Sonic Adventure 2: Battle

Basis: Sonic the Hedgehog is back!! But on Nintendo GameCube!? You better believe it!! This game is a port of the game Sonic Adventure 2 for the SEGA Dreamcast & diehard Sonic & SEGA fans will be very happy. In this game, the story-mode is divided into 2 stories. You can choose the Hero Side & save the world (Sonic, Tails, & Knuckles) or choose the Dark Side & conquer it!!(Shadow, Dr. Eggman, & Rouge). For the Hero Side, Sonic is captured by a secret military force code-named G.U.N. When being confined in a high-secured G.U.N. helicopter, Sonic leaps out & lands into the city streets in an effort to escape. After escaping the city from G.U.N., a mysterious black hedgehog named Shadow appears in front of Sonic holding a Chaos Emerald. Meanwhile, unexplained incidents occur across the globe after the declaration of global takeover, by none other than Dr. Eggman himself. After Sonic discovers the connection between Shadow & Dr. Eggman, he begins a quest in order to stop them. Sonic is also helped along the way by Tails & Knuckles(with a little help from Amy ^_~). For the Dark Side, while Dr. Eggman is on a quest for a top secret weapon simply known as "Shadow", the Doc penetrates the the security of a high-level military base. Once inside the base, Eggman discovers the weapon who is actually a black hedgehog who claims to be the "ultimate life form" known as Shadow. Shadow invites Dr. Eggman to the Space Colony ARK revealing the Eclipse Cannon which is an enormous weapon capable of destroying Earth. Eggman is pleased & right as they are about to start their conquest for global destruction, they are startled by a menacing female bat named Rouge who offers her help to conquer Earth as well. And so, the plot to conquer Earth begins!

Gameplay: Each pair of characters have their own separate set of levels that show off their special skills. Sonic/Shadow levels are fast-paced, running & jumping levels much like the old Sonic levels on the old Sonic games except in 3D, Knuckles/Rouge have treasure hunting levels in which you have to dig & search the entire level for pieces of the Master Emerald, & Tails/Dr. Eggman are pretty much shooting levels in which Tails & Eggman have their own special combat vehicles & shoot laser beams & missiles at eachother. The other awesome feature of this game is Chao raising(^_^)! Chao are cute little creatures that you can raise in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. They start out as an egg & after that you start raising them. Their attitudes are based on how you hatch them. For example, if you throw the egg on the wall, they may hate you after being hatched. To make them like you more, you must pet them a lot. At the Black Market, you can buy fruit, Chao eggs, & hats for them(^.^). if you leave Chao in school, they will learn different abilities that can affect their personality. You can take Chao to the doctor & they will get healed if they get the hiccups or any other sickness. There are also three different Chao Gardens: Normal Garden, Hero Garden, & the Dark Garden. Each garden have effects on Chao that can be raised to create Dark Chao, Normal Chao, & Hero Chao! You can also have your Chao win toys like the TV & radio in Chao Race & fight to survive in Chao Karate(GameCube Exclusive!). You can also raise your stats of Chao by going into levels & obtain stat raisers called,"Chaos Drives" by destroying your enemies & Animals that can also change your Chao's appearance! You can also transfer Chao with Sonic Advance for the GBA in the Tiny Chao Garden using the GBA link cable(sold separately) All in all, the Chao raising is awesome. The main reason they called this game,"Battle" was because the multiplayer modes have been upgraded. You can use Amy & Metal Sonic in the 2P Sonic/Shadow levels, Tikal & Chaos 0 in the 2P Knuckles/Rouge levels, & the Chao & Dark Chao combat vehicles in the 2P Dr. Eggman/Tails levels.

Graphics: I have no complaints conerning graphics on this game. Having previously seen it on SEGA Dreamcast, I would say that some improvements have been made texture-wise, but otherwise the graphics are pretty much the same. The camera is still a regular annoyance though.

Sound: The sound for this game is amazing. Some levels like Radical Highway, Meteor Herd, & Iron Gate have really cool techno beats. Others like Green Forest, are high on the electric guitar. The voice overs for the characters in this game are pretty moderate. Sonic's voice matches good but Knuckle's voice sounds too much like a serious adult. Also every character has a theme music(Including Amy! ^.^). Overall, the sound in this game is awesome!!

Replay Value: This game has a very high replay value. The main reason for this is because of the Chao feature. Raising your Chao can take a long time, especially if you want to get a Normal Chao. Winning Chao Races & Chao Karate can be hard but by continuing to raise your Chao, you'll be winning races in no time! You can try linking up with Sonic Advance for GBA to get special Chao not available in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Mainly the other replay value in this game is trying to obtain all 180 Emblems(which is not an easy task might I add). You will also have to do special tasks in Chao World in order to get emblems. After obtaining all 180 emblems, you will be able to access a special & secret level hidden in the game. These are basically the main replay values in the game.

Conclusion: If you already played the SEGA Dreamcast version of this game, then you shouldn't buy it. It's at least worth a rent at first. I'd suggest you buy it if you liked it after you rent it. It's worth it! I give Sonic Adventure 2 Battle a 9.0

-GCNFreak1386