Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
Console: GameCube
Genre: Adventure/Platform
Rated: Everyone
Players: 1-2

As a part of our Help Pojo Get Cought Up time, we had some of our skilled writters at our Message Board write some reviews for us. All of these reviews are written by different Members. This one happens to be written by, Myuutsuu 150, but he/she is letting us publish this. All credit goes to him/her. -Pojo's Video Games

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ironic isn't it? Sega and Nintendo had been going at it for years..the classic struggle between Sonic vs Mario. In fact, Sonic was created to stop Mario and make everyone forget about Nintendo. Times have changed and since the failure of the Sega Dreamcast, Sega decided to go all out by making themselves a multi-platform software company. And what better way of showing off their skills than to re-release a game that was once on their old console that sold quite alot. Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Team's latest game, has been released with a new name, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.

Why is it named Sonic Adventure 2 Battle? Simple, unlike the Dreamcast version, SA2B has more options for its 2 Player mode. In this game's 2 Player Mode, you have the option of Racing, Treasure Hunting, Shooting, Kart Race, Chao Race, and Chao Karate. In Racing, you can choose between Sonic and Amy Rose or Shadow and Metal Sonic. In Treasure Hunting, you can choose between Knuckles and Tikal or Rouge and Chaos 0. Shooting allows you to choose from Tails and Chao Walker or Dr. Eggman and Dark Chao Walker. Kart Race allows you to Kart race as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Dr. Eggman, Shadow, or Rouge. As you progress in the game, you'll unlock new karts, RoboEggman and a Chao in a kart.

Chao Racing allows you to use your raised Chao in a race against your opponent's Chao. Chao Karate is a new addition to Sonic Adventure 2. Basically you take your raised Chao and battle it against your opponent's raised Chao (like you would do in Pokemon). It's not as involved as Pokemon, but here's the jist of it. You're Chao will fight until it's Zeal runs out. When it does, you must press A repeatedly to rise it back up to keep fighting. All of it's stats effect how it preforms in battle.

Now if you're wondering if that's all that's been done, then I have to say no it isn't. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle's 1 Player Mode got an upgrade too. All of the levels got some graphical changes, the Chao Gardens were fixed up so you can check your Chao's stats without having to swap it into the GameBoy Advance (which I'll get into later), and because of the GameCube's great ability of showing off nice graphics, the game runs just as smooth as the Dreamcast version with alot of graphical fixes. Circles look more like circles (such as the Rings), and Sonic and Shadow's quills are rounded out more.

Now about the control. The controls are basic. A is to Jump and B is to Attack while the Analog stick controls your character. The L and R buttons control the direction you move the camera. The one problem I have with the controls is the camera. The camera tends to move around either alot or not where you want it to go. If you were to jump to one position, the camera will pull a 180 and confuse you if you're not used to your surroundings. Or there will be times when it gets stuck behind a wall.But once you get used to it, the camera won't bother you much.

Now as for the sound..I have to say Sonic Team picks the best and worst voice actors I've heard for a video game. What do I mean? Well, Sonic Team of Japan did an excellent job of making sure everyone's voice fit their character. But..of course, when it comes to translating it for America, that's where it hurts. Sonic Team of America did just as bad a job as they did in Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. Shadow doesn't have that bad ass voice he has in the Japanese version..Knuckles sounds horrendous..more like a 34-year old man who doesn't care for what he's doing. Most of the time they don't get the feel of the character and make the expression in the voice sound unfitting. Thank god that you can switch the audio to Japanese. As for music..Sonic Team once again wows me by treating me to beautiful sounding music. From Escape from the City to Live and Learn, I was making sure no one who came into room spoke so I could hear the music.

Now what else does Sonic Adventure 2 Battle allow? Well, if you happen to own a GameBoy Advance, Sonic Advance, and a GameBoy Advance/GameCube link, you could transfer your Chao between the GBA and the GC or vice versa. Not only can you transfer Chao, but you can bring rare Chao Eggs that you can't obtain from SA2B from Sonic Advance. The game may not have Internet Access like the Dreamcast version did, but you now have access to the Chao Black Market. What does this do? Well everytime you beat a level, the rings you collected are added to a sort of bank. When you goto the Black Market, you can purchase Chao Eggs, food, accessories for Chao or voice menu themes for the Menu when you start up the game.

--Myuutsuu 150

Ratings (1-10)