Sonic Adventure: First Impressions We expected to be amazed, and Sega didn't disappoint with the first (albeit blurry)images from Sonic Adventure. August 21, 1998 While Next Generation Online huddled over our computers for the RealVideo stream of the Sonic Adventure press conference late Friday (Pacific time) and early Saturday, hoping our expectations for Sonic Adventure and Dreamcast weren't too high, our Tokyo correspondent Max actually attended the show and sent us this report: At today's Sonic Adventure demonstration, Sega's head honcho, Irimajiri, may have turned up to launch the show, but the real star treatment was reserved for Yuji Naka, the game's producer. After the requisite Dreamcast-generated video of Irimajiri-san's warping, contorting face, as seen previously, and a modest, informative introduction by the man himself on the machine's capabilities, the audience prepared for Naka-san's dramatic appearance. A series of huge flags, emblazoned with Sonic and Dreamcast logos, fell sequentially to the ground to reveal an egg which then exploded in a flash of brilliant light and clouds of billowing smoke. And inside, is the man we've all been waiting for, Sonic's new father figure, Yuji Naka, who stepped down from the podium in a modest manner to join the two emcees at the desk on the stage. As if we're not already jealous enough of him because he's a famous games producer, Naka-san started by showing everyone how much fun they had making the game. After talking about how Sonic Adventure is an action game with a real "adventure feel," a video showed the development team ensconced in their office discussing the details of Sonic's look and the scenery. Just to get it right, though, not too long ago, the Sonic team packed up their bags and flew off to Mexico, oxygen-masks in hand. Coping with the altitude sickness admirably, the developers photographed the scenery and generally took it all in, so they could go back to their offices in Tokyo and create the most realistic background scenery ever witnessed in a game. But enough of that, how did they do? What of the game itself? Well, that was coming up, but not before we all played ball. Monitored by a special sound sensor post to the side of the stage, the audience were presented with three choices (Speed Highway, an urban-esque setting, and two other game levels) and had to applaud for their favorite. Sonic on "Speed Highway" garnered the loudest applause by miles, so the panel fired up a real, live, Dreamcast machine, selected one of the six available characters, and we were off. The first thing that struck you as the game kicked in was to be the vast amount of depth and detail on-screen. The backgrounds are huge, and in the city landscape we saw was filled with incredible detail and thousands of objects. The automatic camera did a superb job of keeping up with the action and presented it always from a useable angle, but not always in the way you might have imagined. In one section, while Sonic ran down the side of a building, the camera followed the action but basically inverts, so Sonic is upside down at the top of the screen, heightening the dizzying effect. Excellent. The quality of the graphics did indeed surpass anything we've seen before -- though there was a very tiny bit of clipping in evidence in one scene, but it's still early and the rest of the show soon made you forget that. This is a game that knows it's 3D, no holds barred, with immense vertical drops which induced a real sense of free-flight falling, platforms bursting into the frame at all heights and angles, and enemies, collectable items, buildings and vehicles all in intricately-constructed polygonal splendor. After the live Dreamcast demo, Naka-san reported that your choice of character for the game is very important, as not only are some easier to complete levels with than others (the point here being that Sonic Adventure will be accessible to any player, regardless of skill level), but that the path through each area and your character's objectives in it, will differ. This, they say, effectively makes for 6 completely different games. Two more events wound up the show. First, 'Sanshirou Segata', half-crazed Karate man (and famous Japanese actor) from Sega's TV commercials bounded out onto the stage to drill the entire audience in a shouting exercise. Following his lead, 'Segata-san' made everyone yell out the word 'So-ni-ku' (Japense/English for 'Sonic') in a sort of tri-syllabic martial arts 'ki-ai' exercise. The point was, we were told, to help us all relax and relieve stress. Next up, and closing the show, was an energetic rock band screaming out an exclusive Sonic compilation, complete with thrashed guitar, flailing arms, and other rock-star histrionics. As for the game's story, here's what we learned from Saturday's event. There are 7 precious stones in existence, the Chaos Emeralds, and they bring immense, unlimited power to those who own them. These powerful stones have seen many joys and sorrows over their long existence. The game opens as a shadow pierces the beautiful night sky and something runs at tremendous speed past a car on the highway, then shoots straight up the side of a building. The figure stands proud at the top of a flagpole on the building's roof and this figure is, you guessed it, the world's fastest hedgehog, everyone's hero, Sonic. Now, Sonic's sensitive ears detect a siren, and while trying to find its location, Sonic sees a kind of living liquid, called Chaos. And beside this bizarre creature stands a mad genius, Dr. Eggman. This Chaos beast feeds on the Chaos emeralds and gets ever stronger and Dr. Eggman says he will use it to destroy this city and create his own, Eggman Land. To foil Dr Eggman's evil plot, Sonic must prevent the emeralds from falling into their hands and do battle with the Chaos creature, but only after negotiating the six adventures ahead of him. So Sonic Adventure is here, it's huge, it'spretty, it's fast and it's looking damn good. Keep checking back with Next Generation Online for more Sonic information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Source: Next Generation Online (http://www.next-generation.com)