is something no other Sonic games does right, imo.

Why does nobody ever notice you can lock onto things in sky chase

A pretty fair apraisal, my dude. It's an above average game due to certain parts & moments but others bring it down. I'm personally quite fond of it but acknowledge it's flaws at the same time.

Nice sum 41 reference!! (Of course I know it’s all killer no filler)

8:09 I'd like to note the Light Speed Attack deals double damage with the Chaos 6 boss fight. Same thing with the Maximum Heat Attack with Knuckles.

It’s worth noting that Big’s gameplay isn’t quite as random as this review would portray it. When Froggy or a fish bites the line, the player is supposed to hold down on the analog stick in order to get a hit. This information can be found in the “instruction” section while selecting a character and in the instruction booklet. Knowing this doesn’t really improve Big’s gameplay in any significant way, but it helps to reduce the randomness. There definitely should have been some sort of on-screen prompt during gameplay informing the player to hold down instead of stashing it away in menus and booklets that most players don’t read.

Just asking, is the playtime breakdown based on the Dreamcast version where your couldn't skip the cutscenes or the DX version where you could. Were the skippable cutscenes taken in account in this breakdown?

YEAH MORE SONIC REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANT WAIT FOR MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really appreciate you challenging the bogus 1/3 statistic people never shut up about

21:42 Whaaaat!? I've completed the game like 6-7 times but never knew you could do this. I don't think I ever saw any barrels in SA. Is it exclusive to this level?

Also, the game never was polarizing, this is historical revisionism, it was critically acclaimed when it came out, only matched by Sonic 3, Mania and Sonic Adventure 2. *This is definetly one of the worst analysis on Sonic Adventure that i ever seen* . It lacks the Adventure part in the analysis, so, the filler aspect doesn't make sense if all is tied as a whole like SA2 did too and with the exception of Big The Cat, the gameplay styles fit the basics of Sonic. Also, the game's progression is very streamlined, you can argue that not skipping cutscenes hurts the replayability but this was fixed in DX.

Wow, yeah. This in-depth look definitely mirrors a lot of the more sober thoughts about the game and how it's aged. I used to love this game, but even before I saw all the reviews around it, I played it less and less. Eventually, I just couldn't bring myself to keep playing through it, despite playing some of it occasionally. I love this game for what it meant to me as a child, but heck, even I've aged better than Sonic Adventure's lip movement.

2020 and this game is still one of the best games from the franchise.

Man RU-vid messing up by not notifying me when you upload :(

Where you have been? I honestly thought this channel was a fever dream lol

Sonic Adventure 1 was supposed to be a JRPG, like Shenmue was a Virtua Fighter RPG.

Great review dude love your videos. When will you upload again.

"The most "notorious" character is Big the Cat". I see what you did there :)

i always thought of gamma's story to be extremely heartbreaking. he literally sacrifices himself for the bird trapped inside him. :'( this was abnormally deep for a sonic game since.

20:18 But...there IS a combo system in the Sky Chase levels?

Never forget that the guy who voices big the cat also voices duke nukem

Good review. I wonder if the controls on the GC are less forgiving than the DC? possibly too fast at 60fps. I found the controls very forgiving for someone who had not played a 3d sonic game before. I got my dreamcast in 2018 and had a PS4 but was still blown away by the dreamcast's graphics and attitude. it was unlike anything i'd seen or owned before. I only played the sonic campaign and left it there because i wanted to have a want to come back and play the rest.

Definitely takes influence from Super Bunnyhop.

I hope they make the next main Sonic game with the Adventure style of gameplay instead of boost.

An epic in depth detailed analysis that I don't have anything to argue against

Wow, comparing this to your older review is fascinating, you said it was a masterpiece back then. Personally though, I love this game regardless of its flaws, and I definitely prefer the Dreamcast graphics so I use a modded pc version that combines the best of both versions.

In this day and age were classic video games from the past are getting remake or remastered this game will be a perfect candidate to update it

So Kris after this analysis of SA1 would you still say its better than SA2 or nah

Would you ever consider covering sonic 3 again?

Personally 9-9-99 was a great day and I still love SA and the rest of the library for the console!

I'll respect the foundations that Sonic Adventure left for future games in the series but other than that I'm pretty much with you after replaying the game last year as part of a 3D Sonic marathon I did on a Discord server. Took a while for me to really sink in what it was that made my re-playthrough not that enjoyable but "sluggish" was pretty much the main recurring theme I felt. If it wasn't the now laughably bad story telling in the cutscenes, it was the gameplay that is oddly restrictive at best and jank at worst that now makes the game hard to revisit. Also thank you for covering the whole DX vs Dreamcast debacle. There's no doubt some things the Dreamcast version did better but acting like DX was completely unplayable for mostly visual touches and a couple of extra glitches, is something I couldn't really settle on. Heck in the Dreamcast version you couldn't even skip the cutscenes which only made the sluggish issue worse for multiple playthroughs. If anyone had to pick one version of the game, they're better off just getting the PC version (2004 DVD, Steam, doesn't matter) and applying some mods via the "SADX Mod Installer" program that help make the game more playable, though that only carries it so much since at the end of the day the main package has aged.

I’m too smart too have fun

I recently played through Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 not too long ago to see if my opinions on them still hold up. Your review mirrors several of my complaints about this game. I actually would say about half of the gameplay is good, but not in the way others divide it. I think certain stages for certain characters are good, so that it rounds up to about half. Thankfully, the DX port also gives you the ability to skip the cutscenes. On the other hand, I still massively enjoy Sonic Adventure 2, despite its camera issues, and some overly large stages for Knuckles and Rouge. I know you primarily looked at the Dreamcast version of that game, and the GC port has similar lighting issues to the DX port of Adventure 1, but there are two significant changes that you didn't mention in your previous review of it. The GC port of Adventure 2 decreases the amount of time that Tails' and Eggman's laser takes to lock on to enemies by a few frames. That doesn't sound like a lot, but I find it to be very significant, given that I'm used to the speedier lock-on. Second, an additional indicator is added to Knuckles' and Rouge's gameplay, in the form of a red exclamation mark near their head when right on top of the emerald piece, since the the basic blinking red indicator wasn't exact enough. I know you didn't like the mech and treasure hunting stages in 2, but I do feel those two changes improve the game more than you might think. It makes the mech combat snappier and the hunting stages a little less aggravating. I also feel like it would have been good for you to discuss the extra acts and missions in the game, most of which were added in the DX port. It's a part of the game not many people discuss, and focusing on tasks in the action stages could make up for the lopsided stage-to-filler ratio in the main campaign. Even so, it's also something 2 did a lot better with more attainable goals, and clear rankings to indicate that improvement is needed.

Ya some of the items are just questionable at best. Like the charge up attacks are pointless. And Amy's spinning hammer upgrade would be cool... if there was ever a point to use it, like once at all ever.

41 minutes? Hoo boy~

I can't help but think that if you feel the need to make dry charts to quantify how much fun you think you should be having in a game, then you're already well past the point of being reasonably charitable toward it.

Despite this games issues this is still my favorite 3D Sonic game.I wish we could remake of this game from the ground up to fix some of its issues.

I really like Sonic, but since I had a PS2 I didn't really play this game until 4-5 years ago, as such I don't really have the Nostalgia factor most people have towards this game (despite being hugely nostalgic towards Sonic). I must say that I had a blast playing through most of Sonic's level, the cutscenes are obviously hideous, but compared to many games of that time they aren't as "bad" and idk I find them funny in a "so bad is good" way. I always giggle when Sonic says "Something buggin' ya" or "C'mon ya big drip", but that is due to my taste in humor. I like Tails gameplay, but yeah it's just a Sonic light playthrought, but having Tails playable with his moveset in 3D is still pretty awesome (specially because we only got it in this game and in Sonic 06). I don't like Emerald hunting but compared to SA2 approach this one is great. Amy is meh, Big the Cat shouldn't even exist, and E102-Gamma campaign and gameplay is pretty cool in my opinion, but nothing groundbreaking obviously. I think that this game is a product of his time, for people who are used to play older games and love Sonic it will be more tolerable than to newer gamers, it's from an era where Sonic Team actually had ambition instead of releasing souless games that try bank on nostalgia like Sonic Forces (I don't think Forces is a terrible game, but it's really shallow). And the soundtrack in this game, as per usual in Sonic, is absolutely fantastic, might be my favorite soundtrack in Sonic franchise and easily up there with my 5-10 greatest soundtracks.

Sonic Adventure DX is my favorite game of all time

After thinking it over, I see some flaws in your review. You can skip cutscenes in the DX version so you don't have to sit through each one. The Adventure Fields are similar to Super Mario 64 Peach Castle where you can also play with the characters moveset along with NPCs you can talk too. DX version also includes a Mission Mode giving each character objectives to complete with unlockable Gamegear games for collecting medals and beating missions, even Metal who pretty much plays like Sonic for doing everything. The Chao garden while optional still adds to the experience. I understand the criticisms but for a port it did alright and for Sonic's first 3d attempt it landed.

Big's problem's are worse with his extra missions. Like trying to catch the big fishes is just random, some times it takes forever to reel in, and the mechanics never really became intuitive. For Froggy you don't have a problem you can almost always just hold the button down or mash it, it's far more tedious for the big fish though.

I hope we eventually get a remake of this game because I really did like this game as well. I played the DX version since the GameCube was my very first console I ever played. Glitches happened occasionally, controls were sometimes rough on the edges, and storyline was meh. I hope they apply a similar story method in a future remake like they did in the sequel. I give it a 7.5 tbh

Can you please do a Pokemon Myestery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky review? I think you'll certainly enjoy that game.

Oof.. I can only imagine how harsh SA2 is gonna get it. I still enjoy playing this one from time to time, and I actually am kinda okay with Amy’s gameplay like the game is testing how you play against her controls, but I only find it a little better than SA2’s clash of clunkiness and flow. Also. Amy is bad with inclines, but have you run up staircases with her? For whatever reason she gains A LOT of momentum up staircases. I don’t get what’s happening, but it’s hilarious to see by trade. Also Big being the fastest ladder climber.

I liked Sonic Adventure but only for the PC. The hacks made this game soooooooo good and the hacking scene was so interesting.

A VIDEO AFTER A MONTH?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Even with its flaws it is still my favourite game i ever played (mostly because of the soundtrack)

I feel like you should make a video on Crash Team Racing, cause let's face it, it is the greatest competitor to Mario Kart

Finished today as a newcomer to the Sonic games, agree with everything you said.

symphony of the night when

If Sonic Team still wants to do this several stories idea, they should first make sure that their stories are well fleshed out enough to deserve such treatment. They could have made Tails’ story a single level instead of slogging through a bunch of filler. Great review, as always! You always give such great insight on Sonic titles!

I AGREE WITH YOU IMPLANTGAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!

So does anybody else play Tails without really flying? I enjoy using his spin ball's momentum to turn the stages into the "hard mode". Never been a fan of the green sky boosters, so if his stages were all made like Speed Highway it'd be a lot more boring for me

Great video, I suspect Sonic Adventure 2 will hold up better!

Sonic adventure made the same mistake donkey kong 64 made. It was trying too hard to be something it shouldn't have been. They should've tried to make something more like a fast paced 3D donkey Kong country, and sonic should've tried to make a fast, 3D sonic game that's just FUN. I see so much missed opportunity when sonic went 3D.....

Ngl i enjoyed waaaaaay more playing adventure 1 than adventure 2

I always like your take on games that are so polarizing, you're not biased or jaded, you just say it like it is to a modern video game player. PS. Bring back the podcast

When I go against egg Walker I actually always find it easy to avoid all his shock waves and then just do the rhythm attack on all four of his legs. wait who are these idiots who say that Sonic Adventure DX is worse than Sonic Adventure? It is the same game but with some updates to it. That's it and some added Easter eggs. because Sonic Adventure was released before Sonic Advance 2 Cream the Rabbit isn't even in the game. But since Sonic Adventure DX was released after Sonic Advance 2, you'll end up finding Cream the Rabbit fly around in Station Square after completing some levels. The graphics look more polished in Sonic Adventure DX than they do in Sonic Adventure. In fact the graphics in Sonic Adventure DX look a little more akin to the graphics in Sonic Adventure 2 which is better graphically than Sonic Adventure. And last but not least there are better reasons to gather emblems in Sonic Adventure DX because every 20 emblems you get you unlock a classic Game Gear Sonic game wish for me was the first time I played several of those games.

To be fair, there is some truth to people blaming the ports for the reception Sonic Adventure 1 has these days. While stuff like the repetitive script, the questionable English translation (outside of Eggman's famous mince meat line and some of his other threatening moments), the actors and actresses being given no context for their lines, fishing in general, mouth flaps only fitting the Japanese voices, and laughably outdated animations (though ambitious for the time) are issues that have plagued even the original version, not every criticism originates with that version. The GCN version did some good; such as bumping up the frame rate (especially since the Dreamcast version was originally going to run at 60fps), added in the mini-map feature, reduced loading times, made the water look much prettier, gave an incentive to collect some of the emeralds, included an option to control the camera with the c-stick, expanded the Chao Garden system, and added more polygons to the character models. However that doesn't mean it is a perfect version. The replacement of the Dreamcast version lighting engine (even if there was potential compatibility issues that led to this happening) with a flatter lighting system was not well received. As for collision detection issues and glitches, there are undeniably more; even if they don't prevent the game from being playable enough. When it came time for the XBox 360/PS3/STEAM version, they unfortunately carried over the glitches and flatter lighting system. It doesn't help they removed the incentive to collect the emeralds in those newer versions. Not to mention they have the worst audio balance of any version. Even SA2 was given a rather bad audio balance treatment with SA2 HD once brought over to the XBox 360 and PS3. One thing that saves the STEAM version; unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360 version, is that it's compatible with BetterSaDX.

Amy was actually one of the best characters in terms of her controls, the real disappointment with her, is her levels don't mesh with it. I would have liked to seen her gameplay expanded to take more advantage of her hammer jumps, and maybe a few enemy gauntlets to take advantage of her hammer spins, or maybe let her use the hammer to launch a ball or other object for a puzzle mechanic, there was just alot more they could have done with her.

I always come back to your Sonic videos, also never realized how many angry fans there are in the comments. Nevertheless, love your analysis on this one. Even as someone who still holds the adventure games close to my heart, it's nice to hear other people's thoughts and points

The thing that this game nails, and does very well...is strictly Sonic's CORE gameplay. The responsiveness, the precision, sensitivity, speed and control...is dead on and mostly how I want Sonic to move, jump, run and play in 3D. His physics are a playground in themselves, I love it. It's unfortunate that the overall structure of the game itself, is so poorly done as you proved. Still worth playing at least ONCE imo just for Super S, but after that, just have a blast with Sonic's campaign, time attack and such.

Funny, yesterday I thought: "Hey, I haven't seen a new video from implantgames in a while." Today, Boom, new video. Unfortunately about a bad game I never cared about. Anyway, good to see a new review of yours.

40:22 ExoParadinGamer Said that you can Skip the cutscenes in the Gamecube version So I don’t understand why you need to complain about this. But I don’t know what button is required to do this action. Yeah the game shows it’s age, but look at other games from 1999/ 2000 have they aged better?

Too bad you didn't mention Perfect Chaos' Dreamcast character model. IMHO he looks way better than the "updated" DX version. The Sonic Generations model was based on the Dreamcast original.

This is easily the most suprising review I've seen of yours so far. Most opinions I've come across is that this game is great or not much worse than good with critiques mostly around Big the cat sucks Character fights are boring Amy is meh And some bits of the story That and the dx port being a butchered job appareantly I found myself lost twice in the game but I'm not sure if it was just me several months ago, or that tails isnt that good. Also I guess I'd say that I felt you understated how bad big the cat is as a playstyle but also unsure as it might've just been terrible luck on my part. Good content as always^^

Idk man, I value filler. It might just be that after 4 action packed games I was ready to take it slower and get more of a story and lore. I remember loving getting lost and even though initially Big was a pain I started to really enjoy his stages. I am sure for people that don’t like adventure games with high emphasis of stories this was probably not a game for them. But Sonic Adventure was a living world that I could mess around in and have a great time. Also, the story is better than any of the stuff we would get from the last two generation of 3D games... So there is that too.

IMO if you say that sonic's new model in DX is not bad, you have no right to judge stuff like the shinyness of the characters in Heroes. You also simply can not tell me that they intentionally changed the rays of light shining to the floor of The Casinopolis Sewer stage into a stupid looking grating.