Genre: 3d Platformer
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega

Even in the contemporary days of gaming with the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, Sonic Adventure is an incredibly modern looking title, with impressive textures, detailed models, loads of special effects, and wonderful aesthetics, which look even more glorious for those with a Dreamcast "VGA box". And more than ever before, the title is apt to bring a tear to the eye of those that grew up with Sonic and reflect on his golden Genesis days-- the modernized, polygonal image of Sonic and his world is still the most relevant and poignant of any Sonic title since.

Rather than the strange combination of Jpop and dance music that served the Genesis titles mostly well, Sega recruited rocker Jun Senoue to create what could best be described as Jazz-Funk-Rock fusion, with just enough "cheese" to suit Sonic's half-real, half-cartoon world. The results are staggeringly wonderful, with some tracks, such as the "crashed Egg Carrier" song, standing far above contemporary video game aural fare. The cast selection of voice actors was well chosen, but poorly directed, as their inappropriate intonations tend to mar what would otherwise be emotionally effective cutscenes.

Sonic Adventure cycles the player between field maps, cut-scenes, and stages. The field map is probably as interesting as Mario 64's castle, which is high praise indeed, although it isn't quite as evenly laid out. The stages and mini-games that make up the rest of the title, as well as the evolved A-life system carried over from NiGHTS Into Dreams, are wonderfully designed and executed, and Sonic's stages play like no other 3d platformer ever made, a claim that the Genesis Sonic engine could make as well. Unfortunately, the game's engine does feel rather more buggy in some stages than others, with collision detection feeling especially suspect.

Given gaming's unimpeded march towards near Era-2 exclusivity, it's no surprise that Sonic Adventure has taken the Sonic formula towards cut scenes, overworld maps, multiple gameplay styles, and mini-games galore. Normally, this would be a recipe for disaster, as was seen on all subsequent Sonic titles. In this case however, outside of some peculiar collision detection, the execution of each of these elements is of such high quality that the game is intensely enjoyable, especially when married to the surprisingly dark story. Although Sonic Adventure's design isn't as rock-solid as Mario 64's, the game's fun mechanics and sense of style means that Sonic fans of old couldn't have asked for much more from Sonic's long-awaited 3d reboot.