It’s super special to me as I have mentioned in the past and is one of my favorite games to have going in the background while working as it usually makes me feel a bit happier. Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 probably have my favorite voices for the characters (with the only one I feel like has improved since is Amy’s–though, Knuckles’ and Sonic’s most recent voices aren’t too bad, I still have trouble with Tails’ more often than not). I think it will always bother me the series didn’t continue with that. Sonic Adventure (and I’m going to be using this to refer to the games as the series at this point–not just the first game–I’ll add a number at the end when specifying) is definitely not perfect, of course, the acting is pretty iffy in the 1st game even if the voices are nice and there are still issues of it in the second game, but I never found it distracting because the characters still sounded like themselves.
I would have loved if there was a Sonic Adventure 3 that took the best of both games and made it amazing along with changing things up. One example is Knuckles doesn’t always need to be treasure hunting. He can be a brawler. The Werehog stages in Unleashed could have easily been stages for Knuckles. And changing up stage designs isn’t bad. Sonic occasionally had slower platformer parts in SA1 and SA2, such as the giant Snake Puzzle in Lost World which is one of my favorite aspects. And those are actual fun puzzles versus the slow 2D ones we received in Colors and Boom.
Amy’s levels were tons of fun minus being constantly chased by Zero. It was slightly slower than Sonic’s gameplay (as she IS slower) while adding a few more puzzle elements. It made it a interesting switch and it’s so much fun doing Amy’s hammer jump.
Tails really got the short end of the stick in both games. He was so much fun to play in SA1, but the point of his levels were really silly (Why would he need to race Sonic, exactly?). It was nice they gave him something different in SA2, but due to feeling the need to mirror Eggman, it was a bit disappointing. I totally believe that Tails may occasionally turn his plane into a mech suit and use it, I also recall him having plane levels he can do, but Tails is pretty capable right on his own and I would have preferred more levels that let him Fly high and reach the highest of all the heavens to better gameplay and more fun level design.
Shadow never really bothered me despite also being a mirror. The way his stages were and his own movement (due to him skating over running) made it switch up for me enough that it never really bothered me.
Rouge, meanwhile, can have more stealth related stages like when she was finding the keys or everything with how the Security Hall worked. We already know she’s a spy–a lot more can be worked at with her, I feel.
Eggman worked really well with the mech though and he was fine as is. Maybe putting him in some of his other machines would be fun to switch things up a bit, but as long Tails isn’t just a mirror, Eggman’s levels felt fine.
Going back to SA1’s levels for a bit, I do like Big, but I never felt his levels made much sense. I think he could be a fun sidegame though and it gave you an interesting perspective of different levels. His Emerald Coast level was one of my favorites just to enjoy even if I didn’t care for the actual fishing part.
I love Gamma a lot, but Eggman being in his robot suit was pretty much the Gamma gameplay for SA2. I wouldn’t mind another one of Eggman’s robots, but having both seems silly unless his gameplay had you switching off who you were playing as.
While Sonic 2006 was a mess in a lot of ways, it did bring a good example of how gameplay can vary despite similar characters with how Sonic, Shadow, and Silver each varied. Blaze was also pretty fun. And I really just enjoy hub towns.
Meanwhile, Chao Gardens are something I will always want to return no matter what Sonic game it is. They were so much fun, though, I think I liked SA1’s more than SA2’s. They just felt much more unique with how much they varied while the Hero/Dark/Neutral felt a bit boring in comparison. Especially after the Hero and Dark ones had a lot of their unique features chopped down for Director’s Cut and Battle.
One of the things I wished with SA2 is you could choose where you wanted to put the prizes you won rather than them having pre-set places in a pre-selected garden. It’d be kind of cool if you could even make your own Chao Garden–kind of shaping it with grass color and sky and elements. I just miss playing with my Chao. I did love a lot of the extra features SA2 had though with the Kindergarten, Black Market, Races, and Karate, but the gardens in SA1 felt much bigger than SA2’s–especially after the port changes.
Heck, using Nintendo as an example or even mobile phones though, we can even get the VMU features back. I loved using the VMU with my Chao and Sonic Advance even had a cute Pocket Chao mode even if I still preferred playing with my Chao on the consoles.
I just feel so much good could happen if everything was looked at and the good things were taken from each while also adding variety. I really haven’t liked many of the recent Sonic games which makes me sad as I really want to enjoy them again. The Sonic Adventure series are of the very few games I can play over and over again. I just love it so much. At the very least, I can still play them whenever since we still have our Wii set up… and also still own our Dreamcast and Gamecube.