Sonic Comparison Part IV:
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle vs. Sonic Adventure DX
Written By: AJ Middleton

PART 4 – Overalls (You know, the things that span the entire gaming experience)

REPLAY VALUE:

Both games are a little iffy in this category.  You’ll keep coming back after the adventure is over for the missions and whatnot, but is the story adventure worth a second shot?  In SA2B, you can select what scene you want to start from, which basically allows you to reply your favorite parts of the game.  SADX doesn’t have this feature, but its adventure isn’t anything big; it’s not like you can’t explore an area of the field anymore.

WINNER: Tie; depends on your tastes

DIFFICULTY:

SA2B is harder than DX.  I found the latter’s stages to be a lot simpler than those of SA2B.  For example, Knuckles’s radar will only tell him the location of one emerald at a time in 2B.  But in DX, the radar will scope out every piece at once, which makes things quicker and easier.  Plus, all of the emerald pieces are about to be found in less than a minute in most of Knuckle’s DX stages.  That’s not even a possibility in a level like Meteor Herd in 2B.  DX had long levels for Sonic, but not even Final Egg matched the complexity of Final Rush.  The emblem count shows difficulty too.  180 vs. 120.  Plus, in SA2B, the letter rankings add a whole new level of complexity.  Getting every emblem means that every mission needs to have an A rank, and that’s near impossible in some stages.  SADX has no letter rankings, and beating a stage is just beating a stage.  Oh, and Chao raising is a mega part of owning all 180.

WINNER: SA2B; but is that a good or bad thing?

INNOVATION:

The split story thing of SA2B was simply awesome.  It enriched the plot by being allowed to see what happened on both sides of the table.  The levels were cool too.  Mad Space continues to amaze me and annoy me at the same time—That place is HUGE.  Plus, SA2B has a story that was out of this world (no pun intended…again.)

It seems as if SADX would lose some creativity by also using the split story method (although technically, it came first) but it doesn’t.  This is probably because everyone in SADX has his or her own individual path.  Now, although I thought they were dumb, Big the Cat had some unique levels.  Fishing.  That’s new.  Tails’s and Amy’s were cool too, with their twist on getting to the end.  Level wise, SADX had some great areas.  Casinopolis!  A casino!  And it was great how that world wasn’t linear for Sonic at all.  I also liked how the characters would share the same worlds.  I often found myself saying, “Hey!  This is the path that (character) takes!”  And then there was the Adventure Field.  I happened to like this very much, as it made this Sonic game feel more real.  Plus, it’s something that Sonic and pals had never seen before.

WINNER: SADX; much more interesting that SA2B

OVERALL:

The games are both great, but when it comes down to it I think the 1^st place award goes to SA2B.  The bulk of the game was in the story, and it was a very good one.  Plus, the characters just seemed more into it and not thrown in to the plot because their frog grew a tail.  SA2B had that full, clean feel that SADX lacked due to sloppy voice acting and too many camera errors.  And then, 2B was simply harder.  A hard game is easier to remember because of all of the stress you go through. :-P  Easier games get blown off.  Although I enjoy flying, jumping, and gliding around Station Square and the other fields, I like living and learning a little more.

WINNER: SA2B

(Now, imagine a Live and Learn fade in right about…now.)

Posted: 12-30-03