A sequel to the hit Sonic Adventure and one of the Sega Dreamcast's final releases, and a title to mark the 10th anniversary of the series. It was also the last original Sonic game to be made before Sega quit making consoles.Framed for the acts of a criminal black hedgehog, Sonic is imprisoned on an island penal colony by the law enforcement agency G.U.N., relying on his friends to break him out. Meanwhile, Eggman is once again collecting and misusing the Chaos Emeralds, this time to revive the space colony Ark (mothballed after a grim incident involving Eggman's Grandfather) and hold the world hostage with its deadly Eclipse Cannon. Meanwhile (again), said black hedgehog has joined forces with Dr. Eggman and a jewel thief named Rouge and plans to use the Eclipse Cannon as part of a vendetta against the whole human race.Got that? The plot is much darker than the already-pretty dark Sonic Adventure, as it contains vague allusions to a corrupt military and genocidal insanity, while still retaining the cheese the series is known for; For example, Sonic being mistaken for a black hedgehog with red stripes despite having saved the world repeatedly.This is the first game in the series — bar racing and party games — where you get to play as the villains, and by extension, the first where you get to play as Dr. Eggman. This game also introduced Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, both of whom would become series mainstays.Like its predecessor, this game was also a big-hit critically and commercially, being hailed as a true swan song for the dying Dreamcast. It also, however, suffered some of the same Polygon Ceiling-related criticism of Camera Screw and bad controls that its predecessor had. It also ditched the hubworlds in favor of a traditional level-by-level form of progression.The game was re-released for the GameCube several months after the Dreamcast version as Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (before its predecessor's remake), which added more Chao stuff and gave 2-Player Mode a complete overhaul (which is probably where the "Battle" subtitle comes in).Gameplay Types / Playable Characters:
Action Stage (classic Sonic style) — Sonic / Shadow
Shooting Stage (Gamma from Sonic Adventure) — Tails / Dr. Eggman
Hunting Stage (same as Knuckles from the previous game) - Knuckles / Rouge
There is also one driving stage each for Tails and Rouge. Beating one of them unlocks the single-player kart racing Mini-Game, while beating the other unlocks the two-player option.Following the success of its prequel, an HD re-release of the game was released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 respectively through Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network on October 2nd, 2012 for $10; The additional two-player modes of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle are Downloadable Content for $3. The game has also been released on PC via Steam on November 19th, 2012, marking its official PC debut.
This video game provides examples of the following tropes:
Abandoned Mine: Knuckles' search for shards of the previously shattered Master Emerald brings him to Aquatic Mine, an abandoned coal mine located within the vicinity of Pumpkin Hill that can be accessed via the sewers of Central City. This is aptly summed up by the opening lyrics of the stage's theme, "Dive into the Mellow": "Let's take a dive, in Aquatic Mine. Once was a coal pit, but now it's a water ride."
Almost Kiss: Knuckles and Rouge share one later on.
And Now for Someone Completely Different: Unlike its predecessor, each story cycles between the Action, Shooting, and Hunting playstyles instead of selecting a character and playing through his/her stages with that character.
And Your Reward Is Clothes: The rewards for getting all the emblems/A-Ranks for a character are an alternate outfit in 2P-Mode and an alternate kart in the kart racing minigame, although they do have some different attributes (Tails's alternate mech, for example, makes him a lot faster, but robs him of the ability to use special attacks).
Artistic License - Physics: After Eggman uses the Eclipse Cannon aboard the ARK to blow a chunk out of the moon as a warning shot, everyone becomes concerned about the seriousness of Eggman's threats and possible responses — never mind the fact that the effect on the tides alone would cause incalculable casualties in Real Life.
Bigger Bad: The plot of the game is ultimately due to the actions of the late Gerald Robotnik, who orchestrated a plan to destroy the earth after what G.U.N. did to him.
Big Damn Antihero: Shadow manages to teleport Rouge (and three of the Chaos emeralds, of course) off of Prison Island mere seconds before the whole island explodes.
Blob Monster: Artifical Chaos on the ARK created by Gerald Robotnik.
Boss Rush: Beating a story unlocks a minigame where you fight each of the bosses faced in that story one after the other.
Boss Warning Siren: Justified the boss fight against the Flying Dog. In the cutscene preceding the battle, Rouge is caught sneaking into a maximum-security vault and triggers an alarm that alerts the boss to her presence.
Breakout Character: Shadow was originally meant to be a one-shot character for this game, but, not only did he become a series mainstay, he arguably got most of the development and plot focus in Heroes and even starred in his own game.
Break the Cutie: Eggman does this to Tails and Amy by shooting Sonic out of an explosive rocket before their very eyes, leaving them to think that Eggman finally killed their best friend (don't worry, he used Chaos Control).
Broken Pedestal: Even Eggman is surprised when Gerald turns out to be a nutbar.
The Cameo: Big the Cat can be seen during some cutscenes and even in the middle of some levels, as well as used in multiplayer... in the Dreamcast version. The GameCube version erased Big (sometimes with a Ring) in levels and replaced him with Dark Chao Walker in multiplayer, but he can still be found in Dark and Final cutscenes. The latest HD release does not return his multiplayer and Hero mode appearances, but reinserts him in most (but not all) levels.
Cardboard Prison: Prison Island, a prison and military base which, despite its name, is not The Alcatraz. Eggman is able to break in all by himself with his Egg Walker, then gets out with Shadow. Later on Tails and Amy break in and get Sonic out.
Cerebus Syndrome: This game introduced Shadow the Hedgehog, which essentially started an arc spanned between this game (Barring a brief break from it with Sonic Heroes) and Sonic Unleashed, which ended it.
Chekhov's Gun: After seeing Shadow disappear in a flash of light as he used Chaos Control as many times as he did — and for that matter, seeing Sonic escape certain death via Chaos Control once before — was it really such a stretch to believe that Shadow had survived his plummet to Earth? On the same note, Tails mentioning that the fake Emerald had the exact same wavelength as a real Chaos Emerald came in handy later when Sonic used Chaos Control to escape Eggman's trap.
Those mathematical symbols on Sonic's jail cell in Prison Island? The ones that Amy comments on? Why yes, those were the calculation performed by Professor Gerald Robotnik to calculate how long it would take for the ARK to impact the Earth. You see the cell in all of Gerald's diary entries.
Also, at the beginning Knuckles tells Rouge that the Master Emerald is capable of nullifying the power of the Chaos Emeralds. At the end of the game, Knuckles needs to use the Master Emerald for that exact purpose.
The Chessmaster: Shadow the Hedgehog, who manages to take advantage of Eggman's ambitions in order to further his own hidden plan to get revenge on humanity for the G.U.N. massacre on the ARK 50 years ago.
And Shadow's actions, in turn, were the result of Gerald Robotnik placing subliminal messages and tampering with memories during Shadow's 50 year hibernation when he went mad.
Rouge also counts for this until her plan to obtain all of the Chaos Emeralds was stopped by Shadow at the end of the dark side story.
Clear My Name: Sonic gets mistaken for the recently-freed Ultimate Lifeform and gets captured by G.U.N. (twice) early in the Hero story. Shortly before Sonic is captured a second time, Shadow steals a Chaos Emerald from a bank. Naturally, everyone assumes that this hedgehog is Sonic. One must wonder how color-blind the people of Sonic's world are. Possibly justified with the bank robbery, since it was night when it took place. G.U.N. has no excuse though.
Comic Book Adaptation: Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book did not adapt Sonic Adventure 2 originally. Instead they interrupted their own Story Arc for one issue, and used that issue to line up their own canon with that of the game, ending the issue where Sonic Adventure 2 starts. The next issue began a some time bit after the game ends, implying that everything in Sonic Adventure 2 happened. Eventually Sonic Universe #2 did show what actually occurred, with the story largely unchanged.
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the racing minigame, computer opponents can make 90 degree turns instantly without losing any momentum.
In the levels near the end of each campaign where you face off against your same-mission-type Rival once again, they can use the usually 2-player-mode-only special attacks, but you cannot.
Use them? Actually, they can spam them. At least the special attacks are dodgeable in 1-player!
Continuity Nod: Tails is said to have got a Chaos Emerald for beating Eggman in Station Square, which happened back in SA1.
Also during the last story, Knuckles and Sonic stumble upon a temple-like structure that looks oddly familiar.
And at that shrine he says the same prayer of Chaos as Tikal in the previous game.
Criminal Doppelgänger: Pretty much the reason why Sonic is captured by G.U.N. twice and why him and his friends are constantly chased throughout this game. Justified in that the only times that Shadow is seen by the police is during the night and that there only happened to be one well-known anthropomorphic male hedgehog in the world up until that point. That justification does not apply to G.U.N. though, as they were aware of who Shadow was and should have been able to tell that Sonic was not the escaped Ultimate Lifeform once they got their hands on him (twice). To be fair, it is implied that Shadow was completely unaware of Sonic's existence up until Sonic defeated the Big Foot.
Shadow might have known about Sonic's existence: when Eggman opened Shadow's pod, he verbally mentioned that Shadow was "not Sonic", and even thought that Shadow was Sonic, there to foil his plans already. However, Shadow had just woken up, so he might not have consciously understood what Eggman was saying.
Cutscene Power to the Max: In the Hero Story, Sonic engages in a boss battle against the Egg Golem. In the same sequence in the Dark Story, the fight is condensed into one flying kick, complete with a Theme Music Power-Up.
Darker and Edgier: SA1 was darker than the game series up to that point, and SA2 managed to be even darker. There's more than one character in the game who swears revenge on all humanity, and their motives are revealed in some cutscenes. Furthermore, Dr. Eggman, who you can play as in this game, is willing to use a "weapon of mass destruction" (yes, it is actually described as that in the game) as a means of trying to intimidate people into surrendering to his empire, by threatening to fire it at inhabited parts of Earth. He demonstrates its power by firing it at the moon, and it happens to take quite a chunk out of the moon for that matter... add to that, of course, the government conspiracy sideplot, that involves them assassinating numerous innocent people on-board the ARK (with Maria even dying onscreen). Outside maybe the Archie comics, this was perhaps the grimmest depiction of Sonic yet at this point in time.
Though the overall tone of some futuretitles was a bit darker, NOTHING in the rest of the series comes close to the last act of this game. Gerald's diary/execution speech rivals the most depressing and terrifying messages left behind in any Survival Horror. It helps that both voice actors for Gerald were incredibly good at getting his gut-wrenching despair and hatred for humanity across.
Damn You, Muscle Memory: Thanks to different controller design, the port for XBLA and PSN changes the action button to the B and circle buttons respectively, screwing with whoever is used to a Gamecube controller layout... until you realize that X or square have the same exact function yet aren't showcased as THE button.
Decoy Protagonist: Eggman for the Dark side is this gameplay-wise. Four of his levels are in the first half of the game, but aside from boss fights he only gets one level in the second half.
Deface of the Moon/Detonation Moon: Eggman blows up half of the moon with just six of the seven Chaos Emeralds, threatening to do the same to any country that doesn't submit to him. (Oddly, it's perfectly fine in some later entries, and still half-blown-up in others.)
Disproportionate Retribution: Gerald held all of humanity responsible for Maria's death, when it was really just G.U.N..
Do Not Adjust Your Set: In the second variation Eggman hijacks the airwaves to announce his ultimatum: twenty-four hours until he destroys the earth unless the world leaders agree to surrender it to him. And in the third variation however, in the last story after all of the Chaos emeralds have been gathered the airwaves are hijacked once again only this time it's showing a tape of the late Gerald Robotnik giving his Final Speech which outlines his Colony Drop aimed at earth.
Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Inside the space shuttle, Sonic tells this to Knuckles when the latter pulls the lever to get the remaining pieces of the Master Emerald after the shuttle hits a meteor.
Dummied Out: The game contains a hidden level used by the developers for testing the game engine. It is only accessible by hacking or, in the case of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, a glitch.
Eagleland: The United Federation is heavily Type 2.
Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The Eclipse Cannon can produce one of these if all seven emeralds are gathered together, and Eggman demonstrates this on the moon. Gerald Robotnik instead has a Colony Drop program for the ARK kick in when all seven emeralds are collected, so as to make absolutely sure this occurs, compared to Eggman, who just intends to raze countries that don't submit to him.
Enemy Mine: The hero and dark teams both team up in the final story to prevent the Colony Drop.
Eternal Engine: Trope Namer and an action stage in the Dark Story.
Even Evil Has Standards: Eggman may want to use the Space Colony ARK to take over the Earth, but he balks at the idea of using its power to kill all humanity.
Evil Virtues: For Eggman, it's hard work. In the ending, Eggman reveals that he aspired to Gerald's great accomplishments from the time he was little.
Extremity Extremist: Knuckles and Rouge use only punches and kicks, respectively.
"Fake" Twin: Sonic considers Shadow this due to the latter framing him for stealing a Chaos Emerald. It's also hinted that Shadow himself thinks Sonic is this to him, thinking Sonic was trying to copy him.
"Implied"?
Shadow: "You, comparing yourself to me? Ha! You're not even good enough to be my fake!"
Faceship: Eggman may have gotten his love for this from Gerald, as the Space Colony ARK was apparently made in Gerald's likeness.
Shadow gives one believing that he has finally fulfilled Maria's final wish as he plummets to the Earth. Keep in mind that Sega originally planned to keep him Killed Off for Real when the game was released.
Fog Feet: A Chao that plays with bats will eventually have its legs disappear; it'll hover above the ground instead.
Foreshadowing: There's a bit during the cutscene right before Final Chase, where Rouge reads about "Project Shadow" which not only implies there is more to Shadow's origins than originally shown, but also features a split second shot of a picture of the Biolizard (albeit at a low resolution because of the Dreamcast's limitations).
Frame Up: Shadow framed Sonic with the theft of the green Chaos Emerald. Somewhat deconstructed, as its implied that Shadow did not intend to frame Sonic for the deed, and in fact, had never even heard of Sonic up until after he stole the emerald, specifically shortly after Sonic defeated Big Foot. In fact, through most of the game, Shadow believed that Sonic was copying him.
Fun with Acronyms / Spelling Song: Averted and played straight respectively with Eggman's theme, "E.G.G.M.A.N." — it's spelled out a few times at the beginning by a modulated voice in the background, but it doesn't seem to stand for anything. (Amusingly, it's also one of exactly two songs ever to use the exact phrase "I am the Eggman".)
Furry Confusion: Rouge the Bat is a playable character, but regular Bats can be found and rescued from the stages. Most confusing is the fact that the Bat is only in this game.
The level Death Chamber takes it even further: It has actual, real-life bats. That's three different kinds of bats in one game!
All three of the good vs. evil battles are ultimately seen to end in draws, even though you have to win the actual fight for whichever side you're playing.
When facing Egg Golem in Hero Story, you have to (as Sonic) get behind it and jump up platforms on its back in order to homing attack its head's weak point to damage it; you need to do this several times. In the Dark Story, it's defeated by Sonic in a cutscene where he takes a giant leap at its weak point (a leap which, incidentally, is not possible when playing as Sonic) and defeats it in one kick.
Knuckles and Rouge actually run faster than Sonic and Shadow in gameplay.
Averted in the final boss battle. Shadow's in-story failing super form is represented by his ring count starting lower and lower each time you switch to him after a certain point into the battle.
Gameplay Grading: You are ranked at the end of a stage based on your score (although you can automatically earn a perfect A if you collect every single ring in the stage). All 3D Sonics following this game would use a similar ranking system.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Various BGM tracks have suggestive lyrics, but Wild Canyon takes the cake. One of the radars caught this one; the ESRB rating has "Mild Lyrics" as a descriptor. But apparently, SEGA's translators didn't.
"Yeah, Rouge, she's sexy and smooth! A double cross spot-thief, that's out for my jewels."
That may not be intentional though, as the song does mean it literally.*
The lyrics were in reference to the fact that Rouge the Bat and Dr. Eggman attempted to steal the Master Emerald, and in the case of the former, its pieces.
However, they do use "damn" in at least 2 different songs, and the "Mild Lyrics" did not appear on the back of the box until Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, as the original did not have that.
Also the Biolizard when it fuses with the space colony and becomes the true final boss, Finalhazard. The Biolizard itself doesn't count, since, technically, it's featured in the Project Shadow report Rouge downloads from the main computer, though the resolution makes it hard to discern its image.
Not to mention some of the lyrics in Knuckles' level's songs, especially Wild Canyon.
Gratuitous Japanese: "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog." Only in the English dub, since...
Gratuitous Spanish: In the Japanese dub, the line "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog" was "Adios, Shadow the Hedgehog".
Gravity Screw: Crazy Gadget and its switches that make Sonic walk on the ceiling and walls. A memorable part at the end of the level involves navigating a series of these in space, and it's pretty tough. There are other examples in the part of Eternal Engine where Tails floats inexplicably, and Cosmic Wall, where Eggman's mech can jump incredible heights due to lowered gravity.
Rouge's final level, Mad Space, uses the 'planetoid' subtype very excessively, though not nearly as well as the laterSuper Mario Galaxy.
Some of the "Find the Lost Chao!" Missions are near impossible to complete without looking in a guide. In particular, all the steps that you need to do in Cannon's Core to find that Chao is pretty daunting.
Heroic Sacrifice: Shadow, after turning face in what is quite possibly the most famous example of this trope in a Sonic game. Overlaps with Redemption Equals Death.
Hong Kong Dub: When the line takes longer to say in English than it did in Japanese, the next line will start while the previous one is still going... even when the next line is spoken by the same character. (It does lend a strange David Mamet flavor to the dub.)
I Was Just Passing Through: Shadow shrugs off of the fact he saved Rouge's life, and says that he was saving the Chaos Emeralds.
Knuckles also does this to Rouge after saving her from falling into the lava, claiming that he was saving the pieces of the Master Emerald.
Jiggle Physics: Different parts of different characters have this, the most notable examples being Sonic & Shadow's quills, and Rouge's ears and breasts (yes, they really did animate a cartoon bat's breasts).
Jump Scare: The ghosts in the haunted stages will unexpectedly pop up at the character from walls, objects, or in miniature forms.
Karma Houdini: G.U.N. Actually averted in that you can destroy their robots and the fact that you can even damage the pilots controlling Big Foot, Hot Shot, and Flying Dog.
Keep It Foreign: The iconic line, "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog", is replaced with "Adios, Shadow the Hedgehog" in the Japanese version.
Kick Chick: Rouge, to contrast Knuckles' punches only attack style.
Knight Templar: G.U.N. will do almost anything to preserve world order. They got better eventually. Also, Gerald believed his Colony Drop against humanity to be "justice" for the ARK Disaster.
Knight Templar Big Brother: Shadow was a surrogate one for Maria, until Amy reminded him what Maria really wanted.
Leeroy Jenkins: Sonic, even moreso than usual. He's concerned only with stopping Eggman and pays little attention to Tails' strategy sessions.
Leitmotif: Live and Learn is featured prominently throughout the game, in the lyrics of City Escape and the chorus of Supporting Me, for example.
Level Grinding: Getting an A by getting the set amount of rings may require this. Completing all of the Chao Garden emblems will require quite a bit of this.
Luck-Based Mission: Treasure hunting levels have some of this by design—emeralds may randomly spawn in a location that cannot be reached without hitting a certain switch, for instance, making them harder to find by merely sweeping the stage. Chao karate, with its uncontrollable A.I. Roulette and Critical Hit mechanics, is an example that can be muted by sufficient Level Grinding. Chao races feature an actual hidden luck stat in some races along with randomized tripping.
Mad Scientist: Dr. Gerald Robotnik was sane prior to GUN's assault on the ARK. After that his disillusionment with humanity drove him to strike back with his creation.
Milestone Celebration: Coincides with the 10th anniversary of the original game. As such, collecting 180 emblems will unlock a 3D version of Green Hill Zone.
Mini Mecha: Tails and Eggman's stages consist of piloting small mechs through their stages, with Tails' Cyclone being his new Tornado airplane that swaps its wings for a set of legs and Eggman's being his hoverpod with legs and guns attached.
Misplaced Retribution: Gerald's plot to get revenge from beyond the grave was focused on bringing suffering and ruination to people (Pretty much the entirety of humanity) who were not responsible for the ARK Incident or the murder of Maria and his colleagues.
More than implied. He "designed its mind to be perfect. Pure..."
Mr. Vice Guy / Anti-Hero: Rouge is secretly a government agent whose job is to protect the world from threats like Eggman and Shadow, and turns out to be Good All Along. Also, her passion is jewels, and in her free time she goes around greedily stealing gems wherever she can find them, not caring whether they're, y'know, necessary to the balance of the planet or not. Somehow, these two things never seem to clash — in fact, she's apparently only a good guy some of the time because the government pays her in jewelry.
The Call Back to Lost World in Cannon's Core is also this. There is a water slide similar to the aforementioned level in Adventure, and the music changes to the drum beat of the music that was used in the water slide part of that level.
No Communities Were Harmed: The nation's capital is based on San Francisco, of all places. Route 101, Route 280, and Mission Street all reference major roadways in the city. The Samba De Amigo references in Mission Street may serve as a dual reference to the Mission District, which was (and is still somewhat) largely Hispanic.
No Conservation of Energy: When Sonic and Shadow use Chaos Control to stop the falling ARK, the colony comes to a complete halt. The explosion of light was no where near big enough to be equal to its previous momentum. Of course, SEGA has never bothered to explain exactly how Chaos Control works, so...
No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: Adventure 2 does away with Adventure fields and the ability to select characters, instead having the player experience every gameplay style in the same story, with stages coming one after another in sequence. Upgrades are found within the stages as well.
One-Winged Angel: The Biolizard becomes Finalhazard when he fuses himself with Space Colony ARK.
Out Gambitted: Sonic and Tails plot to give Eggman a fake Emerald that will explode when it's put into the Eclipse Cannon, thus making it unusable. Having a feeling that this would happen, Eggman seals Sonic inside a rocket, causes Tails to accidently spill the beans, and shoots Sonic out of the Ark to a most certain death. Good thing Sonic still has that fake Emerald in his hands, and it is powerful enough for Sonic to use Chaos Control...
Path of Greatest Resistance: Ever since SA1 introduced the Homing Attack, nearly all Sonic games since then have had paths identifiable (and accessible) only by finding a trail of stationary midair enemies. This is most commonly used to begin an expert path or for a shortcut; very rarely is it actually required.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: Improves on SA1's chao-raising system with the addition of Hero and Dark chao. The system would go through a complete overhaul for the GameCube versions.
Scenery Porn: Ten years later, it still holds up well.
Schizophrenic Difficulty: Since you jump around from playing style to playing style, this can be in effect if you are much better at some characters than others.
Also, each stage has the same five missions in the same order. Depending on which character you are using, some of the missions will be easier or harder than usual. Tails and Eggman's stages have very few rings and LOTS of enemies, so the second mission, 'Collect 100 Rings!', is harder for them than it would be for other characters. The timed missions for Knuckles and Rouge tend to be harder than their 'Complete Hard Mode' missions since for them, while the emeralds are in very annoying and hard to reach places in Hard Mode, they're in the same place each time.
Every 5th mission for a level has a Hard mode challenge, where the level's difficulty borders on downright frustrating. Many consider Eternal Engine, Crazy Gadget, Mad Space, and Cannon's Core to be punishingly difficult already. Then you find out that eventheyhaveHard Modes themselves...
Getting A-Ranks on the early Action and Shooting stages aren't too obscenely hard, but roughly halfway through the game they become incredibly annoying without resorting to Sequence Breaking shortcuts to get massive time bonuses. And let's not even talk about the Hunting Stages, the system for which has been tweaked to be even more annoying.
Self-Imposed Challenge: Try beating Knuckles' section in Cannon's Core WITHOUT the Air Necklace.
Sequel Difficulty Spike: Minor, but the Battle port and the rerelease significantly raised (read: doubled) the requirements for an A-Rank in Eggman's final level, Cosmic Wall.
There are also a couple references to Phantasy Star Online. Some unlockable alternate costumes on the Gamecube version are similar to what the characters in said game wear, and there are billboards advertising it scattered throughout the city levels.
During the famous scene of Eggman's video-message to the world, the mixture of Japanese and English text behind him is awfully reminiscent of Digivolutions.
The entire final sequence where Sonic and Shadow use Chaos Control to push ARK back into orbit is a reference to the climax of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
Slap SlapAlmost Kiss: Knuckles and Rouge literally have this going on when they meet up in Meteor Herd.
Sliding Scale Of Linearity Vs Openness: The main game is level 3. There are multiple paths through each level, with more being unlocked as you gain more items, and you can replay levels with different goals for more emblems. The chao raising mini-game, though, is decidedly level 6, for the game gives you no overall goal to accomplish in raising your chao.
Stealth Pun: The style of music played in Shadow's White Jungle stage, minus the Amen.
Story Arc: This is the first game in the Sonic series to deal with the story of Shadow. It was later continued in Sonic Heroes and finished in Shadow the Hedgehog.
Sugar Bowl: All of the Chao Gardens, where the most pressing issue is an empty stomach; even the Dark Garden, which looks like a haunted graveyard and has a pool of red liquid that may or may not be blood, is a pretty safe place for your cute little guys to reside.
Super-Deformed: Curiously, Chaos Zero looks a lot "cuter" than he did in Sonic Adventure.
Take My Hand: Rouge makes a misstep in the meteor field (wearing stilettos in space doesn't seem as smart now, does it?), almost plummeting into the lava. Knuckles grabs her and hoists her back up.
This Is Unforgivable: Tails vows to never forgive Eggman for blowing Sonic to smithereens, (or so he and Amy think)...
Also Shadow's initial thoughts about Maria's death.
Timed Mission: Several. Finalhazard hits the Earth after 5 minutes, so you better beat it in that time. Metal Harbour has a small example, where landing on a platform by a rocket suddenly gives you just 15 seconds to grab onto it. To make matters worse, there is a second rung higher up, which is the only way to A-Rank the stage, which can only be made with a couple of seconds to spare. To round the list off, Security Hall gives you 5 minutes to complete it, and Green Forest and White Jungle give you 8 and 10 respectively.
Video Game Caring Potential: Chao. If you are nice enough to a Chao, it will have a big smile on its face and clap whenever your character picks it up. Beware, however, that being too nice to a Chao might result in the little guy getting a spoiled personality, making it throw tantrums even when only a little hungry. Balance is the key, but regardless, if the Chao is happy enough, it will reincarnate into a baby at the end of its life.
Chao. You can hit it, throw it, put it in water and watch it flail if it doesn't know how to swim, make it starve, and all other sorts of things. Such abuse will result in the Chao crying a fountain of tears, blowing a raspberry at you, or if it's aggressive enough, it'll charge at you and futilely throw punches. If the chao is more sad/angry than happy, it won't reincarnate at the end of its life. With the introduction of Light and Dark Chao in this game, who is treating the Chao good or bad matters as much as how they're treated. So treating your Chao nicely with Shadow, Eggman, and Rouge will make them Dark as well as being cruel with the good guys will, and vice versa.
White Gloves: It seems they are popular, as all six main characters use them.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Gerald becomes somewhat sympathetic once you realize how he lost everything important to him. To see how far Gerald fell, just watch the cutscene in Shadow the Hedgehog where he instructs Shadow (via old video footage) to use the Eclipse Cannon for the good of humanity by destroying the Black Comet. All it took was the death of Maria for Gerald to go insane and completely alter his motives.
Shadow the Hedgehog also counts for this to a certain degree. The reason he's attempting to destroy humanity? Because he thought that his promise to Maria was for revenge.
What you see is what you get: Just a guy that loves adventure. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!
Worthy Opponent: Eggman displays a sudden spike in competence when he locks Sonic in a space pod and then fires it into space—and then blows it up for good measure. As he overlooks the explosion, Eggman solemnly declares Sonic an "admirable adversary."
Shadow had a similar reaction: When witnessing Sonic's seeming death, Shadow says "Looks like he was simply an ordinary hedgehog after all" with a tinge of disappointment. Curiously both Eggman and Shadow are somewhat nonchalent, even amused when realising he survived, Shadow even directly telling him he managed to impress him.
You Just Told Me: Eggman pulls a magnificent one on Tails and Sonic when they come to rescue Amy.
Eggman: "You thought you could trick me with that fake emerald, didn't you?"
Tails: "So... how did you know it wasn't the real one?"
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