Chau, Liu and Ahmed praised its 60-frame-per-second rendering speed. Senoue's soundtrack garnered a positive reaction. According to Ahmed, the music was an improvement over Adventure "campy glam-rock and J-pop soundtrack," with less emphasis on lyrics, and Liu appreciated its more "understated" approach. Four-Eyed Dragon called the music "an eclectic mix of orchestrated masterpieces, guitar tunes, and melodic hip-hop voices" that "gracefully fill the game's ambiance to a perfect pitch." Reactions to the voice acting were divided; according to Ahmed, "the voice acting, and the lip-synching in particular, is executed quite well," and Liu and Chau thought the English voices were inferior to the Japanese ones. The plot was derided, although its presentation was well received. Ahmed wrote, "Throughout the game the plot becomes more and more scattered and lackluster," not focusing long enough on one element to execute it meaningfully. Although Liu agreed that despite the game's ambitious scope and themes it failed to advance the series' core plot beyond the Sega Genesis Sonic games, Edge appreciated the story's presentation from both perspectives: hero and villain. Despite high review scores for the Dreamcast version, the GameCube version released six months later received mixed reviews: respective Metacritic and GameRankings scores of 73 percent and 72.33 percent. Critics generally felt that it was not significantly improved from the Dreamcast original. However, Shane Bettenhausen of GameSpy saw Battle as noticeably superior; in addition to its upgrades, its action was better suited to the GameCube's controller than the Dreamcast's. Sales The Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure 2 sold around 918,000 copies in the US, and 108,480 copies in Japan. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the GameCube sold almost 50,000 copies during its first week in Japan, where it went on to sell 192,186 units as of December 23, 2002. In North America, it was the best-selling GameCube title between January and August 2002, with 465,000 copies sold during that period. By August 2002, Battle had sold more than copies worldwide. By July 2006, it had sold 1.2 million copies and earned $44 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 42nd highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. It sold 1.44 million copies in the United States , making it one of the best-selling GameCube games and the best-selling third-party game for the system. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle also