Why I love Sonic Adventure

Originally Published Nov 11, 2023

Picking favorite video games has always been a challenge for me. There are so many games that I like that narrowing it down has always proved difficult. However, there are a select few that always spring to my mind without fail whenever the subject comes up. And one of those games is Sonic Adventure.

I didn't always love it, as a kid my first 3D Sonic was Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on gamecube. I held it's Sonic speed stages in very high regard which only grew when I got older and became nostalgic for it. So much that I initially dismissed Sonic Adventure upon playing the PS3 port, simply because it was not SA2. But I eventually grew out of that bias and upon revisiting SA1 with a more open mind, I found a game that I would grow to love more than any other in the series.

What immediately springs to my mind when I think of Sonic Adventure are the zones. Alot of Sonic games will usually have "that" level I'll dread revisiting but in Adventure there's not a dud in the bunch. I love the sky road in Windy Valley, the snowboarding in Ice Cap, the Nights pinball machine in Casinopolis and ofcourse the iconic run down the side of a building in Speed Highway.

Emerald Coast in particular has a special place in my heart. It's bright blue skies, white sand, it's hard to describe but I can't help but smile whenever I think about it. It genuinely puts me at ease somehow and I think about it alot when I'm feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

Something I didn't find appreciation for until recently were the hub worlds connecting these zones. I used to think they were a bit of a nuisance, especially unlocking the next zone can sometimes be cryptic. It was only after a recent playthrough where I decided to slow down and take everything in that I found them to be really chill spaces to just hang out in.

Alot of the NPCs have their own little stories that progress as you make your way through the game. They're small but really cute and amusing. I got way more invested in them that I thought I would and honestly I think you're not getting the full SA experience if you don't talk to everyone.

Among the Sonic games that shuffle between multiple characters and play styles I think Adventure 1 did the best at structuring it all. Each character has their own campaign so if you only feel like playing speed stages you can just do Sonic's story and be done with it.

Tails is handled best here than in any other 3D game, I love the idea of having you play levels again with an OP character that just breaks them. The three playstyles that differ the most from the core Sonic gameplay, Knuckles, Amy and Big are the shortest campaigns. Which keeps them from getting too monotonous, especially when it comes to Big's unfortunately clunky fishing controls.

Ofcourse every moment and stage in this game is punctuated with one of the most memorable soundtracks in the entire franchise. I'm not much of a music gal, so all I can say is that the music fucking rules.

I know as a game there's alot wrong with Sonic Adventure. The presentation, the voice acting, the odd physics, re-using content but none of it really bugs me. If I fall down the floor, I just shrug in an "oh you" kind of way and continue on. It's one of those games where I'll plow through the entire thing in one sitting on a whim.

In the end all I can say is, I love Sonic Adventure.