♫ Live and Learn - Crush 40

SA2 Battle is one of the first games I vividly remember playing. Maybe I was 5 or so - digging around in some box I found my brother’s old copy. A bit scratched up, missing the manual, but by god it started up when I put in the Wii. I knew I liked sonic at the time, I knew his shtick and everything, but I never really played a game before. I had Sonic X on the leap frog I guess, but. Unsure if that counts for much. Might’ve played ‘06 in some waiting room?

Starting that first level of Adventure 2 though… god. Such a magical feeling. Sonic breaks out of a helicopter, drops out of the sky and starts wreaking havoc in this giant city. Perhaps in canon he doesn’t start “wreaking havoc”, but I sure went out of my way to slam into every car possible. Just moving around in a 3D environment wowed me, so seeing everything that City Escape had to offer me was incredible. But then, after beating the level, IT arrives.

Big Foot, this massive bipedal GUN mech that serves as the best boss. I couldn't do it. No matter what, for one reason or another my feeble little mind could not comprehend just how I might attack this thing. I could get one or two hits in! Not much else though. I think I'd got it in my head that I HAD to use the boxes in the arena to jump up and hit it. I'm not even sure if this tactic works, but regardless, the thing would break all of them every time.

There was no moving past it. I would just play that level over and over and OVER again to get chao items and nothing else. It would seem that my memory may betray me a bit here though - there's no way to get to the Chao Garden without beating that first level. The only explanation I have is my brother beat it for me and I simply never moved on. Either that, or I did try to move on and got immediately stopped by the Knuckles stage, having no idea how the radar worked. Very possible.

After nearly a year of this ritual I remembered something! A shining glimmer of hope. The dark story! Upon starting it up, I was actually able to beat a level! There was no boss... I was unstoppable. I annihilated everything with Eggman, and now I was blasting through Radical Highway with shadow. Hell yes. But then. it arrived.

This newfound confidence of course faded instantly upon beating the stage. The B-3x Scorpion Troop Hot Shot Heavy-Armed Combat Walker, probably better known as the Hot Shot. A more powerful version of the Big Foot. The hell was I supposed to do against this thing? A *more* powerful version of the thing i got stuck on?!?

To my complete and utter bafflement I did it first try. I was then immediately met with a Rouge level, again having no idea how the radar worked. Sad. At this point I gave up making progress. Over the years I’d play City Escape again, but never made any progress. I so desperately wanted to play the new multiplayer mode as a kid, but never had anyone to play with. Sonic specifically was an interest I kept mostly to myself? I don't know why.


my relationship with sonic would waver over the years... I’d watched dozens of videos about the series but never played many other games. Among the gamecube games in that box was Sonic Heroes, but I just never bothered to play it much. Some Christmas, I got Sonic Unleashed (Wii) from Santa. While I accepted it with a smile, I was more confused if anything. I had not asked for this at all, or made any note of wanting it. Like heroes I didn’t play it much. I played Sonic Classic Collection at some best buy once - later had more exposure to the classic games through various plug and play consoles. Maybe played a couple of flash games. I wouldn’t start playing the series much until 2017.

Sonic Mania!! I love that game… my first overdraft was from preordering the collectors edition lol. I hardly had any switch games before it came out so when i got my hands on it? God. I played that thing so much. Slowly more and more, I’d play more sonic games. Got Forces on clearance. It sucked. But! I played through generations, played all of the classic games, adventure one, and then, finally:

2023 - I'd just planned a weeklong road trip to Los Angeles with my best friend. The destination? Sonic Symphony. They’re really only a sonic fan by proxy of me, but it was more so to have one big trip for the summer before I went back to high school. It was really fun!! Listening to a live version of all those songs with everyone around knowing the lyrics by heart… rad as hell dude. But! Before that I finally went back.

Finally, I replayed AND beat Sonic Adventure 2. It's so good dude. I most certainly have some clear bias, it's pretty rough in some places, but man. Especially after playing the challenge levels, getting accustomed to each level fully. GAHH!!! It's AWESOME. The soundtrack is wonderful, the level design is great, the story is like. Pretty solid.

The actors for sure weren't directed the best they could, but these performances define these characters to me. Jason Griffith is the most 'sonic-y' sounding to me, though that's absolutely due to when I was born. Ryan Drummond absolutely kicks it out of the park and every single line he says is iconic to me. “I’m Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!” goes so fucking hard. I LOVE David Humphrey’s Shadow so much. He’s so much softer than the modern version and it’s wonderful. It made me a very strong proponent of Robert Pattinson being the voice of him in the movies, but I'm happy enough with Keanu.

That too! The third movie is really important to me. The first time I watched it was on a big trip with all of my high school friends. In no way is it the best movie, it’s incredibly flawed, but WOW. Having a big movie representing this huge interest of mine to this degree is fucking crazy. Hearing Live and Learn play in the theaters while Super Sonic & Shadow fight game accurate robots in space. That's the coolest thing ever. Afterwards in the car everyone was asking me questions about one of my favorite things and I felt so special. Autism redeemed.

The second time was the first time meeting one of my favorite people in the world. She hadn’t seen it, and I figured that was a better excuse than ever to finally meet up. We talked about it for hours afterwards, trying to think of how the next one would go - both of us love Metal Sonic, and CD in general dearly (perhaps that too will get a shrine..). I dunno. That movie and SA2 in general is just really special to me, and something I hold dear to my heart. This game is awesome :D