Sonic Adventure 2

for Sonic and Shadow; multidirectional shooting for Tails and Doctor Eggman; and open exploration for Knuckles and Rouge Sonic Adventure 2 is a 3D platform game divided into two campaigns: Hero and Dark. In the Hero campaign, players control Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, who fight to save the world; in the Dark campaign, players control Shadow the Hedgehog, Doctor Eggman and Rouge the Bat, fighting to conquer it. Each campaign cycles through levels of its three characters, telling different sides of the story. Levels have a variety of themes (such as cities, jungles, desert pyramids and outer space), with some followed by boss fights. The two campaigns' stories occur in parallel; completing both campaigns unlocks a final story with all six characters, culminating in a final boss fight. Adventure 2 has the health system found in many other Sonic games. The player collects rings scattered throughout the levels; being hit by an enemy while holding rings causes the player to drop them all, while being hit without rings causes them to lose a life. Tails and Eggman have health bars, which are slowly refilled by collecting rings. Dying with no lives results in a game over screen. The characters can obtain permanent upgrades that grant them new abilities; for example, one upgrade allows Sonic and Shadow to dash along a sequential trail of rings to reach distant platforms, one gives Tails and Eggman hover jets that slows their descent to cross large gaps, while another lets Knuckles and Rouge dig into the ground to uncover treasure and Master Emerald pieces. Separate from the main campaigns, the player can raise Chao as virtual pets. and racing minigames. Although Chao eventually die, if they receive enough affection during their lives they reincarnate. Adventure 2 has 180 emblems, earned for a variety of tasks. Each level has five missions; only the first is required to continue the campaign, and other missions include completing a harder version of a level and collecting 100 rings. The player earns emblems by completing missions and other tasks, many related to Chao raising. Collecting all the emblems unlocks a 3D version of the Green Hill Zone stage from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. The game has several two-player modes. Players may race on foot through new (or altered) levels, have shoot-'em-up battles in mechs, or race in go-karts. as are Amy Rose and Metal Sonic in the foot-racing levels and mechs piloted by Chao and Big the Cat (replaced by a Dark Chao in Battle) in the shooting levels. ==Plot==

Doctor Eggman learns of a secret weapon from the diary of his deceased grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik, and infiltrates a high-security Guardian Units of Nations (GUN) facility to revive it with a Chaos Emerald. The weapon—Shadow, a black hedgehog who proclaims himself the "Ultimate Lifeform"—offers to help Eggman conquer the world, telling him to rendezvous at an abandoned space colony, the ARK, with more Chaos Emeralds. Shadow has vowed to fulfill a promise he made to his friend, Eggman's cousin Maria, before she died; the amnesiac Shadow interprets the promise as one of revenge. Shadow steals a Chaos Emerald, and GUN arrests Sonic after mistaking him for Shadow. Knuckles encounters Eggman and Rouge, a government spy, attempting to steal the Master Emerald. He stops them by shattering it and searches for the scattered shards to repair it. Rouge follows Eggman to the ARK, where Shadow shows Eggman the Eclipse Cannon, another weapon created by Gerald. Shadow plans to charge the cannon with the seven Chaos Emeralds and use it to take over the world. Rouge offers her services and gives Shadow and Eggman another Chaos Emerald to gain their trust. Tails and Amy infiltrate GUN's base and rescue Sonic, while Rouge retrieves three emeralds from the base before Eggman destroys it. Eggman makes a global broadcast in which he threatens to destroy the planet if he is not accepted as Earth's ruler in a day. He demonstrates the cannon's power by destroying half of the Moon. Sonic, Tails, and Amy meet up with Knuckles and use a Chaos Emerald to track the others to the ARK. Knuckles separates from the group and finishes repairing the Master Emerald. On the ARK, Tails gives Sonic a counterfeit Chaos Emerald to destroy the Eclipse Cannon. As Sonic is about to use it, Eggman captures Tails and Amy, forcing Sonic to return and rescue them. Sonic tries to trick Eggman with the fake emerald, but Eggman deduces the plan and jettisons him in an escape pod rigged with explosives. Sonic uses the power of the fake emerald to escape; Eggman sneaks away with the last emerald and arms the Eclipse Cannon. The ARK suddenly starts falling, and a prerecorded message from Gerald is broadcast globally: he programmed the ARK to collide with Earth if the emeralds were used, a retaliation against the government for condemning his research and killing his colleagues, including Maria. Everyone but Shadow works together to access the cannon's core and neutralize the ARK using the Master Emerald. Amy pleads for Shadow's help, and he remembers that he promised Maria to help mankind, not destroy it. Shadow joins Sonic and Knuckles in the core as they encounter the Biolizard, a colossal lizard and prototype Ultimate Lifeform. Knuckles deactivates the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald, but the Biolizard fuses with the cannon to continue the ARK's collision course. Sonic and Shadow use the emeralds to transform into their super forms, destroy the Biolizard, and put the ARK back into a stable orbit. This depletes Shadow's energy and he plummets to Earth, content in fulfilling his promise to Maria. The people on Earth celebrate as the group returns, and Sonic bids Shadow farewell. ==Development==

Conception Sonic Adventure, the first 3D platformer in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, was developed by Sonic Team and released for the Dreamcast in Japan in 1998. Although the game was a critical and commercial success, Dreamcast sales struggled to meet Sega's expectations. The Adventure team was downsized, Shiro Maekawa, who wrote portions of Sega's Panzer Dragoon Saga (1998) and joined Sonic Team during Adventure production, conceived and wrote Adventure 2 story. As Maekawa disliked Sonic as a character, he used Adventure 2 as an opportunity to revise him to suit his tastes. The idea was revived during Adventure 2 brainstorming sessions. but Iizuka decided to appeal to American audiences with an antihero, a popular archetype in the US. He cited the Image Comics character Spawn as an influence. Maekawa struggled to develop the concept until writing lines for a scene in which Sonic confronts the hedgehog for impersonating him. Maekawa settled on a delicate, pure character who would refer to himself using the more humble Japanese pronoun . Sonic Team saw Shadow as a one-off character who would not appear in subsequent Sonic games. As with the first Adventure, Iizuka directed Adventure 2 while Yuji Naka, the Sonic franchise's co-creator, produced it. Adventure 2 development lasted around a year and a half, Due to the smaller staff, Sonic Team USA split Adventure 2 into two campaigns featuring character teams instead of Adventure format of six starring individual characters. and divided action and exploration sequences among the characters rather than mixing them. and unlike Adventure, in which some playable characters had short campaigns, all six Adventure 2 characters have roughly equal gameplay time. Achieving 60 FPS required some design tweaks, but Naka said Sonic Team's experience with the Dreamcast hardware made it possible. Sonic Team USA gave Sonic more abilities, such as grinding on rails, to add rhythm to ensure the gameplay was not only about speed. Soap product placement appears throughout the game as well. Iizuka described the Chao as a "relatively neutral entity" in Adventure, so in Adventure 2, Sonic Team USA added the ability to raise "Hero" and "Dark" Chao to reflect the conflict between good and evil. Sonic Team USA gave Chao the ability to socialize and interact, Fumie Kumatani, Tomoya Ohtani, and Kenichi Tokoi, with Senoue as the lead composer and sound director. Senoue, Kumatani and Tokoi returned from Adventure, Senoue began writing in April 2000; Half the music was produced in the US, while the other half was produced in Japan. and orchestral arrangements. Singers featured in the soundtrack include Johnny Gioeli of Hardline, Ted Poley of Danger Danger, Tony Harnell of TNT, and Paul Shortino of Rough Cutt. Senoue then sent a demo to Gioeli to record his vocals. Poley wrote and performed "Escape from the City", the first level's theme. He found writing video game music different, as "you have to have a lot of action and alliteration. It creates a whole mood and there's no time for breath—the song is over in a minute and a half, and it's intense." The rapper Hunnid-P performed Knuckles' level themes. Senoue made a demo for each track using an ADAT system to track guitars or vocals and a Yamaha digital console or Mackie analog mixer for mixing. He edited tracks with his Macintosh before testing them in-game. Once Senoue was satisfied and received Sonic Team USA's approval, he finished sequencing and sent demos to prepare for the recording sessions. The soundtrack was recorded across five sessions in Los Angeles, New York City and Tokyo. While he enjoyed studio work, Senoue described the last three months as chaotic, as he had to travel between Tokyo, San Francisco and Los Angeles within weeks to write and record music. Senoue finished the soundtrack in February 2001, after which he worked on the sound effects. ==Release==

Sega planned to release Sonic Adventure 2 between the 2000 Christmas shopping season and early 2001; GameSpot reported a February 2001 release date. and allowed journalists to play a demo version in December. were bundled with the demo. It features the opening cutscene and level, ending with a trailer showcasing later levels. Sega showcased Adventure 2 again at E3 2001. On June 13, 2001, Archie Comics published a brief adaptation in its Sonic the Hedgehog comic book, written by Karl Bollers and penciled by Patrick Spaziante. According to Ken Penders, one of the series' writers, the creative team was unable to adapt the story in full due to Sonic Team's desire for secrecy; they were only able to work from the demo and a few screenshots. Penders said they considered adapting the story in a separate Super Special issue, but Archie had ceased publishing one-shots at the time. Adventure 2 worldwide release coincided with Sonic tenth anniversary, In Japan, Sega offered a limited edition "Birthday Pack" for two days that included Adventure 2, a gold disc containing Sonic music, a commemorative gold coin, and a 17-page booklet detailing the series' history. On June 30, Sega held a celebration at a Software Etc. in San Jose, California, where attendees could have birthday cake, partake in giveaways, and receive Naka's autograph. Peter Moore, the president and chief operating officer of Sega of America, said the Dreamcast would need to sell five million units in the US by the end of 2000 to remain a viable platform, but Sega fell short of this goal with three million units sold. Moreover, Sega's attempts to spur sales through lower prices and cash rebates caused escalating financial losses. On January 31, 2001, Sega announced it was discontinuing the Dreamcast to become a third-party developer, although it remained committed to releasing first-party Dreamcast software through 2001. The third-party transition made Adventure 2 one of the last major Dreamcast exclusives and the final Sonic game for a Sega console. Much of Sonic Team's staff, including Naka, opposed the move as they had already entered pre-production on Sonic Adventure 3, but were unable to fight it. In April 2001, Sega announced Sonic Team was working on a game for Nintendo's GameCube. Sonic Team kept the project a secret until its reveal at Nintendo Space World in August. Naka liked the GameCube hardware, and advised Sonic Team fans to purchase GameCubes. Shortly before Space World, Sega confirmed rumors that the project was a port of Sonic Adventure 2, subtitled Battle. This marked Sonic first appearance on a Nintendo console, which GameSpot called "an unbelievable milestone of epic proportions". Sonic Team left the single-player gameplay mostly unchanged, but added multiplayer options such as new maps and characters. Battle replaces the VMU's implementation with connectivity with the Game Boy Advance (GBA) game Sonic Advance (2001), facilitated through the GameCube – GBA link cable. Visually, Battle features texture resolution increases, though some textures are blurrier, while colors are brighter. Battle was released in Japan on December 20, 2001, in North America on February 11, 2002, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. Sales The Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure 2 sold more than 84,000 copies during its first week in Japan (a franchise record), and a total of around 500,000 copies worldwide. The Escapist wrote that these numbers were impressive given that the Dreamcast had already been discontinued. In Japan, the GameCube version sold almost 50,000 copies during its first month, and had sold 192,186 by December 23, 2002. In North America, it was the bestselling GameCube game between January and August 2002, selling 465,000 copies. By August 2002, it had sold more than a million copies worldwide. Cumulative sales reached 1.7 million, It is one of the bestselling GameCube games and the bestselling third-party GameCube game. == Reception ==

Sonic Adventure 2 received "generally favorable" reviews. The camera was panned. Shahed Ahmed of GameSpot criticized the "cardinal sin" of 3D platform games: forcing players to jump to an out-of-frame platform. Although players can re-orient the camera with the trigger buttons, it reverts when the character moves. Critics generally felt that it was not significantly improved from the Dreamcast original. However, Shane Bettenhausen of GameSpy saw Adventure 2 Battle as noticeably superior; in addition to its upgrades, its action was better suited to the GameCube's controller than the Dreamcast's. Accolades Sonic Adventure 2 received several accolades, including the 2001 IGNs Editors' Choice Award. ScrewAttack called it the fifth-best Dreamcast game, and GamesRadar rated it the tenth-greatest Dreamcast game out of 25: "Despite trailing off significantly in recent years, the 3D side of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise had a surprisingly stellar start with the Sonic Adventure entries, and the 2001 sequel really amped up the action." In February 2014, IGN's Luke Karmali called Battle his tenth-favorite game of all time. In a video interview with Sonic Team studio head Takashi Iizuka, he says Sonic Adventure 2 is his favourite game in the series. ==Post-release==

Development on the next game, Sonic Heroes (2003), began at Sonic Team USA shortly after Adventure 2 completion. Iizuka chose to develop it as a standalone game rather than a sequel to appeal to a broader audience. Heroes became the first multiplatform Sonic game when it was released for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in late 2003. Another 2003 Sonic Team game, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, uses an updated version of the Adventure 2 engine, and Ohtani, who first composed Sonic music for Adventure 2, became the series' sound director with Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Sonic Team USA partnered with Criterion Software to use RenderWare so Heroes could be programmed and ported across platforms. Iizuka described the loss of first-party development benefits as the greatest challenge of the third-party transition, as his team "no longer [had] the ability to control what we need[ed] to make our games". and departed to form his own studio, Prope, in 2006. Shadow quickly proved popular among fans, so Sonic Team USA retconned his apparent death in Adventure 2 finale to include him in subsequent Sonic games, beginning with Heroes. a spin-off starring Shadow that continues plot threads established in Adventure 2. The division developed Nights: Journey of Dreams (2007) before it was merged back into the Japanese Sonic Team in 2008. Iizuka became the head of Sonic Team following the merger. Soundtracks Marvelous Entertainment released a collection of Sonic Adventure 2 songs, Cuts Unleashed Sonic Adventure 2 Vocal Collection, on August 18, 2001, before releasing the full two-disc soundtrack album, Multi-dimensional Sonic Adventure 2 Original Sound Track, on September 5. Tokyopop released a soundtrack in the US on February 5, 2002, ahead of the GameCube version's release, featuring 26 tracks selected by Senoue and US-exclusive remixes. On November 30, 2011, Sega released the soundtrack on iTunes via its Wave Master label to coincide with the franchise's 20th anniversary. Brave Wave Productions released a vinyl version of the soundtrack including interviews with Senoue and Iizuka in 2018. Rerelease Sega released a port of Sonic Adventure 2 as a downloadable game for the PlayStation 3 (via PlayStation Network) and Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade) on October 2, 2012, The port followed a similar reissue of the first Adventure in 2010 and was branded as part of Sega Heritage, a 2012 initiative in which Sega rereleased popular games from its back catalog on modern consoles. The rerelease features high-definition graphics and widescreen support, though some cutscenes are still presented in 4:3. Otherwise, it is mostly identical to the original versions; it lacks the Dreamcast version's online features and the GameCube additions are paywalled as downloadable content (DLC). and the Xbox 360 version was made backward compatible with the Xbox One. == Legacy ==

Retrospective assessments Sonic Adventure 2 is frequently ranked among the best Sonic games. GameSpot and Kotaku deemed it a satisfying conclusion to Sonic run on Sega hardware, Some fans regard Adventure 2 as the franchise's pinnacle, but others find it unfocused—"a jack of all trades, master of none", as The Escapist wrote. The Escapist and VentureBeat called the story nonsensical, However, VentureBeat praised the good-vs.-evil presentation as clever and adding unexpected nuance to the villains' motivations, which VentureBeat attributed to Sega "depending on stupid gimmicks to sell their most iconic property" following the third-party transition. The level, which serves as a tutorial, and Polygon said that it "represents the epitome of Sonic the Hedgehog. It's fast-paced, full of secret pathways, and more than a little absurd." Polygon considered "Escape from the City", the City Escape theme song, the peak of the Sonic franchise, with an energetic composition and hopeful lyrics that encapsulate Sonic's character. The song was remixed in Sonic Generations (2011) and featured in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Super Smash Bros. series of crossover games. Sega produced two remixes in 2021: a Sonic 30th Anniversary Symphony remix in June and a funk remix in December. The original is a selectable song in Sega's Samba de Amigo: Party Central (2023), a rhythm game which includes a City Escape-based stage. Poley described "Escape from the City" as his biggest hit, though he does not receive any royalties. Kotaku regarded Generations City Escape as one of the most impactful moments of 2011, and PCMag considered it a highlight, a "prime example" of Sonic Team drawing inspiration from the franchise's history. Influence Sonic Adventure 2 GameCube port introduced Sonic to a new audience of Millennials and, alongside the compilation Sonic Mega Collection (2002), built a new fanbase following Sega's third-party transition. For this reason, The Escapist regarded it as possibly the most important Sonic game and said that while some later Sonic games were better, "[they] didn’t do nearly as much to energize or even create a new fanbase". which was conceived as a sequel to Adventure 2 before becoming a standalone game. Adventure 2 emphasis on spectacle influenced subsequent Sonic games. It was the first Sonic game to feature rail grinding, a mechanic used in nearly every subsequent Sonic game. and Sonic's Soap shoes are available as DLC. Sonic fans have requested Adventure 3, but Iizuka said this would not advance the series' design. He returned as a playable character in Heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic and the Black Knight, and Forces. In 2005, Naka said Sonic Team had determined Shadow was the most popular Sonic character excluding Sonic himself, a finding reaffirmed in a 2009 Sega poll. Sonic Generations includes Shadow as a boss, and the Nintendo 3DS version includes the Biolizard boss. A 2024 Generations rerelease was bundled with Shadow Generations, a Shadow game that features recreations of Adventure 2 levels and bosses. Rouge also became a recurring character; a 2006 Sega poll found her the tenth-most-popular Sonic character. "Live & Learn" remains a popular Sonic song. It has appeared in at least 25 games since Adventure 2, including non-Sonic games such as the Maimai, Phantasy Star, Super Smash Bros., and Yakuza series. Crush 40 performed a remix featuring the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra as the finale of the Sonic 30th Anniversary Symphony. In 2024, Gioeli filed a lawsuit against Sega for breach of contract regarding the ownership of "Live & Learn"; he said that he was unaware that Sega kept reusing the song, to which he claimed the copyright. He sought 500,000 in damages and another 500,000 in unpaid royalties for its use outside of Adventure 2. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in August 2025. Adaptations Sonic Adventure 2 was adapted in the second season of the anime series Sonic X (2003–2006). The Japanese voice cast reprised their roles for the adaptation, while the licensing corporation 4Kids Entertainment, which handled the American localization, hired a new voice cast for the English dub. Although Archie Comics did not adapt Adventure 2 in full in its Sonic comic, it did so in the second issue of the spin-off publication Sonic Universe in March 2009; the adaptation was written by Ian Flynn and penciled by Tracy Yardley and Steven Butler. The live-action feature film Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) is an adaptation of Adventure 2. It features several scenes that reference Adventure 2, such as Shadow's captivity in a GUN facility, Sonic leaping out of a helicopter, and Sonic and Shadow collaborating to stop the Eclipse Cannon. "Live & Learn" is featured throughout as a leitmotif and the song plays during the climax. Although the film mostly follows the Adventure 2 story, it features some differences, such as the absence of City Escape and Gerald Robotnik appearing alive in the present rather than being limited to flashbacks. The writers, Pat Casey and Josh Miller, did not have time to replay Adventure 2 and based the adaptation on what they remembered. == Notes ==