SONIC ADVENTURE 2: The Icon Reborn | GEEK CRITIQUE

Great vid! But as a music nerd, I gotta chime in on the soundtrack comparison between SA1 and SA2~

I will certainly agree that SA2 doesn't have the scope and variety as SA1's OST, but I think the reasoning further echoes a point you made earlier in the video, in regards to SA2 being a more mature experience.

SA1 was certainly experimental, bringing Sonic into true 3D for the first time. But as Sega and Sonic Team tried to reimagine the critical elements of 2D Sonic in 3D, along with it came the music. Yes, SA1 has a lot of banging rock tracks, but most of the music (save for Character Theme Songs) were well rooted in composition styled familiar to 2D Sonic games. You could swap out the instruments for Yamaha YM2612 synths and most of those songs would still be bangin', and fit just perfectly into a 2D Sonic game!

But as SA2 stepped up their game, aiming for a more modern, more grounded-in-the-real-world vibe, the OST got an upgrade as well. It wasn't enough to simply have a character theme- each character had that same theme's motif, instrumentation, general feel- carried over into each of their levels as well. It gave many of the levels a cinematic vibe and rooted the experience more as being "realistic."

While many SA fans would argue that SA2's soundtrack lacked a lot of the vibrance and variety that the first game's OST had, I would argue that there is a level of creative brilliance in successfully writing theme songs for each character, with distinct style and motifs, and carrying all of those same elements along for the ride with the character into each of their levels. It certainly adds an extra level of character and cinematic flair to a game that aims to suspend the disbelief of anthropomorphic animals living alongside humans in a "realistic" world. As a game aims to take itself more seriously, so to does it's soundtrack.

SA certainly does a wonderful job of setting atmosphere and ambience, expressing the mood of the levels and being their voice- much liek the classic 2D Sonic games. But SA2's score aims not to speak for the set-piece, but for the character's mood and personality itself, in that moment in time. It sets the tone for what the character stands for, how they feel in that moment, and what they're trying to accomplish. And I think both soundtracks accomplish what they were intended to evoke in that regard.

tl;dr – SA2's OST sacrifices variety and melodic novelty in favor of playing to a character's specific traits in music form, and that's rather brilliant for a game of its time period.

But that's not really anything that we didn't already know or speak of anyways. Just felt the need to reiterate. 🙂

I am heavily biased. This was one of my first games ever, and it remains to this day one of my favorite games of all time. But there's a reason I love it so much. This video points out something that I've been trying to tell people forever: All the characters (Besides the mech characters a bit) control pretty well. Like obviously there have been some aging issues, but overall it's not really the controls fault for why the treasure hunting stages and mech stages are so less fun than the speed stages. It's mostly the level design. I mean, for some people it might be because they're too different but sa1 showed that those can work pretty well. The majority of the speed stages are amazing and designed in a way that encouraged replay ability. The other characters, not so much. Like don't get me wrong, cosmic wall is one of my favorite stages in the game. It shows how mech stages should've been designed. But them more I think about it and the more I replay the game, the more I realize how people can hate those stages. Just most of them aren't designed well. Of course the nerfed radar for the treasure hunters defiantly hurt it, but yeah. I think the perfect sonic game would be the level design of sa1 or heroes, the controls of sa2 with tails controlling like he did from sa1 (While fixing some aging issues,) and some moves from the boost games (Such as the drift, and the boost being a reward for maintaining high speed instead of being able to hold it down constantly when the levels allow it.)

4:36 i jus realized the comic sans lol

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I'm 100% convinced sonic fans only appreciate sonic games in retrospect.

After years go by, after new games come out and as they get older. They realize the games they hated…weren't actually that bad.

You sound like the hiveleader

Jesus…..imagine liking the series of games that have made your "favorite" character a joke of the gaming industry.

Okay, to be fair, Sonic fans did that on their own, but still.😂

Sega's problem is trying to please their audience without taking the adequate time to actually make what they add really good. It's called lazy game design in hopes that it will please…sorry sega (take notes from Nintendo)

Actually, Knuckles did see Eggman go to the pyramid in the first cutscene he was in, but who the hell cares?

Edit: Ok, I rewatched the scene, and Eggman didn’t actually enter the pyramid, but he was heading in the general direction of it, so it still counts.

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle rates 6.9 out of 10.
Nice.

I didn’t play any Sonic games when I was a kid. Now I’m almost 20 and just now getting into Sonic. I love Sonic Adventure 2 even though I don’t have the nostalgia factor.

In the final battle against the Biolizard, Sonic says Shadow’s not used to the super form. That’s why he “dies” and Sonic lives since he had far more experience with the super form at that point (S2, S3, SA1)

I disagree with just about everything you said but still, great video!