Sonic Adventure DX: A Glitch in the Game

I was just now getting off my shift from the local corner store, which meant I finally had some time to myself to play some Sonic games. But thinking about it, I looked back to my childhood when I used to play Sonic Adventure DX on my GameCube just about every time I got off of school. I don't know, but I think I might have that copy back at my parents' house, probably left under the couch or something like that. So, I ended up dropping everything I was doing and drove on back to my old house, which wasn't that far away, it was about a whole city away. When I arrived, I walked in and just told my mom I was back to look for something. She gave me a hug and let me in to look for my old SADX copy. I looked under the couch, nothing there, just some dust and a couple coins. I looked in my old room that was emptied out and in the closet. For some reason, I didn't bother to empty that when I was moving out. Retarded ol' me, am I right? Disregarding that, I looked around in the closet for a bit and I found the case! Surprisingly didn't take that long. I opened it up, and the disc was in there too. How lucky! Though, I remember that the disc was a bit scratchy from use, as to why I probably didn't use it anymore. I'm probably gonna do that dumbass toothpaste trick to fix it when I get back home. I told my mom that I got what I came for and got outta there, waving her goodbye for now.

Once I got home, I went ahead and ran the game under some toothpaste and water, as this was a bit of a last ditch effort to get it to work. I don't know how toothpaste fixes literal scratches, but I'm a sucker who believes a majority of what I see on the internet. After I finished with that, I brought out my GameCube in hopes it would work. I hit the power button, the start-up animation played, and there it was! I really couldn't believe that it worked on the first try, but some things might be a little fucky, but I think I'll get through it. The opening cutscene played, which sent me back a real long time ago. Really, there's nothing like a good bit of nostalgia to get you through your evening. I got to the story select screen and decided to pick Sonic, who was on 74% completion before the disc quit working. But for some reason, pressing him just didn't do anything. The usual mini-menu that would pop up just didn't appear, which meant I couldn't play. Disappointing to say the least. But as a quick measure, I went to Tails' story and that functioned just fine. A bit odd, but I'm a little nitpicky.

The opening cutscene for Tails' story played out like normal, with Tails flying in his plane and it eventually malfunctioning, almost crashing into Station Square. It cut to the next scene, but something was vastly different. Sonic was gone all together, but Tails still looked like he was looking at him despite the fact there was nothing there. As a matter of fact, It Doesn't Matter was replaced by a bunch of garbled noises trying to make itself out into a song. I scratched my head, but again, this disc wasn't in the best condition to begin with, so I shouldn't really be that surprised. The next scene played and the song was still the mess of sounds it was last time. Usually Sonic would have a voice line, but the only real sign of dialogue from Sonic, or Sonic as a whole, was the fact that the dialogue box was still there, but it was completely empty. Yet the scene still played out like normal with Tails speaking to literal nonexistence. To make matters weirder, Tails saying Sonic seemed to have cut his name off entirely, saying "Thanks," instead of "Thanks, Sonic." Nothing else to describe, the cutscene still played out, just differently. After that, I explored around Station Square for a bit and went to pick up the Jet Anklet. Then I got a move on to the Mystic Ruins to fight Eggman. Once again, this cutscene was altered to remove Sonic, which of course, meant Eggman's dialogue was cut off upon the mention of Sonic. Of course, I won't bore you with the details, just know that the cutscene played like the last one. Nothing noteworthy happened during the Egg Hornet fight, it's what happened after that raised my eyebrow a bit. Once I beat it, the result screen showed up like normal, but after that, it got stuck on the loading screen. In fact, I caught a glimpse of Sonic's model facing away as the screen was fading. Well, there's Sonic I guess. I powered the GameCube off and on in hopes to fix the loading screen, but once again. Scratchy disc. The game was still there, though.

What happened afterwards really freaked me out, though. Instead of it playing the intro cutscene like usual, it just shot me straight to Station Square, except the sky was completely blacked out and there were no citizens. The music that would usually play was completely gone too. I wandered around the city for almost a minute until I heard a faint voice line of Sonic saying "Hey, Tails". That caused me to stop in my tracks to see where that voice came from. After wandering around for a bit longer, I heard another line. "You're no match for me!" I got a little frantic and ran away from the source of the line, which came from the right speaker. While I was running, Sonic said "No way, Tails!" I just kept running, but it was like Sonic was starting to get impatient. His lines went from his usual sentences to just saying Tails' name over and over. At one point, it became almost like a chant. The rhythm of Sonic saying Tails got faster, but for some reason, a lot louder. Was he getting closer? I kept on running and the line got very loud and fast, overlapping each other. Then, the camera panned to behind Tails as he was running, and there was Sonic, except he didn't have his pupils. Then, he caught up to Tails, making a Tails falling sound play. I was confused as fuck, staring at the black screen for a couple seconds before playing another line. "Tails... what am I gonna do with you?" The game went back to the story select with Tails' model looking all glitched out, some of his parts being stretched. He also had no pupils like Sonic beforehand. What was even going on? Is the disc really that fucked up? I mean, I am playing it, so I dunno.

Well, I decided to go to Knuckles' Story to see if I can at least get something normal outta this. Once again, the opening cutscenes played out like usual, with Chaos stealing the Master Emerald and Angel Island falling. Once again, everything was relatively normal up until a few minutes later after beating Chaos 2. Sonic's name was, again, failed to be said. Something weird that didn't happen before began to happen. The game progressively got glitchier, but only slightly. Going to and through Red Mountain was relatively normal, barring the fact there were some glitches strewn about. I got to the Sonic boss, and of course, the cutscene went how you'd except. The game froze on the frame right before the boss began, meaning I had to turn the GameCube off and on again.

And again, the game sent me to the dark Station Square from before, except something was different. The props like the street lights and cars were also gone. I was left to run around the dark city again, except now I know what to avoid. Once again, I heard a quiet voice from Sonic. "Hey, Knuckles!" Of course, I got a move on to run away from that thing from the direction of its voice line. About a couple seconds of running later, it did that camera pan again as Sonic said "That's not gonna happen, buddy!" played. And Sonic himself looked a little more fucked up than usual, his model looked like his limbs were randomly stretched, his quills were starting to go a little crazy, and what I found VERY freaky was that Sonic's pupils were placed on random parts of his body. Then it caught up to Knuckles, which cut to a black screen and a Knuckles death sound. Once again, another few second long black screen that ended with a voice line. "Smooth move, Knucklehead!" Then it once again cut to the story select, having Knuckles also look corrupted beyond belief. Just, what WAS going on? This is my childhood copy of Sonic Adventure DX, right? I can understand how glitchy it was due to the disc being dated or whatever, but I don't get why this whole thing with Tails and Knuckles--I dunno, dying is happening? I'm weirdly tempted to select Amy's story now, but I don't really know if I do. But I guess it's whatever?

And yet again, the usual shit. Normal cutscene, any mention of Sonic is just cut off entirely, and the fact that he's not even there. Welp, I guess it's time to relive my childhood by letting Amy into the hands of whatever the fuck THAT is. I scared myself by forgetting that It Doesn't Matter is replaced with a bunch of noises so that's always fun. Another thing I noticed is that the scenery was that darkened out Station Square from the last two times, but now all the buildings were gone too. That or they were black. And right in the middle of the cutscene, at the time Amy says she'll tag along, suddenly the gameplay started again, which meant the same old shit from before. Except... I couldn't move. My controller was still plugged in, but no matter what button I press, there was no input. Some seconds pass and the line "That girl is such a pain!" played, quiet as usual. It was coming and there was nothing I could do about it. "Amy! Oh man, where can she be?" The same two lines kept repeating, gradually cutting themselves down to be just "Amy". And like Tails, the name would be chanted, getting faster as that glitchy Sonic approached. And what was running out of the darkness could barely be recognized as Sonic. It was some sorta creature with long corrupted limbs, crazy quills, his face looked like a garbled up mess, and there were a bunch of pupils surrounding his body. And it got to Amy, cueing a death line from her. After that, just a black screen with no line from Sonic after. Again, I turned the GameCube off and on, and the game was no longer functional. I tried again and again to see if it'd work, even doing the toothpaste trick again, and yet, nothing.

I do not know what in the name of fuck happened, or what caused my copy of Sonic Adventure to go wild like that, so I took out the disc and put it back in its case and threw it away. What's sadder is that was the copy from my childhood days, and to see it just gone like that made me a little sad. But, there's always the Steam version I could play through again, but I don't know if it would really feel the same. Personally, it's whatever. I don't know if it's really fitting to give something like that a name, but if I were to, it'd probably be something like DX or something like that. Probably a stupid name, but my head's a little whirly after this whole experience, so yeah. Well, I guess I'm off to binge some Sonic games tonight.