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, while the "Dark" story featuring Shadow, Rouge, and Dr. Eggman. Each hero character plays similarly 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 in much the same way as they were in Sonic's levels in Sonic Adventure,^[1] 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 their way to the end, much like E-102 Gamma's stages in Sonic Adventure. Knuckles and Rouge are required to scour their levels for shards of the Master Emerald (with the exception of 2 stages where they must find keys into Eggman's base and 1 stage where chaos emeralds are located), again, much like Sonic Adventure. 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, with A being the highest and E being the lowest. Irrelevant to any other factors, an A Rank is automatically 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; in order to obtain the second mission, the player must complete the first one, to unlock the third, the second mission must be finished, and so on. In order from first through fifth, the missions are to complete the level, collect 100 rings, find a "lost Chao" using the Mystic Melody upgrade, finish within a time limit, and complete a "Hard mode" version of the Action Stage.

Emblems are also given within the game; there are 180 Emblems in total. In order to gain all 180 Emblems, players must defeat every mission within every stage, achieve an A rank in all stages and missions, et cetera. After collecting all 180 Emblems the player unlocks an extra level 3-D Green Hill level. 3-D Green Hill is a remake of Green Hill Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog game.

 Two-player mode

There are some characters that can only be played on two-player mode. These include, Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, Tikal the Echidna, Chaos, Chao, Dark Chao. On the dreamcast version these extra characters are unlockables, they do not come with the special abilities they get on the Gamecube. EggRobo (Kart Racing), and Big the Cat (Dreamcast only). 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(or Big) have a shootout, 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. At its initial release on the Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure 2 was the recipient of very positive reviews, averaging an 89% according to critic compiler Metacritic. ^[2] However, the Nintendo GameCube port (Sonic Adventure 2 Battle) fared considerably worse in terms of reviews^[3], despite having no single player gameplay changes from the Dreamcast version and only an 8-month gap between their releases.

To date, the game has done well with sales of 1.44 million units in North America alone, making it one of the GameCube's highest selling games,^[4] and it is still one of the most popular GameCube games.^[5] This game also made it to Player's Choice.

 Original 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 & CGI Movie Director / Character & Enemy Design: Kazuyuki Hoshino
• Character Design & Illustration: Yuji Uekawa
• Field Art Director: Hiroshi Nishiyama
• Field Artists: Yoshitaka Miura, Takahiro Kudo, Daizo Kinoshita
• Field Artist / Enemy Designer: Nobuhiko Honda
• Main Programmer: Tetsu Katano
• Camera & Story Event Programmer: Takeshi Sakakibara
• Action Stage Programmer: Kouji Ogino
• Action Stage & Enemy Programmer: Tomoyuki Naito
• Enemy & Chao Programmer: Makiko Nishimura
• Scenario Writer: Shiroh Maekawa
• Lead Event Scene Animation: Michikazu Tamamura
• Event Scene Animation: 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

 Plot

 Hero Story:

It begins with a Military helicopter flying over the city. "Hedgehog captured", the pilot said. Suddenly he starts shouting " Hedgehog is escaping! Repeat, hedgehog is escaping!" And at that moment Sonic the Hedgehog jumped out of the helicopter, ripping off a piece of the wing to use it as a snowboard, and then he jumped off. Then after he destroys a Military Fighter, he encountered a near look-alike of himself named Shadow the Hedgehog who had stole a chaos emerald from the bank a while earlier. Sonic realizes that the military are mistaking him for Shadow. Then Shadow uses the emerald to transport to a different location and Sonic is arrested. The next day Knuckles the Echidna and a mysterious character named Rouge the Bat are fighting over who owns the Master Emerald. But then Dr.Eggman tried to steal the Master Emerald but Knuckles stopped him in his path by breaking the Master Emerald into pieces. Knuckles and Rouge had hunt for the pieces of the master emerald. Knuckles found the first three pieces in Wild Canyon. The next day Miles "Tails" Prower came to Prison Island in search of Sonic, rescuing Amy Rose from Dr.Eggman in the process. Then Amy freed Sonic from his Prison Cell, and Sonic escaped on a missile. Knuckles left Wild Canyon, and headed for Pumpkin Hill. There he found three more pieces of the master emerald. Knuckles left Pumpkin Hill, and headed for the Aquatic Mine. Meanwhile, Sonic got weary, jumped off the missile, and landed on a small island in a vast jungle. There he confronted Shadow once again. He soon discovered the jungle was going to explode. He left the jungle just in time. When they got back Eggman was on T.V everywhere and it was revealed he was being taped from the old space colony, ARK. Suddenly half of ARK came off which revealed a long pointer called the Eclipse Cannon which shot out a powerfull beam which destroyed half of the moon. Then there was a timer on the screen saying 24 hours till destruction of Earth. Later, Tails discovered Space Colony ARK and the massive power of the Eclipse Cannon. He had to find Sonic, tell the President, and escape the military all before it was too late. He eventually found Sonic, and escaped the military. Meanwhile, Knuckles found the last three pieces he could find of the master emerald in the Aquatic Mine. He later popped out of a manhole beside Tail, who was talking to Sonic over a phone on loudspeaker, and Amy. Tails chased down the President, Then he and Sonic told the President about the situation they were in. Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy then headed for Dr.Eggman's "secret" base inside the pyramid. Sonic broke through the security system. Knuckles then had to find three keys to get into the rocket room. Then Knuckles had to defeat King Boom Boo, the king of ghosts. After that, Dr.Eggman appeared and summoned the Egg Golem, which Sonic had to take care of. After that, they blasted off in the rocket. Knuckles sensed the pieces of the master emerald, and in his excitement, he opened the cargo bay, and spun the ship, which crash landed into the ARK. Knuckles landed on a small planet and found the pieces he lost. Then he defeated Rouge and got the rest of the master emerald. Meanwhile, in Space Colony ARK, Tails was heading for the engine of the Eclipse Cannon. He destroyed the engine, it was up to Sonic now. Just to spice up the adventure, Amy got kidnapped (again). Sonic, who had a fake chaos emerald, made it to the central control room. Just then, Sonic was shot out of an escape capsule that in the middle of space was going to explode but then Sonic remembered that Tails said the fake chaos emerald had almost the same power so Sonic used Chaos control just at the right time before the capsule exploded. All Tails, Amy and Eggman could see was a capsule blowing up so they thought Sonic was killed. Tails was so riled up, in a burst of anger he beat Dr.Eggman bad. Meanwhile, Knuckles (with the full master emerald) spotted Sonic coming out of a portal. Sonic told Knuckles what happened, and how he used a fake chaos emerald to save himself, and speeded to the Eclipse Cannon. Sonic confronted Shadow one last time, and destroyed the Eclipse Cannon. Tails, grieving over Sonic's "death", looked out the window and saw Sonic at the tip of the cannon smiling.

 Dark Story:

It begins with Dr.Eggman infiltrating Prison Island In search of the Ultimate Life Form A.K.A. Project:Shadow, a weapon created by none other than his grandfather Gerald Robotnik. He finds Shadow, released him, using a chaos emerald, and the password M.A.R.I.A. and soon discovered that he was a hedgehog. So, he mistook Shadow the Hedgehog for his enemy Sonic the Hedgehog, and nearly fought him. Then Shadow proved himself by defeating the military guard fighter. After Shadow defeated him, he left, heading for Space Colony ARK and told Eggman to bring more chaos emeralds and meet him on the ARK. Meanwhile, Rouge the Bat was fighting with Knuckles the Echidna over who truly owned the Master Emerald. But Dr.Eggman spotted their bickering, and took the Master Emerald. Knuckles stopped him by breaking the Master Emerald into pieces. Rouge and Knuckles had to hunt for the pieces of the Master Emerald. Rouge found three pieces in the Dry Lagoon. Later, Dr.Eggman went to his base to check up on things (and watch the replay of the news). He found out that the G.U.N. robots were guarding his pyramid base. He destroyed them and went on inside. While he was watching the replay of the news, he discovered that Shadow had stolen a chaos emerald from the bank yesterday (everyone mistaking him for Sonic). It then to where Shadow was leaving the bank when he had a flashback of what happened on Space Colony ARK with him and his friend Maria Robotnik. He was speeding down the highway, knocking any robot out of his way. He later saw Sonic. Shadow explained to Sonic who he was, and left. The next day, Rouge decided to infiltrate Dr.Eggman's base. But to do so, she had to find three keys. Meanwhile, Dr. Eggman, and Shadow were on the ARK. Shadow told Eggman about Space Colony ARK and the power of the Eclipse Cannon. He then put in the two Chaos emeralds. They returned to the base at the time Rouge found the last key. Then, Rouge pursuaded her conditions to Eggman into helping her by giving him a Chaos emerald, and telling him where three other emeralds were. Before the deal was closed, she introduced herself to Shadow. Shadow, Dr.Eggman, and Rouge all headed for Prison Island (where the three Chaos emeralds were). Dr.Eggman broke through the security system, and defeated Tails, who happened to be there. Rouge found the three Chaos emeralds (and defeated another Military Fighter). Shadow rushed through the jungle, planted the bomb, and found Sonic. He didn't have time to finish him off because he had to escape the jungle before it blew up. So he grabbed Rouge, and warped onto the ARK. Later Eggman was on T.V everywhere and it was revealed to all he was being taped from the old space colony, ARK. Suddenly half of ARK came off which revealed a long pointer called the Eclipse Cannon which shot out a powerfull beam which destroyed half of the moon. Then there was a timer on the screen saying 24 hours till destruction of Earth. At the ARK, Rouge explained that he knew where the location of the last Chaos emerald was, with Tails. Shadow, and Rouge were trying to catch the Tornado (Tails' plane). Rouge couldn't catch up in her car, and Shadow couldn't catch them in Sky Rail. So they headed back to the ARK to tell Eggman. By this time, Knuckles had unlocked the entrence to Eggman's base, so Eggman summoned his Egg Golem. However, Sonic damaged the head of the golem too many times, causing it to turn on Eggman. Eggman had to destroy his Egg Golem to pass. A while later, he and Shadow (who were still on the pyramid) discovered that Sonic and his friends were on the ARK. Rouge soon discovered that Knuckles was on a small planet with the pieces of the master emerald. She found half of the pieces then they fought but it was a draw and she gave the pieces to Knuckles anyway. Meanwhile, Eggman kidnapped Amy Rose. A while later Eggman discovered Tails, and Sonic went into the room he was in. Then Eggman shot Sonic out of an escape capsule which was going to explode, then at the last minute he snook up behind them both and took the real emerald. Meanwhile, Shadow (who was shocked that Sonic survived) saw Sonic run up next to him. Shadow defeated Sonic one last time, and headed for the control room. Meanwhile, Eggman was putting in the last Chaos emerald. While he was cheering over his "victory", a screen nearby was flashing WARNING!! WARNING!!

Last Story:

It continues from the Dark Story where the eclipse cannon is flashing WARNING!! WARNING!! Eggman is puzzled and doesn't know what to do but then he see's his grandfather Gerald Robotnik tied to a chair on the screen of the eclipse cannon. Meanwhile it continues from the Hero Story where Sonic and Knuckles enterd the room Amy and Tails were in but then they heard a rattle and suddenly Rouge came out of the bloom. "You just don't know when to give up, do you?" Knuckles said but then Rouge said that they are all doomed because the Space Colony Ark is heading towards Earth at a tremendous velocity. Then on T.V everywhere, including the Ark, you see Gerald Robotnik tied to a seat explaining how the Ark will crash into Earth and destroy it among the savage humans, with the power of all seven chaos emeralds. Then Eggman comes in and Knuckles starts giving out to him, thinking that Eggman is behind all of this. But then Eggman gives Rouge his great grandfather's diary and Rouge reads it out loud revealing that the professor went insane after his neice Maria was killed. When the space colony ARK was shut down, Maria was killed in the proccess. Gerald went mad because he loved Maria so much. He wanted to curse all humans, so he made the Eclipse cannon, and when having enough power (the 7 Chaos Emeralds) would be programmed to make space colony ARK fall to Earth. It is revealed that Gerald made Shadow for good, to benefit man-kind but space coloney ARK was destroyed, and as a result, so was project Ultimate Life Form A.K.A. Shadow. He was able to complete his research and finish Shadow, and he says that you may awaken it "if you wish to fill the world with destruction". The gang have to stop the energy from the Chaos Emeralds to stop the Space Colony ARK from crashing with Earth. They then have a plan to stop the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald. Amy finds Shadow and convinces him to help save the world. Shadow then has a flashback of Maria telling him the same, and launching him out of a shutte down to Earth, so he wouldn't be destroyed on the ARK. He then takes off saying "I must keep my promise to Maria, and you." Sonic and Knuckles are seen at a shrine that looks somewhat like the Shrine of the Chaos Emeralds, with the Chaos Emeralds there. When Sonic and Knuckles try to get closer to the Shrine to stop the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald, Gerald's voice is heard again, and a snake/lizard like beast is awakened. They realize that this is the prototype of the Ultimate Life Form, Shadow being the finished product. Shadow defeated the Biolizard (prototype of the Ultimate Life Form), while Sonic and Knuckles get to the shrine and find a space for the Master Emerald. Knuckles does the chant to negate the power of the Chaos Emeralds, and the Biolizard is then transported to outer space. They hear Eggman's voice saying that the Biolizard is controling the Space Colony ARK for a crash course to Earth. Space Colony ARK, is no longer being powered by the Chaos Emeralds, but now by the Biolizard. Sonic and Shadow use the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and Super Shadow. They fight the Biolizard in outer space, and are about to unleash the final blow, when Maria's voice rings in Shadow's head again about giving people chance to be happy. Both Sonic and Shadow use Chaos Control to warp the crashing space colony ARK, and the Biolizard back to its normal place, when Shadow slipped into the void of the Chaos Control with the ARK. Everyone thought that Shadow died, but he was saved by one of Eggman's robots, which was later revealed in Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog.

Voice actors

 Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

North American box art

There is an update called Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. This version of Sonic Adventure 2 was released on December 20, 2001 in Japan, February 12, 2002 in North America, and on the GameCube's launch (May 3, 2002) in Europe.

This game is also the first Sonic the Hedgehog game on a Nintendo system, having been released ten days before Sonic Advance in Japan.

 Features and Differences

This game changed a large portion of raising Chao, the artificial life form available in both Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. A Chao's stats can be viewed from within the game. ^[6]The player can transfer one Chao from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle to the "Tiny Chao Garden" section in Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2, and Sonic Pinball Party with the GCN-GBA Link Cable. (If a Game Boy Advance is connected without a GBA Game inserted, a version of the Tiny Chao Garden can be copied temporarily into the Game Boy Advance's memory.) Also, the introduction of Chao Karate, in which the Chao stats are used for stats in fighting. The Chao fight in a fighting game style, but with minimal influence from the player and very little in the way of actual Karate.^[7] The layouts of all three Chao Gardens were changed slightly.

As with the Dreamcast version, after collecting all 180 Emblems, the player can unlock a 3-D version of the Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1, with a remixed version of the music from the original stage. Only Sonic is playable on this stage and while the player is given a ranking, it is not recorded on the map screen.

New "Battle" multiplayer options were added, including the addition of new characteristics to the multiplayer-exclusive characters^[8] (whom, in the original, had to be unlocked, but now additional features for the kart mode are unlocked for their previous requirements).

In the GameCube version, the boxes in the Crazy Gadget level have a red 'x' on them instead of the Dreamcast's version's green 'x'. This is possibly because the Xbox bears a striking resemblance to the boxes with the green 'x'^{[citation needed]}.

Minor special effects were added to the game, such as rain in White Jungle. Moreover, some cutscenes were redone slightly, with different or improved character animations and camera angles.

Quite noticeably, the cutscenes appear to play faster than on its original Dreamcast counterpart^{[citation needed]}.

Strangely, Big the Cat's humorous cameos did not remain in the stages, but he can still be viewed in some story sequences by rapidly pressing the A button throughout the scenes. He no longer appears in the Hero Side story, however, which means he is not in Sonic's opening scene in any form. He was also replaced by the Dark Chao Walker in the game's multiplayer mode.

Another difference in this version can be found on the 5th Mission for the Cosmic Wall stage: as opposed to the requirement of 50,000 points for an A rank (as was the case on the Dreamcast version), 100,000 points are required instead^{[citation needed]}.

 Advertisement

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). The Gamecube version's advertisement shows several real life hedgehogs being trained to take on the role of Sonic in the game.