Yep, I’m reviewing ALL the games at once. Enjoy! Oh, and this was a review I wrote two years ago but due to scheduling issues (when do I not), it was held back…and since I don’t have any main Sonic games to review, it’s time for the table scraps…sort of.
Sonic Advance
The console wars, Sega Vs Nintendo, it is a legendary (if a bit pointless) argument amongst gamers and continued up until the late 90s, but Sega’s console division was obliterated by the PlayStation 2 and Sega did the unthinkable at the time, release a Sonic game on Nintendo consoles. Nintendo gamers were delighted and Sega fans were like “wait, what?”.
Whilst the GameCube had Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, the Game Boy Advance had Sonic Advance (ソニックアドバンス Sonikku Adobansu), developed by Sonic Team and Dimps and was published by Sega and was released in Japan in 2001 but was released elsewhere in 2002. Sega published the game in Japan, THQ in America and Infrogrames in Europe, and also Nokia…there was no Nokia port, what on Earth are you on about?
So Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy travel through many zones to defeat Dr. Eggman or he’ll take over South Island. What more do you need?
The gameplay is what sticks with me; it’s the classic sonic gameplay with modern aesthetics, like the character design from Sonic Adventure, Sonic runs fast and jump as normal, press jump again while in the air creates a shield, Tails flies, Knuckles can glide and climb up walls, but other than that, each character does the same thing, all except for Amy, she can’t roll into a ball or spin dash and uses her Piko Piko Hammer, this near enough changes the gameplay in some parts.
There are 6 zones, each containing two acts. By Act 2 you defeat Eggman and you open a capsule that releases animals trapped in it. The gameplay is fantastic; it’s one of the best 2D modern Sonic games made…which hasn’t even been surpassed. The level design suits each character since there are many paths to take and some characters need them based on their abilities. The bosses are good, but they have very easy patterns, but the music is memorable.
The game is pretty easy but for first timers, there’s a Zone where you have to go up a rocket, its long and maze like and it might provide a challenge for many. Just a head’s up. The graphics are vibrantly colourful; it goes with the fact that it’s a modern 2D Sonic game. The music is pretty good but nothing that memorable, with a few exceptions like Neo Green Zone, the Boss and that snow level…you know the snow level…yay.
Any problems? Well the special stages are just awful, in order to access the special stage, you must find a blue spring in the levels, but finding one is very difficult to find and I’ve managed to find 2 throughout the whole game and haven’t collected a single Emerald, it’s annoying and kind of weird to be difficult as this game altogether since it is a simple Sonic game.
In addition to the game there is an extra game included called Tiny Chao Garden, but I want to make a separate review.
Overall, this is a great start to the series; it covers the basics whilst adding small features so that is doesn’t alienate new players.
Sonic Advance 2
After the success of the first game, it was obvious to make a sequel. Sonic Advance 2 (ソニックアドバンス２ Sonikku Adobansu Tsū), developed and published by the same companies from the first game.
Now this is the game that has a special place in my heart. Many years ago I went to a party and this boy had a Game Boy Advance and he asked me if I want to play Sonic Advance 2, I played it for a while and I loved it. And that was my very first experience with a Sonic game. When I did get a Game Boy Advance, the first game I got for it was…Finding Nemo, but the second game I got was this game and oh boy I will treasure this game for many years to come.
The game is the same what with different levels. However, you start as Sonic first and as the game goes you unlock the rest of the characters. Also, Cream the Rabbit makes her first appearance who is in search of her mother. The characters play the same, but Cream is the beginner’s mode because whenever there is an enemy, she can use her Chao to attack them. Heck, she makes bosses look like a cake walk. The bosses are quite challenging, especially if you’re beginning to play this, I had a hard time with the bosses as a child, but with much practice they’re pretty easy.
Any problems? Once again the special stage and trying to get to it is much worse as they are scattered throughout each level, you get no directions as to where they are, and sometimes they can be in unreachable places. I’ve only done this with Tails for level 1 but only because he could fly. You then enter the special stage which is a rectangular, 3D stage where you got to collect 300 rings and you have E-100 Alpha chasing you, it has poor controls making it difficult to get the Emeralds. And what’s worse is that in order to unlock Amy, you have to collect all 7 Emeralds FOR EACH CHARACTER, meaning you have to beat 28 special stages. SCREW THAT!!!
But playing it again made me realise that this is the worst examples of a Sonic game, in which it’s so fast and pushing right for the most part will let you win (but not all the time), at one point I was playing the game and I realised my brain shut down, no thought process, just go fast, it’s junk food for the mind and it feels horrible. You might say the same thing for other Sonic games but the level design in the classic games were great and kept you awake. The level design here is so lazy that I’m surprised that I liked this back in the day.
I then realised how bullshit some parts of the game are like enemy placements, spike placements and a ton of bottomless pits, and I think that because as a child, I didn’t know any better. Had I started playing this now, I would have been pissed off about the game, this would have been my least favourite Sonic game in the trilogy…but because I played this as a child…ah fuck it, I can’t enjoy it the same way I did back in the day.
The graphics are fantastic for the GBA, another game in the series where it has a nice blend of classic and modern so anyone will have a good time picking up this and playing it. The sprites are well done with highly-detailed cartoonish style animation; even when just standing still they feel alive. The music is awesome, considering that this is Sonic and the music is always good.
Overall, what was my favourite Sonic games is now just decent at this point, which is incredibly sad.
Sonic Advance 3
My goodness. This game, which was one of my favourite games in my childhood…is one of the worst 2D Sonic games I’ve ever played. Let me explain. Sonic Advance 3 (ソニックアドバンス3 Sonikku Adobansu Surī), developed by Sonic Team and Dimps and published by Sega in Japan and THQ for the US and Europe.
So here’s the thing, to understand the plot (kind of), I have to play Sonic Battle but that’s for a later date. From what I heard, Dr. Eggman built a robot assistant called Gemerl, based on another robot, albeit, similar data to Emerl. So Dr. Robotnik’s plan: tears the Earth apart using the Chaos Emeralds and performing Chaos Control, and on top of that, Eggman also kidnaps Knuckles, Amy and Cream. So Sonic and Tails try to rescue their friends, collect the Chaos Emeralds and defeat Eggman and Gemerl. So finally, after two games, we finally have an actual plot…tis a shame though it isn’t that good and makes no sense…and the Earth-tearing subplot is similar to Sonic Unleashed.
So what do I like about the game? The graphics are fantastic, in fact, the best they’ve ever been…and that’s it for positives for there are too many negatives. The gameplay, level design and physics are appalling. The whole game is broken, the gameplay feels slow at times and slippery, it just doesn’t feel good to play compared to the previous games where even in the second game they got the gameplay correct, but for some reason they completely changed it, if it ain’t broke, DON’T TRY TO FIX IT.
Also the level design isn’t too bad, but it’s the plethora of enemy placements; at times, you’re not allowed to go fast, going fast and suddenly bumping into an enemy right in front of you, and this happens all the time. But there’s also too many pitfalls out of nowhere, not to mention stone boxes that crush you, you know, where you go fast, smack your face into a wall and get crushed…FOR NO REASON, other than the fact that the developers added these cheap deaths to add unnecessary difficulty.
The bosses are ok, but the most annoying boss, and not because of the boss, is one from Twinkle Snow, where Eggman rises up and you have to jump on platforms to get up, but because I can’t control Sonic’s jumps, I just fall and die. But you’re probably asking, “What about the Team Assist”? UUUHH! The feature, Team Assist, where you can play as any character so long as you unlock them and you pick another character to help you throughout the game, and that means for half of the game you need to use this and you also need the right character for the job. Why add this? I just want to go fast, not use a character to solve something.
Oh, the Chao collecting. So in order to get to the special stages, you must collect Chao all across the zones…just like Sonic Advance 2’s way of getting special stages…DARN IT SEGA, didn’t you ever learn from the issues, only you made it similarly harder to find the Chao and from even watching some of the stages, they don’t look very good anyway.
So anything else? I didn’t quite like the music, which is a shame since Sonic music are always great and I never quite liked it.
Overall, it’s just not a good Sonic game, in fact, it’s one of the worst in my opinion, which is a shame because it’s part of an Advance trilogy and it’s sad that the series got worse at the end. It has broken gameplay, unnecessary Team Assist and just an overall disappointing game. Remember, this game was awesome to play back in the day, this was considered to be the best game in the series for me, even when I lost it, I would always think about it and talk about how awesome it is. But after playing it again, I still don’t know how I managed to beat it.
So that is the Sonic Advance Trilogy, is it perfect? No! But I will praise it for being the series that introduced me to the Sonic series, especially Sonic Advance 2, it got me to try Sonic Heroes, and then Shadow the Hedgehog, and then I would play other Sonic games so I can review them because I’m sad that way.
You can get all the games on the Game Boy Advance.
Did you know Sonic Advance 1 is released on the Virtual Console…in Japan only.
Speaking of Sonic, I also reviewed the Sega Mega Drive Classics on the PlayStation 4, check out the YouTube video:
