Fast forward to when the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure were both officially announced. After coming off the Sonic Team high that was NiGHTS, I was especially looking forward to the first "true" 3D Sonic the Hedgehog title. Nintendo did it with great success, so why not Sega? Well in my opinion, Sonic Adventure is to the Dreamcast what Mario 64 was to the Nintendo 64. And more.

Sonic Adventure, as if you didn't already know, is a 3D platformer featuring Sonic, a few of his old friends, as well as a few new ones. Dr. Robotnik is once again up to no good, and it is Sonic's job to put him back in his place. The diabolical eggman has come across an ancient shape shifting gelatinous creature known as Chaos, and has discovered that, by feeding Chaos "chaos emeralds" will cause it to grow larger and more powerful. So Dr. Robotnik sets out to steal all the emeralds in order to power Chaos up to immense proportions. Now it is up to Sonic, Amy Rose, Knuckles, Tails, Big the Cat and E-102 to thwart Robotnik and save Station Square.

The stages in Sonic Adventure can be one of two types: Action, Adventure. Action Stages are setup in a fashion similar to the original Genesis Sonic titles, which more or less means speedy 3D gameplay. Adventure Stages, are well, more adventurous. These stages are more akin to the large 3D environments of Mario 64. Linking all the stages up are a few different "hub" type areas that provide access to all the Action and Adventure stages. As with the original Sonic titles, all the stages are littered with various robotic enemies which release fuzzy little animals when defeated. The animals can be collected, and used later on to help evolve your Chao creatures (more on that later).

Along with Sonic Adventure's many characters comes a variety of different gameplay possibilities. Sonic is fast, and can spin dash through enemies; Tails can fly, Knuckles can punch and glide, Amy can swing a tremendous hammer, Big can fish, and E102 can shoot lock on lasers and hover. Each character can power up their abilities by searching for a number of special items hidden throughout the Adventure levels.

Sonic Adventure handles the multiple character aspect a little differently than other 3D platformers. The games uses the same general stages and areas for each character, though certain characters can only access specific pieces of each stage. The goals to be completed within each stage also varies depending on the character chosen. While Sonic may have access to all of Twinkle Park as he races to retrieve the Chaos Emerald, Big the Cat can only play in the large pool located in the very beginning. There are also a small handful of stages and areas that are exclusive to a particular character, as well as pinball, racing, snowboarding and other assorted mini games.

Speaking of characters and stages; Each character has a different set of 3 goals to accomplish in each stage or area. Sonic must retrieve the Chaos Emerald, beat a certain time or finish with a certain number of rings. Tails must beat Sonic. Knuckles must retrieve shards of the Master Crystal by playing a "hot/cold potato" sort of scavenger hunt. E102 must complete stages with a certain amount of fuel energy remaining. Amy must collect rings and grab a large balloon. And Big the Cat must fish for a specific amount of fish (in pounds), and then reel in his frog buddy. As you can see, there is quite a bit of gameplay variety in Sonic Adventure. The overall goal for all, is to collect the Sonic Emblems. For every goal that a character completes, they are awarded an emblem. Those, in addition to a number of hidden emblems scattered throughout the stages, give you a grand total of 130. In order to really complete Sonic Adventure, or to buy new Chao and such off of the Sonic internet site, the Sonic Emblems need to be collected.

Graphically Sonic is still amazing, even after spending about 40 hours with the import version. The textures are of such high quality that they sometimes look photorealistic. The characters are all modeled with a nice amount of polygons, and many times appear to look identical to the original CG models. Sonic Team used more than your fair share of special effects, including multiple layers of transparencies, environment mapping, specular highlighting, as well as plenty of light source shading. The framerate is more than adequate, and is either 30 or 60fps depending on the stage.

As always, sound, or more specifically music, is definitely one of Sonic Team's strong points. As with NiGHTS, Sonic Adventure has a beautifully magical feeling to it. The music tracks are all totally appropriate for the stages they play in, and the direction and quality is second to none. I do like fruity music tracks, and some of Sonic Adventure's definitely fit right into that category. Also, I do not know why everyone does not like the US voices. They certainly aren't worse than those found in your typical Saturday morning TV show. I thought that the voices fit the characters quite well.

So what has Sonic Team fixed for the US release? Well there is a fairly long list of minor bug fixes, but I rather not bore you with anymore details as small as those. The major changes involve the camera, the collision detection and the network. The camera, while not perfect (no 3D platformers have a perfect camera yet), is much better than it was in the Japanese version. It does not seem to get stuck behind solid objects as frequently as before, and in tight spaces, the angle is now locked at some pre-determined point. It still swings around to the wrong angle on occasion, but you can quickly readjust it with one of the shoulder buttons. The annoying problem which caused Sonic to fall through the floors and walls on certain levels, has thankfully been address as well. Taking a plunge off of one specific Speed Highway or Windy Valley segment time after time could definitely get on your nerves. Last, but not least, is the newly reworked Network segment of Sonic Adventure.

Sonic Team obviously spend a great deal of time in expanding Sonic's network functionality. No, you cannot play against other Sonics in a Quake style deathmatch, or race against others in Twinkle Circuit. Nothing like that. The idea is to involve all the Sonic Adventure gamers into a worldwide community, through the use of the games Sonic Adventure specific web browser. After connecting to Sega's Sonic server, there are many exclusive options, none which can be accessed without that specific browser. You can view Sega's extensive Sonic Adventure visual FAQ, speak to others on a SA messageboard, trade Chao, purchase Chao with your Sonic emblems, send Chao to a doctor to be evaluated, speak to Sega reps, take part in sponsored contests, download little changes and cheats, upload your times to be ranked and even download new Twinkle Circuit tracks. There are so many different options you now have, all designed to extend Sonic Adventure's lifespan and provide fans of the game with an interactive community. Due to time constraints, the Japanese version included only one or two of the above mentioned features. Sega will soon be re-releasing the US version as Sonic Adventure International, to allow Japanese gamers to get involved with the US/European community.

One of my favorite Sonic Adventure features, I left for last. I have totally enjoyed Sonic Team's a-life feature, ever since it was first implemented in NiGHTS. Sonic Adventure contains small tear-drop shaped artificial life creatures named Chao (pronounced "chow"). They can be found, in egg form, either within 1 of 3 Chao gardens located around the Sonic Adventure world, or hidden within an adventure stage or 2. When found, they need to be hatched while within a Chao garden, buy throwing them onto the ground, or into a solid object. When hatched, the cute creatures must be cared for by either feeding them a Chaonut from a tree, or by picking them up and cuddling them. The Chao tell you what they are thinking/feeling by a little symbol above their heads, as well as their mannerisms. A Chao with a heart, that jumps around, is usually happy. One with his eyes closed, or snoring, is tired. These creatures can grow, evolve and even mate depending on how well they are treated.

One of the cooler features is accessed when you place one of your Chao into the VMU. You can name your Chao, play games with him/her, and even take part in a mini adventure complete with 1 on 1 fights with other wild Chao. The adventuring, games and fights all allow you to obtain items that will boost your Chao's stats. Upon reloading your Chao into Sonic Adventure, you will notice that he/she has become stronger, and can now fly, swim and run faster than before. As mentioned earlier, you also have the option to mix many of the little animals that you rescue, with your Chao. By doing so, your Chao will take on characteristics (physical and statistical) of that animal. All of this time spent raising Chao, does actually have a purpose. Sonic Adventure has what is called "Chao Races", in which various powered up Chao race, by running, flying, swimming, pushing and climbing, through several different obstacle courses in order to earn Sonic Emblems. You can cheer your little guys on, and even give them a bit of help in order to insure that they defeat the other Chao. I spent more hours then I would like to admit raising my Gold Chao, but I found it quite enjoyable.