UNO Movie review.1 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Mr UNO                                                   Review date:10/8/2011

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indy hits it third time lucky in the Last Crusade!

Format: DVD/VHS

Year: 1989

Movie Studio/s: Paramount/Lucasfilm

When I think of my favorite films, several do come to my mind. The entire Toy Story films, The Prince of Egypt, Spirited Away and several more that are in my top 10. But there has always been one that has been my most favorite ever. And that’s the Last Crusade, the third (and nearly was the last) Indiana Jones film of the franchise.   

Now Indy was literally ‘between a rock and a hard place’!

Now I know this is debatable as loads say that Raiders was the best because of lots of reasons (usually involving that fat rock!) It’s just sure Raiders had that, Temple of Doom had a mine cart but what Crusade has is Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, a awesome intro, brilliant bi-plane scene, un-forgettable side car scene and a nice but not forceful Christian message wrapped-up in there too. Sounds great eh?

Indy was beginning to feel the pain of having his dad around!

In this Indy adventure, Indiana (Harrison Ford) along with some of his old/new pals are looking for the fabled Holy Grail which legends say was crafted by Jesus, when he was a carpenter. Anyone who takes a sip of water from this legendry cup will earn eternal life (or just get healed up for a while until you die).

Not surprisingly this attracts Indy’s attention and so he goes after it for fortune and glory! (And a fat pay check!) But later on in his journey he finds he’s not the only one after it as some naughty Nazis have caught ear of it too and are planning to get their paws on it, so they can win the war! (And properly to rule the world too, I mean you know these evil villain-type groups!)

Also throw into the mix is Indy’s dad Henry Jones Sr (Sean Connery, former 007 Bond fans!) who was looking for the Grail too but has now gotten himself kidnapped by the Nazis, so they can use his diary to locate the treasure. Tough times hey Indy?           

Old Steven Spielberg took up the director’s chair again, while George Lucas was both the main producer and writer of the story and both of these guys were able to do a more than great job yet again (with thanks to a billion other guy/girls in their various departments. Obviously seeing that Temple of Doom wasn’t that great (If I hear Wille Scott’s scream once more it will be too soon!!) they decided to try and improve with this one, a sort of apology if you will. Moving away from the dark themes of the second film, ‘Berg and Lucas decided to make it a more light tone while injecting in the father+son relationship between Indy and his Dad.      

Indy: “Dad! I’m telling you for the last time, Last Crusade was better than Temple of Doom!!”

Herny Jones Sr:”But shon! The shcreaming lady whas sho funny!!”

Indy: “Why do I bother...”

The cast that featured in Indy 3 were a mixture of new members but also several who first appeared in Raiders as well. Starting off with the hero Indy yet again played by good old Harrison Ford who proves to be heroic as he was in the last two movies but also shows his unseen embarrassed side when playing against Sean which makes Indy a great third 

rather two dimensional character.

Indy+Henry Sr learnt the hard way of why you shouldn't leave the oven on!

I’ve probably mentioned him already but what the hey! Henry Jones Sr played by Sean (007) Connery is introduced into the series and boy is he good! Sean is able to play the character with such hilarity he makes him immediately a loveable character with his grumpiness and up and down relationship with his famous son. The members of the cast that had returned that I said about earlier were two characters from Raiders. They were Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott RIP) , once the dean and curator of Marshall College and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) an Egyptian excavator who helped Indy find the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders. The chaps who returned in this not only provided nostlaga but also fitted very well into the storyline too and were great laughs, with Marcus’s cluelessness and Sallah’s OTT warm-hearted nature to help Indy and his friends.         

And now it’s time for...

RIPPER ROO MOMENTS!!!

(As well as Did you know? Fact and top 10 moments in the movie!) Warning spoilers!

As this is one of my favourite movies of all time, I am going to note down two Ripper Roo moments:

1.    A Close Sean!

There is a bit of a werid camera zoom in the scene when after Indy swings into the room where his father is and gets hit by Herny Jones Sr accidently, either the camera or Sean zooms into veiw filling the whole frame! Talk about getting close and personal, (prehaps too much!)

2.    A Room 2 Zoom!

While the camera work for the film was brilliant for the whole movie, there’s only a little problem. Sometimes when the camera’s focused on one character, it seems that the cameraman zoomed into the character’s face too much! Not that we saw the inside of someone’s nose but it was just a little too zoomed in!

Did you know?

A load of scripts were drawn up for this third film before they chose the final one. The other scripts that were rejected would have featured either a haunted mansion, Monkey Kings, killer chess and Indy riding a rhino on top of a tank!!

Indy: “If you actually pay the conductor for the bus fare, I wouldn’t have to give you a ride every time!”

Henry Jones Sr: Have you sheen the prhice of bhus tickhets these days?!

My Top 10 moments in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:

1.    Side-car Shenanigans: It had to be this part of the movie of course! The awesome side-car/motorbike chase with Indy and his Dad being chased by some Nazi soldiers from Brunwald Castle. Made car chases look old in ’89!

2.    “Come cry and fly with me!”: The other fantastic scene in the movie is when Indy and Henry Sr have to get off the blimp and fly away on a bi-plane, while being gunned down by Nazi bi-planes. Remember this part: Indy: (sees bi-planes) “Dad, you’re going to have to use the machine gun. Get it ready! (Henry sorts out gun) Indy: (sees enemy plane) 11o’clock! Dad, 11o’clock!” Henry Sr: (randomly looks at watch) what happens at 11o’clock?!” LOL!! Also: (Henry accidentally shoots the tail of their plane) Indy: (hears gun shots) “Dad, are we hit? Henry Sr: (lying through his teeth) “More or less. Son, I’m sorry. They got us.” LOL! Sure they did.J   

3.    The Birds and the Bi-planes: Who knew birds could be so helpful and destructive? Yet another awesome scene where as a Nazi plane is zooming in to attack Indy and Henry Sr, Henry then decides to suddenly scare the birds on the beach with his umbrella, which startles the pilot and makes him crash into the beach rock! And afterwards Henry Sr just walks along with his brolly up, smug face while Indy just gives him a surprised and knowing look. Priceless!   

Henry Sr: “You don’t think the plane would be sthupid enough to follow ush in the tunnel, will it?”

Indy: “Of course not Dad!” Famous last words.

4.    Tunnel Burn: Not only is this another classic scene but it shows how dedicated to the death the Nazis were! I mean you would have to be quite mad to try and follow a car down a tight tunnel that obviously an aircraft can’t fit down in. But that didn’t stop one of the Nazi planes trying to chase down Indy and his Dad. In the end though he saw he had made a boo-boo as after he flies into the tunnel, the wings on his plane break off but he continues down the tunnel, sliding past Indy and Henry Sr, shocked but then meeting a explosive end outside in the open.

5.   


The Indy Express: Yet another brilliant scene in the film, as well as a fantastic part to the opening of the film, young Indy runs away from a gang of robbers in a cave who dug up the Cross of Coronado, planning to keep it for themselves but are stopped when Indy steals it from them. To escape from them Indy first rides off in his horse but then decides to hitch a ride on a circus train to get far from the robbers as possible.

Young Indy faces train pain! Look I was bored ok?

6.    Tanks a lot: These fantastic scenes just keep on coming! After meeting up with Sallah, the Jones decide to free Marcus from the Nazis as they move in to the grail’s whereabouts. This in turns means a fab chase sequence with horses, tanks, big cliffs and “goose-stepping morons like yourself should try READING books instead of BURNING them!”

7.    Tricky Traps: After his father gets shot by deadly Donovan, Indy heads into the Holy Grail temple to retrieve said item to save his dad! Hardly a walk in the park thanks to slicers, lethal letters and an invisible bridge! Or is it?

8.    Ticket trouble: “No ticket!” Says it all!

“And I’ll throw out you too if you keep going on about the food service!”

9.    Marcus Mayhem: When Indy is captured at Brunwald Castle, the Nazis demand that they tell him where Marcus is (as he has a map that shows the way to the grail). Indy is confident that they’ll never find Marcus in Turkey. “He’ll blend in; you’ll never see him again”. In Turkey, Marcus badly confused “Does anyone speak English or ancient Greek?” Ah Marcus. R.I.P Nice cameo in Indy 4 by the way.

10.                       Grail Grump: There are some things in life that in the end we have to let go. Case in point, Indy trying to grab the Grail in the pit, with his dad holding on. Indy: “Dad! I’ve almost got it!” Henry Sr: “Indy no!” Indy: “I can just reach...”  Henry Sr: “Indiana...Let it go.” In the end we have to make do with what we’ve got. (Except if it’s Spyo: A Hero’s Tail, now that something you ought to throw out of the window! Yes it’s THAT bad!!)    

Scoring Time!!!! Oh Yeah!!

Thrills: 5/5 The action hardly slows down in this film and there’s thrills around every corner!

Direction: 4/5 You can never really get a bad direction from Mr Berg can you? Well except for the close-ups! Boy, are they cheesy!

Cast: 4/5 Harrison Ford amazes even more than in the last film, Sean shines as a fan favourite, Denholm and John make a welcome return and Julian Glover is wonderfuly sinister and nasty as Walter Donovan. Alison Doody as Elsa wasn’t bad but she wasn’t very inspiring, during the film.

Laughs: 5/5 Great Hilarity and madness in every scene!

Length: 5/5 Not only a nice veriaity of locations from around the globe but also the story connects well into each area.

My Score: 10/10 Brilliant!!

A magificent example of the wonder of cinema, a wonderful cast, the pinpoint of Spielberg and Luca’s career and a great Christian message shining through. It would have been a perfect ending to the series but of course Berg and Lucas had other ideas. Whatever you say of Indy 4, it’s a testament to the awesomeness of this film as well as Raiders! And thankfully doesn’t have a lady that keeps screaming every 5 seconds!   

^2nd Opinion+Other’s Opinions

Even though the review is over I just wanted to see what other people thought of the film I’ve reviewed:

2^nd Opinion: From a imdb website user lewiskendell, www.imdb.com: “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is my least favorite of the original three Indiana Jones movies. It's not bad by any means; it's still a better historical adventure than The DaVinci Code or any other recent entry in the genre. But it's lacking a bit of the bit of the old Indy magic that made the first two movies so fun.” Was rated six stars.

Other’s Opinions:

“The Last Crusade is another good film in the Indiana Jones film series. It was quite good that they got Harrison Ford and Sean Connery into the film together. I liked how favourites like Marcus and Sallah came back. My favourite joke was:

Indy: ‘Sallah!!! I said NO camels!!!! That’s five camels!!!! Can’t you count!!!!!’ From one of my friends Steve Watson.

Just one more thing...

Indy: “I wonder if Pixar will make a Toy Story 4?”

(Herny Sr slaps Indy)

Henry Sr: “That’s blhasphemy!”

Film Copyright: Paramount/Lucasfilm 1989-2011, 2012 

      

UNO Games review.1 Sonic Adventure

Mr UNO                                                                           Review date: 12/3/2011

Sonic Adventure

Showing that hedgehogs do work in 3D!

Console: Dreamcast (later released on Gamecube, PC, Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network Store and part of the Dreamcast Collection on 360/PC)

Year: 1998/99 (re-released in 2003, 2010 and 2011)              

Best version: GC, DC+PSN Store (although the DC version seems a bit glitchy)

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Sonic Team         

(Apologies: Screenshots may or may not be from either the DC version or the remake) 
When you consider great 3D platform games, you usually think of the obvious;* Mario (Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy 1+2), Lara Croft (Tomb Raider 2, Last Revelation, Legend) and Ratchet+Clank (1, 3, A Crack in Time). Although when it comes to Sonic, things become different. ^{*Games in these series that attract my attention.}

Ever since Sonic Team made the hedgehog and his friends heroes and gave the hedgehog guns to play with, everybody (mostly the critics or other people, not including me!) seem to come to hate the hedgehog (or properly Shadow as he was the star) and have considerably been unimpressed with his later 3D offerings after Shadow (including: Sonic Next-Gen, Secret Rings, Unleashed, Black Knight, Colours, Generations+the stupid Air Riders series), In the end they just want to incinerate the other Sonic characters and imprison Sonic (and Dr Robotnik I think) in a 2D cell, never to enter the outside 3D world again. But even if they think there has not been any great 3D Sonic games, it shows that they (well some) haven’t paid attention to either of the two (and let’s hope a third) Adventure titles that came out in the last two decades. Sonic Adventure 1+2 showed the world that the hedgehog was more awesome in 3D than they could ever imagine!

“AAAh! I knew going whale watching without a boat wouldn't be such a great ideaaaa!”

After 4 attempts by different companies (including Sonic Team) to try and get the Hog in 3D, Sonic Team thought it was high time to have a go themselves (again! See Sonic Jam (1997)) and by 1998 a classic was born! The first in the Adventure series was the first time Sonic was 3D in an open expansive world split into several different adventure fields, where you explore, find events, talk to people etc. That was a change from rushing around all over the place which was really enjoyable, rather than just go from one action stage to the other (e.g. Sonic Adventure 2).

In the game you get to play as 6 characters rather than one (which thanks to the fans these days you just get Sonic because of their complaints and that too many added characters spoil the broth!) each different to the other which adds great verity to the game. You get to play as:

1.    Sonic (no surprise)

2.    Miles “Tails” Prowler (or Tails)

3.    Knuckles

4.    Amy Rose (so the girls aren’t left out!)

5.    New character.1 E-102Y Gamma (robot)

6.    New character.2 Big the Cat

You unlock these characters as you play through the game (makes it more challenging this way rather than having them available straight away. That would be too easy!)

You don’t want to mess with that blob of goo!

First of all, Sonic’s gameplay is like his 2D days although now you can move around in lots of directions (mostly straight ahead) perfectly but glitches a bit at times. Also now that he’s in a 3D plane he just can’t fall on top of enemies like in the older games otherwise he would miss them, so instead Sonic Team came up with the homing attack where you are able to attack the baddie easily (although some people have found that it cannot work well in this or the other Sonic games). He can also spin dash which can help him roll up hills easier or take down bad guys on the ground below. With the stages that Sonic goes through, his goal is to get to the big capsule, jump on top of it and save the animals (like the old games although not after defeating Robotnik this time) or to get the item or whatever at the end of the stage.

                                                  Tails hits the slopes!

           5 mins later Tails hits the hospital!

With Tails’ controls he can fly for a short while, until he tires himself out (this can make things a bit tricky in the game as either you could miss a platform due to how far your flying or if you can’t get to it in time). Also he can do a spin tail attack to defeat enemies on the ground, although it can be a bit of a hit and miss especially in one boss battle. The stages that Tails’ has to do are like Sonic’s stages except he has to beat either Sonic or Robotnik to the item or the capsule otherwise you lose a life. You have to get your skates on from the word go!

Sonic: “See Knuckles! I’m still taller you!”

Knuckles: “Yeah, But I’ve still got bigger fists than you!”

Sonic: “Good point.”

Thirdly Knuckles’ gameplay is like his controls from Sonic & Knuckles except that he can move in all directions when walking, gilding and climbing on walls but also can now attack by punching three times, with each punch increasing in power with each punch. Simple but effective!

The objective that Knuckles has to complete in each stage is to find three pieces of the Master Emerald that were broken by Robotnik for some reason. (Play the game to find out why!) It’s a seek and you shall find type of quest when finding all three but don’t worry if you have trouble, as Knuckles has a fancy emerald sense to be able to find them all. Think of it as a metal detector except that Knuckles has it inside himself. It works by if you’re far away from the emerald it won’t beep in one of the three emerald boxes. But if you start to get near where it might be then one of the boxes will start to beep and change to and from several colours (green, orange and finally red) when you get near it and will then disappear when you have collected it. Find all three pieces and the level ends!

  After seeing two Amys, Sonic regretted having that last pint of Guinness!

For Amy’s gameplay she is a bit like Sonic (not biologically but gameplay wise) although slower with a bit of a weak jump as she can’t spin attack which sucks a bit. Thankfully these factors are made up by her powerful (well near powerful) Piko Piko Hammer which can defeat most enemies pretty easily. And this is where we move onto what Amy has to do through her stages.

Even if he’s as tough as the Terminator, Amy still escapes his grasp!

What she has to do in each stage is to get herself and her new friend Birdy (a bird duh?) (My apologies if I have insulted any one!) to the end of each stage and escaping using a big balloon, all while avoiding the Terminator-like robot called Zero (no really, this guy doesn’t give up!) who from orders by Robotnik has to go capture the bird for some reason. (You know the drill, play the game to find out!)

 “I said freeze not cheese!!” Gamma was trying to put across an arrest not a dish!

In Gamma’s gameplay you are able to jump around (and later on float but you’ll have to find the jetpack first!) but also you mostly doing third-person shooting, although unlike modern shooters this is more of a score-attack affair, as you can target several enemies at once although you’ll have to shoot quickly otherwise the targeting will eventually disappear. Also if you want to get Gamma to go a little bit quicker, make him run for a few seconds until he says “Mode change!” He’ll then wheel himself along at a near quick enough speed! Handy eh? (Although it won’t do anything to shake the blue blur!)

Gamma was so happy of his victory that he shot the roof by accident again and had to pay home insurance!

The missions that he has to do in his stages involve having to find an object or enemy that is near the stage and then either collect or destroy it to complete the stage. But don’t dilly-dally as when you start the stage the clock begins to countdown and if you don’t get to the target and pick it up or eliminate it then you’ll lose a life! Shocking eh? But obviously Sonic Team wanted to add a good challenge to this section, thankfully their not too frustrating after you get use to it. Thankfully if you want to make sure you don’t lose time, destroy a lot of enemies and you’ll be able to gain some extra time! Now get shootin’!! (But finish reading the review first!)

 Kittens of the Karibbean: On Froggy Tides? Nah that’ll never work!

And finally in Big’s gameplay you can jump although it’s not a very high jump it’s still pretty useful and as Big is a big, strong cat (he makes Blofeld’s cat look pathetic!) he lift objects like cars and boulders and thrown them with ease. Although you might not be doing much of this but it’s a nice addition to what Big can do. Also as he carries a fishing rod with him he can well...fish. His fishing can be bit tricky to handle but if you look at the controls in the manual or options screen you’ll be a master fishermen in no time! (I hope!) Finally he can be a little slow as he’s...well rounded! But don’t worry after a while you’ll get use to his speed. Look I know this is called SONIC Adventure but there is one thing in life, gaming and in some Sonic games that you’ll have to learn. Speed isn’t everything. I mean did Heavy Rain have speedy gameplay all the time? Hm?

   You know what Big with all this fishing you could start a fish and chips shop and serve with fresh fish! (Hopefully not frogs!)

In Big’s stages he has to find and fish for his friend Froggy (who’s a frog, clue in the name!) from some water areas as for some reason he has been able to gain a tail. Not only do you have to try and catch Froggy you have to also try and get his attention with the rod and not the other fish. Don’t worry if you do catch other fish as they will only add more points to your score which is pretty cool! I thought this might sound boring but it’s quite relaxing actually!

   Mad, Bad and funky clothes! Ladies and Gents its Dr Robotnik!! (Anyone giving that Eggman nonsense is just sad!)

Other characters that aren’t playable but are a major part of the plot include the mad scientist nemesis of the series Dr Ivo Robotnik or know over in Japan (and now over here thanks to this game, but come on! In this game he loathes that name!) Eggman. This time after several great failures from the previous games in the series (play them if you don’t know!!) Robotnik has decided that enough is enough and that he is going to bring about a new age of destruction by using better means than machines and Chaos Emeralds. And Chaos is an example of this.

Also he has decided to get some new clothes which are pretty great. I know the old suit wasn’t too bad but I mean it was getting old! It made Robotnik look like Tweedle Dum or Dee instead of a fearsome villain! His new outfit makes him look like a futurist general gone insane as well as some nice goggles and snappy shoes!

The second non-playable character is Chaos referred to by Robotnik as the ‘God of Destruction’ and indeed he seems to live up to that title.

     Hedgehog vs. Blob or is it Hedgehog vs. Rings vs. Blob? Never mind. FIGHT!!!!

Chaos is a creature made up of liquid that can un-shape and re-shapes itself so it can attack and evade easily in battle, like the Terimator-1000. Also if Chaos is given a Chaos Emerald from Robotnik he begins to grow into a more deadly form than the last. Robotnik is planning to collect all seven to give to Chaos so he can turn into a perfect form, when he achieves that the world could be in mortal danger! But there is also more to Chaos than Robotnik and Sonic could realise...

There is also other characters that play an role into the story that have connections to Chaos, Knuckles, the Chaos Emeralds and other elements that have a huge significance to the plot. But that’s up to you to play and find out for yourself...

                            Ah! The Chao Garden. A bit like Pokémon!

Another interesting feature that makes this game awesome is the cute Chao Garden that you can find in some of the adventure fields. In the Chao Gardens you are able to pet and look after cute creatures called Chaos, little blue alien things with wings and a bobble on its head that shows its mood. You can also feed it and change its body by collecting small animals that are inside Robotnik’s robots (not Badniks anymore sorry!)

This concept was originally taken from the Artificial Life in Nights Into Dreams (Sega, 1996) on the Sega Saturn. Despite the game not selling well this feature became a cult success along with the game,  which must have made Sonic Team decide to have it in this game. And it’s proved to be another great victory again as these guys are pretty dang cute and appealing. It also helps make the game much longer as players care for their Chaos in between the story.

And now it’s time for...

RIPPER ROO MOMENTS!!!

(As well as my favourite bosses, Did you know? Fact and top 10 moments in the game!) Warning spoilers!

As this is one of my favourite games of all time, I am going to put two Ripper Roo moments:

  
  1. Hit me Chaos one more time! Did you know that the word ‘Chaos’ is said so many times in the game! Not just to the creature Chaos but also to the emeralds as well! Mad eh?

  
  2.Where’s the breaks?!

Even if the cutscenes were done well, there still would be limitations. One factor is that characters have a habit of walking to an area but when they have stopped they still walk on the spot! Maybe the characters like to jog on the spot!

My Favourite Bosses:

As this is one of my favourite games of all time, I am going to say about three bosses that I had fun fighting with!

  

  1.    Chaos 0, the first boss of the game and a very memorable boss too, as he glides smoothly towards with arm-stretch attack from below and above on a lamppost. Although you can defeat him by giving him a bit of brain damage!

2. Chaos 3, with three Chaos Emeralds Chaos becomes more powerful with a spin attack, a wild arm-stretch, bouncy ball bash and a pool spread strike. When he freezes after an arm-strike that’s the time to attack him.

3. E-101 Beta MKII, an up-grade of one of Robotnik’s E-100 series robots Beta, MKII is more of a deadlier version of him than the last one near the start of Gamma’s story. This time he is able to fire multiple missiles, do a shield charge attack and a big laser blast bomb. Fighting him won’t be easy but if you attack him after he’s done his shield charge, then you’ll be able to target and fire a shot at him!

My Beta! What big claws you have! The better to make salami out of us with!!!

Did you know?!

One of the bosses, an E-100 robot called E-105 Delta after he is abandoned by Robotnik is recreated into a big rocket-firing machine. Strangely though (and I didn’t know this until recently) he/she seems to be made up of Dreamcasts!?! Not only is Sega nutty but Sonic Team too!!

My Top 10 moments in Sonic Adventure:

  1.Making the Impossible, Possible: One of the reasons why this game is  important to me was that it caught my attention in an interesting way. It felt like you were in a film, not because of the cool cutscenes but because you were also taken part in the action too when in the various stages! Something that films and books weren't able to do. (That goes for you too 3D films!)  

  2.    An opening of the ages: Not only did the CGI opening to the game sucked you in but also the introduction to Sonic’s story, an introduction that like the new series of Doctor Who left the old series of games behind and moved on to a new series of adventures...

  3.    My, Robot: Sniff...Oh Gamma...Sorry, just remembering...When you play Gamma’s story you will feel for him/her...Sniff, so sad.

     

    R.I.P E-102 Gamma (1998)

May you live on as a Flicky of the sky, my friend!

  4.    Lovely Levels: It seems that all of the levels in this game seem to always be so wonderful, as any character you play as. Who could forget the lights and roads of Speed Highway? The paradise of Emerald Coast? The mechanical abyss that was the Final Egg? And the dizzy heights of Windy Valley? Unforgettable!

  5.    Egg Carrier Air Raid: It might not have been anything like Star Wars but attacking the Egg Carrier on the Tornado 1+2 as either Sonic or Tails was smashing stuff! Shame Sonic Team weren’t able to do well again in Unleashed. All it was just pressing buttons and flying verrrrrrrrrry slowly! (Well in the 360 version.)

  6.    The Dream Cast: Oh sure! Probably most of the voice actors aren’t as great as other voice actors in games or movies. But golly! These guys were brill! Ryan Drummond definitely fitted the role of Sonic really well, making him sound cool but not so much that he’s unloveable! (Sadly that’s what Jason Giriffith made him sound like!) While Steve Broadie (R.I.P) and Michael McGaharn did a cracking job as Gamma and Knuckles. But the real jewel in the crown was Deem Bristow (yet another R.I.P Sob!) as Dr Robotnik! Not only did he make him sound mad but also quite dark and diabolical as well, makes you feel afraid of him! Apologies to Giriffith fans, this is just my own opinion!

This article has been sponsored by Robotnik Industries.

Turning animals into robots since 1991.

  7.    Killer Kutscenes (why did I use a K? Because it’s cool! Ks are kool!): In any cutscene you always get one or two or maybe five that are incredible. Sonic Adventure’s scenes are all incredible and you can never forget them! I know this is only because it was my first game but hey not once in this game did you get a duff (okay, maybe cheesy) cutscene.

  8.    Jabba the Hub: Before I knew what a hub was I always enjoyed the three (four if you count Knuckles’ Tribe area) in the game, or ‘Adventure Fields’ as they used to be known. Station Square, Mystic Ruins and the excellent Egg Carrier. Shame these three worlds never reappeared in later Sonic games.

  9.    Surfing thru the snow: Even though it’s not a clever way to out run an avalanche, it was still an awesome moment in the game! I wonder if Sonic had a stunt double for that stage? Hee hee!

 10.                       “We’re going need a bigger boat!”: If there is one part early on in the game you can’t forget, it’s the whale chase! Such a good moment in the game that it was copycatted in Sonic Next-Gen. Sadly didn’t save the game from angry fans.

              

Forget the Death Egg (No don’t worry I like it) or Robotnikland, (It was supposed to be Robotnikland not Eggmanland!) the Egg Carrier was the bad Doctor’s great masterpiece!

 Scoring Time!!!! Oh Yeah!!

Gameplay: 5/5 For my first video game the controls were actually easy to get into. It just seems after a while you just flown into the controls without much of a problem. The only problem I could think of in this department is that Amy might be a little slow but overall the controls are excellent!

Sounds: 5/5 There is not one piece of soundtrack that I don’t like, wonderful voice-acting and sound effects are good!

Graphics: Original: 4/5 DX,PSN+XBLA version: 5/5 The graphics in this game are beautiful, clear-cut and smooth although in the original the character models weren’t brill because of their paper hands. Thankfully the problem is fixed in the remake although they get rid of some trees that were in the original. (At the Master Emerald shrine). I do know about the camera angles although it didn’t seem to bother me that much. I guess I just got use to it.

Length: Original: 3/5 DX version: 4/5  PSN+XBLA version: 3/5 Now this depends. If you’ve played the game for the first time it’ll take you a while, but if you’ve a hardcore player or have played it before it won’t take you long to finish it.

My Score: 10/10 Brilliant!!

Not only is it a highlight and a brilliant part of the series but it’s also my number one game of all time, still after all these years! I know... How can I compare it to Ocarina of Time, FFVII etc?  But it’s just awesome anyway!! If you don’t believe me then go and play it otherwise you’ll never know!

2^nd Opinion+Other’s Opinions

Even though the review is over I just wanted to see what other people thought of the game I’ve reviewed:

2^nd Opinion: From online critic, Le Geek, www.abscape.org: “Overall, Sonic Adventure is a good game with nice graphics and plenty to do, but is too generic to be a top tier title” and was rated 60%.

Other’s Opinions: “Although its controls and camera angles may be awkward at times, Sonic Adventure is, in my opinion, one of the best games I have played, covering a large story with a variety of different, but nevertheless enjoyable modes of gameplay, separated to depict the story from the alternate depictions of the characters. Whether for storyline or for gameplay, I would say that Sonic Adventure still stands as an enjoyable retro title, one that should be praised for its surprisingly high level of detail and empathetic character design. Sometimes a little corny in places, but everything a Sonic game is expected to be – And more.” From one of my friends Chris Saker.

Just one more thing...

“Open your heart...Duh Duh Duhhhhh!” “For Surgery?” LOL!

Game Copyright: Sega/Sonic Team 1998/99-2011/12