I don't have a lot of XP with sonic outside first two games, or the dreamcast, or sega in general. (Trying to fix that.)

Sonic Adventure is fast placed platformer that feels like a 3D 'runner' game of today. It is a visually gratifying game that has diverse stages and gameplay elemenets that transition from everything from racing, snowboarding to pinball and connects a lot of it in a main 'open world' kind of hub. It features a narrative driven day/night cycle, a weird (and dated) A-Life virtual tamagtochi breeding farm, features unlockable characters with their own playstyles and routes on stages as well as cutscene/story elements. It has a pretty large soundtrack (vocal redbook audio) that i thought was good, and unlockable games from the franchise (such as original sonic the hedgehog) if you grind the game for better scores (like grinding mario for 120 stars) There is a whole lot of game here and little and its got imagination and spirit.

For comparison it is a bit like mario 64 that was partially inspired with super mario 2's selectable character gimmick. overhead camera feels similiar too. it visually looks the same way too with the dreamcast textures. It is more fast and dynamic in the way you play it as well as chaotic and sometimes the play gets more abstract than it did in the weirder bits of mario 64.

I found playing the additional selectable characters a lot of fun and amusing. There is a lot of cutscenes, voice acting, and music... all of which I really did like though I hardly expect that to be a universal reaction. the cutscenes are very dated, and some of the voice actors and character concepts are... different kinds of odd. The story is cheesy. However the game is so silly it is amusing. The emergent gameplay is quite impressive and naturally fun. It's also not impossibly hard, (but a guide can help speed up some of the dry parts, especially with the main hub areas.) The best part was definitely the ending.

tl:dr is a great retro game from this era. a mustplay if you like sonic the hedgehog and mario 64. the dreamcast version is fine, but i did something a bit different:

Dr Robotnik's TechnoMod Notes:

(Playing SADX, modified. (PC) Get a load of this Dreamcast Conversion. It is the cream of the crop in Better SADX.
Was very fiddly to get running with proper resolution on a multimon setup... perhaps its a windows 10 issue, it would continually default back to 640x480 no matter what i tried. No way, I can't believe this! nonetheless i was able to finally get it going using an unorthodox method

Hmmph. This is only the beginning! :D Using that exe tweaker and an ini edit. i set 1080p and 4k mmodes as presets for "3" and "4". High Resolution. Hah! Hah! HAH! Good news is the game does indeed work in 4k on max graphics settings and it's buttery smooth too. (Faster than dreamcast emulation, at least for me) however, the bad news is UI is not upscaled to fit, (and i couldnt figure out hwo to do it) so it's very small in 4k. a compromise is below 4K resolution, it still looks very nice in 1080p. I was happy with this final configuration. It's not as intended but I think it actually looks less in the way and better. doubleback to NullDC. OK the true test now! lets see what this looks in dreamcast. i honestly couldnt tell the different at first. load times and some framerate decreased in dreamcast emulator.

back again to Sonic Adventure DX. noticing how slowed down the dreamcast framerate actually is. (it could be emulator/emulation but shenmue did NOT do this) since there are some alternate textures (floor, wall, some other stuff) it boils down to personal preference maybe but i think the dreamcast textures are superior but that the engine on the dreamcast is subpar... using the windows ports engine, hardware, and lighting system (Unreal? Direct x?) look a lot better. But really the framerate boost alone is a deal breaker in a fast paced game like this.

finally, out of curiousity, went onto youtube to look at SADX unmodified. it does look bad indeed. grainy and grotesque. However some things arent (water effects, lens flare signs of the underlying engine?) Man... (Flashback of earlier series FF ports...) This truly is a watered down port of a port from an era in which ports seemed to be of the worst quality. I took several snaps of my browser playing youtube, so it's not high rez but i think the differences are pretty noticeable. While my setup is a bit glitchy with the settings utlity (which leaves some things to be desired)... the game itself looks great, and plays nicely. I'm not running Better SADX, just the Dreamcast conversion over a retail copy and SADX mod loader with max graphics settings.





And that's another (nice and proper) win for PC Master Race. Onto the next conquest.

The original Sonic Adventure was a formative experience for me, so it holds a special place in my heart.

If I consider this game objectively, weighing the fun, variety and ambition of its gameplay against the cringeworthy cutscenes, antagonistic camera and questionable mechanics (**cough**bigthecat**cough**), it's probably a solid ★★★ experience.

My hopelessly biased childhood nostalgia bumps it up an extra star.

And the final star is because I played with BetterSADX, a Steam-exclusive mod that corrects many of the frustrations I'd experienced with my previous attempts to play anything other than the original Dreamcast release. It lets you play the game in HD, improves a bunch of the trickier bugs, restores content that was previously platform-exclusive, and makes the configuration utility predictable.

The game itself is as I remember it. Sonic's adventure is the best. E-102γ's story is arguably the most interesting. Tails and Knuckles are fun diversions. Amy's still way too slow. And Big the Cat's fishing segments are still that odd mix of incomprehensible yet totally easy once you divine how the controls work.

If you dig late-90s/early-00s platformers and if you're forgiving of its flaws, it's still a blast to play. If you're looking for a polished, modern experience, you'll be sorely disappointed.

Whooo, lots of thoughts. This game is frustrating. Movement feels satisfying for all of 2 seconds until you hit a bump in the ground or turn. For every satisfying moment with each of the playstyles, it feels like the game realizes you’re having a good time and stops you. I liked red mountains music a lot? Other than that, it feels like they focused on converting the multiple paths and puzzleish platforming present in the 2d Sonic games to 3d without testing whether that would be fun. Then in SA2 it seems like they realized maybe they should translate the speed and satisfaction of going through a sonic level perfectly to 3d. That game is much better, even without the nostalgia.

The one character that I felt had really solid gameplay through out was Omega, and I also liked his story. The dialogue in the game though suffered from horribly unnatural pauses. And the open world may have been impressive upon release (truly I don’t know, but man those Dreamcast textures are rough when stretched across expanses like this game does. And some of the “riddles” are pointlessly random.

Without all the running around, this game would have been a lot shorter, and I feel like the latter half of Sonic’s story (aside from how glitchy the egg carrier was) would have been a lot more enjoyable if condensed into levels and cutscenes. I really did have fun with a lot of the levels.

In the spirit of all the clashing ideas and half finished thoughts this game seemed to have, here are my thoughts. Hope you enjoy them, and hope you enjoy that the hard rocking tunes of crush 40 stop halfway through the final boss for some random anxious orchestral arrangement.