Sonic Adventure 2



A sequel to the hit Sonic Adventure and one of the Dreamcast's final releases, and a title to mark the 10th anniversary of the series. It was also the last original Sonic game to be made before Sega quit making consoles.

Framed for the criminal acts of a black hedgehog, Sonic must run from the worldwide law enforcement agency G.U.N. and join his friends to stop Eggman from collecting and using the Chaos Emeralds to fuel the deadly Eclipse Cannon of the abandoned Space Colony Ark. Meanwhile, Shadow, said black hedgehog, has joined forces with Dr. Eggman and a jewel thief named Rouge and plans to use the Eclipse Cannon as part of a vendetta against the whole human race. The plot was much darker than the already-pretty-dark Sonic Adventure, as it was able to tackle subjects like military brutality and genocidal insanity, while still containing a lot of the cheese of the series (for example, who on earth would mistake a black hedgehog with red stripes for a blue one?).

This is the first game in the series (bar racing and party games) where you get to play as the villains, and by extension, the first where you get to play as Eggman. This game also introduced Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, both of whom would become series mainstays. This was also the first game in the Story Arc dealing with Shadow's Quest for Identity, the others being Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog.

Like its predecessor, this game was also a big hit critically and commercially, being hailed as a true swan song for the dying Dreamcast. It also, however, suffered some of the same Polygon Ceiling-related criticism of Camera Screw and bad controls that its predecessor had. It also ditched the adventure fields and stuck with a level-by-level form of progression.

Re-released for the GameCube several months after the Dreamcast version as Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (ironically before its predecessor's remake), which added Chao Karate and more stuff to 2-Player Mode.

Gameplay Types/Playable Characters

 * Action Stage (a.k.a. classic Sonic style) - Sonic/Shadow
 * Shooting Stage (a la Gamma from SA1) - Tails/Eggman
 * Hunting Stage (same as Knuckles from the previous game) - Knuckles/Rouge

There is also one driving stage each for Tails and Rouge. Beating one of them unlocks the single-player kart racing minigame, while beating the other unlocks the two-player option.

The game will also be ported to the Xbox 360 as an Xbox Live Arcade title, following the success of its prequel, Sonic Adventure DX.

""Knuckles: "What is this place? It looks just like the shrine of the Master Emerald.""
 * Abandoned Mine: Knuckles' search for shards of the previously shattered Master Emerald brings him to Aquatic Mine, an abandoned coal mine located within the vicinity of Pumpkin Hill that can be accessed via the sewers of Central City. This is aptly summed up by the opening lyrics of the stage's theme, "Dive into the Mellow": "Let's take a dive, in Aquatic Mine. Once was a coal pit, but now it's a water ride."
 * Almost Kiss: share one later on.
 * And Now for Someone Completely Different: Unlike its predecessor, each story cycles between the Action, Shooting, and Hunting playstyles instead of selecting a character and playing through his/her stages with that character.
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: The rewards for getting all the emblems/A-Ranks for a character are an alternate outfit in 2P-Mode and an alternate kart in the kart racing minigame, although they do have some different attributes (Tails's alternate mech, for example, makes him a lot faster, but robs him of the ability to use special attacks).
 * Animated Adaptation: Like Sonic Adventure, adapted into the Anime of the Game Sonic X.
 * Artistic License Physics: After Eggman uses the Eclipse Cannon aboard the ARK to blow a chunk out of the moon as a warning shot, everyone becomes concerned about the seriousness of Eggman's threats and possible responses -- never mind the fact that the effect on the tides alone would cause incalculable casualties in Real Life.
 * Autobots Rock Out: The final battle with the Biolizard is accompanied by hard rock provided by Crush 40.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Knuckles and Rouge show signs of this throughout most of the game.
 * Bilingual Bonus: An army called GUN is not just a horrible pun in English; "gun" is also the Japanese word for "army".
 * It also counts as a Shout-Out to a weapon used as an acronym for an organization.
 * Bittersweet Ending: The final story ends with.
 * because, if you pay attention, you can notice that, in the final scene,, so we can assume his ended up  somewhat.
 * Badass: Pretty much every character, but more so Sonic and Shadow.
 * Badass Adorable: Tails
 * Badass Bookworm: Gerald Robotnik.
 * Badass Grandpa
 * Badass Labcoat
 * Badass Mustache: see It Runs in The Family
 * Bigger Bad:
 * Boss Rush: Beating a story unlocks a minigame where you fight each of the bosses faced in that story one after the other.
 * Blob Monster: Chaos-knockoffs on the ARK created by Gerald Robotnik.
 * Breakout Character: Shadow was originally meant to be a one-shot character for this game, but, not only did he become a series mainstay, he arguably got most of the development and plot focus in Heroes and even starred in his own game.
 * Break the Cutie: Eggman does this to Tails and Amy by before their very eyes, leaving them to think that.
 * Broken Pedestal: Even Eggman is surprised when turns out to be a nutbar.
 * The Cameo: Big the Cat can be seen during some cutscenes and even in the middle of some levels, as well as used in multi-player... in the Dreamcast version.
 * Camera Screw
 * Cerebus Syndrome: This game was the start of the Sonic series'. Spanned between this game and Sonic Unleashed, which ended it.
 * Well, Sonic Heroes was Lighter and Softer, but Shadow the Hedgehog veered right back into Grimdark territory.
 * Characterization Marches On: At times, Shadow's behavior isn't too different from Sonic's. During the first battle against him, he even says "I'm the coolest!".
 * Chekhov's Gun: After seeing Shadow disappear in a flash of light as he used Chaos Control as many times as he did -- and for that matter, seeing Sonic escape certain death via Chaos Control once before -- was it really such a stretch to believe that Shadow had survived his plummet to Earth? On the same note, Tails mentioning that the fake Emerald had the exact same wavelength as a real Chaos Emerald came in handy later when.
 * Those mathematical symbols on Sonic's jail cell in Prison Island? The ones that Amy comments on? Why yes, those were the calculation performed by
 * The Chessmaster: Shadow the Hedgehog,
 * And Shadow's actions, in turn, were the result of
 * Rouge also counts for this
 * Classy Cat Burglar: Rouge the Bat.
 * Colony Drop:
 * Combat Stilettos: Rouge wears these.
 * Comic Book Adaptation: Adapted in story arcs in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book.
 * Competitive Balance: Because otherwise it would be boring to just have everyone play the same way.
 * Fragile Speedster: Sonic and Shadow
 * Mighty Glacier: Tails and Eggman
 * Jack of All Stats: Knuckles and Rouge
 * Lightning Bruiser:
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the racing minigame, computer opponents can make 90 degree turns instantly without losing any momentum.
 * In the levels near the end of each campaign where you face off against your same-mission-type Rival once again, they can use the usually 2-player-mode-only special attacks, but you cannot.
 * Use them? Actually, they can spam them. At least the special attacks are dodgeable in 1-player!
 * Continuity Nod: Tails is said to have got a Chaos Emerald for beating Eggman in Station Square, which happened back in SA1.
 * Also during the last story, Knuckles and Sonic stumble upon a temple-like structure that looks oddly familiar.
 * Also during the last story, Knuckles and Sonic stumble upon a temple-like structure that looks oddly familiar.

"Shadow: You, comparing yourself to me? Ha! You're not even good enough to be my fake!"
 * Criminal Doppelganger: Pretty much the reason why Sonic is captured by G.U.N. twice and why him and his friends are constantly chased throughout this game. Justified in that the only times that Shadow is seen by the police is during the night and that there only happened to be one well-known anthropomorphic male hedgehog in the world up until that point. To be fair, it is implied that Shadow was completely unaware of Sonic's existence up until Sonic defeated the Big Foot.
 * Shadow might have known about Sonic's existence: when Eggman opened Shadow's pod, he verbally mentioned that Shadow was "not Sonic", and even thought that Shadow was Sonic, there to foil his plans already. However, Shadow had just woken up, so he might not have consciously understood what Eggman was saying.
 * Cutscene Incompetence: Sonic's capture by GUN at the end of City Escape.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Rouge the Bat has them.
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: In the Hero Story, Sonic engages in a boss battle against the Egg Golem. In the same sequence in the Dark Story, the fight is condensed into one flying kick, complete with a Theme Music Power-Up.
 * Eagle Land: The United Federation is heavily Type 2.
 * Darker and Edgier: SA1 was darker than the game series up to that point, and SA2 managed to be even darker. There's more than one character in the game who swears revenge on all humanity, and their motives are revealed in some cutscenes. Furthermore, Dr. Eggman, who you can play as in this game, is willing to use a "weapon of mass destruction" (yes, it is actually described as that in the game) as a means of trying to intimidate people into surrendering to his empire, by threatening to fire it at inhabited parts of Earth. He demonstrates its power by firing it at the moon, and it happens to take quite a chunk out of the moon for that matter... add to that, of course, the government conspiracy sideplot, that involves them assassinating numerous innocent people on board the ARK (with Maria even dying onscreen). Outside maybe the Archie comics, this was perhaps the grimmest depiction of Sonic yet at this point in time.
 * Though the overall tone of some future titles was a bit darker, NOTHING in the rest of the series comes close to the last act of this game. Gerald's diary/execution speech rivals the most depressing and terrifying messages left behind in any Survival Horror. It helps that both voice actors for Gerald were incredibly good at getting his gut-wrenching despair and hatred for humanity across.
 * are notable in that, while filled with like-you-would-really-do-it, the game seems to be pretty dead serious about it, despite the one involved being . Even more so with the version of the same scene seen in the Dark story, as there's literally no clue that despite No One Could Survive That. (That is, until  showed up as the Final Boss.)
 * Dating Catwoman: Knuckles and Rouge.
 * Dead Little Sister: Maria's death hit Shadow hard. But not as hard as it hit Gerald, who completely snapped.
 * Defeat Equals Friendship: Knuckles and Rouge after the whole Meteor Herd incident.
 * Disproportionate Retribution:
 * Dragon with an Agenda: Shadow only helps Eggman.
 * Eleventh-Hour Superpower: For the True Final Boss, Sonic and Shadow both go Super to defeat it.
 * Enemy Mine: The hero and dark teams both team up in the final story
 * Eternal Engine: Trope Namer.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Eggman may want to use the Space Colony ARK to take over the Earth, but he balks at the idea of using its power to kill all humanity.
 * Evil Counterpart: Shadow to Sonic (super-speedy hedgehogs and the most powerful fighter of their respective fractions), Eggman to Tails (brilliant scientists that rely on a Mini-Mecha for combat), and Rouge to Knuckles (prideful treasure hunters who are skilled in martial arts).
 * to Shadow.
 * Evil Virtues: For Eggman, it's hard work. In the ending, Eggman reveals that he aspired to Gerald's great accomplishments from the time he was little.
 * Extremity Extremist: Knuckles and Rouge use only punches and kicks, respectively.
 * "Fake" Twin: Sonic considers Shadow this due to the latter framing him for stealing a Chaos Emerald. It's also hinted that Shadow himself thinks Sonic is this to him, thinking Sonic was trying to copy him.
 * "Implied"?

""They wanna play with my Emeralds? They're playing with the wrong guy!"
 * Face Ship: Eggman may have gotten his love for this from Gerald, as the Space Colony ARK was apparently made in Gerald's likeness.
 * Fat Bastard: Dr. Eggman.
 * Final Speech:
 * Five Man Band:
 * The Hero: Sonic
 * The Lancer/The Smart Guy: Tails
 * The Big Guy: Knuckles
 * The Chick: Amy
 * Later on, the team expanded in the Last Story as
 * The Hero: Sonic
 * The Lancer/Eleventh-Hour Ranger:
 * The Big Guy: Knuckles
 * The Smart Guy: Tails
 * The Chick:
 * The Heart: Amy
 * Fog Feet: A Chao that plays with bats will eventually have its legs disappear; it'll hover above the ground instead.
 * Frame-Up: Shadow framed Sonic with the theft of the green Chaos Emerald. Somewhat deconstructed, as its implied that Shadow did not intend to frame Sonic for the deed, and in fact, had never even heard of Sonic up until after he stole the emerald, specifically shortly after Sonic defeated Big Foot. In fact, through most of the game, Shadow believed that Sonic was copying him.
 * Fun with Acronyms / Spelling Song: Averted on both counts with Eggman's theme, "E.G.G.M.A.N." -- it's never spelled out in-song, and it doesn't seem to stand for anything. (Amusingly, it's also one of exactly two songs ever to use the exact phrase "I am the Eggman".)
 * Furry Confusion: Rouge the Bat is a playable character, but regular Bats can be found and rescued from the stages. Most confusing is the fact that the Bat is only in this game.
 * The level Death Chamber takes it even further: it has actual, real-life bats. That's three different kinds of bats in one game!
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: All three of the good vs. evil battles are ultimately seen to end in draws, even though you have to win the actual fight for whichever side you're playing.
 * An especially noticeable example is the battle against the Egg Golem. In Hero Story, you have to (as Sonic) get behind it and jump up platforms on its back in order to homing attack its head's weak point to damage it; you need to do this several times. In the Dark Story, it's defeated by Sonic in a cutscene where he takes a giant leap at its weak point (a leap which, incidentally, is not possible when playing as Sonic) and defeats it in one kick.
 * Gameplay Roulette: Not as pronounced as in SA1, but still present.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Various BGM tracks have suggestive lyrics, but Wild Canyon takes the cake. One of the radars caught this one; the ESRB rating has "Mild Lyrics" as a descriptor. But apparently, SEGA's translators didn't.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Various BGM tracks have suggestive lyrics, but Wild Canyon takes the cake. One of the radars caught this one; the ESRB rating has "Mild Lyrics" as a descriptor. But apparently, SEGA's translators didn't.

"Yeah, Rouge, she's sexy and smooth! A double cross spot-thief, that's out for my jewels.""

"Rouge: Thief! Knuckles: Look who's calling who a thief..."
 * That may not be intentional though, as the song does mean it literally. However, they do use "damn" in at least 2 different songs, and the "Mild Lyrics" did not appear on the back of the box until Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, as the original did not have that.
 * Shoot, Rouge's design by itself does this.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: King Boom Boo.
 * Also
 * Grandpa Wolf: Gerald loved his granddaughter Maria,
 * G-Rated Sex: Chao mating, combined with a Happy Dance.
 * Not to mention some of the lyrics in Knuckles' level's songs, especially Wild Canyon.
 * Gravity Screw: Crazy Gadget and its switches that make Sonic walk on the ceiling and walls. A memorable part at the end of the level involves navigating a series of these in space, and it's pretty tough. There are other examples in the part of Eternal Engine where Tails floats inexplicably, and Cosmic Wall, where Eggman's mech can jump incredible heights due to lowered gravity.
 * Rouge's final level, Mad Space, uses the 'planetoid' subtype very excessively.
 * Greed: Rouge the Bat,
 * Grind Boots: Sonic's shoes were redesigned into this. Shadow's are also able to grind.
 * Guide Dang It: The hidden Secretary and Maria menu themes.
 * Some of the "Find the Lost Chao!" Missions are near impossible to complete without looking in a guide. In particular, all the steps that you need to do in Cannon's Core to find that Chao is pretty daunting.
 * Cannon's Core - Knuckles' mission is not that hard... If you found the really well hidden Air Necklace in a previous level.
 * Ham-to-Ham Combat: Sonic vs Shadow. Say it with me: Chaos… CONTROL!!
 * Hammerspace: How Knuckles carts around his emerald pieces. (At least Rouge can claim to have a compartment). The Master Emerald seems to has no set size, and even fits in Knuckles' palm during the finale.
 * Heel Face Turn:.
 * Hero Antagonist: GUN
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Shadow, after turning face in what is quite possibly the most famous example of this trope in a Sonic game. Overlaps with Redemption Equals Death.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: At one point, Eggman sics the Egg Golem onto Sonic. In Dark Story, Sonic destroyed the restraining bolt on the Egg Golem. Guess what it does with Eggman afterwards?
 * Hong Kong Dub: When the line takes longer to say in English than it did in Japanese, the next line will start while the previous one is still going... even when the next line is spoken by the same character.
 * Hotter and Sexier: The debut of Rouge the Bat is enough to make the game this in comparison to the other titles.
 * Humans Are Bastards: Shadow's initial viewpoint. As well as Gerald's.
 * Hypocritical Humor:

""You're not even good enough to be my fake!"
 * "I Am" Song: Sonic's, Knuckles', and Eggman's:  It Doesn't Matter, Unknown from M.E., and E.G.G.M.A.N respectively.
 * Inferred Holocaust:
 * Insult to Rocks: Shadow finds it almost insulting that GUN mistook Sonic for him.

""NOW YOU KNOW WHY I! AM! THE BEST!""
 * Ironic Echo: "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."
 * It Runs in The Family: The Robotnik family mustache!
 * In the Blood:, too.
 * Karma Houdini: GUN...Actually averted in that you can destroy their robots and the fact that you can even damage the pilots controlling Big Foot, Hot Shot, And Flying Dog
 * Lightning Bruiser: Sonic, Shadow, Rouge, and Knuckles.
 * Jiggle Physics: Different parts of different characters have this, the most notable examples being Sonic & Shadow's quills, and Rouge's breasts (yes, they really did animate a cartoon bat's breasts).
 * Keep It Foreign: the iconic line, "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog", is replaced with "Adios, Shadow the Hedgehog" in the Japanese version.
 * Kick Chick: Rouge, to contrast Knuckles' punches only attack style.
 * Kill Sat: Space Colony ARK.
 * Knight Templar: GUN will do almost anything to preserve world order. They got better eventually. Also, Gerald believed his Colony Drop against humanity to be "justice" for the Ark Disaster.
 * Knight Templar Big Brother: Shadow was a surrogate one for Maria,
 * Kill the Cutie:
 * Large Ham: Eggman, Eggman, Eggman.
 * Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The President.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: Sonic, even more so than usual. He's concerned only with stopping Eggman and pays little attention to Tails' strategy sessions.
 * Leitmotif: Live and Learn is featured prominently throughout the game, in the lyrics of City Escape and the chorus of Supporting Me, for example.
 * Made of Iron: It's notable in that, unlike other playable characters, Tail and Eggman; due to using a mobile attack vehicle, can sustain damage for a bit even without any rings, as they merely recharge their health bars. The Biolizard in particular can't be harmed by anything, The only reason the player can hurt him is by attacking its Life Support core (which is implied to keep it alive), and, otherwise attacks directed at its skin will just pounced off harmlessly.
 * Mega Manning:
 * Misplaced Retribution: Gerald's plot to get revenge from beyond the grave was focused on bringing suffering and ruination to people (Pretty much the entirety of humanity) who were not responsible for the ARK Incident or the murder of Maria and his colleagues.
 * More Than Mind Control: It's subtly implied that Gerald "reprogrammed" Shadow to go along with his genocidal Colony Drop plan.
 * More than implied. He "designed its mind to be perfect. Pure..."
 * Mr. Vice Guy / Anti-Hero: Rouge is secretly a government agent whose job is to protect the world from threats like Eggman and Shadow, and turns out to be Good All Along. Also, her passion is jewels, and in her free time she goes around greedily stealing gems wherever she can find them, not caring whether they're, y'know, necessary to the balance of the planet or not. Somehow, these two things never seem to clash -- in fact, she's apparently only a good guy some of the time because the government pays her in jewelry.
 * Ms. Fanservice: This game introduced the world to Rouge the Bat. She has a big bust, a revealing outfit, combined with Jiggle Physics, and wide hips that go hand in hand with a shapely rear.
 * Musical Nod: City Escape appears as an instrumental in Mario & Sonic Olympic Winter Games.
 * The Call Back to Lost World in Cannon's Core is also this. There is a water slide similar to the aforementioned level in Adventure, and the music changes to the drum beat of the music that was used in the water slide part of that level.
 * No Conservation of Energy: When Sonic and Shadow use Chaos Control to stop the falling ARK, the colony comes to a complete halt. The explosion of light was no where near big enough to be equal to its previous momentum. Of course, SEGA has never bothered to explain exactly how Chaos Control works, so...
 * Of course, orbit isn't a "complete halt". It is, in fact, moving exactly as fast as the earth is turning.
 * No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: Adventure 2 does away with Adventure fields and the ability to select characters, instead having the player experience every gameplay style in the same story, with stages coming one after another in sequence. Upgrades are found within the stages as well.
 * Nostalgia Level: Collecting all 180 Emblems rewards you with a 3D version of
 * Not So Different: Eggman and Tails share a moment on the ARK observation deck at the end.
 * Oh Crap: Sonic's reaction when Eggman traps him in the capsule pod rigged with explosives.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: did not take Maria's death well.
 * One-Winged Angel: The Biolizard becomes Finalhazard when he fuses himself with Space Colony Ark.
 * Out-Gambitted: Sonic and Tails plot to give Eggman a fake Emerald that will explode when it's put into the Eclipse Cannon, thus making it unusable. Having a feeling that this would happen, Eggman seals Sonic inside a rocket, causes Tails to accidentally spill the beans, and shoots Sonic out of the Ark to a most certain death. Good thing Sonic still has that fake Emerald in his hands, and it is powerful enough for Sonic to use Chaos Control...
 * See You Just Told Me.
 * Path of Greatest Resistance: Ever since SA1 introduced the Homing Attack, nearly all Sonic games since then have had paths identifiable (and accessible) only by finding a trail of stationary midair enemies. This is most commonly used to begin an expert path or for a shortcut; very rarely is it actually required.
 * Patrick Stewart Speech: Delivered by Amy of all people to convince Shadow to turn face.
 * Police Are Useless: Even Sonic lampshades this.
 * Polygon Ceiling: Bad controls and camera as its predecessor.
 * Posthumous Character: Gerald Robotnik.
 * Also Maria Robotnik.
 * Product Placement: Due to Sonic now wearing Soap Shoes, ads for them are all over the game.
 * Promoted to Unlockable: Robotnik.
 * Psycho Prototype: is this to Shadow the Hedgehog.
 * Rank Inflation: You are ranked at the end of a stage based on your score (although you can automatically earn a perfect A if you collect every single ring in the stage). All 3D Sonics following this game would use a similar ranking system.
 * Nintendo Hard: Getting A ranks on the early Action and Shooting stages aren't too obscenely hard, but roughly halfway through the game they become incredibly annoying without resorting to Sequence Breaking shortcuts to get massive time bonuses. And let's not even talk about the Hunting Stages, the system for which has been tweaked to be even more annoying.
 * Some of the side-missions were notoriously difficult to beat, like the time limit challenges in some of Sonic and Shadow's levels. Radical Highway, anyone?
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Improves on SA1's Chao-raising system with the addition of Hero and Dark chao. The system would go through a complete overhaul for the GameCube versions.
 * Reactor Boss: Eternal Engine, in which Tails fights ARK's power generator.
 * The Rival: Sonic/Shadow, Tails/Eggman, and Knuckles/Rouge.
 * Scenery Porn: Ten years later, it still holds up well.
 * Schizophrenic Difficulty: Since you jump around from playing style to playing style, this can be in effect if you are much better at some characters than others.
 * Also, each stage has the same five missions in the same order. Depending on which character you are using, some of the missions will be easier or harder than usual. Tails and Eggman's stages have very few rings and LOTS of enemies, so the second mission, 'Collect 100 Rings!', is harder for them than it would be for other characters. The timed missions for Knuckles and Rouge tend to be harder than their 'Complete Hard Mode' missions since for them, while the emeralds are in very annoying and hard to reach places in Hard Mode, they're in the same place each time.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Shadow.
 * Sega Hard: Every 5th mission for a level has a Hard mode challenge, where the level's difficulty borders on downright frustrating. Many consider Eternal Engine, Crazy Gadget, Mad Space, and Cannon's Core to be punishingly difficult already. Then you find out that even they have Hard Modes themselves...
 * Self-Imposed Challenge: Try beating Knuckles' section in Cannons Core WITHOUT the Air Necklace.
 * Shifting Sand Land: All of the stages surrounding and inside Eggman's Pyramid Base.
 * Shout-Out: To Ni GHTS and Samba De Amigo.
 * Also, during the famous scene of Eggman's video-message to the world, the mixture of Japanese and English text behind him is awfully reminiscent of Digivolutions.
 * The entire final sequence where Sonic and Shadow is a reference to the climax of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
 * To San Francisco, of all places. Route 101, Route 280, and Mission Street all reference major roadways in the city. The Samba De Amigo references in Mission Street may serve as a dual reference to the Mission District, which was (and is still somewhat) largely Hispanic.
 * Slap Slap Almost Kiss: Knuckles and Rouge literally have this going on when they meet up in Meteor Herd.
 * Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness: The main game is level 3. There are multiple paths through each level, with more being unlocked as you gain more items, and you can replay levels with different goals for more emblems. The chao raising mini-game, though, is decidedly level 6, for the game gives you no overall goal to accomplish in raising your chao.
 * Snark to Snark Combat: All three rival pair-ups to an extent; Rouge to Knuckles in particular.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: The themes for all of his stages seem to imply that Knuckles is gangsta.
 * Stealth Pun: The style of music played in Shadow's White Jungle stage, minus the Amen.
 * Stop Helping Me!: 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.
 * Story Arc: This is the first game in the Sonic series to deal with the story of Shadow. It was later continued in Sonic Heroes and finished in Shadow the Hedgehog.
 * Stripperiffic: Rouge's alternate outfit in 2P-Mode.
 * Sugar Bowl: All of the Chao Gardens, where the most pressing issue is an empty stomach; even the Dark Garden, which looks like a haunted graveyard and has a pool of red liquid that may or may not be blood, is a pretty safe place for your cute little guys to reside.
 * Super-Deformed: Curiously, Chaos Zero looks a lot "cuter" than he did in Sonic Adventure.
 * Sympathetic POV: The Last story consolidates them.
 * Theme Tune Rap: Most of Knuckles' stages.
 * This Is Unforgivable!: Tails vows to never forgive Eggman for ...
 * Also Shadow's thoughts about Maria's death.
 * This Is Sparta: Eggman when you get an A-Rank.

"Eggman: You thought you could trick me with that fake emerald, didn't you? Tails: So... how did you know it wasn't the real one? Sonic: Tails! Eggman: Because you just TOLD me, fox boy!"
 * Timed Mission: Several. Metal Harbour has a small example, where landing on a platform by a rocket suddenly gives you just 15 seconds to grab onto it. To make matters worse, there is a second rung higher up, which is the only way to A rank the stage, which can only be made with a couple of seconds to spare. To round the list off, Security Hall gives you 5 minutes to complete it, and Green Forest and White Jungle give you 8 and 10 respectively.
 * Every stage's fourth mission is one of these.
 * Too Good for This Sinful Earth:
 * Tube Travel: In the Crazy Gadget stage.
 * The Ugly Guy's Hot Cousin: Maria Robotnik. Eggman's related to her???
 * Mad Scientist Beautiful Granddaughter: Subverted. Prof. Gerald was rather sane before G.U.N offed Maria. Then he ran head first into the "mad" part.
 * Underground Level: Aquatic Mine. Doubles as Under the Sea and potentially Down the Drain.
 * Vain Sorceress: Rouge the Bat borders on this.
 * The Vamp: Rouge the Bat.
 * Video Game Caring Potential: Chao. If you are nice enough to a Chao, it will have a big smile on its face and clap whenever your character picks it up. Beware, however, that being too nice to a Chao might result in the little guy getting a spoiled personality, making it throw tantrums even when only a little hungry. Balance is the key, but regardless, if the Chao is happy enough, it will reincarnate into a baby at the end of its life.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential:
 * Chao. You can hit it, throw it, put it in water and watch it flail if it doesn't know how to swim, make it starve, and all other sorts of things. Such abuse will result in the Chao crying a fountain of tears, blowing a raspberry at you, or if it's aggressive enough, it'll charge at you and futilely throw punches. If the Chao is more sad/angry than happy, it won't reincarnate at the end of its life. With the introduction of Light and Dark Chao in this game, who is treating the Chao good or bad matters as much as how they're treated. So treating your Chao nicely with Shadow, Eggman, and Rouge will make them Dark as well as being cruel with the good guys will, and vice-versa.
 * Omochao is another source of cruelty potential as mentioned above, but even Chao lovers like to torture the thing. Then again, it is a robot that just looks like a Chao and is not an actual Chao...
 * That, and it's annoying as all get out. See Stop Helping Me! above.
 * White Gloves: It seems they are popular, as all six main characters use them.
 * World Map: The stage select screen is done this way.
 * Worthy Opponent: Eggman displays a sudden spike in competence when he locks Sonic in a space pod and then fires it into space -- and then blows it up for good measure. As he overlooks the explosion, Eggman solemnly declares Sonic an "admirable adversary."
 * Shadow had a similar reaction: When witnessing Sonic's seeming death, Shadow says "Looks like he was simply an ordinary hedgehog after all" with a tinge of disappointment. Curiously both Eggman and Shadow are somewhat nonchalant, even amused when realizing he survived, Shadow even directly telling him he managed to impress him.
 * You Just Told Me: Eggman pulls a magnificent one on Tails and Sonic when they come to rescue Amy.


 * Meaning, of course, that Tails was outfoxed.