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| Sonic Advance |
Overview
Story
Tiny Chao Garden
Notes
Review
Cheats / Secrets
Last Updated: 12.26.05 |
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Title:
Sonic Advance
Developer:
Dimps
Publisher:
THQ
Release Date:
2.04.02
Platform:
GBA
Players:
1-4
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 06.23.91
 Unknown
 06.23.91
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Rereleases
None |
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Staff Credits:.
From Dimps
Producer:
Hiroshi Matsumoto
Line Producer:
Koichi Sakita
Planners:
Yukihiro Higashi
Masaaki Yamagiwa
Programmers:
Shinichiro Shibusawa
Hirofumi Kono
Hiroki Yoshitake
Katsuya Kuramoto
Designers:
Kazuhiko Yamamoto
Yuko Yamanoue
Etsuko Hosukawa
Toru Nakanishi
Sadaki Matsumoto
Sound:
Hironobu Inagaki
Atsuyoshi Isemura
Music:
Tatsuyuki Maeda
Yutaka Minobe
Special Thanks:
Masahisa Naganuma
Takayuki Sakamoto
From Sonic Team
Producer:
Yuji Naka
Director:
Akinori Nishiyama
Art Director:
Yuji Uekawa
Technical Director:
Takahiro Hamano
Designers:
Sachiko Kawamura
Kazuko Ito
Makoto Yonezu
Programmers:
Yoshihisa Hashimoto
Takaaki Saito
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| Overview |
Sonic Advance was the first Sonic (and the first Sega game) to be made for a Nintendo platform. Contrary to popular belief, it was NOT developed by Sonic Team, but by Dimps, the company that made the Dragonball Z Budokai series for PS2 and Gamecube as well as Sonic Pocket Adventure for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, released around the same time as Sonic Adventure. That said, this game is more similar to Sonic Pocket Adventure than the Genesis games everyone was hoping for an encore to. It was published by THQ, who published all of Sega's GBA titles. Strange that Sonic Team and Sega are the only two studios that didn't have much to do with the game, yet they're the only ones in the opening credits.
Nothing's new with the core gameplay. Collect rings, collect the emeralds, continue to the right side of the zone. The biggest addition this game makes to the series as a whole is the character select. You can choose from four different characters with *gasp* different abilities. |
Sonic the Hedgehog
As you might have guessed, Sonic is a playable character in this game. Sonic is by far the fastest character, but he lacks any "good" special abilities. He's pretty easy to control, but it can get a bit hard if you're going *really* fast. Choose Sonic for multiplayer race modes if you want to win - otherwise, stick with someone else.
Special Abilities
Spin Dash - (Down + A)
Gives Sonic a speed charge when you're standing still.
Jump Dash - (In the Air,Right + Right)
Doesn't always work and it's very glitchy thanks to poor programming on Dimps' part, but this move should let you get some extra length out of your jumps.
Somersault - (B + B + B)
A horizontal attack on land. There's never really any point in using this because you can use...
Ball Mode - (While Moving on Ground, Down)
Instantly turns Sonic into a ball that can break through anything without spikes or shockwaves. Easiest way to kill enemies.
Insta-Shield - (A + A)
Quick slash to attack while in the air that slightly extends the jump attack.
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Miles "Tails" Prower
Sonic's gender-confused sidekick is along for the ride too. Tails is my personal favorite to play is in this game because of his cheap flying ability that makes everything really easy. While you're not cheating if you play as Tails, you're pretty damn close.
Special Abilities
Spin Dash - (Down + A)
Gives Tails a speed charge when you're standing still.
Propeller Flying - (A repeatedly)
Tails' signature flying ability. He can fly for eight seconds before he gets tired and begins to fall.
Swimming - (In water, A repeatedly)
Think of it as flying underwater.
Ball Mode - (While Moving on Ground, Down)
Instantly turns Tails into a ball that can break through anything without spikes or shockwaves. Easiest way to kill enemies.
Tail Attack - (On ground, B)
Hurts enemies or opens boxes with a slap of the tail(s). Pretty useless most of the time, but you might use it occasionally for kicks.
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Knuckles the Echidna
"Sonic's friendly nemesis," as he's called, makes a welcome return from Sonic & Knuckles to the 2D world. He's got all of his old moves fully in tact and a good speed to boot - in fact, Knuckles is probably the most well-rounded character in the game.
Special Abilities
Spin Dash - (Down + A)
Gives Knuckles a speed charge when you're standing still.
Gliding - (In the Air,A)
Knuckles' signature glide ability lets him fly through the air while gradually decreasing height and increasing speed.
Climbing - (While gliding/swimming, fly into flat wall)
Knuckles can climb vertically on flat surfaces at a "slow" speed, but he never gets tired and can keep climbing as long as you want.
Swimming - (In water, A)
Think of it as gliding underwater. Do we see a pattern here?
Water Slide - (While gliding, land on water)
Knuckles can "walk on water" for a brief amount of time if you land a glide on it. Press left or right to control his direction or down to go underwater.
Ball Mode - (While Moving on Ground, Down)
Instantly turns Knuckles into a ball that can break through anything without spikes or shockwaves. Easiest way to kill enemies.
Punch Combo - (B (up to 3 times))
Knuckles' punch from Sonic Adventure is the only useful physical attack in the game for the ball-mode characters. You can hit B up to three times to do a punch combo that hurts enemies or opens boxes, the third ending with an uppercut.
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Amy Rose
Sonic Advance is Amy's first 2D game as a playable character. While she may be the most despised by the majority of the Sonic community, she's also the choice for "experts" as she's the hardest character to play as. She can't go into ball mode or use a spin dash, probably because the people at Sega are all gay and don't want to let her have fun. =D
Special Abilities
Hammer Attack - (B)
Slow, vertical whack of the Pico-Pico hammer.
Hammer Jump - (Down + B)
A Hammer Attack so hard that it knocks Amy high into the air. Useful for reaching high ledges.
Giant Step - (Down + A)
Amy's answer to the spin dash. Use repeatedly to build up speed.
Head Sliding Attack - (Down + A,B)
Whenever you get really annoyed with Amy, you can make her do a faceplant into the ground with this attack. It can be difficult to use, so it's probably there to further demonstrate Sega's hate towards women.
Hammer Whirl - (In air, Down + B)
Undeniably Amy's most useful attack, the Hammer Whirl sends her twirling her hammer around in circles.
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| Story | |
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The evil Dr. Eggman is trying to takeover the world AGAIN! Who would have guessed?
There are six "zones," or levels in Sonic the Hedgehog, each consisting of three "acts." There is a zone boss (Robotnik in one of his mechs) at the end of each zone's second act, each taking 6 hits to defeat.
Note: Some Enemy Sprites ripped by Mechachu |
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Neo Green Hill Zone
Neo Green Hill Zone (no relation to the Sonic 2 Beta name) isn't really a green hill at all - it's actually a beach. The level is so easy that you can basically hold down right on the D-Pad to finish the level. It introduces you to rails (which you can grind on), a big addition throughout the "advance" series. The special stage spring can be found near the end of the first act on a platform suspended high above the ground. It's easiest to get there by flying up there with Tails or gliding Knuckles into it. There are over 250 rings in this level, so you have very little to worry about...even the following enemies aren't a problem: |
Enemies in this Zone:
Gamigami - A crab that shoots two fireballs (one out of each of its claws) when it stops moving. These fireballs travel in an arc set to land on your character. |
Stinger - Bee-like robots that shoot slow-moving projectiles in your character's general direction. Extremely easy to avoid. |
Kiki - Monkey-robots that throw grenades at your character from palm trees. The grenades explode shortly after hitting the ground, not exactly at contact. They do, however, explode on contact with your character. |
Rhinotank - Robots that look nothing like rhinoes but dash towards your character when he/she gets near. Don't roll into the spike.
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Kerokero - Frog-like robot that tries to jump on you. Don't consent - rape it from the side with a roll attack in ball mode.
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| Boss: Egg Hammer The Egg Hammer is like an upside-down Green Hill Zone boss. With Sonic or Tails, jump on Eggman when the hammer is moving away from you. With Knuckles, you can use the same jump strategy or try the punch combo - either works. Amy, always the oddball because Sega is sexist, should use the hammer whirl. After six hits, Eggman will go crazy and start speeding up. Just use the same tactic unless you're Amy, in which case you should switch to the regular attack.
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Secret Base Zone
How did you go from a happy beach to a secret base? I dunno, don't ask me. But you're here, so the important part is to know what you're doing. If you can avoid the spikes and lava traps, you should be fine. In Act 2, stay on the upper path from the start so that you can reach the special stage spring near the middle of the level. |
Enemies in this Zone:
Tento - Butterfly-like robots that shoot miniature bombs at your character. |
Senbon - A pufferfish-like robot that cannot be harmed when its spikes are extruded. Attack when spikes are withdrawn. |
Mog - Not to be confused with the Kupo-tastic character of Final Fantasy fame, mogs are mole-like bots that pop out of their holes to attack you with their drills from beneath. Attack with a jump or hammer when they're above ground. |
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| Boss: Pogo-Egg Eggman has decided to ditch his hammer tank for a pogo stick. The spring on the bottom of his Eggmobile allows him to bounce around with ease. Why does he want to bounce? Why, to crush you, of course. Don't let him land on you and attack whenever he lands nearby.
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Casino Paradise Zone
Oh, so Eggman's got a casino in his secret base by the beach. How nice! You can't gamble much here, though, because even Knuckles, the oldest, is only 17. Come back next year!
It's really hard to keep your speed in this level with the constant drops and climbs. Don't get yourself stuck at the bottom in the first act because the special stage spring is at the very top near the end. |
Enemies in this Zone:
Slot - A bat wearing a tophat. What could be better? They drop bombs, though, so watch out. |
Senbon - A cross between a frog, a shark, and a dog; these robots roll towards you and fire vertically-moving bombs that explode like fireworks. |
Pierrot - Clown-like robots rolling around with big balls (don't laugh). You have to hit the clown itself on the top to destoy it. |
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| Boss: Egg Ball Now Eggman is levitating with a huge spike ball through a Scooby-Doo door scenario. Where will he come out? It's all random, so you have to be prepared for each one. With Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles, stay below the center platform and wait for Eggman to appear on one of the sides, ducking when necessary to avoid the doom ball. With Amy, stay on top of the platform and Hammer Jump over the doom ball when it comes at you. |
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Ice Mountain Zone
I won't even try to guess how the Casino by the beach base became a snowy mountain, but at least it's remniscent of Ice Cap Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 3)...sort of. You see, since Sonic, Tails, and Amy couldn't swim in Sonic Adventure, Sega thought it would be a good idea to put them in a level with freezing water surrounded by ice walls - that's why a good portion of the Ice Mountain Zone acts take place underwater. Luckily, Knuckles can still swim and Tails has suddenly remember that he knows how to (he could swim in Sonic the Hedgehog 3). These levels are generally quick, but you've got to watch out for the water. It's very easy to drown if you're not careful. The special stage spring is near the beginning of the first act - but wait! It's a trap! There's also a special stage spring in the second act at the top near the end, so make sure you hit them both to get those emeralds.
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Enemies in this Zone:
Yukimaru - Snowmen that throw snowballs at you. How original. They can climb vertically along walls or walk on the ground. |
Pen - Penguin-bot that acts like a very fast Yukimaru. Kicks snowballs instead of throws them. |
Medusa - Jellyfish robot that pulsates electricity around itself when your character gets near. Only found underwater. |
Drillshark - A shark robot with a drill on its nose. Probably the hardest enemy to avoid in this level, it bursts out of walls and flys at your character like a dart. Only found underwater. |
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| Boss: Egg Driller This battle puts you underwater while Eggman crawls around above the surface. The water is just a bit too high for a regular jump to get air, so you need to find an alternate way of getting up there. Luckily, Eggman's drill causes spikey stalagmite to fall from the cavern's celing. You can jump on top of their flat surfaces as platforms to reach air - or, if you're Tails, you can swim up if necessary. You also should use these platforms to get high enough so that you can jump into Eggman from below. Amy's tactic is different as usual, but she's unexpectedly the best at this boss. Her hammer jump lets her jump high enough to reach air without the help of the platforms. She can also attack this way - use the regular hammer attack when you surface near Eggman from a hammer jump. |
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Angel Island Zone
The level flow is finally making a little sense - you've gone from a mountain to a floating island. This zone is one of the harder ones because it's easy to fall off thanks to the game's clumsy controls at high speeds. Knuckles is the best at this level because of his climbing ability. You'll encounter rotating wheels that you need to run on to turn and move as well as pully hooks that will take you up to higher platforms. The special stage spring is about three quarters of the way through the second act on the top. The easiest way to reach it is to jump off the platform across from it on the left. |
Enemies in this Zone:
Chameleon - Take a guess as to what it looks like without looking at the picture. This robot can't be beat with a roll attack in ball mode, so jump on them or use a special attack. |
Rhinotank - Making an encore appearence from Neo Green Hill Zone, these are robots that look nothing like rhinoes but dash towards your character when he/she gets near. Don't roll into the spike. |
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Stinger - Yet another repeat from Neo Green Hill, these are bee-like robots that shoot slow-moving projectiles in your character's general direction. Extremely easy to avoid. |
Wan - A robot remniscent of Marble Zone's Catterkiller (Sonic the Hedgehog (1)). They fly around in the air unlike their predecessors, so watch out while jumping. The head is their only weak point. |
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| Boss: Mecha Knuckles Whoa! It's not Eggman this time! Instead, you have to face a robotic version of Knuckles. There are two parts to this battle, each requiring four hits on Mecha Knuckles to complete. The first part has a pink Knuckles attacking with the spin dash and glide. It's not very difficult to beat this stage - try attacking him when he finishes a spin dash. The second part begins when the pink Knuckles sheds its paint and reveals its steel exterior. This version uses the same attacks at a much quicker speed in addition to a missle attack. Yes, he shoots missles out of his mouth. Amazing that Sega would let by a stripping robot that blows out missles. Anyways, you're probably going to get hit more than once facing this version, but you need to use the same strategy. If you're playing as Knuckles, you might have better luck with the punch combo. With Amy, you should be able to corner the robot and attack it with the regular hammer attack over and over until it explodes.
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Egg Rocket Zone
Egg Rocket is the only level in Sonic Advance in which your goal is to go up instead of right and it only has one act. Launching from the island (starting to make sense finally!), you're on a mission to get to the top of the rocket before each of the segments of it fall off. You can't backtrack to parts of the rocket that have fallen (durrr), so make sure you get everything you want before you continue. But since there's no special stage spring, you probably just want to whiz through it. The gravity becomes inverted near the end of the level - don't worry, the controls don't change. It'll take a little getting used to, but there's a lot more of it in the next level.
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Enemies in this Zone:
Mirror - A strange robot that looks like a rhombus-shaped prism. It occasionally opens up to shoot a projectile horizontally in the direction it's facing, and that's the only time you can hit it. |
Mog - He's back from Secret Base Zone. Not to be confused with the Kupo-tastic character of Final Fantasy fame, mogs are mole-like bots that pop out of their holes to attack you with their drills from beneath. Attack with a jump or hammer when they're above ground. |
Oct - An annoying robot that hovers around and shoots fireballs at you. Can be attacked from any angle.
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Boss: There is no boss for this zone.
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Cosmic Angel Zone
The level select lists this zone as the second act of Egg Rocket Zone, but it's pretty clear that it's not when playing it in the game. This zone tends to be really fast, which is good for a change. Your biggest enemy are falls and spikes. The gravity is constant inverting and reverting back to normal, so be very careful with your jumping. The final special stage spring in the game can be found a little past halfway through the level on the top.
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Enemies in this Zone:
Note: Same as Egg Rocket Zone.
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Mirror - A strange robot that looks like a rhombus-shaped prism. It occasionally opens up to shoot a projectile horizontally in the direction it's facing, and that's the only time you can hit it. |
Mog - He's back from Secret Base Zone. Not to be confused with the Kupo-tastic character of Final Fantasy fame, mogs are mole-like bots that pop out of their holes to attack you with their drills from beneath. Attack with a jump or hammer when they're above ground. |
Oct - An annoying robot that hovers around and shoots fireballs at you. Can be attacked from any angle. |
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| Boss: Egg Spider Eggman is now looped around a suspension bridge. One problem - he's on the bottom of this craft, and his spiky top is on the surface. Since you can't reach Eggman, you'll have to make him come up to you. Jump near him and the bridge will sink down, causing him to spin upwards. You have a few seconds to hit him with whatever you can while he's up. Watch out for the energy balls he shoots, and it shouldn't be too difficult of a fight.
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X-Zone
The traditional final zone in Sonic games is nothing but a boss fight, so it should come to no surprise that this level is just that. There are three bosses to fight, the first two of which might seem familiar. Between the bosses are extremely short areas with a few rings. Watch out for the platforms in these areas because they fall when you stand on them. |
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| Boss #1: Swinging Ball This boss is identical to the first boss ever in a Sonic game from Green Hill Zone. It only takes four hits to defeat this time around, but you should use the same tactic: Jump onto the floating platforms on either side of the battlefield and then jump / hammer onto his ship to defeat him. |
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| Boss #2: Dune Buggy Tank Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Emerald Hill Zone boss makes a return here as well, but like the first boss, it only takes four hits to defeat. Jump / hammer on it whenever it rolls by, easily avoiding its drill. After the third hit, Eggman will fire the drill at you, so watch out before delivering the final hit to move on to the next boss. |
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| Boss #3: Egg X You haven't seen this one before. The Egg X attacks in four different ways. First off, it has a giant hand that will try to grab you. If this happens early in the fight, you're pretty much screwed because it holds you just long enough for all your rings to disappear before you have a chance to get them back. Try avoiding it by moving around while it aims for you. His second attack is a huge laser that can be avoided by ducking, and his third is a bouncy ball that he'll try to shoot at you if you aren't moving. He'll also occasionally dash towards you, so be ready to jump out of the way. This ship is essentially the Eggmobile in a powerful shell, so as soon as he opens the shell's door and reveals himself to laugh at you, hammer / jump on his head. Eight hits will defeat it, giving you the first ending to the game. But come on, you don't want to settle for one ending, right? Right?? |
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Special Stage
The seven Chaos Emeralds lie inside the special stages that you access from the special stage springs I've mentioned throughout the walkthrough. The goal of each special stage is to collect the amount of rings required to enter the next area (shown at the top). The controls in the special stage are different from the rest of the game: use the directional pad to move in every direction, including up and down, and press/hold B to get a speed burst and collect rings. Whenever you pass through a glowing barrier, press the B button to do a trick and earn some rings. Hitting bombs will cause you to lose rings. If you don't have the required amount of rings before you reach the end of each segment, the special stage will end without you recieving an emerald and you'll have to get there all over again. If you do complete each part, the stage will end and you'll be rewarded with an emerald. Each spring only leads to one special stage, so you need to use all the different springs in the different levels to get all the emeralds. The only way to reach the last level is to get all the emeralds and complete the game with every character.
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Each special stage requires a different amount of rings with each stage becoming progressively harder. Here's a little table to help you figure out how much you need for each segment:
| Special Stage | Emerald | 1st Segment | 2nd Segment |
| Neo Green Hill - Act 1 | Red | 60 Rings Required | 120 Rings Required |
| Secret Base - Act 2 | Blue | 70 Rings Required | 140 Rings Required |
| Casino Paradise - Act 1 | Yellow | 80 Rings Required | 160 Rings Required |
| Ice Mountain - Act 1 | Green | 80 Rings Required | 160 Rings Required |
| Ice Mountain - Act 2 | White | 90 Rings Required | 180 Rings Required |
| Angel Island - Act 2 | Light Blue | 90 Rings Required | 180 Rings Required |
| Cosmic Angel - (Act 2) | Purple | 100 Rings Required | 200 Rings Required |
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Moon Zone
The real final level of Sonic Advance takes place on the moon. Once again, it can only be accessed by collecting all the emeralds (which are interchangeable among the characters) and completing the game with each character seperately. You automatically become Super Sonic upon entering the level.
Super Sonic's controls are just plain wierd. You press the A button (jump) to ascend, down to descend, and the usual directional buttons to move from side to side. You can do a speed dash attack with the B button. Eggman's weakspot is his head, which takes eight hits to destroy. Watch for the number of rings you have, because as usual, Super Sonic's life depends on them. You lose a ring per second, and when all your rings are gone, you're dead. You can get more rings by destroying the rocket traps that Eggman shoots at you. If you get caught in one of these traps, continuosuly dash (B) until you break out. Beat Eggman and you'll be treated to an extra ending along with the knowledge that you've finished the game. Whoopie. |
| Tiny Chao Garden |
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Taking Care of Your Chao
Under Construction. |
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Garden Store
What happens to all those rings you've collected in the main game? They're all transferred into the Chao Garden. You can use these rings to buy food for your Chao, or even a new Chao Egg. To buy any of these items, simply open the store by pressing the R button pick up an item inside it with the cursor. You can purchase the following toys as well:
Trumpet - 2,000 rings. About the only toy your Chao will always play with when you want it to. The trumpet can increase your Chao's mood when he plays it, but don't force him to play it too often or he'll get annoyed.
Rubber Ducky - 2,000 rings. Appears in store after purchasing the trumpet I've never seen a Chao play with the rubber ducky, but you have to buy it if you want the next item.
Television - 8,000 rings. Appears in store a while after purchasing the rubber ducky. Incredibly expensive, but your Chao will watch it if it's in its line of sight. Don't take it away while it's watching, though, because it'll get really angry.
Note: Toy sprites ripped by Marble Park
The store also sells seven different kinds of fruit that all do different things:
| Fruit | Price | Effects |
 | 30 Rings |
Mood +1
Belly +2
Swim +3
Fly -2
Run -2
Power +3
Stamina +1
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 | 60 Rings |
Mood +0
Belly +1
Swim +2
Fly +5
Run -1
Power -1
Stamina +3
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 | 55 Rings |
Mood +2
Belly +2
Swim +4
Fly -3
Run +4
Power -3
Stamina +2
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 | 50 Rings |
Mood -1
Belly +1
Swim +0
Fly -1
Run +3
Power +4
Stamina +2
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 | 30 Rings |
Mood +1
Belly +2
Swim -2
Fly +3
Run +3
Power -2
Stamina +1
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 | 55 Rings |
Mood +2
Belly +2
Swim -3
Fly +4
Run -3
Power +4
Stamina +2
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 | 70 Rings |
Mood -3
Belly +0
Swim +3
Fly +1
Run +3
Power +2
Stamina -5
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Note: Fruit sprites ripped by Egadd
Types of Chao Eggs
The probability of getting a normal egg to a rare egg is 3:1, and is determined when the Chao is born.
These are the egg types, probability of getting the egg, and prices (in rings):
| Normal Eggs |
Probability of Availability |
Price |
| Normal Egg |
20% |
0 |
| Silver |
20% |
500 |
| Gold |
15% |
1,000 |
| Ruby |
15% |
5,000 |
| Sapphire |
10% |
7,000 |
| Amethyst |
10% |
8,000 |
| Emerald |
10% |
10,000 |
| Garnet |
20.5% |
12,000 |
| Aquamarine |
20.5% |
14,000 |
| Peridot |
50.5% |
16,000 |
| Topaz |
0.5% |
18,000 |
| Onyx |
8% |
20,000 |
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Mini Games
There are two mini games you can play to earn rings in the Tiny Chao Garden, but it's better to use them for enjoyment than to earn rings because it's a lot easier to earn rings in the single player game. The games are as follows:
Rock Paper Scissors - Pictured above on the left. Click the white GBA ( ) to open. If you've ever played rock paper scissors, this is nothing new. Paper beats rock, scissors beat paper, and rock beats scissors. The three cards at the bottom are yours. The objective is to knock out the moving cards with the player's cards, so you want to select a card with the D-Pad and press A to launch it at the moving card it can beat. If you successfully beat a moving card, it will disappear along with the player's card and a new player's card will appear at the bottom.
Memory Match - Pictured above on the right. Click the purple GBA ( ) to open. Before the game itself starts, you'll see all the playing cards turned over. Look carefully and try to remember where the matching pairs are. After a few seconds, all the cards will turn over and you'll have to consecutively pick the cards with matching items on them. If you guess incorrectly three times, you lose.
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| Notes |
SonicN
SonicN was a poorly ported version of Sonic Advance to the Nokia N-Gage. The N-Gage's screen is vertically oriented like a cellphone's, so the "widescreen" format of the GBA doesn't really work at all when you can't see what's coming. There's a "letterboxed" mode that adds border to the top and bottom to make it more like the GBA's screen, but that shrinks down the whole screen to half the size of the GBA's...so what's the point? The biggest change to the game itself is the removal of the Tiny Chao Garden because of a lack of GCN connectivity. Here are some screens of the ill-fated port on the even moreso ill-fated handheld: |
 
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Publishers
THQ published all of SEGA's GBA titles in the United States, so naturally they published Sonic Advance. Infogrames, a branch of Atari, published Sonic Advance 1 and 2 in the European market before THQ took over the license for Sonic Advance 3. Because it's fun to confuse you, Sega published their own GBA games in Japan. Sega themselves also published SonicN for the N-Gage in Europe and the United States, but no one really gave a shit because the game sucks. =D
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| Review by Diego |
It's been a long time (almost three years) since I first sat down and wrote the original Sonic Advance review, my first contribution to Sonic World. I didn't even know HTML at the time, and Gamerguy was running the fledgling site on his own after his co-webmaster had essentially left. To be fair, I haven't done too much in terms of content since that first year. =P
But back to the review. Sonic Advance was released in 2002, one of the first games for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, and (debatably) Sega's first original game for a Nintendo system. (Super Monkey Ball was originally released in arcades, though it shipped with a *lot* of extras.) Sonic Advance was one of my first games for my GBA, along with Super Mario Advance.
The graphics in Sonic Advance are pretty tame by current GBA standards, but at the time, they were a huge improvement over the Genesis sidescrollers and over comparable games on the original Game Boy. The character sprites looked pretty good, but not spectacular. Of the three "main" characters, Tails had the largest improvements from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and his sprites are good. Amy here is based on her appearance in Sonic Adventure rather than Sonic CD. Overall though, the game has a rough feeling to it that other GBA games, which Sonic Advance 2 & 3 did not have. This could be forgiven if not for the fact that Super Mario Advance, released before Sonic Advance, did not have this feeling to it, and it detracts from the whole experience.
Sonic Advance's soundtrack is like most of the Genesis games: more of the same. I have never really been impressed with the soundtracks of the Sonic games, and Advance is no exception. The music here feels very bland, and is a definite step down from 3&K. The sound effects are very similar to the Genesis games, which is not a bad thing. Several have been either touched up or inspired by the Genesis SFX.
Tails and Knuckles play about the same way that they played in S3&K, with Tails being able to fly a bit longer and Knuckles descends a bit faster while gliding. Playing with Amy was a fun challenge. I had not played Sonic Adventure, but even after playing that, she translates well from 3D to 2D. She has no ball mode, which means no spin dash and no jump attack. She can only attack with her hammer, and has several acrobatic moves in this game. Sonic, however, is awful. Sonic feels like he's moving in slow motion if you try to run without any boosts. This is supposed be the fastest hedgehog in the world, and yet he's barely faster than Amy? You've got to be kidding.
I'm not going to go into too much detail about the levels or bosses here since that's done above. The level design is fairly good, though the rails are a rather pointless attempt to tie the game in with SA2B, as it's obvious they were added late in the game in non-critical areas and it's very hard to get on them. The boss fights were very much in the style of the Genesis games, and were well done, even if the Egg X boss is incredibly frustrating when you try to beat it with Amy.
The time trial mode is basically the same as the normal zones, except without the boss fights and special stage springs. Thanks to the fact that there's a level select, there's really no need to play the time trial mode except for bragging rights. Whoopie.
The final zone is incredibly hard to access. The entry points to the special stages are springs spread throughout the different zones, and each spring goes to one special stage. The locations are stated in the above overview. The special stages themselves are very frustrating, and are nowhere near as fun as the ones in Sonic 2 and S3&K. Finally, to access the final zone, you have to get all seven Chaos Emeralds with all four characters. Thus, the game essentially has twenty-eight Chaos Emeralds. What. A. Pain. And even when you get the Chaos Emeralds, you can only become Super Sonic in the final zone. Pointless much?
The Tiny Chao Garden is actually a really cute addition to the game, if you like raising Chaos. It is easier to raise Chaos here than it is in SA2B's Chao Garden, and since you need to beat several races there to get all of the emblems (see the SA2B section), the TCG is a good option.
Sonic Advance is the game that attempted to bring back Sonic's 2D roots after the ill-fated Sonic Pocket Adventure. However, given the choice, I'd much rather play one of the earlier Genesis games. The same spirit is evident in Advance, but the execution could have been much better.
Gameplay
Good levels, but the Special Stages are ridiculously hard and multiplayer is pointless. Sonic's far too slow, too. |
15 / 20 |
Sound
More of the same from the Genesis days. Blows away the Game Gear games, though. |
13 / 20 |
Graphics
Too rough, even for that point in the GBA's life. The menus are pretty basic, too. |
14 / 20 |
Controls
Tails and Knuckles are good and Sonic's easy to use, but Amy's pretty damn hard. |
12 / 15 |
Replay Value
The stages are worth replaying, but it feels stale after awhile. The Tiny Chao Garden is cute, but only worth it if used with SA2B. |
10 / 15 |
Expectations
It was good, but not as good as the Genesis games, nor did I like it as much as SA2B. |
6 / 10 |
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FINAL SCORE |
70 / 100 |
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| Cheats / Secrets |  |
Sonic 2 Mode
You have the option to make Tails follow Sonic around when playing as Sonic à la Sonic the Hedgehog 2. To activate this mode, highlight Sonic on the character select screen and press up. Then highlight Tails and press down. Next, highlight Knuckles and press the L button. Finally, highlight Amy and press the R button. Highlight Sonic and press the A button. You'll hear a ring chime if you did it correctly. Select a stage to begin playing. |
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