Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay 7.0 Graphics 7.5 Sound 7.0 Value 6.9 Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - reviewed by Andrew B Review Date: 30 May 2002 Review Score:7.0/10  Distributor: GameNation

Who would of thought that the face of SEGA, Sonic the Hedgehog would appear on a Nintendo machine? It just goes to show how much the game industry has changed in the last few years. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle may be familiar to some people but that's because it was released on the SEGA Dreamcast almost two years ago. The game is almost an exact port of the original but features a few exclusive GameCube enhancements. Single player mode allows you to choose from two different storylines, either the hero side story or the dark side story. If you choose the hero side story, you get to play as Sonic, Knuckles and Tails. While the dark side has Rouge, Dr. Eggman and Shadow the Hedgehog. As heroes you must save the world from the evil Dr. Eggman, while as villains you must try to conquer the world. The game consists of three different game types where you must control three different characters in unique game environments. For example, Sonic and Shadow use their super speed to accomplish certain goals in the levels, Knuckles and Rogue must smash their way through levels in order to find chaos emeralds while Tails and Dr. Eggman must control futuristic mechs and use their amazing firepower to progress through levels. The game contains many different puzzles, bosses, powerups, secrets and much more that will definitely give you hours of enjoyment. The beauty of the GameCube version is the multiplayer aspect of the game that contain a variety of different levels that can be played with either 2 to 4 players. The multiplayer games are; Action Race Battle    Treasure Hunt Race     Shooting Battle    Chaos Race    Chao Karate   Kart Race These party games are great for a quick game of the GameCube and range from racing games to fighting games. The sound effects of Sonic have that really arcade edge to them and the characters voices, although a little cheesy, suit the game very well. The music of Sonic is very pop orientated and will you bopping along.

An innovative addition to the title is the ability to link up your Gameboy Advance to the GameCube when using the Sonic Advance Cartridge and the link cable. You can transfer your Chao from the Chao garden onto your Gameboy Advance to the Cube and vice versa. When in this mode your GBA can also act as a controller on the Cube which is a nice touch.

The graphics of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle are a little dated considering that this game is almost two years old. The graphics were superb on the SEGA Dreamcast but knowing what the GameCube is capable of, it's a little bit disappointing. There has been some improvement on the textures but many of the characters contain the same polygon count as the original game. Don't get me wrong, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is graphically impressive with it's range of colours and backgrounds and there are some exclusive GameCube effects such as real-time lighting and particle effects which look extremely nice.

The biggest problem with Sonic Adventure 2 Battle that was also present in the SEGA Dreamcast version were the horrible angles. Sometimes the camera angle gets stuck and you must move into another area to fix it. This becomes frustrating if you are fighting a boss or manoeuvring through a tricky level. If SEGA had fixed this problem on the GameCube version, then this game would have scored higher. The game isn't bad, it just suffers from the same problems that the SEGA Dreamcast had. The gameplay of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is extremely easy to learn, thanks to the GameCube's excellent controller design. This may not be the game for hardcore gamers but the kids will love it!

- Andrew B