XBLA Review: Sonic Adventure

In 1999, my perception of video games was changed forever. The Sega Dreamcast, which was, at that time, the most powerful machine on the market, came out and featured the 3D re-imagining of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, entitled, Sonic Adventure.

The title was a pivotal title in the franchise and really set a new standard for the platforming genre. The game did a phenomenal job of taking levels that look like they are ripped straight from the 2D Sonic games, and transforming them into the 3D realm.

Despite all the innovation, in the eyes of many, the title was far less than stellar. Despite the great points, there are certainly enormous, unavoidable issues that cannot be ignored and have only become amplified with age.

Before we get into the issues that exist with the title, let's examine how the title's presentation has held up over the years. The first thing the player will be greeted with upon entering the title is a fantastic opening cutscene.

For those that are seeing it for the first time, the graphics hardly look like they've been out for 11 years. The CGI is incredibly advanced for it's time and the soundtrack featuring Crush 40 is fantastic. For those that have seen it and remember the game from it's Dreamcast days, this cutscene will act as a welcoming back with a heavy dose of nostalgia.

For how old the title is, the game really does look great. There's definite signs of aging, but the gameplay doesn't look terrible and certainly looks good for an Xbox Live Arcade title. The sense of speed has always been great and while it's definitely not as fast as newer titles like Sonic Unleashed, it's definitely faster than most titles today.

The issue with the speed is that the technology wasn't quite fine-tuned enough to keep up with Sonic's speed, as you'll notice parts of the level loading in the distance as you run through levels at top speed. The loading never causes any major hiccups in gameplay, though there will be some framerate drops from time to time.

The only real issues with the presentation lie in the actual port-job itself. The most noticeable issue is with the aspect ratio. If you have a widescreen television, blue bars will appear on either side of the screen, which is to compensate for the fact that the game was not originally made in widescreen format. The other problems are in the audio. A few minor audio glitches exist from the port, but it's mostly just an absence of background sounds in cutscenes.

Despite the terrible lip-syncing and mostly embarrassing, the presenation was never the issue of contention with Sonic Adventure. The problems that critics always pointed out were the awful camera and the awkward controls. Unfortunately, both of those issues are still present and they have only become worse with age.

The camera is pretty rough, to be perfectly honest. While players can control the camera with their right stick, it does little to remedy the issue. Players will find themselves falling to their deaths or running right into enemies due to the camera angle. If you look back at reviews from when this title came out, you'll notice that this is actually one of the only negative things pointed out.

The gameplay of Sonic Adventure is a peculiar case. The strength of the gameplay is that it is diverse, as you can choose between several different characters, each with their own abilities and style of gameplay. Sonic runs through the levels very quickly and uses various platforming elements and Tails goes through levels slower than Sonic, but can fly, which adds to the platforming fun, but the gameplay only gets more varying from them.

Knuckles has the ability to glide and climb, but rather than making it from one point to another, his missions are focussed around finding shards of the Master Emerald. Despite their fresh ideas, these treasure hunting levels are one of the main downsides of the game. The missions are overly frustrating and really serve simply to elongate the time that the players will spend on the title.

While those are the three main characters, there are three other shortened stories from some of the franchise's auxiliary characters. Amy, from Sonic CD, makes an appearance as a playable character. In her story, you are working to escape from a pursuing robot the whole time, with only a giant mallet as your weapon. E-102 Gamma is a robot designed by Dr. Robotnik, but becomes self-aware and goes on a one-bot mission against the dictator. The rogue bot's story is probably the most fun and focuses on slowly and methodically going through missions and blowing everything up on the way to the goal.

The final story is definitely the most questionable one. Big the Cat, a new character in the Sonic series, has an incredibly slow pace and has missions that are centered around... fishing. When you think of Sonic, you don't exactly think about fishing, an activity that relies on patience as it's main key to success. The story is interesting, but overall the gameplay is frustrating and very tiring after even just one mission.

After beating all of the stories, a seventh story mode unlocks that features one final, epic battle between the team and Chaos, the most well-developed boss in the Sonic franchise. The fight is laid on a bed of Crush 40's "Open Your Heart", which gives it an amazing feeling, but by the time you beat the battle, you'll be sick of it.

If playing through missions at a blistering pace isn't really your thing, there are other actviities to do in Sonic Adventure. The most notorious activity is definitely the Chao mini-game. The mini-game acts much like virtual pet game, where you adopt a Chao and raise, feed and even train it to compete in races. It's fun and can definitely pass the time if you are sick of running from Point A to Point B.

Other than that, you can spend your time collecting emblems throughout the Sonic Adventure maps and missions. Each mission consists of three sub-missions (much like Mario 64 did), so there are three emblems to get from each mission. In addition to those emblems, there are also emblems to find throughout the various maps. Some can be pretty challenging to hunt down, so those that are completionists might have their work cut out for them. If all else fails, you can always take a break and blow stuff up as E-102 or play some pinball at the casino as Sonic.

All in all, Sonic Adventure acts as the perfect introduction to the line of Dreamcast titles coming out on current generation consoles, just as it was a perfect introduction to the Dreamcast itself. There are definitely problems that are brought about from the port, as well as the game's age, but the gameplay is fun most of the time and the issues can often be circumvented.

We're actually all still wishing that Sega would just continue with the Sonic Adventure series, rather than try to revitalize the 3D Sonic games with gimmicks, as they did in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Heroes. If you've ever been curious to check out a good 3D Sonic the Hedgehog title, Sonic Adventure might just be the one to help you check that goal off your list.

XBLA Review: Plants vs. Zombies

I need to preface this review with a confession. I know it will likely cause many to look down on me and will make it so I lose a lot of credibility in the video game communities, but I feel it necessary to issue this disclaimer: I have never played Plants vs. Zombies prior to it's release on Xbox Live Arcade this week. Shocking, I know. The title, which has been critically acclaimed pretty much across the board, just made it's first appearance on a home console and it's making me regret not trying the title until now.

For those of you that are as new to the title as I am, Plants vs. Zombies is the epitome of a well-executed tower defense title. You are a gardener that is in charge of strategically placing defensive plants throughout your backyard to prevent invading zombies from reaching your house. You'll have a variety of plants to choose from, with more unlocking as you get deeper into the arcade mode, from peashooters, which are the most basic defensive unit, to sunflowers, that are used to gather resources.

The game maintains a perfect difficulty curve and does a phenomenal job of easing the player into the more difficult and advanced levels, making sure the player has the skills necessary to survive before tossing them into the deep end.

Once the player is tossed into the deep end, however, they had better be prepared for all-out war. As you continue along your zombie-fighting journey, you'll encounter nearly 30 different types of adversaries looking to devour your brains.

You'll start off with normal, easily defeated zombies, but you'll eventually begin encountering super-powered zombies that have shields, armor or even special abilities. The first zombie that will likely knock you down is one that comes out and dances, which summons four zombies that will walk through and wipe out any plants in their path.

The developers seem aware of the issue with most tower-defense titles: the fact that the formula is so simple that the gameplay tends to get old slightly quicker than games in other genres. With that in mind, PopCap has brilliantly diversified the gameplay by adding new dynamics for levels that take place during the nighttime. It's more difficult to plant new plants due to the lack of sunlight, so you'll be required to get a little creative.

PopCap has even helped those that get bored quickly by throwing mini-games in for good measure. Every now and again, you'll have the chance to go zombie bowling or play whack-a-zombie, which are surprisingly fun.

The biggest addition to the game has to be the Co-Op and Vs. modes, which make the game Xbox Live worthy. Co-Op mode is exactly what you would think it is, but Vs. mode actually allows you to play as the zombies for the first time in the series' history. The mode definitely adds a new twist to the game and will give fans of the previous iterations of this title something to really look forward to.

There's no denying that Plants vs. Zombies has unbelievable staying power. Most people who have played this game have bought it through several formats, which is further testament to this game's greatness. At $15, you can't really ask for much more in way of gameplay. If you've never played Plants Vs. Zombies, but, like me, have been wondering what all the hype is about, go download the Xbox Live Arcade version of this title now!

XBLA Review: The Deadliest Warrior

For those living under a rock for the past couple of years, Deadliest Warrior is a television show on Spike, which takes some of the most debated upon match-ups between the most fearsome combatants in the history of civilization, confers with experts and declares a victor in the "battle" at the end of the show.

Now, for those living under a rock for the past month and a half, Deadliest Warrior is also an Xbox Live Arcade release by Spike Games that has very much divided the gaming community. While some praise it's simplicity, others have bashed it's tendency to reward button-mashing and bare-bones design. We felt it was only necessary that we give our take on this controversial, yet popular title.

From the get-go, Deadliest Warrior will remind you of the 3-D Mortal Kombat titles. From the battles that see blood spraying everywhere to the way the characters rotate around eachother, the only thing really missing is the iconic announcer declaring "Finish Him!" as Scorpion engulfs his enemy in flames. Even a form of fatalities exist that rival the sheer brutality of those that made the Mortal Kombat series so popular.

Unfortunately, the game is not very rich in features. You have an arcade mode, where you choose a warrior and fight through all of the adversaries in the game, back to back. There are no bosses, but there are "Test Your Might" type of challenges, that fall somewhat short of the car-punching challenge in Street Fighter.

One challenge will require you to run through a meat-locker, slicing up all of the hanging pieces of meat. This activity falls short of being fun or challenging, but one where players face off against one enemy head-on, where each blow leads in some form of dismemberment, is much more fun, if not way too quick.

When facing the AI in arcade mode, the game has a very steep learning curve and will often frustrate when not on the easiest levels. The game takes full advantage of it's knowledge of the fighting engine and uses various one-hit kills and dismembering blows to take you down quickly and relentlessly.

While the single player may be a bit monotonous after a few run-throughs, the multiplayer is a blast if you have a few people watching and commenting. The yells of "ohh!" will definitely add to the competition more so than they would another title or genre. There's just something about watching characters decimate one another in a group setting.

The number one issue that has divided players and critics on this title, however, is the core gameplay. The game's defining aspect is that it sacrifices combat-system depth for "realism", in that it relies heavily on one-hit deaths and a single combo taking down a player for good. This works well in that context, but the lack of overall depth will leave many fighting game vets longing for more.

Another issue is in regards to the fact that many fights will just break down into the players button mashing their way to victory. While other franchises, like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, have found a way to neutralize that breed of player for the most part, in Deadliest Warrior, players of that nature tend to thrive.

The movement can a little off and artificial, particularly when the characters run in an opposite direction of the enemy and don't auto-turn to face the enemy. This is a key flaw in the overall gameplay and will, more times than not, end up hurting the player who is attempting to honestly evade attacks (a key component to this title).

The graphics look dated, but at the same time, they aren't awful when you consider that this title is a $15 download. The game really looks about on par with the previous generation Mortal Kombat titles. The blood spurts out nicely and the character models look great. Of course, it's always nice to have destructible environments, which this game does have to an extent. Having a pirate hiding in the bamboo forest, only to run in with your samurai and chop that forest to the ground, along with him, is very satisfying.

The Deadliest Warrior is going to be very hit or miss for you, depending on what you're looking for. If you want depth and fights that always seem "fair", then you might want to skip on this title. However, if you want a title that is fun, satisfying and fully backed by it's developer (the promise of new DLC characters coming soon has been stated over and over again by Spike Games), then you'll definitely want to check out The Deadliest Warrior on Xbox Live Arcade.