YMMV / Sonic Adventure 2

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • All of Knuckles and Rouge's talk about "jewels" and "emeralds" can easily be taken for sexual jokes; this isn't helped by the fact that "Kick the Rock!", the BGM for Knuckles's Wild Canyon stage, contains intentional Intercourse with You^note "They wanna play with my emeralds?..." and "Yeah, Rouge, she's sexy and smooth/A double cross spy thief that's out for my jewels, uh!/I'm feelin' her in mysterious ways".
    Knuckles: Hands off my emeralds!
  • "Come and get some, Eggman!" The tone Sonic says this line in certainly doesn't help.
  • The music track for the final section of Cannon's Core is titled "Deep Inside Of...".
• Alternative Character Interpretation: G.U.N.'s motives for arresting Sonic are never established in the game, so whether they have honestly mistaken Sonic for Shadow or have more nefarious motives is unknown.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: SOAP, advertised extensively in-game and plugged again in the credits, is an actual brand: shoes meant to facilitate grinding on rails and similar surfaces as a sport. In fact, the grinding mechanic was introduced in this game as a form of Product Placement. Sadly, the brand was bought out within the year, and ultimately lost out to Heelies when their manufacturer bought it out a second time.
• Angst? What Angst?: Near the end of both the Dark and Hero stories, Dr. Eggman has Amy Rose at gunpoint and threatens to shoot her in the head if Sonic doesn't hand over the final chaos emerald. Despite the seriousness of the situation, when Sonic does arrive, he simply smiles and cracks a joke about Eggman "turning into a big time villain" before confidentially walking into the room. Granted, it's possible he's calling Eggman's bluff with the confidence that he knows something Eggman does not, but he still acts weirdly unfazed to the fact that his friend's life is being threatened right in front of him.
• Annoying Video Game Helper: Omochao, a Chao-esque robot with a penchant for stating the obvious. Sega had to have known how much the mecha twerp would annoy players, so it can be hit, thrown, and whatever else you can think of to shut it up, although sometimes it will chew you out for the abuse. Oh, and as if people didn't hate it enough already, Omochao's role was expanded in the HD remaster to include tips before levels, although at least he keeps its mouth shut in those cases. That being said, at least Omochao's tutorials are optional and don't intrude on the gameplay, and some of its placements actually turn out beneficial for certain situations, so this trope is downplayed compared to other examples (including some of its own appearances later on down the line).
• Ass Pull: Near the end of the Hero and Dark stories, Eggman manages to trap Sonic in a chamber and has him shot out of an airlock to plummet to Earth to his death. How does he get out of this? He performs Chaos Control with a fake Chaos Emerald. The fake emerald was made by Tails to mimic a real emerald's power signature, but it doesn't actually have the same output of power. Not only that, but Sonic only recently discovered what Chaos Control even is when he saw Shadow perform it, and the latter only performed it once in front of him. Yet, Sonic is somehow able to pull it off on his first attempt with no experience or knowledge on how to do it. To his credit, even he admits that he wasn't sure that he could pull it off.
• Awesome Levels:
  • City Escape, featuring Sonic boarding down the roads, grinding on rails, catchy music, and outrunning a giant truck. It was later remade for Sonic Generations, this time with the truck equipped with tint saw-blades.
  • Radical Highway is the be-all and end-all of highway-based Sonic stages. The music combines with getting to play as a Darker and Edgier Moveset Clone of Sonic who is bent on revenge. No wonder it was the representative for the Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Generations, as well as where you race Shadow.
  • Metal Harbor is another beloved level, perhaps on par with City Escape. The level has the most alternate pathways and exploration, the spaces are much wider, giving you the only time to breathe in the normally fairly narrow levels, it marks the spot where the player regains one of his most iconic items — the Light Speed Shoes, and there's a fast-paced timed dash to the missile before it ignites, and topping it all off, a quick but satisfying sequence where you drop dozens of feet below to a slope with the snowboard before hitting one last loop and colliding with the goal ring.
  • White Jungle is far and away the most polished out of all of Shadow's levels, with plenty of opportunities to chain enemy combos and secret paths to take that feel intuitive with the overall level design. The absolutely haunting background track adds to what is overall one of Shadow's best outings.
  • Pumpkin Hill is unanimously agreed to be the most enjoyable and well-designed treasure hunting level in the game, as it has plenty of areas for Knuckles to explore without being overwhelming like his other stages, and its memorable Big Boo's Haunt Halloween setting. And of course, it has one of the best and most memorable music tracks in the entire game.
  • Cosmic Wall is perhaps the most well-liked mech stage in the game, considering it gives Eggman plenty of breathing room, allows him to fly using his Jet Engine, has plenty of enemies to shoot to get a high score, and is sandwiched between the much more difficult Mad Space and Final Chase stages.
  • Final Rush, the final stage of the Hero side story, which has Sonic grinding multiple rails in a final push to stop the Eclipse Cannon. This level can be punishing due to its lack of footing, but do it right and it truly is a "rush" as you slide at the speed of sound through the space above the planet. The pumping music helps keep the intensity through the stage.
• Awesome Music: The game is widely agreed to have the single best soundtrack of any Sonic game. And considering the stiff competition in that regard, that's saying something.
  • "Live & Learn", the game's iconic main theme.
    Live and Learn! Hanging on the edge of tomorrow! Live and Learn, from the works of yesterday!
  • Sonic's theme, "It Doesn't Matter", previously appeared in the first game with an '80s rock sound. The sequel moves it forwards to the '90s with an awesome pop-punk remix.
  • The Ultimate Life Form also has the ultimate BGM: "Throw It All Away".
  • "E.G.G.M.A.N.", the theme of the eponymous Doctor.
  • "Fly In the Freedom", Rouge's theme.
    Fated! Not to be Tamed... Watch me! I'll never lean upon you...
  • "Escape from the City", the level tune to City Escape, Sonic's opening stage. It's considered to be the best song from any Sonic game, and one of the best video game songs ever. Period. There's a reason it's gotten so many official remixes.
  • Knuckles' levels are filled with rap songs with level- and story-appropriate lyrics
    • "A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup", the theme for Pumpkin Hill.
      I ain't gonna let it get to me, I'm just gonna creep / Down in Pumpkin Hill I gots to find mah lost piece...
    • "Deeper", Death Chamber's theme.
      This is Knuckles, and you have reached the Death Chamber! (Death Chamber, Death Chamber, Death Chamber...)
  • "I'm a Spy" is the theme of Security Hall, with a funky groove that sounds very "spy-like" and with enough urgency befitting the level's short time limit.
    Eggman: You've got 5 minutes, Rouge!
  • "Rhythm and Balance" plays during White Jungle, with a pulsating rhythm that feels like it's telling you to go as fast as you can to rescue Rouge.
    Oh yeah, hurry through the unexplored land / I'm not scared at all, are you scared of something?
  • "Masters of the Desert", the music for the boss battle against King Boom Boo. The Egg Golem has the same music, but with an added lead guitar line. The theme is packed with hope for the player and the boss, because of the tune and the guitar representing the hope of the player and the boss, respectively.
    Who's there...?
  • "34ºN, 12ºE", the theme for Mad Space. In line with the music of Rouge's other levels, it is a high-energy jazz piece, but this time with an off-kilter 7/8 groove representrative of the chaotic nature of the level.
  • "For True Story", the track that plays during the final Sonic/Shadow confrontation in the Hero and Dark Stories.
  • The Biolizard may be difficult, but the awesome theme music, "Supporting Me", makes up for it.
• Base-Breaking Character: Shadow. To some Sonic fans, Shadow is one of the best characters in the series for a cool design, interesting backstory, and being Darker and Edgier than Sonic in a way that made him more interesting. To others, Shadow is a superfluous Evil Counterpart who thematically has nothing in common with Sonic (unlike Metal Sonic) and his backstory is perceived as too dark for a kid-friendly franchise.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Shadow's introductory scene is positively operatic but has no justification in the plot or his character — nothing in Shadow's plan requires him to perch himself on a fallen mech and wax theatrical about a jewel containing the ultimate power, and he isn't even doing it for an audience, since he doesn't know who Sonic is or even that he's there at first — from the information the story gives us it's a Contrived Coincidence that Shadow and Sonic have even crossed paths at all.
  • The fight against King Boom Boo who, fittingly enough, also has big lips. He appears out of nowhere after Knuckles beats the Death Chamber, looks and sounds absolutely goofy, and has absolutely no bearing on the plot, not even getting mentioned in passing. About the only relation he has to anything in the game is that he's the King Mook of the Boo enemies in the mountain and pyramid areas.
• Breather Level:
  • While Meteor Herd is a hard level with a huge layout and sudden meteor strikes, it's nowhere near as hard as the levels it's sandwiched between. For Knuckles' stages in general, Meteor Herd is also a relief for players who had to deal with the ghosts, considering that Knuckles has three stages involving them (Pumpkin Hill, Aquatic Mine, and Death Chamber).
  • Cosmic Wall, which comes after the frustratingly difficult Mad Space, is a walk in the park. Even though it is extremely long and there are lots of enemies, the enemies rarely attack. Also, the weak gravity makes it practically impossible to die via Bottomless Pit. Finally, the level in general is really fun. Battle also increases the number of enemy targets to a much higher amount, resulting in the point threshold for an A rank being raised significantly from the original version^note seen here, this was most likely an act of rebalancing. On the downside, this level is followed by a battle against a very angry Tails, so if you miss the Protective Armor upgrade (which is found on this level^note on a platform during the fall before the first roller coaster segment), he will destroy you in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • White Jungle is a relatively short level with nothing too difficult, which is a huge relief coming off of Weapons Bed with its hard-hitting enemies and difficult platforming, and Security Hall with its strict 5-minute time limit.
• Broken Base:
  • Both non-Sonic gameplay styles have been brought under the divisive umbrella of "alternate gameplay" in the years since Sonic '06. Supporters of it say that the variety truly showed off the potential of the characters' abilities and was one of the best things about the game. Detractors say that the alternate gameplay was incredibly slow, completely unnecessary, and (nearly) dragged the game down if it weren't for the Action stages. There's also the thorny question of whether or not they represent an improvement over Adventure's. While Sonic and Shadow stages are pretty much unquestioned as the best, are the others genuinely bad, or are people just complaining because they have to play multiple styles at all?
    • Treasure Hunting is either seen as a fun diversion from the main Action gameplay with the ability to freely glide around and explore, or a tedious slog that takes too long, pads out the gameplay, and takes time away from Sonic levels. Is the nerfing of the emerald radar to focus the gameplay something that shoots the game in the foot, or does improved stage design partially make up for it?
    • Shooting is either a Catharsis Factor-filled romp with the ability to just blow up everything in sight, or again, another slow experience that doesn't belong in the game and, again, takes time away from Sonic levels. There's also the argument of whether or not they're better than their Gamma predecessors, with Gamma gampelay fans citing that he controls and turns faster and has a unique objective in his various boss fights, while fans of Tails/Eggman mech stages point out that Gamma is outright slippery while his counterparts have the weight a gun-shooting mech ought to, the stages are actually built to accommodate the playstyle rather than awkwardly placing a character in a shortened version of a stage built for Sonic, and that even though the playstyle is slower, it still has a chance to get fast if you can build up enough momentum.
    • Tails' gameplay is a particular sticking point in this debate, since he's been playable in other games but plays quite differently here, piloting a mech with an emphasis on shooting as opposed to the on-foot platforming he usually does. Supporters of this decision appreciate the Divergent Character Evolution that it gives Tails, emphasizing his own unique attributes and strengths as opposed to simply making his gameplay an easy mode counterpart to Sonic's. Opponents claim that it's simply too different from his usual play style, and that it's still derivative of other character's gameplay, namely Eggman's from this game and Gamma's from the preceding one.
  • In both of the aforementioned cases, even among fans of the styles there's a divide between those who preferred Adventure's takes on them and those in this game. Arguments in favor of Adventure's are listed below with They Changed It, Now It Sucks!, while those who prefer 2's takes on the concepts cite that they each have approximately twice the stage presence of the originals, which while fun in their own rights, were relegated to much shorter campaigns in stages, with a single exception in both cases, smaller segments of stages obviously designed primarily for Sonic rather than being built around the mechanics of the characters. While the nerfed emerald radar is a disliked feature, it aside, larger dedicated stages for emerald hunting are considered by many to allow for a greater challenge in seeking them out, while mech stages' own increased length and slower pace encourage racking up combos to earn high rankings rather than a rush to the end.
  • Fans are torn on what is the definitive way to play the game: Dreamcast or GameCube? This is made divisive by the fact the latter was a part of the early 2000s Newbie Boom, meaning many Sonic fans grew up on it. There's nothing game-breaking in the GameCube port, but there are numerous minor graphics issues (as seen in this video comparison). These include worse lightning effects, everyone being much darker toned than in the original, and many small details being removed. As a result, many see it as inferior to the Dreamcast version. Fans who prefer the GameCube port, however, say its Chao system and multiplayer improvements make it a superior Polished Port. The PC port is based on the GameCube version, but thanks to mods, one can Take a Third Option and restore a lot of graphical effects from the Dreamcast version.
• Camera Screw: The camera will sometimes pan out at the worst possible moments, such as in the outer-space levels.
• Can't Un-Hear It: For better or worse, it's a bit difficult nowadays to watch Eggman's destruction of the moon and not think of Real-Time Fandub's memetic interpretation of Eggman pissing on the moon.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • The massive supply of targetable enemies and objects in Weapons Bed and Cosmic Wall make it very fun to charge the homing laser as long as possible and watch the screen fill with explosions, tons of bonus points, and Eggman's amused little chuckle is very satisfying.
  • Throwing Omochao at enemies. Whether it's the first or hundredth time, anything to get him to stop talking and boy is it fulfilling! Hitting the real Chao in the gardens can prove to be quite a stress relief too to some people.
• Common Knowledge:
  • Quite a few people think that Eggman and/or Shadow intended to frame Sonic. In reality, that was never part of either one's plans: Shadow didn't even know who Sonic was, and Eggman's commentary on the news broadcast saying the authorities blamed Sonic for Shadow's crimes made it clear that he was surprised at the development.
  • Rouge has often been misremembered to be working for G.U.N. even as far back as her debut in this game, which has inadvertently led to accidental Fridge Logic regarding her part in the raid on Prison Island. In reality, Rouge is an agent of the president of the United Federation and his secretary; Rouge did not become an agent of G.U.N. itself until Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) — even in Shadow the Hedgehog, she's only a "government" agent.
  • "You can't get an A-Rank in the Treasure Hunt stages if you use any hints." Actually, no, A-ranks are perfectly possible using hints, even in the original Dreamcast version. The Treasure Hunt levels rely on your familiarity with the stage and your ability to therefore quickly traverse it and narrow the scope of your search, and the hints are a part of this — you'll get less points the more hints you use, but if you're fast enough it won't matter.
  • Many people believe Eggman's plan was to use the Eclipse Cannon to blow up Earth For the Evulz, when he really planned to use it as a deterrent against rebellion while he took over the world. He's even seen negotiating with the president of the United Federation on terms of surrender, specifically stating his plans to Nuke 'em if he doesn't comply.
  • With the announcement of the third Sonic movie that will be an adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2, many fans have joked that it will depict the scene where Maria was gunned down by G.U.N. officers — except the game didn't have this scene. While it's all but stated that this was her fate, it's never actually depicted on screen or said outright. The scene itself was actually depicted in Shadow the Hedgehog. That said, there's nothing preventing the film from depicting it anyway.
  • People often turn to Eggman's "Farewell Sonic, my admirable adversary" line when shooting Sonic into space as an admission of respect for his longtime foe. However, Eggman's own recap of the events (if the player continues before the fight against Tails) has him gloating, absolutely elated that he finally killed his arch-nemesis before turning his attention to Tails.
    Eggman: I'm Dr. Eggman, the greatest scientific genius in the world! Hahahahahaha! I finally did it! I've defeated Sonic! That annoying hedgehog is now gone forever! He's nothing but floating chunks in space now! What are you going to do now, Tails? If you are against me, you'll suffer the same fate as your buddy, Sonic.
  • Many people claim that the original Dreamcast version has a bug where, when you play as Eggman near the end of the game, he’ll fall through the floor over and over with no way to stop it. Thing is, this is actually an anti-piracy measure triggered when the game detects that it's not being played on an official disc, and it only became widely known as a “bug” due to how common it was to pirate Dreamcast games. While it is possible for legit copies to trigger this (usually if there are scratches near the center of the disc), it's much less common than people think.
  • One of Omochao's Dummied Out lines is "Did you know The Doctor's mustache is fake?". "The Doctor" is often assumed to be Dr. Eggman, but the corresponding line in Japanese reveals he was actually talking about "Doctor Chao", the principal of the Chao Kindergarten.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Giving Chao animals over Chaos Drives due to them increasing the points of a particular stat(s) about twice as much in exchange for slightly decreasing the points of another stat(s). Even then, stat levels themselves can't decrease, so the point decreases become nonexistent at a certain point.
  • Raising Chao in the Hero Garden because of an exploit where Chao get stuck on the pillar on the left side. This compliments another exploit where giving a Chao an animal or Chaos Drive a certain distance away from them grants them stat point increases without consuming said animal or Chaos Drive, allowing it to be used theoretically forever.
• Contested Sequel: While many consider this one of the best Sonic games ever, some don't like the level progression structure in comparison to the original, since the player is forced to cycle between multiple styles in the same story instead of choosing a playstyle along with the story. Some do like it as a way to streamline the story compared to the slower-paced Sonic Adventure, and others even appreciate the greater differences in gameplay between the characters. In general, the original Adventure had a better plot and a heavier focus on traditional "Sonic-style" gameplay, but this game is seen as having better level design, focus, and presentation.
  • Speed stages (Sonic and Shadow in 2, just Sonic's in 1) are a particular battleground for this, with both generally considered very good translations of Sonic's formula into 3D, but a divide on if the more open-ended design, in-level replication of the "act" structure, and instant Spin Dash of 1 or the tighter, more challenging design and improvements with other upgrades like the instant light dash and bounce bracelet of 2 make for stronger gameplay. Even the music gets in on this; while it's still Sonic music, and thus excellent, are 1's more variable and classic Sonic-inspired tunes better, or the more deliberate feel of 2's stages where every character has an associated genre and sound to their gameplay better soundtrack?
• Demonic Spiders: The Artificial Chaos. They have very fast attacks, only their head is vulnerable, and a few can reproduce or hide in their bodies to be invulnerable.
• Difficulty Spike:
  • The Hero Story has a huge one that begins at Death Chamber.
  • The Dark Story has one with Weapons Bed and Security Hall, with the former being filled with hard-hitting enemies that appear out of nowhere and difficult platforming sections, and the latter having a five-minute time limit, which pretty much requires knowing the level layout by memory to stand a chance.
  • The Treasure Hunt type stages feature the hardest of all three gameplay styles, since not only are they radically different from both the Action Race and Shooting Battle type stages (e.g., there's no goal-ring to get to), isolating the emerald shards quickly requires the player to be intimately familiar with the level layout, which is a steep learning curve for newcomers (even before you get to the rumor that you shouldn't be using hints at all if you want an A-rank).
  • While the Treasure Hunt stages can be tedious, they're rarely dangerous (Security Hall, with its sprawling layout and clear time limit, is a major exception). "Mission Street" and "Hidden Base," which take place in the middle of the Hero storyline, are good examples of how the Shooting Battle stages can devolve into grueling slogs through hard-hitting enemies, interspersed with high-risk platforming that Tails's and Eggman's mechs aren't built for. The mechs themselves are fragile, and their limited health is difficult to replenish (Eggman at least gets an armor upgrade, but Tails has no such luck).
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Chao, the adorable little creatures who debuted in SA1, soon ascended to this status after SA2B fleshed them out to a massive extent. There's a ridiculous amount of people who bought the game with the prime objective of/solely for raising them, and there are nearly as many members of the fandom begging for Sega to bring back Chao just the way they were in the Adventure series, not like the seriously diluted Chao garden minigames available on some of the newer titles.
  • Maria Robotnik is not much more than a Minor Major Character and Posthumous Character who doesn't appear much outside of a few flashbacks due to being dead and is barely explored in those flashbacks, on top of largely disappearing from the franchise after Shadow the Hedgehog. However, her cute design, an intriguing background, and being a Nice Girl who is the Token Good Teammate of the likewise villainous Robotnik family has gathered her plenty of fans and many Shadow-centric fanworks tend to explore her character in greater depth or even bring her back from the dead. It helps that the fact that she is barely explored upon makes her a popular O.C. Stand-in and source of Fanfic Fuel amongst fans.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Eggman takes the lead in this game. He takes out an army, succeeded in destroying half of the moon, and even came close to destroying Sonic for good!
  • Shadow too, though it's revealed later that he wasn't actually evil, still, is obviously qualified. He was the mastermind behind the plan and is Sonic's definite equal. See also Magnificent Bastard below.
• Fanfic Fuel: Shadow's time in the Space Colony ARK prior to Maria's death tends to be explored much more in-depth in fanfics compared to the games.
• Fan Nickname: Sonic's unique shoes in this game are officially dubbed the "2G Hi-Speed Shoes" by Sega, but most tend to simply refer to them as "Soap shoes" instead, since that's exactly what they are.
• Fanon: G.U.N. intentionally framing Sonic and using him as a scapegoat to cover up the release of Shadow is a common fan theory as to why G.U.N. arrested Sonic despite he and Shadow looking almost nothing alike. While this does make sense given G.U.N.'s morally ambiguous background, the game doesn't really hint at this being the case — indeed, Sonic believes it's a simple mistake.
  Sonic: The military has mistaken me for the likes of you!
• Franchise Original Sin: See the franchise page.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Sonic is this if you have acquired the Magic Hand and the Bounce Bracelet upgrades. For the Magic Hand, you can have the option to turn your enemies (except ghosts) into balls. For the Bounce Bracelet, this can be useful for the two Shadow boss fights and the Big Foot boss fight — for the former, just quickly defeat Shadow by repeatedly using the Bound Attack when you're close to him, and for the latter, you can bounce up high enough to home attack Big Foot. The Bounce Bracelet is also used often in speedruns and to a literal game breaking extent in tool-assisted speedruns.
  • In Battle, there is Metal Sonic and Amy, Chaos, and Tails' alternate costume for the racing, treasure hunting, and shooting modes respectively.
    • Metal Sonic: Lacks specials, but he moves much faster and jumps much higher than the rest of the 'hogs and he has an invincibility shield to boot.
    • Amy: She may be slow and can't jump high^note But this 'hog's one hell of a guy—er, girl!, but she gets her specials every 10 rings rather than 20, and her freeze doesn't lock her opponent in midair, meaning she can send them plummeting to their death. It's not uncommon for her to continuously kill you and freeze you into submission. She's also faster on rails than other characters.
    • Chaos Zero: He's also slow, but he can breathe underwater, has a radar that detects emeralds from further away, his punches all have a long reach, and his third special (Chaos Bind) freezes the opponent for a whopping 30 seconds! Add that to the fact it keeps the opponent frozen in place for as long as the Oxygen Meter goes, and Chaos Zero can use it for an extra-evil trick by activating it on them underwater.
    • Alt Costume Tails: No specials, but he moves at speeds that would make Sonic blink!
• Gateway Series: The GameCube port, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, played a key role in introducing many younger players to the franchise back in the early 2000s. Sonic games had previously been exclusive to Sega's hardware, so finally having a game on a Nintendo console gave many kids their first chance to experience the franchise.
• Genius Bonus:
  • In Dry Lagoon, Rouge's first stage, she immediately encounters a giant turtle held at gunpoint by two G.U.N. robots. Destroying the robots will have the turtle carry her to the second part of the stage as thanks. Just a random Video Game Caring Potential moment? No. It's also a reference to an old Japanese folktale.
  • The "Fortune Teller" in the Chao Kindergarten is a specific type of fortune teller called a "Seimei Handan" or "Onomancer", who specialize in names.
• Goddamned Bats: The ghosts. Seriously. They rarely pose a threat to the characters in the game and at best, they're just there to Jump Scare the players. They are especially annoying in Pyramid Cave, where Sonic has to go through a long corridor in a limited amount of time and there are ghosts all over the damn corridor that hold you in place and waste precious seconds.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • The Chao Key glitch in the digital port. It allows any of the main six to access any of the multiplayer stages.
  • Another glitch relating to the Chao is that if you place an animal or Chaos Drive in front of a Chao, you can keep giving the Chao the item an infinite amount of times. There's a spot next to a toppled pillar in the Hero Garden that prevents a Chao from moving and makes the glitch easier to abuse. Good for raising up your Chao's stats.
  • It's difficult but possible to set off a chain of glitches that allow the multiplayer characters to visit the Chao gardens.
  • Another one is during the first Sonic vs. Shadow fight where you can briefly tap the roll button, but for some reason, the animation doesn't play, yet still treats the character you're playing as as if they were still rolling, with invincibility frames and all, which results in a hilarious situation where the boss can't hurt you and actually gets damaged when they run into you.
  • If one leaves the game on for an extended period of time while in the Chao gardens, the Chao can get some Game-Breaker stats, get glitchy graphics, and otherwise evolve into otherwise impossible to obtain chao such as Tails, Amy, and Knuckles chao (the latter two of which were Dummied Out), and Omochao. However, their stats can be 0 or maxed out at 9999 at random as well.
  • Most Tool Assisted Speedruns make use of items in otherwise unintended ways to get through levels far faster than they ever should be able to.
  • The safe doors in Security Hall can be opened simply by Screw Kicking them, for whatever reason. It helps immensely, as the process of unlocking safes is otherwise quite time-consuming.
  • As Tails and Eggman, locking onto a bunch of enemies and whistling allows you to get the point bonus you would get for hitting the combo, without actually killing anything. For the G.U.N. robots that shoot several bombs at you, or lots of small enemies that pose no threat, you can easily rack up points for that A rank.
  • Tails and Eggman's Hover upgrades have a quirk where hovering as soon as possible after jumping gives the mech a bit more height that usual, often just enough to scale some walls intended to keep them out, which, when combined with the Hover's intended function, let them skip through large portions of their stages.
• Growing the Beard: Both versions of this game did a lot to improve the Chao system into the current one that cemented the creatures' status as Ensemble Darkhorses. The introduction of Hero and Dark Chao aside, the Dreamcast release added Chaos Drives that allow the fine-tuned raising of stats, the ability to remove animal parts with ease, the Chao Kindergarten to give Chao new talents and as a way of keeping old animal talents as toys and instruments, Chao races were massively expanded upon to give a wide range of challenges, offer a plethora of new toys for Chao to use and fix the cheering mechanic, seeds to plant more trees from the Chao Adventure 2 minigame on the VMU, and the ability to buy special fruits, hats, and several dozen new colours of Chao eggs from the Black Market^note however, this feature was an online one that gave away more things as the player collected more Emblems in the Dreamcast version, while it was made an in-game feature using Rings as currency in Battle; while Battle on the GameCube gave players the ability to see a Chao's stat proficiency and name them in-game, connect with Sonic Advance's Tiny Chao Garden to offer new fruits and more jewel-tone Chao, and more easily transfer Chao between memory cards, as well as added a new competition in the form of Chao Karate.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The trailer for the Hero Story mentions Shadow's release from Prison Island causing "an increase in worldwide terrorist activities". This line becomes quite disturbing upon learning that Sonic Adventure 2 came out three months before 9/11.
  • The phrase "weapons of mass destruction" already seems a bit out of place in a kid's game, but it feels quite different in light of how frequently that phrase was used in the lead-up to the Iraq War.
• He Really Can Act: While the voice acting in general is hit-and-miss at best, Marc Giagi's performance as Professor Gerald perfectly captures his grief, rage, and insanity.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Remember the introductory movie of the remaster? Shadow and Sonic did face each other, but never in Radical Highway... until the Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Generations. Especially noteworthy considering the beginning of the very same boss battle has a different Shout-Out in the home console version, in that the intro movie is referenced by Sonic and Shadow's Mirrored Confrontation Shot; however, the battle itself takes place outside Space Colony ARK.
  • A major area of the game is Prison Island. The area has several levels on both sides before it's blown up, but despite that, just the name "Prison Island" will make some Xenoblade Chronicles 1 fans laugh.
  • The whole plot counts. Let's see: The black and red "edgy" character was created as a part of a Mad Scientist's experiments, and is later abandoned by them. They later find a rival in the character with blue motifs, whose abilities match their own. Eventually, it turns out that the Mad Scientist wants to get rid of all of humanity, which climaxes in a battle in space with a Golden Super Mode that ends with a Heroic Sacrifice. The spoilers wouldn't need to be tagged if not for the fact that they're major plot twists for another work.
  • There's many comparisons to Mega Man Zero. A mad scientist who is behind everything bad takes control of a satellite with a death laser to force global surrender and after being defeated by the resident stoic anti-hero with a red motif, he fuses with the satellite to crash it on earth. Forcing the anti-hero to stay behind to make sure he is dead for real, only to get himself killed in the explosion. Said anti-hero also woke up after a long sleep in stasis, has altered or half-forgotten memories that periodically come back to him, a young, innocent girl he loved dying which breaks his idealism, was created by the current mad scientist's predecessor to destroy humanity, only to save it, and has a blue rival boss. Better still, this time said blue rival is actually a fake copy.
  • In the Crazy Gadget stage, Eggman says "You're too slow!" if Sonic takes more than four minutes to reach the final room. Fast forward to Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Sonic says this in one of his taunts, making this to be one of the infamous memes.
  • "Chao Karate" was added to Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Sonic and the others would partake in Karate in Mario and Sonic 2020!
  • There would be another game released in 2001 that would introduce a different King Boo.
  • At the start of the game, Sonic gets mistaken for his Criminal Doppelgänger who has the word "Shadow" in his name. The same would happen to his rival Mario just a year later. Both titles also feature said doppelganger framing the protagonist for a crime and getting them thrown in prison (though unintentionally in Shadow's case), forcing them to spend the rest of the game clearing their name.
  • At one point in the Last Story, the Master Emerald has somehow shrunk to fit in Knuckles' hand. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) would depict the Master Emerald at that scale.
• Ho Yay:
  • When Knuckles asks a dazed Sonic if he's okay, there's a lingering glance and looks to set up an Almost Kiss between the two. Plus, Knuckles reaching out to stop Sonic as he speeds out of there with a Chaos Emerald.
  • The last story. Sonic and Shadow are preparing to go into their super forms to fight the Biohazard and save the earth. Knuckles watches them, transfixed in awe... with the most vacant expression ever on his face.
• Hype Backlash: Back when this game was first released and a few years after, it was considered the best of the 3D Sonic games due to its different styles of play and its surprisingly complex plot. Nowadays, those are the exact reasons people call this game overhyped and nowhere near as good as it was touted. Sonic Unleashed's non-werehog gameplay is seen as a better example of a "proper" 3D Sonic title today, though whether this game or its immediate predecessor did a better job with the 3D gameplay of the time is up for debate.
• Inferred Holocaust:
  • Eggman, Shadow, and Rouge almost completely destroy Prison Island with explosives, but the story ignores any human casualties. The pilot of the Flying Dog mech that Rouge fights is almost certainly dead.
  • It's been noted by multiple people that Eggman destroying half of the Moon with the Eclipse Cannon would have severe repercussions on earth's tidal shift, notably causing most coastlines to be washed away, but nothing of the sort is shown or even hinted at.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: What many people are accusing the HD version of the game on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC due to being a straight port of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle with Battle's extra content grated off as DLC similarly to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of Sonic Adventure.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Rouge is a government agent.
  • Gerald Robotnik went insane with grief after the ARK raid and became an Omnicidal Maniac.
  • Shadow's real goal is to crash the ARK into the earth in accordance with Gerald's plans… until he makes a Heel–Face Turn and performs a Heroic Sacrifice to stop it.
  • In a meta sense, the existence of a Last Story mode that nullifies the apparent big bad in favor of the real one. Unlike the last game (where the only playable "evil" character was barely evil at all), the marketing for this one heavily emphasized the ability to be good or evil, and that your choice was valid either way (and that both endings were canon). This trend would go on to define many more games afterwards, to the point that savvy players would pretty much assume such a thing was coming any time they were offered multiple characters or storylines.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • A large number of people who bought Battle have admitted that they only did so to raise Chao.
  • Many play the game only for the Sonic and Shadow stages, considering them to be the only enjoyable part of the game.
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • You didn't really think Sonic died in that exploding capsule, did you?
  • Even before it became well known due to It Was His Sled, did you really think that Eggman would get to destroy the Earth?
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Shadow the Hedgehog was an Ultimate Lifeform that lost his best friend Maria and his creator Prof. Gerald Robotnik when they were killed by the government. Imprisoned but eventually released by Gerald's grandson, Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik, Shadow enacted a plan to destroy all of humanity as revenge. Playing on Eggman's ego and his grandfather's legacy, Shadow manipulated the doctor into gathering Chaos Emeralds, misdirecting everyone into thinking it was for powering a Kill Sat. This diverted everyone's attention from his real plan of performing a Colony Drop. He even manages to expose Rouge as a government agent. Shadow's plan is only foiled because Amy Rose helps him remember Maria's final request for Shadow to protect the people of earth and so he decides to help stop his own scheme, almost sacrificing himself. Shadow, in his first appearance, was as devious as Sonic villains come and even as a hero is one of the franchise's most competent characters.
  • Rouge the Bat is a government agent with a hobby of thieving, whose skills are unmatched. First trying to steal the Master Emerald, Rouge then infiltrates the inner circle of Dr. Eggman and partners with Shadow the Hedgehog to acquire the Chaos Emeralds, stealing Emeralds all while secretly working against Eggman's plots and uncovering the truth about the conspiracy behind Shadow. When Earth is in danger, Rouge's quick-witted brilliance creates a plan to save the world from the dangerous Finalhazard. Rouge proves brilliant time and again, whether serving the government or committing crimes for her own entertainment. Never truly on any side but her own, Rouge always follows her belief that all the world's gems are hers to keep, no matter the challenge in taking them.
• Memetic Molester: The boos from Pyramid Cave often grab a character from behind, often referred to as the "rape ghosts".
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "We all did it together!"
  • Hi, I'm Omochao! I'm here to help you!
    • Be careful not to fall!
    • Keep your health meter above zero!
  • "Rolling around at the speed of sound!"
  • "Faker? I think you're the fake hedgehog around here!"
    • "You're comparing yourself to me? Ha! You're not even good enough to be my fa-" "I'llmakeyoueatthosewords!"
  • "Blows up...?!"
  • All of the songs in Knuckles' stages, though Pumpkin Hill deserves special mention owing to its status in recent years as the unofficial anthem of Halloween.
  • Eggman's Chao garden lines were not translated out of Japanese for the international language modes. "Yosh...", what he says when petting a Chao, happens to be particularly funny for many.
  • "Sheesh! There always seems to be a lot of police around when you don't need 'em!"
• Misaimed Fandom: From this game onward, some have interpreted Eggman's admiration for his late grandfather Gerald as the core reason why he decided to Take Over the World — the idea being that Eggman wants to avenge Gerald's legacy and retaliate towards humanity for betraying and executing him despite how much Gerald did for them, and him losing respect for his grandfather once learning that he posthumously attempted to destroy the world after going insane has also led some to even believe that he truly has some good in his evil heart deep down. However, the game also has him mostly be interested in his grandfather's work and the potential to use it for his own purposes, has him repeatedly preach about how he's going to start a legacy of being the world's greatest mind and ruler of all time without any reference to Gerald, typically references Gerald as his grandfather whenever it feeds his ego, and it's most likely that his admiration for Gerald is exclusively regarding his prowess as a fellow genius scientist as opposed to anything humanitarian or familial (as Eggman would probably be aware that a Gerald of sound mind would not approve of what he does to further his goals), with his own pragmatism or logic likely being why he lost respect for his grandfather — along with the very fact that he would've died as part of Gerald's scheme. For most of the franchise's history before and after this game, it's all but stated that his main reason for wanting to rule the world no matter what happens to it is to continue to feed his ego and improve it in whatever way he sees fit.
• Narm:
  • In the English dub, the voice acting often overlaps itself. Somebody's lines will suddenly and mercilessly override someone else, or even another of their own lines. Interviews years later would clarify that the voice director didn't bother syncing up the characters' lip flaps to the English vocals. It shows.
    • Sonic vs Shadow 1's introductory banter. The hedgehogs argue over who is the fake one, then Sonic interrupts and rushes through Shadow's line, referring to the sentence Shadow didn't finish!
    • Upon seeing Shadow first use Chaos Control, Sonic interrupts his own line.
  • Occasionally, the VAs go into complete and total monotone. Particular stickouts include a few of Tails' lines and Knuckles' near-robotic "Hand over the Master Emerald, give them to me."
  • Shadow's "I'm the coolest!" line when you first land a hit on him in the first fight. The more you play through the game, the more out-of-character it sounds for him (his Japanese line was "Huh, interesting...", which fits him a lot more).
  • Eggman gets a touching scene in the end in which he opens up about how much his grandfather inspired him to become a great scientist, but now questions his admiration after his plan to destroy the world was revealed. And then Tails proceeds to ruin the moment with a generic, Non Sequitur "We all did it together!"
  • Any scene with Knuckles in it becomes this once you get all his upgrades, what with the Hammer Glove/Shovel Claw combo giving him oversized hands, and the Air Necklace and Sunglasses making him look like he's trying to be cool, combine to make Knuckles look more ridiculous than he ever has before. As Sonic Shorts put it:
    Omochao: You got: a serious spinal condition from carrying so much junk!
  • The scene we're supposed to take seriously of Knuckles saving Rouge from falling to her death. The problem is that Rouge is a bat, with wings. (And you just finished a boss fight in which the same pit releases enough updraft that it's impossible to fall into in the first place)
  • Due to how the English dub reads, Tails apparently got all of his intel on a top secret military prison from a public news broadcast. The area is meant to be a highly restricted area.
  • Shadow's entrance into the story features him delivering a short and pensive monologue on the chaos emerald he's obtained... except he deliberately perches himself on top of the Big Foot robot Sonic just destroyed and strikes a pose during it.
  • After Knuckles stops the Chaos Emerald-induced Colony Drop, the seemingly defeated Biolizard uses Chaos Control to merge with the Eclipse Cannon and keep the ARK on its crash course toward Earth as the Finalhazard. Super Sonic and Shadow go out in space to stop it... whereupon the player is treated to the sight of the lizard with the Eclipse Cannon essentially shoved up its ass as the Final Boss. Sonic X made its fusion look a lot less awkward.
  • The scene of Sonic and Shadow turning into their super forms loses its intended impact when you have the two hedgehogs shaking their fists while the emeralds circle them, making it look like they're trying to see who can jerk off the hardest. Then, when the transformation happens, all their upgrades you've obtained for both of them throughout the game suddenly disappear, because they never bothered to account for the upgrades for their super forms.
  • During the mission briefing on Prison Island, Rouge seems to be trying to wink seductively, but her eyelids aren't animated properly, so she just looks like a goofy drunk.
  • The scene where Eggman watches a news broadcast and discovers Shadow's theft of the chaos emerald and his subsequent framing of Sonic. It's supposed to be a major plot point explaining why the military was after Sonic at the beginning of the Hero Story, but any seriousness of the scene is immediately taken away by the very exaggerated and obviously fake British accent of the news reporter, along with the camera zooming in right onto Shadow's face, yet everyone still thinks it's Sonic.
    • Eggman also scratches his ass while watching the scene unfold, which makes things even harder to take seriously.
• Narm Charm:
  • The rap songs that play during Knuckles' stages combine this with Awesome Music.
  • The same goes for the City Escape theme, which has become ingrained into Sonic fans' minds in spite of its utterly ridiculous lyrics and cheesy instrumentation. Jun Senoue seems to enjoy writing awesome music with cheesy lyrics, and then making it work.
  • A lot of the English dialogue is not good due to the game cutting out the sentences, since Adventure 2 is made with the Japanese dialogue in mind. That said, Sonic's dialogue in Shadow's boss battle was unintentionally changed from "I'll use your technique — Chaos Control!" to "I'll use your Chaos Control", which is quite a Badass Boast on itself.
  • Similarly, Sonic interrupting Shadow's taunt before he can finish with "I'll make you eat those words" is so appropriate for someone as impatient as him that many players thought it was intentional.
  • The fight against the Finalhazard can be a bit ridiculous, if not flat-out humorous, since you're fighting a giant mutated, laser-blasting lizard creature with a Faceship's nose shoved up its butt. But that's okay, because "Live and Learn" is blaring in the background. And Shadow and Sonic have both teamed up to fight this beast in their Super forms. And you're in outer space.
• Never Live It Down: Sonic only calls Shadow a "faker" once as an insult, but due to the memorability of said exchange, fanfiction involving them usually makes it an Insult of Endearment that the two have no problem calling each other by. Promoted Fanboy Ian Flynn also had a hand in the insult becoming a nickname in the Archie comic book series.
• Older Than They Think: King Boom Boo predates King Boo, who debuted in Luigi's Mansion a few months after Adventure 2. That being said, the concept of a "King Boo" first appeared in Super Mario World, but those were only known as "Big Boos" and weren't suggested to be royalty.
• Once Original, Now Common:
  • Sonic Adventure 2 made a spectacular impact in its heyday, kickstarted a Newbie Boom for the Sonic fanbase, and introduced several iconic elements. But the game has also been divisive, and seen various waves of Hype Backlash. Its detractors cite it as the origin point for many of the flaws that would plague its successors: A narrower focus on executing quick actions through more linear level design, the sound balancing flaws, and the glaring plotholes in the story. SA2 remains a love-it-or-hate-it game: To some, it's a legendary and influential Sonic game that still holds up. To others, it's a clunky relic of the 2000s that hasn't aged well.
  • The inclusion of a 3D version of Green Hill Zone as a reward for getting all 180 emblems in the game. When the game first came out this was quite the treat since it was the first time Green Hill had been seen in an official capacity since the original game and was a nice anniversary gift for the series. Nowadays, Green Hill has been used so many times in various games that fans were celebrating whenever it didn't show up.
• Paranoia Fuel: The ghosts in Pumpkin Hill, Aquatic Mine, and Death Chamber. Some of them are invisible and don't reveal themselves until after you get close to them, at which point they'll pop out in your face and grow very large before dissipating. They're scattered randomly throughout these levels, and you have absolutely no way to detect them, although some can be behind the walls, objects, on the ground, etc.
• Pop Culture Holiday: When Rouge is asking Shadow about the Ultimate Life Form, the files she's holding state that the experiment to create the prototype of the Ultimate Life Form, the Biolizard, began on January 27th. Because of this, the Biolizard is regularly wished a happy birthday when that date rolls by in the real world.
• Popularity Polynomial: Sonic Adventure 2 started off phenomenally received, seeing some criticism later on, then rising in praise in full force alongside much of the rest of the 2000s' Sonic's output as fans grow tired of how safe the 2010s so frequently played it. Many fans can appreciate the gameplay styles for what they are, missing when characters other than Sonic were able to take significant roles in stories, and appreciate the narrative for being, if full of Narm Charm at points, unabashedly earnest when, since the advent of Sonic Colors, a growing contingent of the fanbase has grown exhausted with overreliance on ironic, self-deprecating tones and lazy storytelling.
• Replacement Scrappy: Tikal's guiding successor Omochao is pretty much the equivalent of Navi in the Sonic universe — small, needlessly and annoyingly helpful and damn-near unavoidable at times, especially when you start losing against a boss multiple times. He's also got a grating voice and his tirades can go on for ages at times. Things got worse when his prominence escalated in future games and the HD remaster, where he can now appear before the start of a level. Thankfully, the devs appeared to predict this would happen and also made him an object which you can hurt, pick up, throw and use as a weapon, complete with him breaking, albeit momentarily.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The radar in hunting levels only detects one object at a time. The previous game worked on all three objects at once, and had more detection levels too. Also, due to Sonic Adventure 2's levels being very large and the emerald locations being randomly generated, it can result in running up and down the level, struggling to find that emerald shard.
  • The action/platforming characters' abilities are all mapped to one button. All of them. Each with a specific timing and means to activate it; but multiple timings can occur simultaneously with the running characters. So, when you approach a bottomless pit with a trail of rings, one of two things can happen: Either your light speed dash will kick in and you'll fly through the path of rings, or your somersault will kick in and careen Sonic/Shadow down a pit. You can also stop what you're doing and cycle/be sure you're on the right ability unless you're doing a time attack or another stage where you don't have that luxury. It can make those stages a pain.
    • The same thing can happen in the Chao garden; there's nothing like trying to pick up/pet a Chao and accidentally somersaulting into it and upsetting it instead. Battle alleviated some of these problems by making Sonic and Shadow unable to somersault and Spin Dash in the Chao gardens, and mapped the other characters' attack prompts to the Y button cycle.
  • Each of the Chao gardens have a different rate at which gradual evolution occurs. It's higher than normal in the Hero Garden, but practically nonexistent in the Dark Garden which means that most Chao living there won't finish second evolution by the time they die.
  • During Chao races, Chao have a random chance of tripping while running. This can occur at any time, and there's no way to prevent it or predict when it will happen, meaning it's entirely possible to be neck and neck with another Chao only to lose at the last possible second because your Chao decided to trip at the very end of the race, thus forcing you to redo the entire race all over again from the beginning. The only saving grace is your opponents can also trip, thus giving your Chao a huge lead, but it's still entirely up to luck whether it leads to a win or a loss.
• Scrappy Weapon: The Magic Hands upgrade for Sonic. It can encase enemies in a small sphere, which can be thrown. In an action game about keeping the speed going, the upgrade is essentially pointless. Not helping the fact that you have to be right next to the enemy to use it.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Try beating Knuckles' section in Cannon's Core without the Air Necklace.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: Not necessarily harder but considerably more annoying, the radar in the hunting stages was changed from Sonic Adventure so that it only detects each item in sequence as opposed to all three simultaneously. This means that you could be very close to the second item but because you haven't collected the first, you'd never know it.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: The Chao gardens, to the point where you could rename the trope Sidetracked by Chao. The gardens feature more thematic differences, the affection and behavior mechanic has been expanded upon, the shop is much, much larger and more varied in content, plenty of fair if challenging races requiring both Hero and Dark Chao to be raised to enter, etc. Indeed, most of the game's longevity comes from grinding for rings to buy and raise a cuddly lil' moe blob of your own. This was so popular in fact, that cries of returning them to the games/making stand-alone gardens and chao have been requested even to this day.
• Signature Scene:
  • The start of the Hero Story; Sonic arrives In Medias Res, busts out of a military helicopter while making quips about low budget flights, and plummets thousands of feet to the city below. He then proceeds to snowboard away from military pursuit while the incredibly catchy "Escape from the City" plays. It's considered a character-defining moment for Sonic and one of the most memorable sequences in the entire series, to the extent that it was reprised in Sonic Generations.
  • The cutscene prior to the first Sonic vs. Shadow fight, due to its highly quotable and Memetic dialogue.
• Signature Song: "Live and Learn", the main theme of the game and the background music for the True Final Boss, is one of the most iconic songs not just for this game but for the entire Sonic series. It was later used to reveal Sonic for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and was the final song played in the 30th anniversary symphony.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The Chao garden system in the HD ports introduced a new glitch with rendering on Shiny two-tone Chao, referred as the "Bright Chao" glitch, which causes their bodies to shine incredibly brightly instead of their original color tones with a shinier sheen. Some Shiny Jewel Chao also don't render correct and may appear completely invisible. Other issues with the Chao garden system with the HD ports also includes planted trees rendering miniscule and floating mid-air.
  • A majority of the story cutscenes in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and its HD ports suffer from various problems, ranging from missing or poorly re-created visual effects, loss in colors or effects, inconsistently going from widescreen to 4:3 in some scenes that involved video effects in the HD ports, and errors with Amy's character models that include misaligned head or eyes and textures problems. A comparison of these problems can be seen in this video.
  • The later HD ports suffers from object and character model issues that the Dreamcast and GameCube version didn't have, such as shading problems (e.g. Sonic's and Shadow's character models have a mustache-like shading error around their mouths), rendering issues (e.g. missing details on Tails and Eggman's mechs, Rouge's Treasure Scope), and some lighting effects being completely missing like in Iron Gate and Lost Colony, losing the dark atmosphere those stages had.
  • The GameCube versions had some sound mixing problems, but the HD ports managed to make it even worse with sound effects blurring out so loudly that it drowns out voice-overs or other effects during gameplay or story scenes.
• That One Boss:
  • Egg Golem with Eggman is pretty annoying too, and it doesn't help that unlike Sonic who can jump out of the quicksand if he falls in, the much heavier Dr. Eggman will instantly sink and cost you a life (Eggman's battle DOES add stable platforms down there to avoid it, but it's pretty easy to miss those, even when hovering). Not to mention that, unlike Sonic, who is smaller, faster, and can take multiple hits (as long as you pick up your rings), Eggman is bigger, slower, and has a limited health bar as well. Also the Golem is malfunctioning after Sonic defeats it, so Dr. Eggman has to deal with it being considerably faster and more erratic with its attacks and movements.
  • The second Tails vs. Eggman battle. The level has no rings, meaning no regaining health, and your enemy will pull out special attacks that do massive damage are extremely hard to dodge with the slow character you use. The version when fighting as Eggman becomes a Breather Boss if you got the Protective Armor upgrade in Cosmic Wall, but doing so as Tails is harder since Eggman has the effects of the Protective Armor upgrade and thus take even less damage where as Tails as a boss just uses the missile upgrade which won't have any real noticeable advantages against you.
  • Even the final boss fight in the Hero and Dark stories between Sonic and Shadow can be this. Not only is the rival hedgehog fast and hard to hit, but if he's behind you he will always use Chaos Control, disappear and then reapppear soon enough, and if you're too far away from him he'll use his special attack, which can be extremely annoying. Making matters even worse is that it's a stealth Time-Limit Boss, as unlike the True Final Boss, which explicitly says that there's a time limit, nothing says in the game that the seemingly infinite trail will end and make your character fall into space if you take over ten minutes to defeat the rival.
  • The penultimate boss Biolizard is noted for being extremely hard. It rotates at just the wrong speed so Shadow will either run into its mouth or get tail-slapped. For the last hit, it triggers a Gravity Screw with some Depth Perplexion so Shadow will collide with several bubbles whose depth is almost impossible to determine. It's even worse in the Dreamcast version, which has a glitch where getting tailslapped can knock Shadow into the water and kill him instantly. It got a well-deserved nerf when it returned for Sonic Generations (the Nintendo 3DS's actual visual 3D helped, too).
  • The following battle with the Finalhazard can be just as bad, partly due to its randomly spawning weak spots and somewhat finicky controls. Added to a 5-minute limit, hard-to-avoid lasers and orbs that throw you back, Rings that drain so fast that you'll worry more about them than the actual time limit, and you get a final battle that, while extremely epic, can also be a source of frustration.
• That One Level:
  • The Hard Mode version for Egg Quarters. Only two keys are located inside each cages while the other key is buried behind a painting blocked by some cages. This requires you to get a bomb from the monkey robots, place it close to the cage, and let it destroy it. You would have to get close enough to the bomb to pick it up or else kicking it will cause damage. And as if the Egg Beetle robots were bad enough, there will be no green lights to warn you of their arrival and you have to take cover in the shadows.
  • Metal Harbor on its own is quite short and simple; A-ranking it is where you'll find trouble. The only way to actually earn enough points for the A-rank is to reach the topmost handle of the missile. The time limit before the missile launch is very strict, and failing to grab onto the missile in any way counts as a death.
  • Security Hall and Mad Space are this for the treasure hunting levels due to the sheer size of the worlds, the bad clues given and, in the case of the former, the five-minute time limit. It doesn't help that in Mad Space, some of the hints you get are reversed not just in text, but also in meaning.^note For example: if they say above, they actually mean below. Worst of all, not all of them are reversed, meaning you might have to spend time going through the whole stage just to find them.
  • The driving missions where you cannot hit the wall or any of the other cars, mainly because of the dodgy controls and how it almost seems like the cars are trying to specifically hit you in those missions. Thankfully, the civilian cars do not appear in the mission where you have to avoid contact with the guardrails.
  • The Hard Mode version of Pyramid Cave. Not only there will be more ghosts attempting to grab you in the first and second corridors, but you also have Boom Boos who will get in your way (and there will be a few Jump Scare boos, too). In addition, there is the section where you would have to take the second key to unlock the second corridor. Instead of jumping up the platforms, you have to stand on the metal boxes and throw them to the next platform. You'll also have to avoid the robots shooting you.
  • Knuckles can have it almost as bad with Death Chamber and Meteor Herd (almost only being because his stages lack any of the infuriating gimmicks of Rouge's). The former can have several rooms where the radar doesn't go off until you go to another room entirely, while Meteor Herd is yet another huge space level like Mad Space.
  • For the shooting levels, there is Eternal Engine. In Tails' two previous levels (Mission Street and Hidden Base), you used dynamite to create platforms and reveal paths. In this level, the dynamite is placed on hatches in several rooms. Should you shoot a dynamite pack, the hatch it is on will open and act as a vacuum trying to suck you into space. Dynamite can also be found on walkways, creating new gaps that you must hover over should you accidentally shoot it. In Hard Mode, this level's difficulty is taken up to eleven with many more enemies, lots of more dynamite, and small platforms replacing almost all of the large platforms. It's pretty much the opposite of Cosmic Wall, and a microcosm of people's complaints about shooting stages as a whole.
  • Crazy Gadget, due to the element of Gravity Screw and the maze-like final section where a single wrong move can lose a life. Hard Mode makes it even worse due to the exploding variety of the Artificial Chaos enemy being everywhere. Also, Hard Mode requires you to pull off some insane stunts over bottomless pits and go through the maze-like section at the end at least twice to find a very well-hidden switch that unlocks the goal ring.^note There are several shortcuts that make this section easier and reduce the number of times you have to repeat the maze. On the plus side, even if you die and have to restart from the second checkpoint, it is still possible to A-rank the mission from there if you play through the rest of the level well enough, though that's no easy task.
  • Final Rush and Final Chase for Sonic and Shadow, respectively. The former is frustrating because it's filled with grind rails that you have to precisely jump on, or else you end up falling to your fiery death (which is easy to do if you're going too fast). The latter is frustrating because it's filled with pillars that make Shadow spin around (which many players have criticized for being wonky or glitchy) and for having several Artificial Chaos, some of which you have to bounce off of just to get to one of said pillars; and you will have to avoid hitting the meteors. It's worse for the Hard Mode version for the latter as there will be more meteors you'll have a hard time avoiding and Artificial Chaos being more aggressive in attacking you when you try to bounce off of them to get to the pillars.
  • Cannon's Core. You play as every character, all in a row — in order, you play as Tails, Eggman, Rouge, Knuckles, and Sonic, with Shadow taking on the boss. And each character's segment is roughly the size of an average stage on its own. There are very few checkpoints, quite a few annoying puzzles and mechanics, Artificial Chaos galore, and if you lose all your lives before finishing all five segments, you have to do it all over again. Also, God forbid you try to go through Knuckles' section without the Air Necklace, because the timing in the underwater sections is so tight without it that it may as well be a Self-Imposed Challenge.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Some people disliked the new mech stages and treasure hunting stages, compared to how E-102's and Knuckles' stages were handled in Adventure.
    • E-102's stages had the "race against the clock" element to them, where you were on a timer and shooting enemies added onto your time. This encouraged speeding through the level while shooting stuff along the way, which meant your progression was rarely halted by having to blow stuff up that stopped you. Also, the levels felt more open, Gamma was (relatively) fast, and it used the usual rings to protect you instead of an HP bar. All of this made E-102's stages match up more with the style of Sonic's while putting its own spin on things, rather than being forced into a slow, clunky character navigating through cramped corridors. (Cosmic Wall nonwithstanding.)
    • The treasure hunting stages between the two games remained pretty much the same, but with a big exception: The Emerald Radar. In Adventure, the radar not only detected all 3 Emeralds at once, it was also more sensitive and complex than Green to Yellow to Red. This simplistic design made digging Emeralds very annoying to track down in particular, although Battle remedied this by adding a '!' over your character's head when you were right on top of the Emerald. Also, the levels in Adventure never got anywhere near as big or maze-like as Knuckles' later stages, and Rouge's Mad Space.
  • For all the improvements Battle made to the Chao system, there was one thing that they dialed back on: The Hero and Dark Gardens. In the original, the Hero Garden had a river and a bridge, although the pool was at least made bigger in Battle to compensate (and shallower so Tails wouldn't drown). The Dark Garden really got the shaft, because it lost both its cave and the big winding hill, so now it hardly stands out from the regular garden outside of aesthetics. The reason for this change is unknown, but its possible it was either so the player could find their Chao easier, or so the Chao could navigate the garden easier, as their pathfinding leaves a lot to be desired. (To see this in action, try giving your Chao a tree seed and see how long it takes for them to find a planting spot.)
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The game never explores how Eggman feels about his cousin and grandfather being killed by the government; in fact he doesn't seem to care at all despite allegedly having a great amount of respect for his grandfather. The whole plot is just about Shadow and his feelings. It's a shame, as it could have worked as a great Freudian Excuse for Eggman's behaviour throughout the series.
  • The game never explores why G.U.N. actually went after Sonic; Sonic merely concludes they must have mistaken him for Shadow. Shadow himself also implies there could be a hidden motivation behind G.U.N. pursuing Sonic, but that also goes nowhere.
• Tough Act to Follow:
  • Despite some of its faults, Sonic Adventure 2 is one of the most beloved stories of the entire series, especially to those who grew up with it. The later entries have trouble topping it, either trying to capture the magic and failing or going for a lot more of a comedic, light-hearted bent.
  • This game set an unusually high water-mark for certain characters that follow-ups would fail to live up to. Thanks to this game being so widely known, these portrayals tend to be much better-regarded and more popular than later appearances.
    • Knuckles never once grabs the Idiot or Conflict Ball (at worst, he understandably panics when the Master Emerald shards are sent flying into space), the lyrics of his stage music lend him a rarely seen introspective side, and Scott Dreier's low-key performance makes him sound rightly exasperated with Rouge's exasperating behavior. Later portrayals of Knuckles being gullible, not to say stupid, are Truer to the Text of Sega of Japan's original concept of Knuckles but make him come across as if he Took a Level in Dumbass.
    • Tails is unambiguously a peer and ally of Sonic's rather than his Kid Sidekick — he orchestrates rescues and counter-Eggman strategies, makes the jump from the Captain Crash he was in Adventure to piloting a fully-functional Transforming Mecha (which he built himself), creates an Effective Knockoff Chaos Emerald, and even goes toe-to-toe with Eggman — now Tails' rival — all by himself. Later games would notably reinstall the Sidekick Glass Ceiling and position him as a distinct second-fiddle next to Sonic.
    • Amy also makes a better showing here than she does in later games, despite not being playable. She's competent enough to get to Prison Island all on her own, bust Sonic out of his cell by herself, and plays a key role in Shadow's Heel–Face Turn. She does try to leverage Sonic into a much-desired relationship, but relents the instant he makes it obvious he isn't game — a far more endearing portrayal than the increasingly deranged Mad Love she shows in Sonic Heroes, Sonic Battle, and Sonic Rush.
• Unfortunate Character Design: Rouge's car is supposed to be modeled after her head, but many fans think it looks disturbingly phallic.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The game features product placement of SOAP brand shoes (a brand that all but disappeared after 2001) and the use of the term "Weapons of mass destruction" in a family-friendly video game (although it's part of the Growing with the Audience thing). Had the game been released a few months later, it might've been seen as shocking in light of the 9/11 attacks and lead-up to The War on Terror.
  • Maria's backstory is that she suffered from NIDS (Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome), a thinly veiled fictionalization of AIDS that her grandfather Gerald was desperately trying to cure. The nature, name, and in-story treatment of the disease firmly anchor the game to an era when AIDS was the leading hot-button health issue and reliable antiviral medications for HIV were not widely available, an era that would start to end just a few years after the game's release. Additionally, her young age and the fact that she had NIDS for most (if not all) of her life directly pinpoints the game's release to the period in AIDS discourse when children being able to contract HIV during pregnancy, birth, or weaning became widely known and talked about.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • Taken up to eleven compared to the first game, Adventure 2 features numerous effects and design choices that pushed the Dreamcast to its limit. Destroyed enemies break apart with trails of fire and sparks following the pieces down. It's even faster than the first Sonic Adventure, and runs at an unbroken 60 frames per second, even in stages where the screen is filled with explosions such as Eggman's first stage. Light sources have a visible "motion trail" effect when the camera moves, character models are fully detailed with individual fingers (a step up from the blocky, LEGO-handed models of the first game), and each level is packed with architecture to give the surroundings a realistic, lived-in feel. It's the closest you could get to playing a blockbuster Hollywood action film in 2001.
  • The Dreamcast version actually packs in a lot of special graphical trickery, especially in terms of lighting and shadow, that the GameCube revamp strangely decided to greatly simplify or remove, and unfortunately were kept edited in the HD ports. This is most obvious after completing Tails' Prison Lane stage, as Sonic's cell uses realistic shadowing through the bars only in the Dreamcast version. To somewhat make up for this, the GameCube version updated the main playable character models, but for whatever reason, these are half-heartedly implemented with the story cutscenes regularly flipping between the Dreamcast and GameCube models on a dime, with some animations being noticeably enhanced while others looking even more rushed. Still, even the ports still look good to this day...
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?:
  • Shadow is on a quest to destroy humanity because the military killed his best friend, an innocent child. She was also the granddaughter of his creator Gerald Robotnik, which is made horrifying by his speech, which actually begins with the statement "This is a death sentence for every human being on earth" and ends right before he's executed by a firing squad. There's a reason why the ESRB rating was changed from E to E10+ when it was re-released for XBLA, PSN, and Steam.
  • The opening of the Dark story begins with introducing Eggman massacring an army.
  • This game also introduces Rouge, the Sonic franchise sex icon whose Jiggle Physics are the most prominent out of any appearance.

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