Sonic Adventure’s world was a new step forward for the series back in the day, and in retrospect, it was kind of a weird direction to take… right?
Transcript:
Welcome to Video Game World Tours, where we journey to fantastical lands and just… hang out. I’m Pretzel, your tour guide, and today’s trip will take us to the world of Sonic Adventure.
Sonic Adventure was a turning point for the Sonic series. It was the first major 3d Sonic game, and with that, came some… interesting artistic decisions. This game didn’t take place in the famous Green Hills of yesteryears. No, this game takes place on… Earth.
Or at least a planet that seems like Earth. Where once were green hills now rest city buildings. Humans are just walking around? And nobody questions Sonic and his weird critter friends walking about?
This world is truly a mystery box waiting to be unpacked. Luckily, you have me. I’ll take you to all corners of this game’s world and we’ll see a lot of interesting locations and maybe a couple uninteresting ones.
Buckle your seatbelts, because we’re about to take off.
I hope I’m not starting the show with a showstopper, but let’s head over to Station Square.
This place is the heart of this game’s vibe. It was Sonic’s first foray into interacting with normally proportioned human characters, and it’s… kinda weird, right? It doesn’t feel like an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog should exist in the same world as slightly anime-ified normal humans.
(Interlude)
But if we look just below the surface, there’s something even weirder going on.
Look at the roads here. This little area is just a loop with what I can only assume is a parking garage entrance. But you follow this path and it’s another loop. Why would someone drive this road? Where are they going? Are they doomed to drive this loop forever in an eternal NASCAR race?
It gets even weirder. See this elevator here? Seems pretty normal, right? But look at where it leads to. It’s just a drop off to the first floor. The only way for Sonic to get in the elevator is to push the button on the other side of the room and light-speed dash in there.
What’s the point of this elevator? I know it holds an upgrade for Sonic, but what’s the point of it in-world? How would a normal human access it?
And it gets EVEN weirder… To be able to light-speed dash, you need to get an upgrade in the sewers. So you drop through the street and you’re down there. Your only way out, though, is jumping onto this raised ledge. How is a human expected to do that? You go through a little bit, and you see what seems like important control panels or machinery of some kind, and the only way out of that room is through a light-speed dash. This area is completely locked off from normal, non-light-speed-dash capable humans.
I bring all these up not to dunk on the game. I bring them up as context for how they make the world feel. You could play the steam version of this game with the highest resolution and the new models, but this game stills feels like something from the 90s.
They didn’t have the technological capability to make a huge city for Sonic to traverse, so they just made a tiny little city block for him to explore. They weren’t concerned with having this weird sewer area make sense for a city built by humans. I think they just wanted to teach the player that Sonic can jump higher if you hold the jump button. But in doing that, they made an area that doesn’t make sense for the world it belongs in.
And I think that’s charming in a way. It serves exactly the gameplay purpose it needs to and nothing more.
There’s also this statue of the city’s mayor, that you can just pick up and carry around. It’s kinda funny.
(Interlude)
Station Square is where you’re really confronted with the dissonance of furry animals and not-so-furry humans. But where other games might lampshade that aspect of the world or treat it with disdain, Sonic Adventure kind of embraces it. Characters greet Sonic like he’s a normal part of the world. They give him directions and talk about their personal lives to him. The weird contrast is handled in earnest. And that’s why I love Station Square, the game isn’t ashamed of being want it wants to be.
Now that we’ve seen what Station Square has for us, let’s take a quick train ride.
The Mystic Ruins is a really awesome place. In stark contrast to the bustling city and upbeat music to Station Square, the Mystic Ruins is much more calm and soothing. It seems like humans have just discovered this place, because there’s a lot of archaeologists running about. I like a good peaceful, untouched by humanity, place in games.
My favorite area in this zone is just at the end of Tails’ runway. You run down it with the camera behind you, then it pulls back a bit to emphasize the scale of the landscape.
(Interlude)
There’s a second zone you can unlock later and there’s this weird little cave made of ice. The way it’s just sticking out of the side of this mountain tunnel feels very video game-y. They wanted to make a snowy level, but didn’t quite know how to integrate it with the existing adventure areas. It doesn’t make a lot of sense that this would actually exist, but it’s a cozy little place.
(Interlude)
Further down the tunnel leads to a massive cliffside. I like this area because you get to really pick up speed as you run down the path.
And across a rickety bridge lies the Master Emerald. At the top of these stairs, it rests peacefully. The ruins surrounding the landmark makes it feel like this area has existed for quite a while, and will continue to exist long into the future.
(Interlude)
If we head back to the first zone, we can go into yet another new area. The forest.
As soon as you exit the loading screen, you’re greeted with this beautiful view. It showcases a forest that you could easily get lost in. Once you head down you can find archeologists wandering around. One guy says he’s been wandering around for months and can’t find a way out to get back to his wife. How sad.
The whole area is a winding maze you could easily get lost in. If you wander around enough, you might just find this little area.
I really like this spot for some reason. It’s kinda hard to describe, but this is peak-early-3d-game to me. You’re in a room with a perfectly flat plane for the ground, with only a blurry texture to give depth. And the walls are adorned with this beautiful mural. I say walls, it’s supposed to be trees, but the fact you can tell that it’s just a flat rectangle with the crustiest image of a forest you’ve ever seen is… cute. The developers were doing the best they could at the time. And of course, it’s important to remember the game was meant to be played on a CRT, so this looked a lot better back then.
The last area of importance in the Mystic Ruins… is Big the Cat’s house.
Man, I just look at his pad and I can’t help but think he’s living the good life. He’s got a nice comfy bed, fishing rods, what else could a giant cat need? I would love to live here.
(Interlude)
We’re almost at the end. Let’s take a silly little boat over to the Egg Carrier.
To be honest, I don’t have a lot to say about the Egg Carrier. It’s basically an airship that’s also Eggman’s base. I don’t get any strong vibes here like I do from Station Square or the Mystic Ruins, but that’s doesn’t mean there’s nothing of interest here.
There are some little touches that give the interior a little bit of character. There’s these cute little robots in maid outfits sweeping the floor. That’s says something about Eggman. What it says, I’m not sure, but it says something. All these robots working away does kinda make me feel like this is a chill work day where not a lot happens, so the maidbots finally get a chance to clean the floor.
(Interlude)
There’s some more characterization of Eggman on the other side of the vessel. It’s a little cumbersome to get to, but if you do some button pressing and platforming, you can reach what appears to be a lounge. It almost feels out of place, but it does make sense that Eggman would want a place to relax in-between bad guy plans. So he has some books and a nice couch. There’s also a… what is this, a washing machine? You press a button near it, it calms down, and a bed falls from the wall. This whole room has late-80s/early-90s movie bad guy vibes, especially with the fold away bed.
Across the hall is another room. A room that houses all kinds of games and attractions. There’s slots on the walls, little machines here that go back and forth like you’d see at a grocery store?, and also… an airplane spinning on the ceiling… like a baby would have above their crib. I don’t know what to make of this place, but it’s weird and I had to talk about it. I can’t imagine what purpose Eggman would have for this room and I think that’s hilarious.
Before we leave, we’ll take one quick stop in the pilot’s room. I really like all these mechanical pistons and levers just working away. When I noticed them while recording this footage, I thought about what these machines actually do. What does this thing do and why are these parts moving? Is it an air filtration system? Does it purify water? Of course, once I stopped and noticed the machines, I’ve already given them more attention than the developers thought anyone would, so it’s best to just move on.
Like I said, The Egg Carrier isn’t really as interesting as the other two adventure fields, but it does have little bits of characterization that turn it from generic bad guy base #23 into Eggman’s base.
Before we reach my favorite area in the game, let’s visit a few more locations, rapid fire.
There’s an area in the Speed Highway stage that perplexes me. I know I kinda harped on this already, but I think it’s really funny imagining why someone would design a building with a massive hole in it.
(Interlude)
And later in the stage, you reach this lobby area. You enter it by running down the side of the building, and once you get down, there’s only one way out. So people walk in and out of this room from the same entrance. Bizarre.
Next is a small little area in The Lost World stage when you visit as Knuckles. The design of the area makes this place feel ancient. The name of the stage, “Lost World” implies a long forgotten area that you found your way in to. The aesthetic is cool and all, but there’s a little area you can get to that I really like. It’s a tiny little pond with sand. In the sand, is a hole that takes you down. You jump down there, and you discover a slightly bigger pond with a strange structure in the middle. It’s a bizarre scene hidden away in an otherwise normal stage. I think the contrast of bright sand and water compared to the grimy textures of the wall make this room stick out to me. It’s an oasis in an area where everything else is degrading.
(Interlude)
I’m gonna say it. I like the vibes of the Big the Cat stages. I didn’t like the gameplay when I was a kid, and I still kinda don’t now, but I like how you’re just plopped in a sectioned off area of a stage you’ve played in as another character. You don’t speed through or rush all over the place trying to destroy stuff. You chill out and do some fishing. Emerald Coast is obviously the best fit for that, and everything is serene about this scene. The music, the water, the skybox, it makes you wish you took a vacation to Emerald Coast yourself.
(Interlude)
And what would a discussion on cozy places in Sonic Adventure be without talking about the Chao Gardens? Now while I’m a much bigger fan of the Chao Gardens from Sonic Adventure 2, I can still appreciate these. They’re areas that, if you plan on working with Chao at all, you’re gonna become quite familiar with. You’re gonna remember every little polygon in the area, as your Chao are gonna wander all over the place.
My one gripe with these areas, is that you aren’t allowed to pull the camera back and get a better view. You’re stuck at this practically straight-on angle and you can’t get a good look at the whole room.
But other than that, it’s a chill place to hang out with your little friends.
(Interlude)
With that, we arrive at our final stop. It’s a location that you only get to visit a couple times during the story, and once you leave, you can’t return.
I’m talking about the Mystic Ruins Temple.
This particular visit happens to Tails through a dream. He’s transported thousands of years into the past and gets to see the ancestors of Knuckles, the echidna tribe.
I think the layout of this place is what I find most fascinating. It’s an area you can rush through in like 3 seconds if you go where you’re supposed to. But if you want to take in the scenery, you’re free to explore.
The first thing that sticks out to me is how flat everything is. The roofs of buildings are flat, the sides of buildings are flat, and the ground itself is mostly flat. There’s obviously stairs that lead to different levels, but the ground is the flattest of planes. There’s no variety in how the terrain is leveled, it’s just the top of a cube. You’re stuck with raw textures. The stone path and the grass here are on the same plane, there’s no raised edge or curb.
Some building roofs are just plots of grass? And there’s also these terraces that are jutting out of some buildings? There’s so many little areas like that you can discover all over the place, it’s neat.
This is an location that might not have stuck out in my head if it was a place you constantly came back to. But it’s not. It’s an area you can only walk around in a couple times throughout the game, and if you want to see it again, you have to start a new save.
Because of that, and how quickly you can progress through it, Sonic Team obviously didn’t spend too much time developing this area. They wanted to give it the bare minimum of attention they could to make it feel like a real temple ground, so that if the player DID decide to deviate from the objective and walk around, they’d feel like it wasn’t just a facade. No invisible walls to keep you on the narrow path to your goal, you’re free to explore as you want.
(Interlude)
Our journey through Sonic Adventure is complete. We’ve explored sunny beaches to dank sewers and everything in-between. Sonic Team really went out of their way to make this game feel like an Adventure. You visit so many interesting locales, all with their own unique vibe and atmosphere. And while Sonic may head in different directions as the decades go on, Sonic Adventure will always stick in fans’ minds as something special.
I hope you enjoyed your flight and book another trip… with Video Game World Tours. See ya next time.