Many argue what exactly was the point of Sonic the Hedgehog’s death. Some say his days on the Mega Drive were the only good ones, while others say the Adventure series were just as good. Then there’s those who still feel Sonic is as good as he ever was. Whatever the case may be, it’s clear the blue hedgehog has had a much harder time as of late than say his biggest rival Mario. So where did it all go wrong? Well one title that definitely split opinions was the great/horrible Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

Sonic games are all about the lone player adventures and here is no different with both a light and dark (with an extra last) story to go through and while both offer exactly the same in terms of gameplay type, feature differing levels and views on the intertwining stories. While Sonic games are never known for their narrative here it feels so bad it’s actually quite entertaining. Eggman is out to take over the world, Shadow is helping, Sonic and co must stop them... It’s basic but so cheesy that you can’t help but smile.

The game is split into three separate types. You have the expected speedy stages with Sonic and Shadow, then you have the returning explore and search stages with Knuckles and Rogue from Sonic Adventure, then finally you have the bizarre robot heavy levels with Tails and Dr. Eggman. So what works and what doesn’t?

First off let me just say that the Sonic and Shadow stages have nailed that classic Sonic feel. They are linear, fast paced and most importantly great fun to race through. From the opening city escape right up to the finale out in space each environment feels action packed and swift without it becoming a case of it being played for you, a criticism from Sonic games as of late. As is always the problem with something good though, you’re left wanting more and it may become a case of going through the other less thrilling sections just to get to another Sonic or Shadow stage.

Tails and Eggman find it too much effort to use their own legs now, so have instead opted for a robotic set in order to take them around levels full to the brim with mechanical enemies and other obstacles. Using a simple control system, you have access to a laser that can also lock on to enemies and fire rockets as well as a hovering function for manoeuvring over gaps. While it doesn’t feel very Sonic at all, it is however strangely fun and thanks to a cool combo system you’ll find yourself returning to stages, trying to lock onto as many baddies as possible to rack up the most points.

The third and final part of the single player experience are the Master Emerald stages. The biggest flaw with the searching stages is that the environments are simply far too big. Sure things start off okay with size not really becoming an issue, but later on it gets too much. I spent around half an hour on one level searching for the three emeralds and it got to the point where it just became flat out boring. Smaller levels and a much more useful tracking system could have prevented this part of the game from falling flat.

There is a multiplayer feature for two players thrown in the game and surprisingly it isn’t that bad... for the most part. Again like the single player the standard Sonic levels steal the show and it’s just a shame there aren’t more stages in it. With race the two of you try to get to the finish first while collecting rings to unleash special moves. These can damage your team mate or freeze them altogether, becoming very chaotic especially in the closing stages. Sadly the shooting game doesn’t transfer so well to multiplayer becoming nothing more than a test to see who can spam the fire button fastest. The searching for emeralds stages fair a little better as environments are smaller and having an opponent certainly makes things feel more urgent. There are Chao racing and battling which are okay, and the kart racing is at best a quick ten minute distraction and nothing more.

The music in 3D Sonic games has always been up for debate. While some see it as awful over the top cheesy rock with lame lyrics, others see it as catchy over the top rock that matches the style of a Sonic title perfectly. I’m in the latter group and “City Escape” and “Live and Learn” will and always shall remain some of my favourite video games tunes of all time. The only negative point I have to make is on the voice acting. Mouths move out of sync with voices and it looks plain odd. Visually Sonic’s world is bright and colourful with locations taking you from cities and jungles, right up to giant pyramids and outer space stations. The characters themselves look decent too with baddies all comprising of the usual metallic kind.

Sonic Adventure 2 has a fair amount of flaws but it’s one of those games that’s still a great deal of fun to play. The Sonic and Shadow sections are among the best 3D levels to date and the Tails ones are strangely addictive too. Even with the slower paced Knuckles stages I found both the light and dark stories to be a good distraction. While the hedgehog at the moment may have seen better days I say chalk this title up to his good pile rather than the slowly accumulating awful one.