now that we're on cohost and not twitter. let's clear the air on something we've all had to keep quiet about but i'm gonna really be the one to speak out on it.
sonic did NOT have a rough transition into 3D. sonic, in fact, had a damn great transition into 3D. sonic adventure 1 was very well received by critics. people loved the graphics and gameplay and was frequently compared to other big 3D hits of the time (super mario 64, crash bandicoot, etc)
sonic adventure 2 received positive reviews, not as high as SA1 but was still very much loved, both games had relatively high sales figures esp for SA2 considering it released after the dreamcast had been discontinued
though the games were somewhat divisive, the "rough transition into 3D" line first originated in a review for SA2: Battle, the gamecube port for SA2, which released in 2002, a bit after SA1 (1998) and SA2 (2001). that narrative was held up by a 2003 release of the SA1 gamecube port you know as "Sonic Adventure DX". it had expanded features such as a 60 fps cap, "updated" textures/models, and some extra missions and features (most notably for me, unlocking metal sonic if you got every emblem in the game), but was also extremely buggy, way way more buggy than the original dreamcast release
SA DX is, btw, the port that every funny let's player points the camera at because they want to get a free repeat of sonic 06, bc it means they can get free easy shots on the game they're playing instead of being funny or interesting, a commonly beloved youtuber technique. but the narrative that this transition to 3D was clumsy was something widely held at the time is ahistorical. it was something mostly thrown around in some critic circles when a new mediocre 3D sonic game came out, and nowadays even when a good anyD sonic game comes out, but didn't really come into the mainstream as a held opinion until more recently, well after SA DX had released and the gamecube had been discontinued
nowadays, if you would like to play the game closer to as was originally released and intended, there's a mod loader for the PC port on steam that includes the "fixed edition" mod as well as some dreamcast graphical/content mods. it's good! and really not That buggy even without it. you would be surprised how many bugs youtubers intentionally trigger for goofs.
also, if you're interested, a guy called ChaosX is recreating sonic 06 from the groundup in unity and it's pretty great and accurate, turns out if that game wasn't a buggy nightmare and had an extra year or two of development it was gonna be really cool... sad. sonic team deserve better management that the ones they've been getting. anyway. that's all.
