Sega of Europe has announced that it will release Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast on the 19th of June this year, meaning that we get our hands on the game four days before the Japanese. Ha!
Sega has been keen to hammer home the improvements made by Sonic Team in Sonic Adventure 2. The original came in for some fairly hefty criticism across the board for having glitchy graphics and an infuriating camera system.
This was the start of a miserable time for Sega’s mascot. Just weeks before Dreamcast Sonic Adventure was released, Sonic Adventure Pocket on the Neo Geo Pocket Color were recalled due to massive and terminal gameplay glitches. This game was co-developed by Sonic Team and SNK, both of which attempted to place the blame on each other. This distraction was the reason given by Sega for the unpolished appearance of Sonic’s first outing on the Dreamcast.
This time Sonic Team has set things straight. The play environments are massive and stunningly detailed. Also evident is the Dreamcast’s trademark “indiscernible aesthetic brightness” which sets Sonic off nicely.
The downright evil camera physics have been completely overhauled restoring Sonic’s gameplay to the good old days of the MegaDrive. By this we mean that Sonic on the MegaDrive had one unique and highly pleasing feature. You could travel at previously unimaginable speeds without fear of coming a cropper. The camera direction and control method of the original Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast made this impossible. All this has changed with Sonic Adventure 2 restoring the series to its rightful place at the pinnacle of platform gaming.