I’ve the same opinion you do. I loved to play SA1 and the “adventure field” vs “action stage” thing was the perfect balance between the open world you could explore and the more linear gameplay.

SA1 was a very good game, then came out SA2, a poorly executed thing that forces you straight into mini game style games, nothing to explore, no hub word to make the experience consistent. SA2 kinda feels like a 2D gameboy-style Sonic game. The way thing were tied together between the story of each character, “adventure field” and “action stage” was just very well thought out-

And there’s also another problem, the PC version of SA2 is a also a piece of crap. While Sonic Adventure DX wasn’t perfect things actually worked mostly fine out of the box however in SA2 not even gamepads work.

Btw, I’m looking for this: https://lemmy.world/post/21563379

for me it’s the other way around. i do like Adventure but it’s a game full of compromises, with most areas needing to work for multiple characters and the Adventure fields ultimately limiting the scope of the game to three relativey-close locales. then comes Sonic Adventure 2, a game with purpose-built stages for each playstyle spanning multiple continents and even space. while the treasure hunt stages were arguably worse, the mech stages were ten times better without the timer and the random tranaformations. and the speed stages, oh man. without the spam dash you really have to learn how the physics and movement options work, but when you do you’re tearing through the stages rolling on walls and making gravity-defying leaps. it’s amazing. 3D Sonic does have a trend of turning things that were challenges in 2D loops into just breather setpieces, but SA2’s introduction of rails is the one time they bucked that trend- get enough momentum going before you hop on or you’re not going anywhere! shame every game since has locked your speed once you’re on them. the extra power-ups and chao boxes scattered throughout the levels give you extra places to explore and reason to do so. to me Sonic Adventure 2 really finally delivers on everything Sonic Adventure wanted to be. it does lose points for it’s rocky voice acting and overreliance on automation- although in both cases to a degree less than Adventure 1- but it’s a great game and the only 3D Sonic i can say that about, as close as Adventure 1 and Frontiers may have came

Sonic Adventure 2’s problem is that it didn’t have enough speed character stages. iirc, the dark side story only had three shadow stages and that’s it, the rest were either the “meh” eggman stages or the god awful emerald shard stages.

The hero side story wasn’t as bad since it had more sonic stages, but only barely.

I can go back to SA1 quite a bit, because despite the jankiness, the stages are really fun and you can tackle them in many different ways like you could with the Genesis games.

I played both ports on Steam recently as I’m taken by a Sonic nostalgia wave. One thing that I like more in the original Adventure is that I can skip the characters I don’t like. But I have mixed feelings with the Sonic levels - there’s just too much camera and collision problems in the way. The second game fixes some of that, but the Tails and Knuckles levels are kinda boring.

Overall, I liked the games. My nostalgia was satisfied.

I love both, they had a certain charm, and still do for me to this day,. Is there some tedium, sure, but I play games far more tedious so no problem for me.

I like both games, but they’ve got very different feels. I did miss the Adventure Stages from SA1, but SA2 has some great stages. I think the early Knuckles/Rouge stages are alright, but the later ones just get too big if you don’t know where to look.

If you liked E102’s stages in SA1, there’s no reason to dislike Tails/Eggman in SA2 imo! And like you said, Sonic/Shadow stages are still great.

Keep in mind that SA1 has the Big stages as a requirement for completion…haha

At least pumpkin Hill had good music, but yeah having played it a few times I agree

I think they had a certain charm (of the time) like @wazzupdog@lemmy.world mentions.

But I agree (in hindsight) it’s not very good. The Sonic/Shadow levels were the only fun ones, and you forgot to mention the Tails/Eggman levels are constantly grating because of that damned weapon beeping.

Also the sound mixing was terrible, couldn’t even hear the voice acting over the loud music. It used to crash often as well, but it could be that I just had a faulty disc so let’s not count that one.

I think the only thing that kept me playing was the Chao Garden, and replaying the levels that were at least some bit of fun to grind those materials.

edit: disclaimer, I played on GameCube

I just want another 3D game where you actually play as Tails. Like, no mech. Just like Sonic levels but you can fly.