Sonic Adventure: Limited Edition

Although we still have to wait until September 9th to play the completed US version of Sonic Adventure, Sega of America has released a teaser of sorts to power numerous DC promotions. "Sonic Adventure: Limited Edition" is the version of the game you'll find playable at Dreamcast kiosks and the Hollywood Video DC rental promotion. So far, the most noticable change is that the voices have been dubbed over in English, and the text has been translated. I was, unfortunately, unable to hear the voices myself, but the consensus seems to be positive in general. Nobody seems to have any complaints with Sonic's voice; Robotnik gets particularly good scores. Tails and Amy's voices apparently slop into irritating, but suit the characters in general. The only one everybody seems to agree is genuinely bad is Big. Tsk, I hope this doesn't have too adverse an effect on the new guy's attempt to establish himself in the continuity.

The translation seems to be pretty good...actually, in keeping with the "cheesy-cool" style of all Sonic games (and Sonic Team games in general), it's perfect. They seem to have Sonic's attitude down-pat, and (from what I saw) the other personalities are very accurate and true to their characters as well. Here's some English screens portraying a brief drama, thanks to DC.IGN:

You'll note that Sonic refers to Robotnik as "Eggman". Freak not, for he is still "Dr. Ivo Robotnik" as he always has been on Western shores, it seems that Sonic has merely decided the derogatory nickname of "Eggman" to be more appropriate. Actually, I think that's pretty cool, and it ties up the Robotnik/Eggman gap to an extent. E-102g still refers to the doc as "Dr. Robotnik".

OK, but that's all superficial...what about the camera, collision detection, and other fairly major glitches found in the rushed Japanese version? It's a little difficult to say, I hear mixed reports on this. The camera has definitely been fixed in certain areas, you can see it pointed out on numerous sites. The frame-rate and other subtle glitches have been fixed as well, although the camera in general is still reportedly very erratic and difficult to follow. Whether it will stay this way or be tweaked for the final version remains to be seen. If it's fixed then great, but even if it isn't...I mean, it's not like it'd be the first time I'd gotten the hang of and thoroughly enjoyed a game with a fruity camera. (Burning Rangers, anybody?)

Other than that, the internet function is disabled in the Limited Edition version. That's pretty predictable, being that the rental DCs are devoid of modems and the SA web site doesn't go up until September 9th anyway. However, the options are visible, so we can know what to expect. Among other things, there will be a Time Attack World Ranking (whoohoo!), downloads for the game, and Chao trading.

For further info, check out Sega Online. It was just recently re-launched and now there's all sorts of new info on the US version of Sonic Adventure as well as other DC titles, so give it a hit. In closing, here's a scan of the SA: Limited Edition disc thanks to Dreamcast HQ.

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