[gekko]

Comments
By now I'm willing to gamble that a lot of Sega fans are drafting nasty letters, claiming that IGNcube consists of Nintendo fanboys and we don't like Sonic or Sega. On the contrary however, we love Sega and we've always been a fan of Sonic. It's the 2D Sonics that we like, though, because they are the epitome of the design. It's the move into 3D that has been unpleasant. When I boot up Sonic, I want to take off at lightning speed and never look back. With the shooting and scavenger hunt levels in SA2, though, the design took a turn for the worse. The camera just isn't made to accommodate these types of endeavors and who really wants to spend a third of their time in Sonic's world playing out a simplistic shooter?

I quite enjoy Sega products. I loved Super Monkey Ball (who doesn't?) and am extremely satisfied Sonic Team decided to bring Sonic Adventure 2: Battle to GameCube. It can be a fun game at times, but it can also be extremely frustrating. This is why I'm anticipating the next edition of Sonic. Hopefully an all-new, ambitious take on the franchise custom-tailored to GameCube hardware.

For Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, I recommend renting it. You should get your money's worth out of it in that time. For those of you that played the Dreamcast version, there's little to no reason to pick up the GCN incarnation. The differences in visuals and added multiplayer modes probably aren't worth it unless you're a hardcore fan.
***--Fran Mirabella III
I don't know what the IGNDC guys were smoking when they rated the DC version of Sonic a 9.4. With that, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for GameCube is an improvement on the already released DC version -- it really is. Sega has transferred the hedgehog once more to the realm of 3D without losing any of the frantic pace or unpredictable loops of his 2D ancestors. It's these standard speedster levels that are Sonic Adventure 2's main draw for they never let up. And yet even these are hampered by an unbalanced camera system that is a generation backward from Mario 64 in terms of control and playable visibility.

Worse, though, are the other styles of play: a boring, tedious third-person shooter mode and a poorly executed scavenger hunt mode that unfairly asks players to search out gigantic levels for items whilst doing battle with the title's biggest nemesis, the camera system.

To its credit, Sega has also upped the texture quality over the DC incarnation of the game considerably, which is all the more noticeable in progressive scan mode (and if your television supports this, I highly recommend it). There are also added background objects like trees, rocks and vehicles, and the framerate is super-smooth even in multiplayer mode (which, unfortunately, is a worthless feature).

But improved visuals do not make a good game. And though I love Sega's blue hedgehog, I've been playing videogames long enough to know that when I'm more annoyed by the gameplay mechanics and head-spinning level design than I am satisfied, there is something terribly wrong.

This is not Mario's platformer equivalent. This game has been overrated for far too long. Only recommended to hardcore Sega and Sonic fans. Everybody else should definitely rent this one and see if it's worth pursuing before slapping down the cash for a permanent investment.
***--Matt Casamassina

They don't got a problem with the game, they just don't like Sonic Adventure. Fanboys.