Sonic Adventure

A launch title for the Dreamcast, and the first 3D game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It was released in Japan on December 23, 1998. Receiving released in Europe, North America and Australia between September and December 1999.

Much like Super Mario 64 did for Mario, this title introduced the concepts and ideas that would be used for future 3D games in the Sonic series.

This was also the first Sonic game to have a highly involved plot. The game involves Sonic the Hedgehog trying to prevent the latest world domination scheme of Dr. Robotnik/Eggman, which involves using all seven Chaos Emeralds to unleash the full power of a creature named Chaos. Sonic's story is tied into other characters' stories as well, although their goals differ. Introduced Big the Cat and E-102 Gamma. It was also the first Sonic game to include a song by Crush 40.

This game was a major critical and commercial success. It was hailed as a revival of the series, which had somehow failed to exist outside of spinoffs and remakes during the Sega Saturn era. However, critics and fans alike noticed some points of criticism, like the Camera Screw, Gameplay Roulette, a few noticeable bugs, and loose controls, problems that would contribute to the Sonic series' reputation for having a subpar 3D leap. It has nevertheless remained quite popular among fans as one of the best Dreamcast games and as a step forward for the series.

Received a direct sequel, Sonic Adventure 2, in 2001 to commemorate the series' 10th anniversary.

Re-released for the Nintendo GameCube and PC in 2003 as Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (ironically after its sequel's remake), which added special missions and unlockable Game Gear games. This release wasn't as praised, as it was a straight port of the original version's engine, and didn't fix many of the bugs in the original. It is now available for purchase on the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network, with the DX missions sold separately. However in 2011, a PC version with the additional content built-in at no extra cost was made available through Steam.

Tropes used in Sonic Adventure include:
  • Above the Ruins: The cliff overlooking the ruined temple of Tikal's ancient Echidna tribe in the deep Mystic Ruins.
    • Also, the team looking down upon the flooded Station Square post-Chaos.
  • Abridged Series: Already has a page.
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Averted with Station Square's sewers, played straight with those of Casinopolis (you get dumped in there if you lose a game of pinball and come away with less than 100 rings).
  • Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The Egg Carrier and the Egg Carrier II.
  • Air Vent Passageway: The game actually makes use of this trope a number of times in order to progress from level to level.
    • For example, Sonic and Tails travel through the sewers of Casinopolis in order to find the Chaos Emerald located there.
    • This is also how Gamma and Amy choose to travel through the Hot Shelter in the Egg Carrier.
  • Any Torment You Can Walk Away From: At the end of the game, as the characters are recuperating after their battle against Perfect Chaos, Tails invokes this trope verbatim, ignoring the fact that the city has been completely inundated and destroyed.
  • Almost Out of Oxygen: A staple of the franchise. That countdown music is unnerving.
  • An Aesop: With Great Power Comes Great Insanity. The tragic story of the Echidna race and Chaos prove this.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Getting all medals unlocks Metal Sonic, who is essentially a reskinned Sonic with slightly altered animations. You can only use him in Trial mode.
  • Animated Adaptation: Was adapted into an arc in the Anime of the Game Sonic X.
  • Another Side, Another Story: Play through the main story from 6 different perspectives. Each character also gets a piece of the backstory of Chaos and the echidna race, only by playing through all stories do you get the complete sequence.
    • And the exact same scenes get alternate dialogue.
  • Art Evolution: SA1 introduced the art style for Sonic and friends that would be used in future games. Amy was the one affected most by this, as she no longer looks like a pink Sonic in drag. However, the Sonic-themed pinball table in Sonic's version of Casinopolis does feature stock artwork from the earlier games.
  • Ascended Extra: Amy, originally a minor semi-recurrer beforehand, gained a prominent playable role in this and many titles following it.
  • Balloonacy: A single balloon is all Amy needs to float away from Zero's grasp.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Tikal.
  • Battle in the Rain: Sonic's first encounter with Chaos.
  • Bittersweet Ending: At the end of Super Sonic's story in SA1, Tails says "all's well that ends well," even though all of Station Square had just been demolished and flooded by Perfect Chaos's rampage, and at least half of the population had to have been killed.
    • And in some way, Eggman becomes a Karma Houdini after having done the wrong to the city and its population and getting away scot-free, although getting the Egg Carrier II destroyed by Perfect Chaos arguably counts as karma.
  • Blob Monster: Chaos, who's made of water.
  • Book Ends: Knuckles's story begins and ends with him narrating how he was fated to stay forever on Angel Island guarding the Master Emerald. In the beginning, he mentions that he doesn't know why he was given this role in life, but in the end, he believes he is better off for that.
  • Born-Again Immortality: The Chao can come back from death this way if raised correctly. In fact, dying and being reborn twice is one of the requirements for a Chao to become a perfectly immortal Chaos Chao.
  • Boss Rush: Beating a story unlocks a minigame where you fight each of the bosses faced in that story one after the other (the exception being Super Sonic in SA1, whose story only consists of a single boss fight with some Adventure Field navigation beforehand).
    • Also, Gamma only fights Beta and Beta II. The other E-100s are left out.
  • Broken Bridge: Parts of the Mystic Ruins, including Angel Island itself, are blocked off by pedestals that require magic stones. The same goes for Station Square, except that the keys are more mundane.
  • But Now I Must Go: Both Tikal and Chaos.
  • Call Back: Icecap first appeared as "Ice Cap Zone" in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Both are set on Angel Island.
  • Camera Screw
  • The Cameo: Metal Sonic and Mecha Sonic in the Final Egg.
    • Tails Doll (along with puppet versions of Knuckles and Sonic) appear as training dummies in E-102's first level.
  • Capital City: Station Square and the Speed Highway stage within it.
  • Captain Obvious: Quite a few snarky moments in SA1, if you look closely.

(the Egg Carrier changes its shape)
Tails: Oh wow! It's changed shape! Did you see that?
(Sonic gives him a weary look, and ignores him)
Sonic: Shoot! How are we going to get to the bridge?
Tails: I hate it when he doesn't listen.

    • Also, in Gamma's story, although it's due to being a robot, it states:

Gamma(when transported into the past via a vision): "This presents a problem."
Gamma(after seeing what happened to Beta after defeating him at the beginning): "This is the wrong room."

Sonic (to Knuckles): "Did Eggman trick youagain?"

    • In the first Adventure, the music for Twinkle Park's hovercraft and Windy Valley's "The Air" segments are remixes of the Panic Puppet and Green Grove Zone themes from Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island.
      • And the second piece of music for Emerald Coast is a redo of Act 2 of Green Grove.
    • One of Amy's flashbacks in SA1 is of Sonic saving her in Sonic CD. However the models weren't changed.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Sonic and Gamma can survive just fine in the incredibly hot volcano section of Red Mountain, with lava and geysers being the only hazards that damage them. Then again, this is true of all Sonic games where the characters don't suffer any ill effects from standing only a few inches above a lava pit.
  • Crazy Prepared: Eggman. Not only does he have the God of Destruction at his command, he has a giant flying carrier (although it functions more like a battleship), a second carrier to use against Chaos if it goes rogue, a HUGE missile stationed off the coast of Station Square should the Egg Carrier and Chaos be defeated, and a giant base in the middle of Mystic Ruins.
  • Critical Existence Failure: As in most games in the franchise, Sonic and the cast can take any amount of damage, from a barrage of Eggman's launched missiles to an explosion a third the size of the Egg Carrier, without any outward sign of injury, but after their last ring is lost, brushing against a robot chimp is enough for a K.O.
  • Crystal Prison: The Master Emerald is this to Chaos.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: In the final route of the game, Robotnik hops into the Egg Carrier 2 to tame Perfect Chaos. It's onscreen for maybe 30 seconds before Perfect Chaos blows it up.
  • Cutscene Incompetence: In some cutscenes, Sonic is just standing there.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: Now we know why Sonic refuses to sit in the cockpit of Tails' plane - Because gravity means nothing to him. He survives falling several kilometers to the ground not once, but twice in the game. The second time, Sonic's body endures a comical pancake effect when he hits the ground, but he's no worse for wear.
  • Darker and Edgier: At least in comparison to most Sonic games released before it. This game literally starts off with its opening cutscene depicting a city being flooded by Perfect Chaos, and later in the game, the echidna tribe crosses a Moral Event Horizon.
  • Deadly Rotary Fan: E-06 Spinner and E-16 Electro Spinner are fitted with these. Speed Highway also features a Helicopter Blender obstacle.
  • Did You Just Punch Out The God of Destruction?
  • The Dragon: Chaos to Robotnik. If just to get the Emeralds.
    • Co-Dragons: E-102 Gamma to a lesser extent plays a similar role to Robotnik prior to a Heel Face Turn helping in preserve his alternative Dragon.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Chaos only helps Eggman to get the Emeralds so that Chaos can go One-Winged Angel and destroy the world.
  • Easter Egg: Cream the Rabbit makes a short appearance in the remake. See video here. Also, E-105ζ "Zeta" is made of 6 Sega Dreamcast consoles located around the grey blocks under his cannons.
  • Eggshell Clothing: One of the Chaos.
  • Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Super Sonic, at the very end.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Chaos.
  • Elite Mook: The E-100 series robots. Oddly despite their more advanced intelligence and power than Eggman's usual badniks (apparently enough to rival Sonic individually abiding by Gamma's story) they are mostly given mundane tasks by the doctor such as searching for a frog in a beach.
  • Eternal Engine: Final Egg.
  • Fanfare: While addressing his robots, Eggman plays his own canned fanfare music. Pretty amusing.
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Five Rounds Rapid: The cops unloading their clips at Chaos 0.
    • OOOH NO! OUR WEAPONS ARE USELESS!
  • Fixed Camera: Made more adjustable in the DX version.
  • Floating Continent: Angel Island before the Master Emerald was shattered, and Windy Valley.
  • Free Rotating Camera: Not universal though.
  • Freudian Excuse: Pachacamac retroactively gets one through Chronicles.
  • Friendly Playful Dolphins: Dolphins jump around you in Sonic's first stage, Emerald Coast, if you're looking in right place at the right time. The appearance of these dolphins and their numbers seems to be performance based, or it might be random.
  • Futureshadowing: Some of the visions of the past do this. No, seriously.
  • Game Breaking Bug: Windows will crash in certain times in DX. Most notably the fight with Dr. Eggman in the Mystic Ruins.
  • Game Mod: Sonicretro has made one for both PC versions that fixes much of the bugs and other oddities in the original release.
  • Gameplay Roulette: Sonic Adventure was where all of the infamous Unexpected Gameplay Changes the Sonic series infamous for started.
  • Go Through Me:
    • In the backstory, Tikal tries to defend the Chao and the Chaos Emeralds from her dad and his soldiers. Said soldiers brusquely push her aside and proceed to incur Chaos' wrath.
    • In the aftermath of Sonic's (or Tails') fight with Gamma, regardless of who wins, Amy intervenes to convince the victor to let the other live.
  • Going Through the Motions: Not a major example, but quite noticeable in Amy's ending when she performs her boss victory animation and then abruptly snaps back to her standing animation.
  • Gravity Screw: Most notably in Lost World, where panels on the wall glow when orientated correctly by hitting a switch, allowing Sonic and Knuckles to simply walk up the wall. The last part of Sky Deck changes orientation as well, and Knuckles can actually control this.
  • Hall of Mirrors: A segment exclusive to Amy's version of Twinkle Park.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Before the events of Sonic Adventure, in order to save the world from Chaos' destruction, Tikal sealed him, along with herself, in the Master Emerald.
    • Also Gamma, who self-destructs, or at least planned to if you prefer to think Beta Mk. II's final attack is what really took him out, in order to release the last Flicky bird.
  • Hong Kong Dub: The lip-synching is just plain bizarre and off a lot of the time.
  • Hub Level: Station Square, Mystic Ruins, and the Egg Carrier.
  • ISO Standard Urban Groceries: The brown paper bag Amy carries in the introductory cutscene to her story.
  • "I Want" Song: Tails's and Amy's themes: Believe in Myself and My Sweet Passion.
  • Idiot Ball: All three incidents when Sonic and Tails lose chaos emeralds to Robotnik. The third time this occurs, when two chaos emeralds are knocked out of Sonic/Tails's Hammerspace (depending on what character you're being) by a sharp impact. He then proceeds to lie there while Robotnik lazily floats over and beams them up.
  • Ignorant of the Call: Most of the cast react this way to Tikal's flashbacks. Near the end of his story Sonic fails to get the message that he should go after Chaos instead of Robotnik.
  • Incoming Ham: Oh yes, Robotnik's first line in the game is this. "You know NOTHING, fools! It's CHAOS, the GOD of DESTRUCTION!!!!"
  • Inferred Holocaust: Station Square is completley destroyed in the final battle.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: There was going to be a dragon boss in the Sky Chase minigame, but it was removed...not entirely, however...
  • Insurmountable Waist High Fence: Right towards the end of Twinkle Park for Sonic, there's an iron gate blocking you from getting to a spring if you end up on the right side of it. You can barely jump higher than it by yourself and you can definitely jump higher than it if you get up some speed with a Spin Dash. However, the game won't let you pass it from that side, you have to circumnavigate the entire circular roof to approach the spring from the other side.[1]
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: Played with during Gamma's story. Gamma is perfectly capable of self-terminating, it's just that up until the penultimate boss Gamma doesn't realize that his self-given mission technically requires him to kill himself. The moment of contemplation concerning his mortality that he has when he realizes this is almost heart-breaking despite almost no dialogue or music being present in the scene. He ends up averting this trope and allows himself to die from his injuries so that the Flicky inside of him can be freed.
  • I Owe You My Life: Not directly stated, but E-102 Gamma's resolve to rescue the animals trapped inside the E-Series robots was partly due to Amy saving its life. Gamma brings the trope to its natural conclusion by giving up its own life so that the Flicky powering it could be reunited with the bird Amy was taking care of.
    • Said act by Amy was also provoked by Gamma freeing her and Birdie from Eggman's cell inside the Egg Carrier (which would later crash land into the ocean) making it both issued and returned at the same time.
  • Kaizo Trap: Egg Viper. The camera angle isn't great either, so even if you know his suicide attack is coming, you won't be able to tell where he's gonna hit so you may still die anyway. Cue rage.
  • Large Ham: Eggman, Eggman, Eggman.

"YOUUUUUUUUUUU KNOOWWWWWWWWWW NOTHING, FOOOOOOOOOOOOL! It's CHAOS! The GOD! OF DESTRUCTION!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

  • Last-Note Nightmare: "Fakery way for Twinkle Park" starts out in a quiet, cute tone, but slowly becomes much more creepy and menacing.
  • Leitmotif
  • Lens Flare: Present in some of the cutscenes, as well as Emerald Coast.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Red Mountain, combined with some Death Mountain.
  • Levels Take Flight: Sky Chase Zone reappears, and allows Tails to actually fire upon incoming enemies with his Tornado.
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service: Sonic and friends do a terrible job of keeping the Chaos Emeralds away from Eggman.
  • Minion with an F In Evil: E-102 Gamma ultimately.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: E-102 Gamma states this in his story recap following releasing Amy and Birdie and disobeying Eggman's orders.
  • Mythology Gag: "Ooh, I hate that Sonic!"
  • Offscreen Teleportation: Zero in Amy's levels.
  • One-Winged Angel: Chaos in Sonic Adventure becomes Perfect Chaos when he drains the negative energy out of the Chaos Emeralds.
  • Path of Greatest Resistance: Ever since Sonic Adventure introduced the Homing Attack, nearly all Sonic games since then have had paths identifiable (and accessible) only by finding a trail of stationary midair enemies. This is most commonly used to begin an expert path or for a shortcut; very rarely is it actually required.
  • Palmtree Panic: Emerald Coast.
  • Pals with Jesus: Tikal and Chaos, God of Destruction.
  • Panty Shot: Amy belts one out when you choose her in the character select screen. Made unsettling by the fact that she's only 12.
  • Patrick Stewart Speech: Delivered in the first game by Tikal to make Chaos.
  • Pinball Zone: Sonic's version of Casinopolis features Sonic and Ni GHTS-themed pinball tables. Naturally, Sonic is the pinball.
  • Polygon Ceiling - The camera and controls are a point of criticism to the game, and these would continue into later games, creating a bad 3D reputation for the series.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Rather than talk to Sonic about why he's after the Master Emerald shards, Knuckles instead immediately starts a fight with Sonic and Tails without reasonably asking the two directly about it, which could of prevented the whole fight in the first place.
  • The Power of Friendship: The bond of Sonic with his Nakama allows him to unlock the full potential of Super Sonic with the Chaos Emeralds, although Tails does say that Chaos only absorbed the negative energy of the Emeralds.
  • Rare Candy: Small Animals for your Chao which would boost up their stats.
  • Rashomon Style: Who won in the character vs. character fights? It depends who you ask. Most of the dialogue was re-recorded for each story even when it doesn't need to be.
    • In Sonic and Tails's stories, the character played as is the one who fights most of the bosses and puts the keys in the Mystic Ruins.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: This game introduced Chao to the series.
  • Scenery Porn: It may look a bit dated now, but it was considered highly impressive back then.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Chaos was originally sealed in the Master Emerald along with Tikal when he was about to destroy the world, but in modern times, Robotnik freed him by destroying the Master Emerald.
  • Sealed Good in a Can: Tikal, technically.
  • Shout-Out: NiGHTS appears in the backgrounds, and the "flying" Chao is shaped like him.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Icecap, with an Ice Palace section.
  • Smoke Out: Eggman employs a variety of these tricks, including a flash grenade and sleeping gas.
  • Spoiler Opening: The opening trailer contains the destruction of Station Square and Chaos's final transformation. Since this is the first Sonic game with an unlockable secret finale, it may have been intentional to prevent players from putting the game down after completing Sonic's story. Or just to get some extra mileage out of the lengthy FMV sequence.
  • Stupid Statement Rap Mix: GET A LOAD OF THIS GET GET GET A LOAD OF THIS
  • Suddenly Voiced: Everyone. The early games didn't even have subtitled lines.
    • Except Sonic and Eggman. They talked in SegaSonic The Hedgehog. (Ray and Mighty did too, but only Mighty reappeared, and even then only in Knuckles Chaotix.) A few months later, Sonic sometimes exclaimed in Sonic CD.
  • Team Rocket Wins: Playing E-102 Gamma's story at least, which allows you to fight and defeat Sonic in battle (though Amy stops him just short of finishing the job). So far Gamma is the only Eggman droid to individually defeat Sonic in the games storywise (albeit branching storywise).
  • Temple of Doom: Lost World.
  • That's No Moon: The excavation team at the Mystic Ruins is flummoxed by a "mountain" which suddenly appeared from nowhere. Unbeknownst to them (and the player, at first), it's actually Angel Island.
  • Theme Song Power Up: Subverted, Inverted, and Averted all in the final battle against Perfect Chaos. "Open Your Heart" (the game's main theme and Super Sonic's personal theme, more or less) plays during the first half of the battle. After you hit Chaos a number of times, it revives and the second half plays out under Perfect Chaos' own theme. It's subverted because Super Sonic doesn't defeat the creature for good while his own theme is playing, inverted because Perfect Chaos' own theme is what plays during the second half (after it's rejuvenated) so Chaos is the one powering up to its own theme, and averted because it doesn't do a lick of good anyway (it's already losing by the time its music starts up; you just have to land the finishing blow).
  • Tranquil Fury: In contrast to his usual Large Ham, Robotnik's encounter with Tails in the Egg Walker has him speak this way. Surprisingly, it's very unsettling.
  • Understatement: Gamma's concise nature of speaking creates such gems as "This is the wrong room" after accidentally walking in on his older brother being seemingly cannibalized for parts and upgraded while still active, or "This presents a problem" after being seemingly teleported back in time.
  • Underwater Ruins: Lost World, in parts.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Tikal and the other Echidna residents seem completely nonchalant about the heroes' presence, or even a friggin' robot in the flashbacks to the past.
  • Updated Rerelease: The GameCube DX version, which added some more character cameos (namely Cream) and a catalog of Game Gear games. Further upgraded with the PSN and XBLA, with trophy/achievement support.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Pachacamac's reasoning for wanting the Chaos Emeralds taken from the shrine. It does nothing to cover up his power hungry nature and lack of regard for life at that point.
  • Video Game 3D Leap
  • Video Game Caring Potential: Chao. If you are nice enough to a Chao, it will have a big smile on its face and clap whenever your character picks it up. Beware, however, that being too nice to a Chao might result in the little guy getting a spoiled personality, making it throw tantrums even when only a little hungry. Balance is the key, but regardless, if the Chao is happy enough, it will reincarnate into a baby at the end of its life.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Likewise, you can hit the Chao, throw it, put it in water and watch it flail if it doesn't know how to swim, make it starve, and all other sorts of things. Such abuse will result in the Chao crying a fountain of tears, blowing a raspberry at you, or if it's aggressive enough, it'll charge at you and futilely throw punches. If the Chao is more sad/angry than happy, it won't reincarnate at the end of its life...
  • The Voiceless: Chaos.
  • Wasted Song: A few jingles and themes were unused in gameplay or for purposes different from how they are labelled (e.g. "Calm After The Storm" is labelled as the theme for the crashed Egg Carrier Adventure Field in the Sound Test, but is used only in a short cutscene in Gamma's story). Many tunes were also truncated and can only be heard in full in the games' official soundtrack.
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: E-102 Gamma's story deconstructs this trope by virtue of being a playable Mook. (Well, an Elite Mook, but still).
  • You Have Failed Me...: Robotnik sorta does this to Gamma's E-Series brethren after they fail to retrieve the Chaos-enhanced Froggy, dispatching E-105ζ Zeta for a torturous upgrade and demoting E-103δ Delta and E-104ε Epsilon to generic "badniks" in random areas.
    • Which doesn't make a great deal of sense when you remember that they're the Egg Carrier's crew. How is Gamma meant to keep the place running by himself?
    • Admittedly, the rest of the Egg Carrier "crew" weren't really seen doing much outside trying (and failing) to collect Froggy (Gamma attempted to collect Birdie and destroy Sonic and again failed at both). Not to mention Eggman was nearly at the brink of completing Chaos, at which point they would likely be needless to his plan.
    • The Egg Carrier crashes not long after the scene in question anyway. So maybe Gamma couldn't keep it running by himself.
  1. ↑ However, unlike other examples, this CAN be circumvented by simply jumping at the spring from one of the floating platforms leading to the roof. If you execute a homing attack at it, the game won't block your progress, which is good for the A Emblem.
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