Playing a 12 year old game often elicits one of two responses; the first being satisfaction, and the second being disappointment. Some games age well due to solid mechanics and strong gameplay, while others don’t quite retain the charm we remember. Unfortunately, Sonic Adventure has found the single worst case scenario. Sonic Adventure not only fails to retain the charm we remember when the Dreamcast was released, it also finds a way to show us the genesis of more than a decade of disappointment and the ultimate fall of one of the greatest video game franchises. Sonic Adventure is the beginning of a string of progressively worse three dimensional titles that somehow included a ‘racially-sensitive’ black hedgehog with a gun.

Sonic Adventure is not a terrible game. In fact, it is an innovative design for a 3D platformer that happens to be plagued with frustrating controls and poorly implemented mechanics. It has been 12 years, and the issues regarding this game are well documented, yet none of them have been fixed or even tweaked for the high definition port to XBLA. The camera controls are still horrible, controlling characters at low speeds is slightly imprecise and only gets worse as speeds increase. This port seems even more touchy and imprecise than the 1998 original.

The poor handling is accentuated by the precision required in high speed platforming. Sonic Team recognized this fact and implemented a game mechanic from Sonic 3D Blast. The homing mechanic made its first true three dimensional appearance in Sonic Adventure and is now a mainstay of the franchise. Even the recently released 2D Sonic 4: Episode 1 features homing attacks. However, in this game the homing attack can be finicky, and at times manically murderous. Again, the XBLA port has not been tweaked.

Sonic Adventure does feature some strong aspects to the gameplay. The action stages are fast paced and every bit of fun as the original Sega Genesis games. The adventure stages are a unique departure for the series, and offer new ways to explore for secrets and collectables. The Chao gardens are an interesting addition that you will either love or be indifferent to. Sega also loaded up the game with six playable characters, each with their own story and stage progression. Sadly, even with these positives, the game never makes up for the gameplay issues that exist.

The presentation is a mixed bag. The music, sound design, and voice acting (especially the voice acting) are particularly atrocious. When Sonic Adventure was first released, the sound may have been state-of-the art, but it doesn't hold up well to the test of time. The graphics on the other hand are gorgeous. The port was made using the Sonic Adventure DX version, so all the geometry and colors are crisper and sharper than the original. The art design was well crafted and holds up well after 12 years. 

Despite the pretty graphics, the XBLA port makes some ill-advised decisions. The first bad decision is a 4:3 aspect ratio. This means that anyone playing in high definition, or on a widescreen TV, will see ugly blue bars on the left and right sides of the screens. Another bad decision is not tying down the framerate. Although the framerate is not nearly as bad as the original, you will notice some slowdown and unresponsiveness in motion. All the technical problems that were in the Dreamcast and DX versions are still present in this port, even though they are somewhat mitigated by the newer hardware of the Xbox 360.

Sonic Adventure will set you back 800 MS points ($10 USD). For that price you are treated to a game that was flawed 12 years ago, and those flaws have only been magnified by time. The bigger crime is that the port still has problems that could have been fixed during the porting process. For an additional 400 MS points (a whooping $15 USD total) you can upgrade your Sonic Adventure with the features added in Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut. There is a silver lining; the game is beefy. Sonic's play through will take about 3 hours while each of the five other characters will take about 2 hours to complete. There is plenty of game time available in Sonic Adventure.

Fans of the Sonic Adventure games may be the only audience that should consider buying this port. For many, going back to experience this game again is only a painful reminder of the frustration gamers have had for the past decade. Despite how you may feel about 3D Sonic games, the bottom line for the XBLA port is simple: never buy a port with a premium price that does not fix any of the original title's persistent problems.