It's the same for the other characters, too. A simple bit of mental arithmetic alludes to a pleasing truth: Sonic Adventure is huge. You might be able to sprint through Sonic's tale in a weekend - missing, as you do so, many secrets - but it'll take you weeks before, hand on heart, you could say, "Yes, I've completed it all." Better still, every character has their own talents, allowing you to reach previously unreachable areas. It also changes the way you run through each level. Tails, you see, has the ability to fly for limited periods. This makes a massive difference; he can make short-cuts that Sonic couldn't even begin to attempt.

And what of the sub-games? Playing pinball with Sonic? Snowboarding down a mountainside? A Space Harrier-style assault on Dr Robotnik's huge battleship, with Tails at the control's of Sonic's bi-plane? Yes, yes and yes. It has them. They're great. Fans of nurturing games, Pokémon-style, will be delighted to discover that Sonic Adventure has an excellent sub-plot, whereby you can find mysterious eggs with different characters. Place these in one of three special zoo areas and you can hatch little creatures. You can get them to race, breed to get new varieties, introduce them to special animals to get them to adopt certain characteristics... and that's just scratching the surface. Download one to your VMS and you can care for it while away from your Dreamcast. There are games to play, and you can even connect two VMSes in order to make two different Chao - as they're so called - mate or scrap. It's virtually an entire game in its own right. We approve.

Sonic Adventure is, in a word, magnificent. Somehow it doesn't make the same kind of impression that Mario 64 or Tomb Raider did in their day. It doesn't inspire the same kind of dazzled awe that those classics once could (and, in the case of Mario, still can). Give it a bit of time, though, and it proves itself to be no less worthy. Adventure can be a bit rough around the edges at times - you get the impression that it needed another month or two in development - and it really should give you the option to skip dialogue sequences. But these are bearable flaws. We've seen much worse.

If you own a Dreamcast, you must own this game. It's as simple as that.