He’s just there. Standing.
If you’ve ever played the Dreamcast classic or its later ports, you know the feeling of catching a glimpse of something purple and massive in the corner of your screen during a high-speed chase. It’s unsettling, honestly. We’re talking about Sonic Adventure 2 Big the Cat, the fishing-obsessed feline who somehow managed to sneak into nearly every level of a game he wasn’t even supposed to be in.
Most people remember Big from the first Sonic Adventure. He was the guy who slowed the pace to a grinding halt with those polarizing fishing segments. When the sequel dropped in 2001, Sega seemingly listened to the fans and cut him from the playable roster. But Big didn't actually leave. He just became a ghost in the machine, a literal Easter egg tucked into the background of the most intense moments in the game.
It’s not just a single cameo. It’s a full-blown obsession by the developers at Sonic Team.
The Mystery of the Purple Stalker
Why is he there? That’s the question that has haunted speedrunners and casual fans for decades. Technically, Sonic Adventure 2 Big the Cat appearances aren't part of the plot. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't help you. He usually just stands in the background, sometimes waving his lure, sometimes just staring into the abyss while Sonic or Shadow grinds past him at Mach 1.
In the original Dreamcast release, Big was actually a bit more prominent. If you pressed the B button during certain cutscenes, he would just pop up, replacing objects or standing behind characters like a low-poly cryptid. It felt like a prank. Honestly, it probably was. Takao Miyoshi and the rest of the level design team clearly had a weird sense of humor when it came to their largest character.
Where to actually find him
You have to look closely. In City Escape, he’s behind a fence right after the initial boarding section. In Wild Canyon, he’s chilling on a pillar if you look up at the right moment. He’s even in the boss fights. When you’re fighting the Biolizard—the literal prototype of the Ultimate Lifeform—Big is just hanging out in the distance, presumably wondering where Froggy went.
It gets weirder in the Sonic Adventure 2 Battle version for the GameCube. Sega actually removed many of his cutscene cameos in that version, but they left the in-level sightings. They even added a "Big" weight to some of the physics objects. If you're playing the HD ports on Steam or modern consoles today, finding him has become a rite of passage.
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The Mechanic of the "Big Press"
Back in the day, the "Big Press" was the ultimate playground rumor. You’d hear kids at school say that if you found every single Sonic Adventure 2 Big the Cat cameo, you’d unlock him as a playable character in the main story.
Spoiler: You won't.
That didn't stop the community from documenting every single frame. The game treats him less like a character and more like a hidden texture. He’s often placed in areas that are technically "out of bounds" or only visible for a fraction of a second during a scripted camera pan. This makes him a favorite for the "boundary break" community. When you take the camera off the rails, you see him just standing in the void, a silent witness to the end of the world.
He’s notably present in:
- Radical Highway (under the bridge)
- Pumpkin Hill (near the church)
- Metal Harbor (on a crane)
- The final hazard (floating in space)
Why Sega Chose This Path
There’s a bit of developer lore here that makes sense. During the transition from the first Adventure to the second, the tone shifted. Sonic Adventure 2 was darker, more cinematic, and focused heavily on the rivalry between Sonic and Shadow. A giant purple cat fishing for a frog didn't fit the "cool" aesthetic they were going for.
Instead of deleting the assets entirely, they turned him into a recurring gag. It was a way to acknowledge the character's existence without forcing players to engage with the fishing mechanics that everyone—and I mean everyone—complained about in 1998.
But there’s a deeper level of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) to consider when looking at these cameos. Long-time Sonic researchers like those at The Sonic Stadium or Sega Retro have noted that Big’s presence actually required specific coding triggers. He wasn't just a static prop; he was a programmed event. This suggests that his inclusion wasn't an afterthought, but a deliberate "Where’s Waldo" style mini-game embedded in the core experience.
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The Multiplayer Exception
There is one place where Sonic Adventure 2 Big the Cat is actually playable, and it's the one place people always forget: Multiplayer.
In the original Dreamcast version, he was an unlockable skin for Eggman in the mech-shooting levels. Think about that for a second. A massive cat sitting in a bipedal tank. It’s absurd. In the Battle version for GameCube, he was replaced by a Chao Walker, likely because Big’s massive hitboxes made him a nightmare for competitive balance. He was basically a giant target.
If you want to play as him today, you’re usually looking at mods. The PC modding scene for SA2 is incredibly active, and there are dozens of "Big the Cat over Shadow" mods that let you play the entire hero/dark campaign as the world's least likely hero.
The impact on the fandom
It’s strange how a character everyone hated for his gameplay became a beloved meme because of his cameos. The "stalker Big" persona is now a staple of Sonic fan culture. It transformed him from a "boring fishing guy" to a "multidimensional deity who can survive in the vacuum of space."
How to hunt Big today
If you’re firing up the game in 2026, here is the reality: you need a guide. Some of these sightings are frame-perfect.
- City Escape: Right after the first 2D-style running section, look through the windows of the buildings on the left.
- Prison Lane: In one of the cells that only opens if you have a specific rank or destroy a specific guard.
- Green Forest: He’s often seen hanging from trees during the "fast" segments where the camera locks behind Sonic.
The trick is the camera. The camera in SA2 is... well, it’s a product of 2001. It’s finicky. But if you manipulate the right stick (or use the trigger buttons to rotate) while Sonic is grinding, you can catch the purple blur.
Beyond the Cameo
What’s the actual takeaway from the Sonic Adventure 2 Big the Cat saga? It’s a lesson in brand identity. Sega knew they had a polarizing character. Instead of burying him, they turned him into a secret. This kept the character alive in the hearts of fans without compromising the "edgy" direction of the sequel.
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It also set a precedent. In later games, Big continues to show up in weird places. Whether he's a background element in Sonic Colors or a fishing NPC in Sonic Frontiers, his role is now firmly established: he is the observer.
Practical Next Steps for Players
If you want to experience this yourself, don't just play the game normally. Start a "Big Hunt" save file.
- Step 1: Get the PC version. The "CWE" (Chao World Extended) and "Main Memory" mods often include fixes that make Big more visible or even restore the Dreamcast-exclusive cameos that were cut from later releases.
- Step 2: Use a "No HUD" mod. It makes spotting him in the distance much easier when you aren't distracted by your ring count or the timer.
- Step 3: Record your sightings. There is still debate in some forums about "lost" Big cameos in the mission modes that haven't been fully verified with modern capture tech.
The hunt for Big is more than just a meme; it's a way to engage with the layered, often chaotic history of Sonic Team's development process. He represents a time when games weren't just "content," but playgrounds for developers to hide secrets just because they could.
Next time you're blasting through Mission Street at 200 miles per hour, take a second to look up. He's probably watching you.
Actionable Insight: To see the most famous Big cameo, play the "City Escape" level and, during the truck chase at the very end, look at the sidewalk on the right side of the screen just before the final jump. You'll see him waving. This is the easiest one to spot and proves that Big was always intended to be the secret star of the show.
For those looking to dive deeper into the technical side, check out the Sonic Retro wiki's breakdown of internal object lists. Seeing how the game classifies "BigOccur" triggers gives you a fascinating look at how 6th-generation games handled easter eggs without the benefit of modern scripting engines.
You should also look into the "Big the Cat" voice lines that were left in the game's sound test. Even though he has no dialogue in the story, John St. John (the voice of Duke Nukem and Big) recorded several lines that suggest he might have had a larger role at one point during development. Listening to those clips while looking at his silent, staring model in the background adds an entirely different, almost eerie layer to the experience.
Go find him. He’s waiting.