Sonic Adventure did so well, it was only a matter of time until we saw a sequel! The premise is similar to the first, but with several changes. For starters, you don't really get to choose a character now... Instead you choose Good or Dark sides. The Good consists of Sonic, Knuckles and Tails in his plane/walker. The Dark consists of Shadow the dark Hedgehog, Rouge the well endowed bat and Dr. Robotnik in his egg-walker. The character you use depends on the level you're at, thus you really never have a choice except for a side. Another new feature is that you are now graded on how you get through a level. Time, amount of rings, etc. yield the resulting rank and rewards such as extra continues. The story behind this is that Robotnik wanders around this abandoned space satellit, ARK, and releases Shadow who promises to grant him a wish if he brings him a Chaos emerald. Eventualy it is revealed that Shadow has ambitions of destroying Earth with the 7 chaos emeralds which will power a massive laser contained in ARK. Along the line Rouge joins them with thoughts of stealing the emeralds, but soon finds something else worth staying for. Knuckles quest is basically the same as last time, find the shards of the shattered jewel. Sonic and Tails do their usual thing where they go out to save the world and Amy (Sonic's stalker from the first game) tags along.
Why it sucks: This game is just plain frustrating. Besides the lame fact that either side is basically the same game with different characters, there are very few moments which shine like the first SA did. The walker stages are just sad, Tails would do better walking and flying than piloting that stupid walker!!! The Rouge/Knuckles stages are probably the WORST of them all. Even though I love these two characters (Particularly Rouge. Yeah, I'll admit it. As super deformed humanoid bats with large, bouncing breasts go, she's hot!), their stages are the most frustrating and annoying. The idea behind all of their missions is that they must find 3 of something and then the level is over. This involves flying, climbing, digging and swimming through what I would call "hell". The Radar thing is still in effect, so when you get close you hear it beep fast the closer you get. This doesn't always help and the TVs set around the stages only give three clues which don't always help because the stages are so bloody large. Another problem is this game's camera angles. The camera will fight you to stay in some places, usually in a place where you can't see where you're going or look in the direction you need to see. A "look" button would really have been nice for this game. And while on the topic of technical difficulty, there's the cheap enemies and stages. Instead of designing awesome eye candy and totally sweet places to run around in you get very basic tracks and such which do more to make the game hard more than make make it fun. And here's another issue, did Sega actually look at the story before they put this on the market?!? I know that the whole concept of Sonic is surreal to say the least, but god it's like they're not even trying anymore! And for some reason, Dr. Robotnik is actually referring to himself as "Eggman". A nickname that should have been worn out with the first game. As a huge Sonic fan, it hurts to see the franchise get this lame. It came dangerously close in Sonic Adventure, but here it crossed the line. I even miss Big the cat! My biggest Gripe? What's with the god awfyl rap song in each of Knuckles stages?!?
Why it rules: If a busty bat-babe isn't enough for you then dammit what is?!?! Well... okay, besides Rouge there's occasionally some nice gameplay that briefly pops up and there's some cool multiplayer games. And as frustrating as Rouge and Knuckles respective stages are, it IS a lot of fun flying around and climbing stuff! Unless you're timed... or you've been doing it for like 2 hours...
Overall: Team Sonic had their work cut out for them when they made a sequel. However, it appears they failed miserably. It's not quite the worst game you'll ever play, but it's several notches below the original. Choosing different characters to play as was a lot of fun, being forced to play as Robotnik in his gimpy walker is not. To say the least, the game lacks 2 very basic requirements that made the first so good. 1st, it lacks the awesome visuals the first had. Even though in the first Sonic stage you get some fairly neat gameplay and as opposed to a massive killer whale trying to crush you, you are chased by a monstrous semi truck downhill. It's an impressive way to start up a game, but that's where you stop being impressed. Start up the dark side and you play the boring and irritating Robotnik. Gak. 2nd is the need for FUN in the game, the first offered plenty of this and had varying modes of play for each character. In this you have 3 pairs of characters on opposing sides who play identically. That's not what ya' call innovation. That's a DOWNgrade. In short, pass up on this if you've never played the first game and buy the original. Or hell, buy Sonic Shuffle! Just pass on this if you can avoid it. But then if you are desperate for more Sonic, particularly for Multiplayer action as well as sexy bat chicks then snatch this thing up! But then, you might as well grab it for the gamecube as I understand that Sega addressed many of the technical glitches as well as added a lot more multiplayer modes.