NAME: Sonic Adventure SYSTEM: Dreamcast MAKER: Sonic Team PRODUCER: Yuji Naka GENRE: Action/Platform GRAPHICS: 10. Rivals reality MUSIC: 9. Cool and realistic with a few lyrics, too FUN: 9. The new Mario-killer REPLAY: ?? DIFFICULTY: ?? (haven't played enough to be sure) ENDING: ?? STORYLINE: ?? (I suck at Japanese) MULTIPLAYER: 4. The Sonic and Tails teamup is back, but Tails is rarely visible ORIGINALITY: 7. Most people will say, "Ah, just another Mario 64" REALISM: 10+. You can see the individual blades of grass CONTROL: 9. Nearly perfect at such high speeds MATURITY: 6. Sonic is once again "cool" Sonic Adventure has increadible potential. Let me count the ways. First off, the graphics are easily better than on many PCs, and rivals the tops-of-the-line. The music is very bassey and realistic, obviously better quality than the N64. The gameplay, as is expected, is break-neck. The control and use of the spin dash and Sonic Blast is excellent. One of the coolest innovations is the use of speech. Neither text-reading nor lyrics are lost in the world of gaming, but the speech is very well-acted (according to my slack American ears) and some scenes are almost music-video quality. The storyline is mostly alien to me, but it is apparent that it involves the water monster "Chaos" and good ol' Eggman feeding him the emeralds of the same name. The game also has some humor, although it's probably not intentional (Sonic's hilarious experessions, mostly, like when Tails shows him the first Chaos Emerald.... crazy Japanese :^). The characters are colorful (literally). There is, of course, Sonic; Tails, dubbed by EGM as the Scrappy Doo of Gaming; Knuckles the Echidna, the red-haired dude that deserves to be in a good game of his own; Amy Rose, the pink hedgehog from Sonic CD; Big the Cat, a "big" blue cat with a fishing pole; and e-102y, the renegade robot packing a laser rifle. All of the returning characters got a well-deserved makeover, especially the bad doctor. (Expect some sketches soon.) This game will definitely be worth it. BTW, I played the import version of this game at my friendly neighborhood EB. Check it out! POTENTIAL: ********* 95% Previewed on Father's Day, 1999