Review: Sonic Adventure (XBLA)

There are some games that every gamer holds dear to their heart and wishes publishers and developers alike would re-release on current systems, just so fans can revel in their magnificence once again. For some, the sheer nostalgia of the game puts it on a pedestal so high that no matter how offensive criticism can get over the title, their opinions cannot be wavered. Sega had a smash hit on the Dreamcast with Sonic Adventure and stood in prime position to unleash a fan favorite to the masses over XBLA. They had a chance at scant 800 Microsoft Points to release a true gem to the digital distribution library of gamers everywhere while having Sonic fans of yore clamoring to download their copy. Somewhere along the lines, Sega lost their way and what they delivered is clearly one of the laziest ports in recent memory.

Game: Sonic Adventure
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Genre: Platformer
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Verdict: Its Sonic Adventure in a way no one remembers it.
Pros: Relive the good times from the Dreamcast.
Cons: Might have been better if you still had a Dreamcast and the original game.
Acquired via Publisher

Nostalgia, I fear is where anything good about Sonic Adventure should remain. The game that Sega delivered on XBLA and soon to PSN is are horrendously lazy port from the old Dreamcast version gamers fell in love with. Sonic Adventure, back in the day was Sega’s first big Sonic game after the Saturn and was met with much praise. Later, the DX version on the Gamecube had gamers excited as Sonic had made a gigantic jump in progression. Fans of the DX version will have to pony up more money as that version has been stripped away and will be included in a DLC pack for half the entry price of the full game. That is asking a lot since the core of the game fails to deliver on so many levels.

Graphically the game claims to be at 720p, which is true for the most part, but there was no attention to the fact that most high definition televisions these days run at a 16:9 aspect ratio. Sonic Adventure runs at a crisp and clean 4:3 with no way to change the aspect ratio. This leaves you playing a game with overly distracting blue vertical bars strafing the action at all times. The character models have been cleaned up a little bit by bringing them to 720p, but it is pretty obvious that the game is 11 years old. Normally, for nostalgia sake I can be pretty forgiving on graphics, but when the time wasn’t even taken to bring the game into the most basic of aesthetic display options, it makes it difficult to accept this as anything but a rush job to garner cash from fans.

The control scheme too seems to have been breezed over with no real quality control. Making the transition to the Xbox 360′s analog sticks didn’t fare well for the controls of Sonic. While blasting through at high speeds over such famed courses as the Sky Deck, gamers will remember the tight paths and precarious ways they had to guide Sonic through on the Dreamcast version. Unfortunately that memory will be trumped by the overly frustrating way the controls become almost too sensitive to accurately navigate the blue hedgehog across with the 360 controller.

What you do get is the return of controlling such characters as Knuckles, Tails and a few other notable characters from Sonic’s past. You have the same story of Dr. Eggman trying to control the world through the 7 Chaos Emeralds. There are now achievements for those who like to rack up their Gamerscores and Leaderboards where you can boast to your friends about the times you posted in certain levels. But aside from the e-ego boasting of scores now, there’s nothing more than you originally saw in the Dreamcast version. And while this may work well for some games, the cruel truth is that Sonic Adventure doesn’t hold up well enough in today’s standards for that to be acceptable.

For all that it is, Sonic Adventure is Sonic Adventure in its truest form. Sega didn’t take the time to polish it anymore than putting a quick glazing over the top of it so it didn’t look offensive on big HD screens. The lack of detail in the port and the lack of any foresight in delivering a product that fans would appreciate above and beyond the original is almost appalling. A bit more time in the cooker to deliver a 16:9 aspect ratio and some tighter code to clean up the already fumbly controls that plagued the older game would have done this game wonders. Even if these two aspects alone were handled correctly, the campy voice overs and cheesy story could be overlooked. What was released instead shows gamers that their beloved game from yesteryear hasn’t aged all that well at all. Sonic Adventure for the XBLA is a glaring look at what we put up with in games back then but could have been so much more if given the time to appreciate what we love about games today. The sad part about all of this is that the nostalgia and love for Sonic Adventure is quickly usurped by the reality that it may not have been that great of a game to begin with. The sloppy controls and even sloppier attention to detail makes it very hard to recommend this game to anyone.