Sonic Adventure 2/Development

Sonic Adventure 2 and its updated Nintendo GameCube varient Sonic Adventure 2: Battle have gone through several changes over their development processes. There are several rejected ideas, level designs, and other things that were left on the cutting room floor. The following details several of these things; see also the relevant forum discussion.

Sonic Adventure 2

Three Characters?

Initial reports of the game stated that Tails was not going to be a playable character. He was later re-added thanks to fan complaints, but was reduced to moving around in the Cyclone. As many of Tails' missions are not integral to the plot and the gameplay is very similar to that of Dr. Eggman some believe he was tacked-in last minute, along with Shadow and Rouge, who are seen as carbon copies of Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna respectively.

This is backed further by the fact early media only highlighted Sonic, Knuckles and Dr. Eggman as characters, and the fact that many stages and bosses are recycled.

Sonic in Sky Rail

At an earlier stage of development, Sonic the Hedgehog was meant to travel through Sky Rail instead of Shadow. It was the first glimpse of Sonic grinding on rails too.

Lighting Problems

Early videos show some very strange lighting problems on Sonic and Knuckles during the cutscenes. Their torsos appear almost completely black as their giant heads block out the sun.

City Escape Truck Sequence

The truck sequence in City Escape may have been one of the earliest sections of the game to be completed, and in these prototype screenshots many differences can be noted.

Old Logo

Sonic Adventure 2 originally had a less colourful logo, highlighting the difference between light and dark. Many of the movies around this era were similarly dark in nature, rather than the more vibrant game seen at release.

• SA2 Dev Logo.png

  The old monochrome logo

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  The logo at release

SOAP Shoes

Earlier versions of the game show Sonic with his classic set of shoes, rather than the SOAP branded ones used in the final. These can even be seen in the playable trial verisons of the game. They can also be seen in the final version, in the first cutscene of the Hero story. They switch to the SOAP shoes as Sonic lands in the helicopter's wing. It's also worth noting that the graphic for the High-Speed shoes is the classic design as well.

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  Classic shoes in the final game.

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  SOAP shoes.

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  High-Speed shoes item box.

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  High-Speed shoes graphic.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle

There was significantly less development time for Sonic Adventure 2: Battle than there was for Sonic Adventure 2, but there are still changes that can be reported.

Chao Garden Game Boy Advance

SA2:B was one of the earlier GameCube titles, and was likely in production before the console had been finalised. Likewise, the Game Boy Advance's final colour scheme had not yet been decided.

Initial screenshots show the Chao Garden's GBA (which replaces the VMU in SA2) as a red system. In the final, it's white, likely because there were no red varients available when the console was released. The boot-up screen reads "Gameboy Advance" instead of "Chao Adventure" and the booth is yellow and green instead of blue and orange. There is also no Game Boy Advance logo beneath the screen.

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