Hello, my name is Jake and I want to share a story about a game I loved playing during my childhood. Well not really a story.... What I'm gonna share with you is an experience I had playing this game. That game is Sonic Adventure DX.
The first time I bought this game it was for my Nintendo Gamecube. The game I knew and loved dearly was like this; I sped through levels with Sonic, raced against Sonic using Tails, and found the broken pieces of the Master Emerald with Knuckles. When I played as Big the Cat it was pretty fun, but I was never into fishing. Playing as Amy was alright, but that robot that chased you throughout the levels scared me a few times. As E-102 Gamma I went through all the levels shooting up everything. Of course I have to mention the Chao Gardens, breeding and racing Chao.
Back then I wanted a new game that was coming out so I sold it to Gamestop to buy another game. A couple years later, I found Sonic DX for the PC. It was marked down to five dollars at the time. I bought it then and there; after installing the game and playing it nostalgia hit me. I remembered so much from the game. Soon after beating it many times I left it alone for awhile and went into other games like Team Fortress 2 and so on. Some time had passed and I went back to Sonic DX. I wanted to learn how to speed run for Twitch so I started the game and practiced glitches and shortcuts. I figured out how to skip the first level where you have to save Tails.
Soon after skipping level one, I jumped straight to the level where you go to the Carnival. At that point my game started doing small glitches like Amy talking in Japanese. It was odd because I knew I didn’t change the language settings. Needless to say I went into the menu to check and what would you know... it had changed. I swapped it back out to English and got back into the game. After I fixed it and beat the level everything seemed normal. That was until I went to the Red Mountain Stage. I started the level like normal and going through I saw that a few enemies didn't notice me like the monkeys that normally throw bombs. They seemed to be still and were just sitting there. I ran past them trying to make good time, but still most of the enemies were unmoving. I figured it was just a glitch since it’s a port of an old game.
On this stage you have to get out of the volcano before it fills with magma.I noticed the Ring Men in the locked cages are acting different than before. Normally they stand there with a slight bouncing animation, but this time they were banging on the cages like they wanted to get out. That made me stop and think “Why are they doing that, maybe skipping the first level unlocked a hidden animation.” I waited for a moment, but nothing really changed so I finished the level.
After Red Mountain I began the Sky Chase stage. It was odd though because the cut scene didn't activate. It immediately started the level and Sonic wasn't riding The Tornado, which was damaged and there was no driver. I completed the level and minus the glitches like no dialogue everything played normal. I knew Eggman's Ship was next but like the previous level, the cut scene didn't play either. I hadn't pressed any buttons for it to skip, but I pressed on as normal. Shortly thereafter I reached the Sky Deck Stage, but the game became unresponsive for a few minutes and then started back up. I noticed that things were missing like the rings and capsules. I figured I must have broken the game trying to exploit glitches. I continued the level looking for the end but most of the enemies were gone and the big cannon wasn't firing.
I then decided to quit the level but I found that the pause menu was gone but the game still paused. when I had unpaused the game it was lagging/jerking. I went to jump to a platform and I had died in mid air even though I hadn’t hit anything. I thought that maybe the enemies were invisible or glitched. When I returned to the checkpoint I noticed that Sonic's hands were gone and upon further inspection they were. It was an odd sight, but I decided to continue on and complete the stage.
Instead of going to the next level it loaded to the entrance of Windy Valley. I thought to myself “Maybe I'll stop practicing and play some on other characters.” I went to the story select menu but something was wrong Sonic's, tails, and amy's pupils were missing. It was really starting to freak me out. I went to look at knuckles and his head and arms were missing. I scrolled over Big The Cat and E-102 Gamma but nothing had changed about them. I began thinking this is not normal, anyway I chose to play as tails. When I got into the game it froze and loaded back to the main menu. I wondered why it sent me back and I tried to play as tails two more times each doing the same thing. I stopped trying to play on Tails and went back to Sonic.
Now Sonic was glitched; he started having erratic movements. I made my way back to station square and got into the first level, Emerald Coast. Sonic's running animation had gotten worse and when running on the Beach heading for the first ramp sonic fell through the ground and died. The level restarted and as I jumped past that same spot with a spin dash I fell through the decks. Then Sonic’s animations started spazzing out more than its regular speed and died. I'm wondering whats going on and why can't I get past this area. I tried again this time I used a spin dash to skip to next loop and made it finally after multiple attempts. I made it to where Tails is, but then the game started lagging like its under an extremely heavy load. Tails was there but he was laying face down. I was thinking “Is Tails dead?” I continued on but when I got to Tails Sonic froze in his tracks. I couldn’t control him he just stood there staring at Tails body and then the game crashed to the desktop. What happens next brought me nightmares...
I restarted the game and loaded my save file, now things have changed again Sonic, Tails, Amy now their hands are gone and their eyes are still missing their pupils. I found this rather unsettling, but I continued and I chose to play as Sonic again, the game loaded up inside of the first level at the very end where you would find Tails. Tails was still laying there and his model was covered in red, it looked like blood. Sonic has done complete level animation but he didn't say anything and as parts of his model was still missing.
The game cut the black then it was back to the main menu. I tried to go to character select and try to play as Sonic, but it wouldn't let me play as Sonic, same as it did with Tails a while ago. I then tried to play as Tails but that didn't work either. I then chose to play as Knuckles the game loaded same as it would normally. I expected the game to go back to main menu but instead it loaded playing the starting cut scene everything was normal, but sounds and voices sound very broken like bit and pieces missing to the point that it was almost not understandable.
I then started playing and head for the first level for knuckles story Casinopolis, but it did not load into the level instead it loaded up at the pool area. I then went into Emerald Coast to find that the level loaded. I decided to try to play the level but it surprisingly easy to play I then skipped large amounts of the level using his gliding. When I reached the end of the level and headed for the crash site the game started hanging graphical issues Knuckles model was stretching and stringing out strange ways. I reached the crash site I saw the destroyed tornado and Tails standing there his model is covered in red and his hands were jagged and crushed , his tails were stretched and mangled and his eyes were the same as before just white. Just before I reached Tails, Knuckles fell into the ground and the game background started flashing black and red.
What just happened as I thought to myself , I left my pc for a short while and tried to think about what just happened since this what I saw sent chills down my spine. I think started thinking “Did I cause Tails to die after skipping the first level?”. I got back to my pc it was back at the main menu for Sonic DX but the music wasn’t playing. I then decided to play more and figure out why this is all happening. I went back to the character select screen and Sonic model was normal, I then moved onto Tails, I jumped from what I seen his model was like before at the crash site and his head tilted nearly upside down.
I then chose to play as Tails and the game loaded but it skipped the first cut scenes that led up to the crash and being saved by Sonic, but Sonic was not there and it showed the mangled mess of Tails, I couldn’t bare looking at it, I then ended the game then deleted that save file, ever since the game worked as normal. Nothing like that ever happened again, but I wont ever forget about happened then, I’ll still play this game but I’ll never do those glitches again.