May I just say that I resent the attitude against Sonic Adventure 2. Which was, incidentally, at time of release widely respected as the masterpiece it was, and then later torn into once it was ported to GCN.
Even if the game is a "quality over quantity" thing, the stage and boss designs are still very well done, far better than SA1. SA1 just delivered more of it. And SA2 is *MUCH* less glitchy than SA1, in which I have had several fall-through-the-floor incidents as well as the craptacular physics and control response for standing on an incline. Really, Tails was their only misstep in SA2, but unfortunately he occupies a lot of the Hero Story game time.
And personally I didn't think much of Advance. It was decent, but not exceptional. I don't know many players who would take it over Rush, and I certainly wouldn't.
And I say Sonic Adventure 2 still had its ups and downs. The only reason it wasn't utterly trashed when it came out is because Sonic Adventure 1 was still strong on everyone's minds and there weren't 2 games or so a year.
Sonic Adventure 1 did have its share of glitches, to be fair. I specifically HATE Final Egg's propellor lifts, not to mention the "autorun" segments in Windy Valley and Speed Highway that hindered any exploration or creativity on the part of the player, in addition to just flat out being poorly tested. However, this does not excuse Sonic Adventure 2. While City Escape and Metal Harbor did improve on the "autorun", the game was 1/4 speed, 3/4 Werehog. The stages that weren't Sonic and Shadow were so boring it made you want to cry. Then, when you finally did get to a speed stage, either a rail or a glitch wind up killing you with you still trying to figure out what you did wrong (when you didn't; Shadow's Final Chase is a good example of this). Apparently, Sonic Team was VERY new to this "ingenious" Rails gimmick of theirs. Sonic's Final Rush stage is okay until you get to the gravity puzzle. At this point, it's frustration city. On top of that, the powerups were numerous and fairly useless as compared to their SA1 counterparts, then boss battles were as mind-numbingly easy as ever (not counting the character vs. character battles of SA1).
Advance was basic. Rush, though it had some nice ideas, had a perfect collection of all the things that makes people angry; ambiguously designed puzzles, open-bottom levels, more rail BS, and since when did enemies have LIFEBARS and battle rooms?
Dear Sega:
Don't you dare touch Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Gaming greatness like that should never be tampered with. Leave it as a piece to look back to. Work from it, don't work on top of it. The same goes for 1, 2, and CD.
Sincerely,
A Real Sonic Fan
I'm assuming they don't screw it up like Sonic Genesis. And it can be done; look at Kirby Superstar Ultra. In minor ways, it actually improved upon the original game while still maintaining proper aspect ratios, puzzle spacing, etc. Revenge of the King, while not impossibly hard, did force the player to think one step ahead or fall prey to the vulnerabilities of the provided powers matched up against a bevy of long-lasting enemies (Suplex and Parasol are king in this game).
If these new guys at Sonic Team don't work their way backwards, they're never going to figure out how it's all supposed to mesh.