Second Adventure, Second Version
My first video game, and being at least 4 years old (maybe 5 years old), it was always a fun game to play. In this game, you play through "Hero" and "Dark" storylines (both each their own story), the hero one to stop the dark storyline (with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles to play as), and the dark storyline based on a plot to conquer the world (with Dr. Eggman, Shadow, and Rouge to play as). The gameplay is separated into three distinct styles. The first is an action speed-based platformer with the main goal to make it to the end of the stage, a shooter/platformer hybrid where you target enemies with the Lock-on and fire at them with Lock-on Missiles (though they look like lasers), and a treasure hunting segment where you have to find three items (each of those three items related to each other) to complete the stage. Getting back to the story, what probably would've benefited the story more would've been a few extra cutscenes and stages to bring the story a bit together, as well as handling the concept of Shadow unwittingly framing Sonic for a crime. The game treats Shadow as Sonic's twin in the eyes of anyone who's seen Sonic before, but not Shadow. It's only until they get a closer look that they notice the difference. I suppose that they were going for a "wait a minute, that isn't Sonic" reaction from the audience, but it would've made more sense for a disguise for Shadow (as Sonic). Even when I first played this game (which I faintly recall being in preschool/kindergarten at the time), it just briefly confused me on the colors blue and black. Aside from that the story is not that bad. In actuality it has a satisfying amount of good moments in it to keep the audience engaged. Some might disagree, but it can depend a lot on how one views certain points of a story. One could claim that a story didn't mention a character's name, despite the game mentioning it roughly a minute before. That's not the case with this game, just an example for another game. But returning to the game itself, it's also not bad. I've seen others on the Internet exclaim their thoughts, and there are some that this game has aged roughly in some spots, like Sonic Adventure. Only it seems to be in the regard with gameplay this time. I think that this game had aged a bit more gracefully that Sonic Adventure based on its improved presentation and how its gameplay was handled, and that's just a few of the improvements in this installment. But hey, that's just me. Just a guy with an opinion.
Reviewed by: Ryan P from Edwardsburg, MI on 12/29/2018
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