Pros: it's a sonic title, some catchy tunes
Cons: bad camera angels. The Rouge and Knuckels stages suck.
The bottom line: When did Sonic team get so lazy.
I got Sonic 2 Battle about 2 years ago and wasn’t impressed but I completed it. After buying Sonic Heroes I decided to give this game another chance. Well after playing it a second time through my opinion remains the same. Sonic 2 Battle should be renamed to Sonic the half a$$ hedgehog. That is basically what the game play elements in the game are like.

Story.
Dr. Eggman (Robotnick) has obtain the ultimate weapon is grandfather made. Shadow the hedgehog, a black Hedgehog that looks similar to Sonic. When Sonic is mistaken for some of Shadows misdeed he becomes a criminal and is on the run. Meanwhile Rouge the bat has stolen the master emerald from Knuckles, and when Knuckles tries to get it back it gets shatter. Now the two are after the pieces to restore the master emerald.

The story lets you choose good or bad, the good guys are Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. The bad side is Shadow, Eggman, and Rouge. The story is played out by little cut scenes between stages and the story line between the two are parallel to each other. When you play has the bad team you see there part of the story where they accomplish there goals, the good guys you see there side of the story. To get the complete story you must play through has both teams and then you will unlock a chapter where the two have to team up in order to stop an even greater evil.

The story is ok and I like the fact that it’s a lot thicker then your average action platformer. But I was confused by one thing, when did Sonic the hedgehog move from Mobius to down town San Francisco. There are people and modern day cars in the street which kind of takes the Sonic the Hedgehog feel of the game.

Graphics.
If there are two big games for the game cube that give the game cube a reputation of being weaker then the PS2 it’s this game and Animal CrossingAnimal Crossing. Both games where originally conceived in last generation hardware. In this case SA2 Battle is just a port of the original Dreamcast version. Hence the graphics aren’t what I call great for gamecube standards. While better then N64 they fall flat with choppy animation and some sharper edges on the characters then you expect from a game from this generation.

But it gets worse when we talk about camera angles. Yeah the camera angle has been the bane on all the Sonic the Hedgehogs 3d game, even the much improved Hero’s has this problem. But it’s flat out bad here. In most cases you can move the camera around using the L and R buttons on top of the controller. This goes easy and lets you look fine. But when you hit the control stick to move a direction the camera snaps back to default. Making jumps to get something you just missed, or in boss fights when you need to change directions next to impossible. This is appalling when you consider this is from Sonic Team, the Team that used to be able to go toe to toe with the great Mario franchise.

Sound.
Plenty of things to complain about in the games, but the music aren’t one of them. The opening theme with Sonic got stuck in my head the first time I heard it. And there are some great character theme music has well, this one is worth keeping for the soundtrack option alone, and it’s a good thing because that’s all there is good about it. For the VA most of them are ok, but Amy and Tails VA’s fall flat on there lines all the time. There is also a Japanese language track has well.

Game play.
Ok the game is broken down into 3 types of stages.

Sonic/Shadow.
All right if your looking for fast roller coaster action like you did in 2d Sonic game these stages won’t disappoint. There fast and have you running around hitting zips, jumping on trampolines and collecting and loosing rings. These stages are roller coaster rides and there are a few that have more solid game play then those offer even in Sonic Heroes. But there is a but, and that lies in the bad camera ruins a lot of these stages, and Sega offer a few of there clever ideas they put in Sonic games, but they didn’t go back and double check if they work. There are plenty of areas where Sonic has to use his new homing lock to get across areas by stomping on enemies. But sometimes the homing lock misses or doesn’t work right and he gets hit and then falls to his death. Also add in even those stages are fun you’ll spend less then 1/3 of the game playing these stages.

Tails/Eggman.
These stages are shooters and in someway remind me a lot of the action game Tron Bonne. Other then the camera once again gets in the way of moving through the stages, the action in these is pretty good. Tails and Eggman can hover with there machines, and lock on multiple targets and fire missiles. Comboing up missile fire can get you a lot of bonus points. The rings work a bit different here. You won’t die from getting hit without rings; instead you loose power on your energy bar. Rings will gradually refill your power bar. You’ll still loose your rings when you get hit. The only complaint I think anybody would have with these stages is that it’s not up to the speed of most Sonic games, but if your up for some random destruction these stages aren’t bad.

Knuckles and Rouge.
So the game slows down on Tails/Eggman stages, it comes to a crashing, screeching halt on Knuckles and Rouge stages. In these stages you have to control Knuckles and Rouge has they look for shards or keys to complete the stages. There are clues in the stage to help you, has well has sonar that will give you hot cold readings whenever your close to one. But some of these stages are so big that it can take about 20 minutes to complete them. Knuckles and Rouge have the ability to dig and float across the stages has well. The bad camera is really frustrating during these stages.

Wait there’s more.
After you complete a stage you can go back again in stage select and choose a different mission to do. The different missions have you try to find a certain object in the stage, or get a certain score in order to pass.

There is also a virtual pet type game in which you get to raise Cho’s by giving them objects you find in your stage to raise there stats. You can then use them in order to compete in combotions in order to raise there stats more. It’s an ok distraction if your board and like virtual pets. Me I go into the Cho area just so I can beat up some white fuzz boy.

There is also a kart racing mini game that can be unlocked, it’s not bad but it’s no Mario Kart. There are some 2p games to play and there ok distractions for about 15 minutes before they get old.

Final recommendation.
Bad camera angles and slow game play keep this Sonic game from achieving greatness. Even cinematic scenes and a few decent stages doesn’t keep this Sonic title from the mediocre category. Pop in one of the classic Sonic titles from the mega collection and compare it to Sonic 2 Battle and you’ll see that Sonic Teams quality control has gone down in the last 10 years. With Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Heroes out for about the same price I can’t recommend Sonic 2 battle.