Sonic Adventure 2

Sonic Adventure 2 (ソニックアドベンチャー2; Sonikku Adobenchā Tsū) is a platformer developed by Sonic Team USA and published by Sega in 2001 as a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is also the first game developed by Sonic Team USA for the Sega Dreamcast video game console. This is also the only Sonic game where Sonic wears Soap shoes to promote the product. There were also many billboards in the game that promoted the shoes. It was released in North America on June 19, 2001 and in Japan and Europe on June 23, 2001 to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. This game introduces two new playable characters, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, and is also one of the few Sonic games to officially feature Dr. Eggman as a playable character. Sonic Adventure 2 is a sequel of Sonic Adventure.

Single player
Gameplay takes place between two parallel storylines, the "Hero" story and the "Dark" story; the player has the option of advancing in either one or the other at any time. The "Hero" story featuring Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and the non-playable Amy Rose, while the "Dark" story featuring Shadow, Rouge, and Dr. Eggman. Each hero character plays similar to their respective dark character and vice versa. Levels advance in order for each storyline, alternating between each of the playable characters.

Levels featuring Sonic or Shadow are designed much the same as they were in Sonic's levels in Sonic Adventure, wherein the player's primary objective is simply to get to the end of the level. Levels with Tails or Dr. Eggman allow the player to control a mechanized robot walker and generally blast his way through to the end of the stage. Knuckles and Rouge are required to scour their levels for shards of the Master Emerald. Interspersed between the levels are various bosses, which one particular character must fight.

Within Action Stages, players collect rings and defeat enemies, with a timer counting the time spent within the level. At the end of each stage, the player is given a score based on the number or rings collected and time spent within the level. The more rings and less time, the higher the score is. The player is also given a rank-based performance, a letter grade that is either A, B, C, D, or E (A being the highest and E being the lowest). An A Rank is awarded to players that complete any score-ranked mission with all of the rings from that level in the player's possession.

There are five missions within each Action Stage, from "find the Lost Chao!" to "collect 100 rings" to simply completing the level successfully.

Emblems are also given within the game; there are 180 Emblems in total. In order to gain all 180 Emblems, players must complete all stages, all missions within all stages, and achieve an A rank in all stages and missions.

Two-player mode
There are some characters that can only be played on two-player mode. These include, Amy, Metal Sonic, Tikal the Echidna, Chaos, Chao, EggRobo (Kart Racing), and Big the Cat. However, using Action Replay these characters can be playable in single player mode.

A multitude of levels from single player are playable. The levels playable in two player mode are mostly the same as the normal game; Sonic, Shadow, Amy and Metal Sonic race, Tails, Eggman, Chao and Dark Chao have a shoot-out, and Knuckles, Rouge, Tikal and Chaos hunt for emerald shards.

Reception
Opinions of Sonic Adventure 2 are variable among both professional reviewers and fans of the Sonic series. Although the initial Dreamcast release of Sonic Adventure 2 generally received positive reviews, the game faced several criticisms over gameplay and various technical issues.

Staff Credits

 * Producer: Yuji Naka
 * Director / Game Design / Enemy Game Designer / Level Design: Takashi Iizuka
 * Level Design / Enemy Game Designer / Game Design: Eitaro Toyoda
 * Assistant Director / CGI Movie Producer: Keith Palmer
 * Art Director / CGI Movie Director: Kazuyuki Hoshino
 * Character Artist: Yuji Uekawa
 * Character Artist / Field Artist: Nobuhiko Honda
 * Field Art Director: Hiroshi Nishiyama
 * Field Artists: Yoshitaka Miura, Takahiro Kudo, Daizo Kinoshita
 * Lead Programmer: Tetsu Katano
 * Camera / Story Event Programmer: Takeshi Sakakibara
 * Enemy AI / Action Stage Programmer: Tomoyuki Naito
 * Action Stage Programmer: Kouji Ogino
 * Enemy AI / Chao Programmer: Makiko Nishimura
 * Scenario Writer: Shiroh Maekawa
 * Lead Story Artist: Michikazu Tamamura
 * Story Artists: Mika Okada, Atsushi Saito, Nanako Yarimuzi, Makoto Yonezu
 * Lead Chao Programmer: Yoshihisa Hashimoto
 * Chao Programmer: Takaaki Saito
 * Lead Chao Artist / Chao Director: Sachiko Kawamura
 * Chao Artists: Kazuko Ito, Makoto Yonezu
 * Music Composers: Jun Senoue, Fumie Kumatani, Tomoya Ohtani, Atsushi Kosugi, Takayoshi Umeno, Kenichi Tokoi,
 * Sound Effects: Takashi Endoh, Masaru Setsumaru, Makiko Nishimura
 * Recording Engineers: The Riddle, Attic Arcade
 * CGI Movie Production: Super 78
 * Product Support: Akinori Nishiyama, Masanobu Yamamoto
 * Singers: Hunid-P (Rap), 100P, Everett Bradley, Todd Cooper, Tabitha Fair, Johnny Gioeli, Tony Harnell, Ted Poley, Paul Shortino, Kaz Silver, Marlon Saunders

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
There is an update called Sonic Adventure 2 Battle(ソニックアドベンチャー2バトル;Sonikku Adobenchā Tsū Batoru). This game is the first Sonic the Hedgehog game on a Nintendo system, having been released ten days before Sonic Advance in Japan.

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The Dreamcast version is known for its infamous commercial which shows a scientist approaching a hedgehog labeled "Good Hedgehog" and petting it. The camera then goes to a tank labeled "Bad Hedgehog" where a cow is being lowered in. Eating sounds could be heard along with screams from the cow until the screen goes back to the bad hedgehog burping (this is a parody of a scene from Jurassic Park).

Soundtracks
Three original soundtracks were released for Sonic Adventure 2: The vocal album called "SA2: Cuts Unleashed" the score called "Multi-Dimensional Sonic Adventure 2 Soundtrack" and in North America the "Sonic Adventure 2 Original Soundtrack"