Yes, it has quite a bit of unlockables, you're right. No JPN voices. There are language settings but it only applies to text. Personally, I don't look at voices in any Sonic game unless they're really bad and/or a noticable deterrent or annoyance.
The controls are had to talk about; I didn't have too much of a problem with them but a lot of others did. I'm sure osmeone can offer their input in that area...
There's quite a lot of replay value especially for multiplayer purposes. But, if it's ONLY single player (don't know if that'll be your general/predominant case), it can get kinda boring after you've unlocked everything, beaten the heck out of all of your already-good records (speaking from experience on that one; but not bored since I still have multiplayer :P), and tired of the game's "flaws" (whatever those are :P - lol). There are quite afew biased reviews out there on gaming sites so don't rely on their opinion to sway you whether to get or not. If I did, I wouldn't have got it... actually, that's not really true cause I was kind of excited about it from the beginning it was announced.
For multiplayer, you can do Free Race and Grand Prix (2ppl); Tag Mode (2-4); Survival - Race and Battle (both 2-4; I recommend Battle; excluding me, a lot of people I play with love it)
And I'm glad you can still play Heroes; out of all my family members, cousins, and/or friends, NO ONE will play multiplayer with me anymore. ROTFLOL. My favorite was Battle, personally, and Expert. They probably just got tired of me winning all the time - which is usually the case in most if not all the games I have with multiplayer ability. :P
Hope that helps a bit. If you ened any more info on the game as to whether or not you should get it, I can be of assistance, since Ive played the gamefro over 250 hours and counting :P. Just let me know.
1. Blah. What's their lame excuse this time? 2 hours of FMV? Or is it that the game is
really like 900 MB, and SEGA just did this to be annoying. This needs the Japanese option, not Sonic Adventure.
And yes, it is a big problem. I can't stand hearing the weird Sonic, girly Tails, and ancient Knuckles.
I might be crazy enough to actually make a CD with better voices and play that instead.
(If I'm not, I can talk as I play. Of course, I have to survive the game once before that.
But I need to work on consistency, especially with Tails's voice.)
2. That sounds good enough. I have too many games to play, anyway.
When will I ever find time for SADX again? *sob*
And it was already bought... I don't know, I guess a little more than a week ago.
I could probably return it, but I won't. Besides, it helps complete my Sonic GCN collection.
Anyway, thanks for the info. :)
3. Yeah, but it's not as great as you think. Action Stages (mainly Action Race and Expert Race) are okay,
except there's a bit of randomness (not as bad as SA2... don't get me complaining about that),
and my brother sometimes complains about not knowing all the shortcuts.
(I've barely done any time-attacking, and he's done little if any, so he doesn't know the shortcuts
like he would in, say, SA. Rail Canyon is the one he really hates. Easy to remember... once you do it.)
I win too much in the bobsled one.
Battle is basically just button-mashing with a bad camera angle.
The Special Stage has graphics problems... if the pop-up is that bad on GCN, what's PS2 like?
And like I said, there's the Ring Race... that's like a bad joke. What were they thinking.