Heyo people of Vizzed you may of seen me talking about wanting to review this game the past couple weeks and it's finally time for that to happen. Something I wanna note about this game/review is I encountered way more issues on PS3 this playthrough then I've ever had in the past so maybe I just got unlucky but I would definitely stick to the Steam version of the game where you can fix things like messed up textures and maybe even some collision issues because I swear I've never glitched through objects nearly this much in the steam version.



Graphics 4/10 -
I know this game's original version came out in 98 but I still have to be harsh on this game graphics for the sole reason of the Dreamcast version of the game looks better with some character models and a ton of lighting issues and when they made DX (which is the version that was ported) they changed textures making some areas feel way more bland and uninteresting. Another small thing I feel like mentioning is how much I hate when Sonic talks in this game his like whole face and spines on his back move it just looks completely unnatural.



Sound 8/10 -
Hope your ready for me talking way to long about music again! I'll start with level themes this time around, Emerald Coast is the perfect introduction to 3D Sonic games with it's peaceful beach setting really sold through the music. Speed Highway's music is iconic for a reason it fits perfectly with the fast paced highway it was made for because you truly go up and down and all around. Something that should be noted regarding level themes is a lot of the tracks are remade versions of Sonic 3D Blast tracks which is really neat that Jun Senoue liked the tracks enough that he composed that he decided they should get to be enjoyed by a way larger audience, I wish I had more to say regarding it but 3D Blast is one of the Sonic games I've played the least of so I unfortunately can't say anything else on it. Casinopolis isn't as rock based and fits well I also have to shout out the Nights track that can be heard in the level as being really enjoyable. Red Mountain has one of the most funky songs in the game and really shows how different this soundtrack can be when it wants to. Speaking of songs you wouldn't expect Ice Cap and Lost World have tracks that really set up atmosphere which is perfect for the levels where it's used. To finish talking about level themes Final Egg has some of the best guitar rifts in the entire game and really makes the final level at least for Sonic feel really grand. Before talking about character themes I should also talk a bit about the hub world themes, Station Square's theme is really relaxing and welcoming feeling while working perfectly for the city. Mystic Ruins while not being my favorite theme really helps the jungle and ruins of the area feel like they belong in South America. The Egg Carrier has a theme perfect for being right in the middle of Eggman's base and works really well with the sky being so dark and really makes you sit there and think about how are you going stop Eggman. Now for the character themes! It Doesn't Matter is the song I instantly associate with Sonic while you can make the argument the slow hard rock doesn't fit as well as the 2nd game's more fast paced version of the song which is true there's something about the more passionate version of the song that really strikes a cord with me. I honestly find it to be one of the most inspirational songs ever for myself personally and I try to live by the words of the song not looking back as much as I can try to help it, and the 2nd chorus is perfection the lyrics of "This fight is not for anybody it's purely for myself" really just reminds me of like growing up with diabetes and such while the lyrics "I can't tell what is wrong and what is right I've got to find the answer" really just makes me think about how I often don't know what the correct thing to do is and honestly make a lot of mistakes but as the song says I can't give up until the end. I'll try to stay on topic more for the other themes speaking of which Believe in Myself works perfectly with Tails having his character ark in this game with him learning to be more strong on his own. Unknown from M.E. is the perfect Knuckles theme even if some of the lyrics don't make sense for Knuckles like "Unlike Sonic I don't chuckle I rather flex my muscles" but in Sonic 3 anytime he screws Sonic over he laughs. My Sweet Passion works perfectly for Amy as she's always thinking about Sonic though I seriously question some of the lyrics in the song like "I know that your lucky color is that cool shade of blue (won't mind painting myself blue for you...)" and "I do understand the feelings of a Persian Cat (but the Sphinx looked so cute I had to shave it...)" like what? I have no idea why the lyrics were written to almost make Amy sound creepy but I think it works for how obsessed she is. Lazy Days -Livin' in Paradise- even if I hate it works perfectly for Big the Cat and his partner Froggy I don't know what instruments make the sounds they do in this song but I really don't like them. Theme of E-102 is the one of the only two non lyrical themes in the game for a character and it works perfectly for Gamma being really somber and depressing feeling and for the people who know his story I'm sure you can understand why it's the way it is. Theme of Dr. Eggman is the other non lyrical theme in the game and I find it highly underrated I constantly head bop whenever Eggman is on screen thanks to his theme in this game just working with his antics throughout the game. I left the best for last Open Your Heart is the perfect song to be the theme of this game it perfectly describes the end of the game to such an extent I don't think I even need to break it down. ​



Addictive 8/10 -
The game does offer some replay value in the form of the game's character upgrades with a lot of them being completely hard to find and easy to miss by a first time player. Even if you did find all of them your first time through you could play the game again and try not getting some to have a slightly different experience. Another thing that adds to the replay value is seeing how you can use abilities to skip certain segments of levels mostly as Sonic with his overpowered Spindash but I loved seeing how far I could push the game this playthrough. (I will note any glitches I encountered while playing with the Spindash weren't what I was talking about at the start of the review .)



Story 6/10 -
Sonic is just jumping from roof top to roof top when he sees a police chase, Tails is testing out his plane the Tornado 2, Knuckles was just hanging out at angel island like he used to do before Sega forgot it was his job, Amy Rose was just wondering the streets reminiscing until a bird flew into her, Big's frog ran away, and Gamma wakes up meeting his creator! All of these stories are interconnected and have to do with as Eggman describes it Chaos the god of destruction. This was Sonic Team's first attempt at real cinematic story elements and it shows it's age considerably in today's age but it still has it's charm and fun character moments.



Depth 7/10 -
When it comes to main story the game isn't that big compared to current standards but for a first timer this game can take a while I mean you got to get used to fishing gameplay to beat this game! Something I put a lot of effort into this time around was talking to the NPCs throughout the hub world and seeing what they would say and how what was happening with them would change over time and I found a lot of the dialogue surprisingly interesting mostly from the people in Station Square the people in Mystic Ruins didn't really say that much. The game kind of offers missions like Adventure 2 where you have to replay a level and get to the goal in a certain amount of time or with a certain number of rings which definitely gives you stuff to do and work on after finishing the main story. Something interesting about how this game was made is they only designed about 11 levels for the 6 characters and they pulled this off by having some characters only go through certain parts of a level and changing it to fit their playstyle more. This is interesting with Knuckles because they had to design these levels with someone who can glide and climb walls in mind so often times if you're playing a level as Sonic and see a place you can't get up to you often can as Knuckles. Something else worth noting is Chao are in this game I just don't have anything to say about them this time around.



Difficulty 4/10 -
Difficulty is surprisingly hard to rate because I would honestly say 90% of my deaths this playthrough came from me simply glitching through a wall while running which is frustrating but on previous playthroughs where I didn't encounter so many issues I never had much trouble playing through the game so I figured I can't rate difficulty to highly.



Overall 7.5/10 -
It was interesting playing through Adventure 1 so soon after playing Adventure 2 because for the first time I actually can say I like Adventure 2 more than Sonic Adventure which I would of never expected to be my take away from this game but that's what I have found out I've already covered SA2 and Heroes so maybe some year I'll review 06 but that's another game I would need to replay to try and cover so look forward to that in 2026