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RK128 · Mar 16, 2016

Ah, the very first Nintendo-system Sonic title. Quite a big deal back in 2002 when this game came out but still, Sonic's first Nintendo adventure after the sad death of the Dreamcast. So, with a new company made of SNK developers who made the impressive Sonic Pocket Adventure, how does this game compare to that game and other 2D games in the series?

Lets find out with Advanced Processing

!

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Lets start with the story; Eggman wants to take over the world and you have to stop him! Wow.....very simple plot XD! Okay, lets move on to the characters and how they work.

In many ways, the characters control the same as they did during the Genesis games. Sonic still spin dashes and has the insta-shield, Tails can fly with his tails, Knuckles can climb walls and glide. But each character has a extra B attack, allowing them to preform abilities seen in the Adventure games (Sonic: Somersault, Tails: Tail Swipe, Knuckles: Punching). Sonic also can grind on rails, as can another character......Amy Rose!

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This character is the brand new play-style to the game. She is fast like Sonic and Friends but she can't roll, spin-jump and can grind on rails. What makes Amy unique is that her Hammer can make springs work better, as if you slam the hammer on a spring, you launch high in the air. You can also use the Hammer in the air to preform a semi-Spin Jump (the Hammer attack in the air that she has in Sonic Adventure).

Amy is fun to play as due to her being so different from the rest of the cast and thus, is a fun way to revisit this game on repeated play throughs

.

- - - - - - - - -

Gotta comment on the sprite-work before moving on to the stages, as Dimps does such a great job with the presentation. You have the characters having detailed animations, move really smooth and capture the spirit of Dreamcast-era Art Work released after Sonic Adventure launched.

Love how this and future Advance games look, so have to comment on this element

.

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The level designs are interesting, as they try to capture what the Genesis games did. You have momentum-physics implemented and rolling is still a viable tool for gaining speed. Each level plays with those elements and while the game feels more platforming-focused then other classic games, it still has that 'spirit' the Classic games had.

The stages transition well, the level themes are used in other Sonic's ala Pocket Adventure but instead of just new level designs we got new music as well. And I have to comment on this one zone; Egg Rocket.

This zone is great due to it having a ton of platforming, it being on a timer (as you have to get higher and higher so you can go to space) and the music here is so good.

One of my favorite zones next to Ice Mountain and Secret Base

.

Also something interesting as that Eggman made a robot called Metal Knuckles! This is a creation he made studying Knuckles exploring Angle Island during Sonic 3&K, so its a nice nod to past Genesis games

.

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Music in this game is really great, as it makes the GBA sound chip sing, similar to how the teams behind the Game Gear games push that console.

We also have a MP mode where you and a friend can race across some of the stages in the game

. Nice extra for those looking for fun multiplayer action!

- - - - - - - -

Sonic and Tails Mode!

"The player has to highlight Sonic on the character selection and then press up, right, down, right, L, right, R, right and A. The code will be indicated as activated when a Ring chime is heard."

- - - - - - - -

Lastly, we have the special stages, which have your character sky diving (using a snowboard) to collect rings and preform tricks. They are in 3D (where you move left/right/up/down/ect) and while tricky at first, they are enjoyable to run through.

They are found via special springs in parts of each zone, so they are not that hard to find.

Big, big, BIG contrast to the stuff you gotta deal with for the special stages in Advance 2 and 3 X(. Sadly, all three Advance games do not have Super Sonic in normal stages, they are only saved for the final boss fight (extra fight). Not that big of a deal here but its annoying in Advance 2 and 3 where you really have to work for the special stages and the reward is just a boss fight

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Overall thoughts on this games is really positive, as I love this handheld adventure

!

It takes what I enjoyed from the Classic series and brings it to the Game Boy Advance using a great style that the Adventure games brought to the series. One of my favorite Game Boy Sonic's and while I grew up with Advance 2 (my very first 2D Sonic game), easy prefer this over that game

.

SparksterMeta0 · Mar 16, 2016

Have to admit; having Sonic finally debuting in a Nintendo system was something you thought would never, ever happen, even with Sega ceasing hardware production.

RK128 · Mar 16, 2016

SparksterMeta0 said:
Have to admit, having Sonic in a Nintendo system is something you though would never, ever happen, even with Sega ceasing hardware production.

Back then, that was huge news. This and a port of Adventure 2 coming to recent Nintendo consoles was.....something else.

Ironic that Sonic sold me on Nintendo systems in 2003 XD! But the IP meshes perfectly with Nintendo's line up

.

Neoleo2143 · Mar 16, 2016

The Real Sonic 4.

RK128 · Mar 16, 2016

Neoleo2143 said:
The Real Sonic 4.

You're damn right it was man

! It did what the Genesis games did but with the new style and look of the Dreamcast Era. If Pocket Adventure was the homage title, this was the new experience for many Sonic fans

.

Ein Bear · Mar 16, 2016

Advance 2 & 3 kind of went off in a direction I didn't much care for, but the original Sonic Advance is a stone cold classic, and is of just as high a quality as the Mega Drive games. They honestly should have just called it 'Sonic 4', it's a fantastic game.

Playing the game on a Nintendo system absolutely blew my mind back in the day too.

Green Mamba · Mar 16, 2016

The most underrated Sonic game in my opinion and the closest post-Genesis Sonic has ever gotten to the feeling of Sonic 1-3.

Brofield · Mar 16, 2016

Absolutely the best 2D Sonic game since Genesis (having not gotten around to playing Colours or Generations yet), but with enough little additional content with connectivity to SA2: Battle.

Kinda wanna dig out my old GBA and give this a whirl again just to really see how well it holds up

HeartlessNobody213 · Mar 16, 2016

Great game. One of my first games for my GBA as well.

RK128 · Mar 16, 2016

Ein Bear said:
Advance 2 & 3 kind of went off in a direction I didn't much care for, but the original Sonic Advance is a stone cold classic, and is of just as high a quality as the Mega Drive games. They honestly should have just called it 'Sonic 4', it's a fantastic game.

Playing the game on a Nintendo system absolutely blew my mind back in the day too.

Advance 2 was interesting as it was a Sonic Rush game, but without the boost being on a button. I love that game a great deal but its 'different' compared to Sonic Advance 1. Will go further into that when I talk about the game though.

Ryouji Gunblade · Mar 16, 2016

Neoleo2143 said:
The Real Sonic 4.

Yes. Very much yes. The spritework was really good.

Ranmo · Mar 16, 2016

Ein Bear said:
Advance 2 & 3 kind of went off in a direction I didn't much care for, but the original Sonic Advance is a stone cold classic, and is of just as high a quality as the Mega Drive games. They honestly should have just called it 'Sonic 4', it's a fantastic game.

Playing the game on a Nintendo system absolutely blew my mind back in the day too.

Yeah, I totally agree. I was recently replaying 1 and 2 and was totally thinking that Advance 1 is basically just Sonic 4.

I really like 2, and 3 is okay but they don't have the level of polish that Advance 1 has. As a kid I enjoyed 2 and 3 more because you get to go fas, but as an older lad I really appreciate the detail and level design of A1. You could say that the game is steak sauce.

RK128 · Mar 16, 2016

Ranmo said:
Yeah, I totally agree. I was recently replaying 1 and 2 and was totally thinking that Advance 1 is basically just Sonic 4.

I really like 2, and 3 is okay but they don't have the level of polish that Advance 1 has. As a kid I enjoyed 2 and 3 more because you get to go fas, but as an older lad I really appreciate the detail and level design of A1. You could say that the game is steak sauce.

That is what makes Advance 1 so interesting; it was designed like a Genesis Era Sonic rather then what we got latter with the Boost games (Rush, Rush Adventure).

I still feel that Advance 2 is great as it is the 'in-between' game that introduces the Boost style into the Genesis Style gameplay.

Astral Dog · Mar 16, 2016

Ein Bear said:
Advance 2 & 3 kind of went off in a direction I didn't much care for, but the original Sonic Advance is a stone cold classic, and is of just as high a quality as the Mega Drive games. They honestly should have just called it 'Sonic 4', it's a fantastic game.

Playing the game on a Nintendo system absolutely blew my mind back in the day too.

Advance 2 was kind of meh, as it went in a direction were rushing the stages, and even bosses was most to it. but Sonic Advance 3 is a great game, it goes more to the classic side of things while having new team up abilities, a very good campaign with a charming ending, and the final EX Boss. i think its the best of the three.

Advance 1 is the most nostalgic though, and dat music.

Overall i miss these kind of Sonic games, they kinda stopped with Rush 1.

Now i can barely stand modern Sonic :/

LeleSocho · Mar 16, 2016

Only Sonic platformer i like, and i like it a lot.

Ranmo · Mar 16, 2016

RK128 said:
That is what makes Advance 1 so interesting; it was designed like a Genesis Era Sonic rather then what we got latter with the Boost games (Rush, Rush Adventure).

I still feel that Advance 2 is great as it is the 'in-between' game that introduces the Boost style into the Genesis Style gameplay.

Couldn't agree more. Advance 2 is almost as replayable for me as Advance 1 is. While Advance 3 isn't completely a bad game it falls short. I really appreciated the mix and match system though. You got some pretty unique pairings out of it. You get to play as Amy with a Sanic moveset!

Celine · Mar 16, 2016

SparksterMeta0 said:
Have to admit; having Sonic finally debuting in a Nintendo system is something you thought would never, ever happen, even with Sega ceasing hardware production.

Just because the rivalry however it was logical for a weakened Sega to develop for Nintendo systems.
For me it was far more surprising the Sonic debut on a SNK hardware cause SNK was a big name in the arcade but their consoles were always niche.

Mr Swine · Mar 16, 2016

Best of the bunch and probably the best handheld Sonic game ever made. Sadly Dimps could never replicate this amazing feat. I do wish that there was a Sonic3&K boss at the X Zone with a Boss theme remix, wonder why they never included that 😭😭😭

RK128 · Mar 16, 2016

One thing I forgot to mention in the OP was how you can have a Sonic 2 mode! If you enter a special code on the character select screen, you can play as Sonic & Tails ala Sonic 2.

"The player has to highlight Sonic on the character selection and then press up, right, down, right, L, right, R, right and A. The code will be indicated as activated when a Ring chime is heard."

Rapscallion · Mar 16, 2016

The Advance games are great, but I don't think they are ever hit the highs of the classic Sonic games. 2 was my personal favorite because its level designs focused a little more on the speed than 1 and 3, and the running boss battles were awesome in the game.

I would love to see them brought all together in a collection or something. I've probably only played through 3 once and it's been years since I played 1 and 2, so I'm due to give them a go once again.

cyborg009 · Mar 16, 2016

The advance games are good I only remember playing advance 3 since it was the best of them all to me personally.

Funyarinpa · Mar 16, 2016

Nostalgic as hell. Love this game.

Imbarkus · Mar 16, 2016

I enjoyed my time with all the Sonic Advance games, and though they had their flaws they were better than Sega's own portable Sonic efforts on Game Gear, and most of their subsequent and much more expensive Sonic efforts as well.

Some of the level design was frustrating and counter-intuitive to a speedy Sonic game, requiring you to memorize level parts so you would know when you were reaching a section with a pitfall death that was hard to avoid at high speed.

Also OP I'm gonna disagree and say all the Advance bonus stages were the worst part of their respective games and made getting chaos emeralds and truly beating each game out of the question.

That said, here were brand new Sonic games with Advance on them, while all Nintendo would do is continue releasing various Super Mario ports, with original Mario Bros still weirdly in there, for some reason.

Too bad ports and rereleases turned out to be the winning business model. ;P

DeCreeperHater · Mar 16, 2016

Thanks for the amazing OP, I'll try to snag this one at the retro gaming expo I'm going to this Sunday.

RK128 · Mar 16, 2016

Imbarkus said:
I enjoyed my time with all the Sonic Advance games, and though they had their flaws they were better than Sega's own portable Sonic efforts on Game Gear, and most of their subsequent and much more expensive Sonic efforts as well.

Some of the level design was frustrating and counter-intuitive to a speedy Sonic game, requiring you to memorize level parts so you would know when you were reaching a section with a pitfall death that was hard to avoid at high speed.

Also OP I'm gonna disagree and say all the Advance bonus stages were the worst part of their respective games and made getting chaos emeralds and truly beating each game out of the question.

That said, here were brand new Sonic games with Advance on them, while all Nintendo would do is continue releasing various Super Mario ports, with original Mario Bros still weirdly in there, for some reason.

Too bad ports and rereleases turned out to be the winning business model. ;P

I guess I'm a bit kinder to Advance 1 about the specials stages as you only had to find a spring and not f***ing hunt for special rings or Chao in stages to unlock them :l.

But you are right, special stages are the weakest part of the trilogy.

I will say that Mario Advance 4 (Mario Brothers 3) was a great port as it added a lot with the E-Readers stages. Shame they were locked to E-Reader cards in the original release (the Wii U version adds them natively into the core game) but I digress.

DeCreeperHater said:
Thanks for the amazing OP, I'll try to snag this one at the retro gaming expo I'm going to this Sunday.

No problem

! Hope you enjoy it when you get it buddy

.

Xav · Mar 16, 2016

Sonic Advance 3 > Sonic Advance > Hold Right Advance 2

Great trilogy of games that hold up nicely. The DS trilogy (Sonic Rush, Sonic Rush Adventure & Colours) is also awesome.

Such a shame that the 3DS trilogy (Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World & Sonic Boom) were terrible by comparison.

Special shout out to Sonic Pocket Adventure on the NeoGeo Pocket. Basically Sonic Advance Zero.

Robin64 · Mar 16, 2016

The X Zone was such a tease. Only two classic bosses? C'mon.

shotgunbob04 · Mar 16, 2016

The good Sanic games :')

I jumped in on this series with Sonic Advance 3. I really enjoyed it.

Does anyone remember Sonic Battle? My brother, cousin, and I used to connect our GBA SP's together and duke it out in multiplayer.

RK128 · Mar 16, 2016

Xav said:
Sonic Advance 3 > Sonic Advance > Hold Right Advance 2

Great trilogy of games that hold up nicely. The DS trilogy (Sonic Rush, Sonic Rush Adventure & Colours) is also awesome.

Such a shame that the 3DS trilogy (Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World & Sonic Boom) were terrible by comparison.

Special shout out to Sonic Pocket Adventure on the NeoGeo Pocket. Basically Sonic Advance Zero.

Currently playing through the 3DS Sonic games and I think many will be surprised with my comments on them

. They are more decent then people give credit (though all three have issues).

Love the Advance and Rush series, so I completely agree with you there

.

shotgunbob04 said:
The good Sanic games :')

I jumped in on this series with Sonic Advance 3. I really enjoyed it.
Does anyone remember Sonic Battle? My brother, cousin, and I used to connect our GBA SP's together and duke it out in multiplayer.

Going to be covering Battle and Advance 2 next week, so I hope you look forward to that

!

Ranmo · Mar 16, 2016

shotgunbob04 said:
The good Sanic games :')

I jumped in on this series with Sonic Advance 3. I really enjoyed it.

Does anyone remember Sonic Battle? My brother, cousin, and I used to connect our GBA SP's together and duke it out in multiplayer.

I had great memories of that game as a teen. I recently tried to play it and turned it off within a few minutes lol. I used to play it A LOT too.

Rapscallion · Mar 16, 2016

Imbarkus said:
That said, here were brand new Sonic games with Advance on them, while all Nintendo would do is continue releasing various Super Mario ports, with original Mario Bros still weirdly in there, for some reason.

Too bad ports and rereleases turned out to be the winning business model. ;P

Eh, there may not have been a main Mario game on GBA, but Nintendo do put out some great spin-off titles during the era: Mario Kart Super Circuit, Wario Land 4, Mario and Luigi: Superstar, Warioware, etc.

Not to mention that Sega tried to do the same thing with Sonic Genesis, which turned out to be the worst port of the game ever.

Mr-Joker · Mar 16, 2016

Ah Sonic Advance the whole reason why asked for a Game Boy Advance for my 15th Birthday. I loved the game, though doing the special stage was hard so I never got them all.

Furthermore it would annoy me that people kept saying that Sonic games went downhill but would flat out ignore the Advance/Rush series as they were good game.

Sadly though the handheld game have gone down in quality with Generation having miss potential in celebrating Sonic handheld history and Lost World just flat out being terrible with the worse part is that Sonic Team wasted time in making Sonic Runner instead of making a good handheld game, so frustrating.

RK128 said:
One thing I forgot to mention in the OP was how you can have a Sonic 2 mode! If you enter a special code on the character select screen, you can play as Sonic & Tails ala Sonic 2.

"The player has to highlight Sonic on the character selection and then press up, right, down, right, L, right, R, right and A. The code will be indicated as activated when a Ring chime is heard."

That's how I pretty much play the game.

Imbarkus · Mar 16, 2016

Rapscallion said:
Eh, there may not have been a main Mario game on GBA, but Nintendo do put out some great spin-off titles during the era: Mario Kart Super Circuit, Wario Land 4, Mario and Luigi: Superstar, Warioware, etc.

Not to mention that Sega tried to do the same thing with Sonic Genesis, which turned out to be the worst port of the game ever.

Oh sure, Nintendo didn't neglect the platform. And... yeah... Sonic port was so bad.

But these three Sonic games are pretty much forgotten, and they deserve some love that Mario Advance gets undeservedly, really. IIRC you could pick them up on Wii VC tho.

Thud · Mar 16, 2016

Chao garden is the best.

Cartridge had a little accident with a burning candle.

Mr-Joker · Mar 17, 2016

Imbarkus said:
Oh sure, Nintendo didn't neglect the platform. And... yeah... Sonic port was so bad.

But these three Sonic games are pretty much forgotten, and they deserve some love that Mario Advance gets undeservedly, really. IIRC you could pick them up on Wii VC tho.

Yeah Sonic Advance 1 and 2 are up on the Japanese Wii U virtual console, I am assuming that they will be given a western release as part of Sonic's 25th anniversary.

Anth0ny · Mar 17, 2016

Neoleo2143 said:
The Real Sonic 4.

Yup.

Too bad they went away from the Genesis physics with every other future 2d sonic...

E_Darkness · Mar 17, 2016

I still have this game and sometimes play it still. This game is pretty great.

MaverickHunterX · Mar 17, 2016

To me, the advance series is pretty much how Sonic would have been had he launched on the SNES...

Great trilogy though...

Sir Abacus · Mar 17, 2016

Anth0ny said:
Yup.

Too bad they went away from the Genesis physics with every other future 2d sonic...

Sonic Rush had the best 2D physics since S3&K. And the best music of the series. I'll say it. Hideki Naganuma is 100x better than Jun Senoue and 1000000x better than Richard Jacques.

Sakujou · Mar 17, 2016

when i saw this back then and heard that sega is going to lay off and wont produce another console, i was really sad. i didnt want to buy sonic stuff on other systems...

in the end, years later, i enjoyed sonic advance.

but for me, the best sonic game ever release is sonic rush and sonic rush adventure. i had sooooo much fun with those games, and they were indeed fast and good to control. the instant i saw them i thought: WOW SONIC IS FUCKING BACK.
sadly, most sonic fans dont regard handheld games as real sonic-successor-games...

Cymbal Head · Mar 17, 2016

I remember thinking it was really weird how going up ramps, around loops, etc. used mode 7.

RowdyReverb · Mar 17, 2016

RK128 said:
One thing I forgot to mention in the OP was how you can have a Sonic 2 mode! If you enter a special code on the character select screen, you can play as Sonic & Tails ala Sonic 2.

"The player has to highlight Sonic on the character selection and then press up, right, down, right, L, right, R, right and A. The code will be indicated as activated when a Ring chime is heard."

I miss cheat codes

-bakalhau- · Mar 17, 2016

Thanks to this thread I just realized:

This game blew my mind back then, but not as in I was fascinated with it and wowed at every second. But I played it whole, and enjoyed. That says a lot I guess about its quality because I had never played a classic Sonic game, and I was playing PS2 already by the time I played this game. Yet despite owning Advance Wars and Pokemon and more games that were more complex, and the fact I had played games technically more complex, I played it from start to finish. I had seen videos, I knew what playing a 2d Sonic might be like, it was absolutely nothing NEW.

But you know, I guess it was that it simply excelled at what it did. It looked great and super smooth on GBA, the animation was fluid and just right, but, it just played wonderfully. It felt completely right. That why I played it. It was executed to perfection.

gelf · Mar 17, 2016

Probably the best of the Dimps games. Its not a patch on the Megadrive originals but it was enjoyable enough. I didn't like the direction they mostly took from Advance 2 onward with the constant boost gameplay with minimal platforming. Advance 3 was decent enough but I don't care for the others.

BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO · Mar 17, 2016

Xav said:
Hold Right Advance 2

Dead

Sciz · Mar 17, 2016

Aside from some classic DIMPS™ object placement, the first two-thirds of the game still plays surprisingly well, and in particular Amy's slower pace works with the janky object placement better than it really has any right to. Then the level designers apparently left the building and weren't found again until Rush Adventure.

freeofgreed · Mar 17, 2016

Loved this game as a kid. And I completely agree with the sentiment that it's the closet post Genesis Sonic game that feels closest to these games.

RK128 · Mar 17, 2016

I'm happy everyone is enjoying this thread

! I really loved my time with this game and I am excited to revisit Advance 2 soon!

For the next game, we are going to take a turn over to two SEGA IP that Sonic Team had a role in

.

Get ready to grab things with a star and roll giant eggs in the near future before coming back to Advance 2 and 3

.

Mr-Joker · Mar 17, 2016

Xav said:
Hold Right Advance 2

As a person who has played Sonic Advance 2 to death that isn't true, especially on the boss fight as you would just get killed.

While Advance 2 does embrace the speed element of Sonic, you have the option to reaching higher ground with the trick mechanic.

Light_End · Mar 17, 2016

I say this all the time. Sonic Advance is probably my favorite sonic game. It was like the best of Sonic 3&K with the best of Sonic 2. And playing through the game as Amy Rose was nearly like playing an entirely different game.

This was the last good 2D sonic game, I really do put it on par with Sonic 3 & Knuckles, if only because the condensed experience had less downsides than the full experience of S3&K.

Sonic Advance 2, however, was bad. Sonic Advance 3 was better, and the heart and effort was clearly there, but none of them were as well designed as Advance 1.

This game series is the easiest way to see how a focus on pure movement speed impacted the level design. It wouldn't be good until Sonic Rush.

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