Sonic Adventure For: Dreamcast Genre: platform Reviewed by: Escee (Brandon) Developer: Sonic Team Publisher: Sega Released:9.9.99   Being a Sonic fan myself, I was definately looking forward to playing Sonic Adventure when I heard of it about a year before its release. It lived up to my expectations.   Graphics Being one of the first games out on Dreamcast, it really shows the power of the system. The game started with an absolutely stunning prerendered intro. Then the ingame graphics are great as well. Although the graphics may not be as detailed as Soul Calibur, the animation is more intense. The framerates do slow down at some points, but nowhere where it will affect the gameplay or cause you to lose control - just in some computer-controlled sections. But the graphics are awesome.   Sound The music and sound effects are very well done, but the lip-synching on English dialog is crap. It you want the synching to look better, you can turn on Japanese dialog, but most of us will stick with the English. I commend Sega for including both the English and Japanese dialog though.   Gameplay Each of the six characters in the game play completely different. Sonic plays in standard platform style - get to the end of the level and beat the boss. Tails has to beat Sonic or Robotnik to the end of the level. Knuckles has to find pieces of the Master Emerald. Amy has to get to the end of the level while avoiding the robot Zero. Big has to fish for Froggy. And E-102 Gamma has to get to the end of the level under a time limit, and shoot targets to get more time. The gameplay is very well done, up to the various minigames and A-Life system.   Control The characters are easy to control. A lot of the camera problems seen in the Japanese version have been eliminated, but there are still enough to cause problems. The camera gets stuck sometimes so you can't see where you're going - sometimes causing death. The camera also pans to try to make the direction of movement more logical, but sometimes this causes you to go in a different direction and sometimes send you off a cliff.   Lastability The game doesn't take long to beat as Sonic, but then you have five other characters (and Super Sonic after you beat the game as everyone) to play as - each providing a completely new gaming experience. And once you have beat the game as everyone, you still have to collect all the Emblems - meaning harder levels and more exploration - and you still have the A-Life to play with! There is lots of lastabiltiy here, since even after you get all the Emblems, the Chao (A-Life) still provide lots of fun.   Ratings Graphics 9.7 Sound 8.5 Gameplay 9.8 Control 7.4 Lastability 9.4 Overall 9.2 bottom line: beautiful graphics, six playable characters, solid gameplay. if you own a dreamcast, you should own this game. 8.21.00   images from ign