Sonic Advance Appreciation Topic

I really enjoyed Sonic Advance 1 and 2, I especially like some of the music in Sonic Advance 2. However I think that one of the main hallmarks of DIMPS style Sonic is that the gameplay is reactive instead of proactive. When I play genuine Sonic Team games from the 90s I feel empowered by the level design. For the most part the zone are playgrounds for Sonic, and the action is player driven. On the other side of the coin is DIMPS style gameplay, which I also saw in some parts of Sonic 4: the levels dictate the action, not the player. Sonic is thrown about by level gimmick after gimmick and you don't really get that same feeling of being in control, you're just responding to random stuff that is involuntarily tossing you about the screen.

 

I really enjoyed Sonic Advance 1 and beat it the day I got it. I even eventually got all the emeralds in that one although it was frustrating. I think I used Tails to fly to all of the hidden emerald locations. I thought it was awesome to see Sonic on a Nintendo system. I even raised a Chao in the Tiny Chao Garden to LV 99 all stats and used that one to earn the remaining emblems in Sonic Adventure DX. It easily won all of the competitions.

Sonic Advance 2 I thought was really fun. It had a few hard parts, but I was able to get past them. After getting Sonic Advance 2 I think I actually enjoyed being able to run through levels so fast in a sidescroller. Some of the bosses were frustrating though, and trying to find all the special rings in a level seemed to tedious. This was the first game where I decided not to even try to get all the Emeralds because once I did find a special stage I didn't like it or do well.

Sonic Advance 3 was just ok. It wasn't very memorable to me and I died a lot in comparison to the first two. Again I didn't try to go into all the special stages. I don't even remember what zones were in this game apart from the city stage in the beginning and the Green Hill Zone lookalike later in the game.

 

For all of you pros out there:

Play Sonic Advance 2 as Sonic, and beat Hot Crater acts 1 and 2 and get all the special rings, beat the special stages. The rings you pick up in there go to the chao garden. I could easily get over 2000 rings in 15 minutes back when I had this game.

 

Sonic Advance 1 is one of my favourite sonic games, I have memories associated with that game the same way I do with the original series, especially because I got a GBA to TV adaptor at the time.
I wasn't so impressed with the sequels though, as I talked about my reviews of the series.

 

I never used an advance chao garden since I never owned sonic adventure DX for long but I use to take my chao on a VMU to school, that shit was hot and battling friends chao was awesome, I also use to play a tetris clone on it, it was such a great handheld / memory card I miss those days.

 

I was super incredibly excited for Sonic Advance, even being very disappointed when my emulator on my old computer wouldn't run it.

But I randomly got a Gameboy Advance one day and then I randomly got Sonic Advance and I was happy.

Although back then, I liked it I knew that it wasn't as good as Sonic 2 or S3&K. I still feel that way.

I was also incredibly excited for Sonic Advance 2, and I plowed through the second it got released on an emulator. I couldn't figure out how to enter special stages so I used cheats to get the Chaos Emeralds. Other than liking the visuals and music I honestly don't remember much about it.

Sonic Advance 3, I played the beta when it was leaked and stopped when the water level didn't have water in it. Still haven't played it since then.

 

I liked the premise of Advance 2, but the method of getting to the Special Stages was a bitch. I won't lie. I went through the game once, did it the legit way, and I've used my Gameshark every time since. >.>

Same with Advance 3. Chao collecting sucked, and then you had to collect the Special Key, AND THEN you had to go find the Special Spring.

Advance 1 was and will always be my favorite, for its simplicity and its retro feel. I'm surprised Sega hasn't ported them to other systems yet.

 

Advance 1's method of entering the Special Stages isn't that great, but it's better than Advance 2. I've only ever gotten like 2 emeralds on Advance 2.

Too bad I fucking suck at Advance 1's Special Stages. The rings are always either closer to the center or farther from the center then they look, and then that bomb that looks like it won't hit me suddenly steals away my rings, and then the stage is over.

 

Well, maybe it'll be ported to a good system someday. >_>

 

Yeah, I don't consider the N-gage a real system. :P

 

Long-ass first post ahead!


The Advance games are a curious thing for me, because I first played parts 1 and 2 on Visual Boy back when they were released. I didn't even have a GBA myself back then, but part 1 seemed pretty boring to me, and party 2 frustrated me because I kept falling into the very same bottomless pit over and over (this was in world 4).

Fast forward a couple of years, and I got myself a cheap GBA SP and am hunting down cheap games at Gamestop and see the Sonic Advance / Sonic Battle package for 5 €uros. Since I actually had good memories of Sonic Battle and felt like playing some 2D Sonic again, I figured, eh, what the hell. Advance 1, however, still seemed kind of lifeless - it was a nice enough game, but it wasn't quite as fast paced as I'd expected - which is funny, because I guess I'm in the minority, but I think Sonic 1 (Genesis) can easily stand up to its to sequels. I have no problem with slower gameplay and a lack of BLAST PROCESSING; it's just the levels felt a bit bland or lacking in terms of actual events. However, after having spent some time also playing the sequels (I won't go into detail about in which order I got them, enough of the storytelling already), especially Advance 3, I definitely learned to appreciate Advance 1's tight controls and well-arranged layout.


So, Advance 1: It definitely could be a bit more exciting - not in terms of speed or anything, but in terms of level design, which often seems kind of safe and predictable. Also, the various routes are not quite as elegantly laid out as in the old games. You don't make a certain jump, you're condemned to take the lower route - it's nice to have a lower route, but still it feels a bit clumsy at times, and as a result I'm often somewhat indifferent to which route I end up on, since there's not a whole lot going on on either one anyway.
The control is great, though, and there's very few frustrating / unfair parts. The game is very short, though, and the polish is a bit lacking - an overworld map would've required not much effort but at least given some sort of continuity to the levels. In my personal hierarchy of the Advance titles, it comes in at #2. The graphics are not bad but not stunning, and most of the zones do feel like rehashes. I like the music, though it's not quite as catchy as I'd hoped. I never even completed a single special stage, so I never saw the "real" ending. I definitely like Advance 3's more and have never even seen 2's. It's actually hard to explain what's wrong with the game other than it's just a bit on the bland side design-wise.

Also, not really the games' fault, but I'd prefer the camera to be a bit more distant, but I won't blame Dimps for the GBA's limited resolution.


Advance 2 is probably my PERSONAL favorite of the 3 Advance games, but it's not the best designed game. I enjoy speedrunning some of the levels, and that is what I also feel that the game was designed for, considering its gameplay certainly emphasizes the speed. At first, it was my least favorite of the games, for the same reason - playing the game for the first time is a bitch, because it does require memorization at times, and that sucks in any platformer. But when it does not, or if you have a level that requires it memorized, it's just great fun to breeze through the stages. The later stages are a total bitch, though (I only ever completed the game with Cream) and some of the enemy placement is downright horrible - I've been launched into enemies by springs more than once, and in one case, I actually saw the enemy approaching, quickly tried to attack him with the trick button, only to have fucking spikes rush out of the ground (the gravity was reversed when this happened) while Sonic was charging his spin attack and hurt me. I was literally unable to escape the situation just by reaction, and you could not see the enemy (or spikes) beforehand. Also, the homing attack is a pretty useless addition, especially since if you try to use Sonic's normal kick (which he still has) close to a spikey guy, of course Sonic won't just kick through the spikes but home in on the enemy and proceed to suffer damage... Either give the homing attack its own button or ditch one of the two, but this way it's just stupid.

So why do I like the game? First of all, I like the overall atmosphere. Leaf Forest is a great zone, as is Ice Paradise (I wish the background was animated, though; it basically screams for it). The addition of a overworld map is also a nice touch. But above all, the replay value of the levels that do not suck is immense. I spent quite a lot of time speedrunning Leaf Forest Act 1 (my record is 49.55 I think - definitely 49, not sure about the miliseconds), but when I saw a Youtube video speedrunning it, the guy took a completely different route and even fucked up in a couple of spots and still was barely slower. So there's lots of room for personal improvement and finetuning, which is what makes it a great game for speedrunning. Also, although I hated the level at first, Ice Paradise is a great zone. Lots of stuff going on here, lots of alternative routes that actually play different, and plenty of fast paced sequences that still can be done without clarvoiance or memorization. If I just were to play through a game from beginning to, end, though, this would most likely not be my choice, if only for the fucking Bitchslap of Doom courtesy of Knuckles. Seriously, I have no problem with the Zone itself, but the boss is just annoying beyond belief. Of course, with Cream, he's easy, but she's practically overpowered. I also never ever even entered a special stage, but unlike with SA1 or SA3, I don't even plan on collecting all the emeralds in, like, ever, especially since - as far as I know - you need to get 'em with EVERY character to get the true final boss and Amy. That's just too much work and not enough fun for me.


Advance 3 was my favorite at first, and I still can see why: It does a lot of things I wished the other two titles had done - it has an overworld (sorry, I like that), its longer than any of the previous titles, a lot of the zones are pretty original, and the partner-system seemed pretty cool. However, the execution is lacking.

For one, like I mentioned before, the controls are incredibly slippery compared to Advance 1. Advance 2 put more emphasis on speed, and increased the overall tempo, but it was playable because there was very little tricky platforming. Advance 3 has slippery controls and tons of platforming, resulting in very hectic parts. Plus the pacing sucks - in Sunset Hill, there's a part where you run down a slope, killing enemies and running on water along the way, and immediately thereafter are platforms... with a bottomless pit below. I think I burned at leat 5 lives on that part, because the change is not even indicated at all - one part is totally tailored for you to run like crazy, and then there's a part which required to stand still, wait for platforms to scroll in and carefully jump onto them... with the platforms not even being on screen at first, my first reaction was to just jump and head for below - only to find out it's a friggin bottomless pit. The game is just sending wrong signals all the way here.
The whole "running up walls and on the ceiling"-thing also backfires frequently with its poor control (hold right to run left and not fall down?), and often enough, enemies are put in such sections, or better yet, spikes emerging from the floor... the later being a general evil with the GBA titles. But what really bothers me is the fact that the levels often feel cluttered. Despite some nice graphics, I can hardly even tell if I've been in a section before or not, because it all seems very same. Some said they were trying to replicate the bigger environments of 3K - that's a nice idea, but often the levels just feel confusing since it all blends together. Ocean Base is especially guilty of this. Also, I just don't like some of the designs - the basic approaches often were pretty great (Route 99 is a great level in concept), but the final product just seems lacking. Ocean Base again is a pretty cool idea and I actually like the darker angle, but it's often just confusing and overloaded. Also, the music sucks at times - the overworld theme is especially weird at times, and unless I'm mistaken, there's actually a couple of sour notes in Sunset Hill which is pretty much sacrilege.

But despite some truly shitty level design (Route 99 is especially guilty of this, which is a double-shame since it's the first zone and thus should start the game with a good impression), there is some fun to be had here. I actually like the partner system, and I liked the boss battles more than 2's which wore off their "you're running all the time!"-novelty very soon. Again, the ice stage (Twinkle Snow) is fun to play and also features a handful of gimmicks (running on water AND carts AND those rings shooting you around). The special stages are fun, and the way to enter them is, well, not a bad idea actually. I don't love the game enough to search all the Chaos on my own, but it certainly gives the game a nice replay value. The bonus games on the overworld are also a nice touch, as are the hidden Chaos in the overworlds themselves. The stages that have discernable multiple routes are also a lot of fun for that reason - the levels actually feel huge then (they don't if you're not sure if you've seen it before anyway). Minor nitpick would be that it's often unclear which route is supposed to be hidden / harder to access and you accidently take a route that was supposed to be the one obvious and thus contains less extra stuff in its way.

In general, this game showed a lot of promise, and suffers from a somewhat flawed execution. None of the Advance games were extremely polished, but this one certainly showed it the most, if only for the fact that it also contained the most stuff and thus would've probably needed more extensive testing and finetuning.


Overall order of the Advance-games, from favorite to least favorite: 2 > 1 > 3. They're all worth a shot, though, since they're actually pretty different from another and all have their strengths and weaknesses.

 

So I just played the first four zones of SA3 and the act 1 of zone 5. Holy shit! When I originally got Sonic Advance 3, I hated it but wow. It's actually a wonderful game that may be the best in the Advance series. I'll reserve final judgments until I beat it but I'm seriously impressed. When I was younger, I originally didn't even bother to beat it because I disliked it so much. Thanks to this fact, most of the game is like an entirely new experience for me. :D

 

I've played all three games, and I at least like all of them. Advance 1 was basically Sonic 4 for me. (Disregarding the 'real' Sonic 4 until I see some improvements, however doubtful that is.) It had the look down, the music was top notch, and the physics were spot on. Level design was pretty standard, all around, and everything was pretty much as it should be. Save for one thing which I'll get to in a bit...

Advance 2, I don't consider a step down like a lot of folks...it's just different, really. It's kinda like Rush without the 'win' button, but with slightly better level design. It was fast, but due to the physics you always felt like you were in control of what was going on. See, speed speed speed isn't such a bad thing, as long as you have proper deceleration. Pits were a bitch though, and there were times that I wished I could see more ahead of me. Also the special rings were retarded not intuitive at all. It'd be fine if you could collect one, and then come back and get the rest later, if not a bit annoying. But all in ONE run? Get outta heeerrre. But other than that, a solid title, doesn't deserve the hate it gets. Also Music Plant was awesome, and totally reminded me of Ristar. :3c Also I can't believe no one mentioned what is probably one of the most badass moments in any 2D Sonic game.

Advance 3...I didn't play as much, I guess because it's just not as pick up and play as Advance 1 or 2. You had to go through that whole level select area and while it's a neat concept, it's more a hindrance than anything. Mostly because of how large some of them got. I don't want to hunt for my next Act, okay? I kinda just, wanna go there, immediately after, like most 2D Sonic games. :v: And the special stage entry was almost as bad as Advance 2's, but more worth it for the awesome Special Stages and great final boss. Which I won't spoil for you. Anyway the only level that really gave me hell was Cosmic Angel Act 3. You know the part, with those fucking falling boulders and that tiny ass platform you had to stand on for like five minutes at a time and uuurggghh. But yeah, overall, a nice game, and not a bad way to cap off the series. Also dose Green Hill Zone remixes.

Now. Having said all that. I will say, I am and always will be very disappoint that Super Sonic wasn't playable in level in any of these games. And that's probably why I'll never be able to compare them to Sonic 2 or 3 and Knuckles. It adds a layer of depth to the game and increases replay value exponentially for me. Which is why the Advance series will always be juuust out of reach of their predecessors.

tl;dr The Advance series was good. Much better than what Dimps is doing today.

 

...That's a quite stupid ending. + - What difference does it make that Sonic grabs Vanilla, if he's not Super anymore? It's not like he has some rockets attached to his back, to stop falling down.   =P

 

Advance 1 was great, except that I absolutely hated the Special Stages [had my friend do them because I could never seem to aim right, gah]. Oh, and the music was kind of crappy and unmemorable. The levels were spot-on though, and like has been said, is probably better than Sonic 1 in many aspects. Extra Zone boss was cool, even though Super Sonic jumping like he does is a bit retarded.
And then there was the code to have Tails follow you, which made my life so much easier.

Advance 2 was... eh. Level design went out the window [the best levels are the first, Music Plant, and Techno Base], and the one checkpoint per act thing was annoying as hell. And then the running bosses. And getting into a special stage is flat out fucking impossible. I have never legitimately entered one, only saw the extra boss + true ending because of the magic of Gameshark.
Great music though.

Advance 3 was really good, except for a lot of very, very questionable level design choices. Such as the entirety of Twinkle Snow. And then the bloody Chao thing... I've only gotten 1-2 emeralds ever. But the bosses are my favorite bosses ever [except Sunset Hill's, because it's depressingly easy]. They're hard, but not to the point where you're pissed off like Advance 2 [does anyone remember Music Plant's? And then you had to start all over from Act 1 when you died, unlike Advance 1 and 3? FUUUUCK].
The music is absolutely amazing though. Easily better than Rush's soundtrack [which is also, amazing].

So, in order of quality, 1 > 3 > 2.

 

I never really played Sonic Advance 3, to be honest - I think the beta leak put me off buying the game at the time, and the first zone felt like a total clusterfuck to plow through so I never really got beyond Sunset Hill. I'll have to rectify that eventually.

Sonic Advance 1 and 2 I bought. How could I not? I remember seeing the surprise news of a Sonic game on Nintendo hardware (besides Chu Chu Rocket which I also bought) and you'd better believe I flipped my shit - this was a bigger shock than even the whole 'Conker's back and this time he's a sailor-mouthed badass' thing. Despite being 2D Sonic games I never really gave them much comparison to other games on the Game Gear or Mega Drive; they felt like the new post-Dreamcast continuity they were supposed to be a part of and so I enjoyed Sonic Advance 1 and 2 on their own terms. I enjoyed the rail grinding, the air-dashes, the ability to play as four/five characters, the chance to play as Amy and smack shit sideways with a hammer, the chance to try out Cream and Cheese, the really cool new graphics and music, the running bosses in Sonic Advance 2, the general running theme in Sonic Advance 2, the secret Tails-following-Sonic mode in Sonic Advance 1... even the rarely-employed multiplayer was a bonus.

If I have to pick favourites, for all their advantages and flaws, I'd probably have to root for Sonic Advance 1 for two reasons. One, it was THE Sega-Nintendo game, and I was pumped up as fuck for a real new 2D Sonic game, especially one running on the at-the-time-cutting-edge GBA technology (albeit pre-built-in-backlight, that would come with the GBA SP). And second, I believe this point was actually brought up by someone else in this thread, or maybe a Sonic 4 thread - in Sonic Advance 1 the levels feel more like actual levels for the player to explore and really be in control for the most part; sure, there were spotlight moments where you'd hit a spring, hit a rail and dash across a straight so fast the camera couldn't do shit to keep up, but you could play it totally differently if you wanted. Sonic Advance 2 had loads of boosters and things catapulting the player through the levels, even on different routes, and while that was cool as fuck (like the speed levels in Sonic Adventure 2) it took a lot of the control out of the player's hands and made it feel more like the level itself was playing the best bits of the level for you (like the speed levels in Sonic Adventure 2). I'm tempted to say it was borderline QTE but that's hyperbole - I enjoyed Sonic Advance 2, but I enjoy Sonic Advance 1 that much more.

 

You think we'll ever see the Advance games again?

 

Do you think we'll ever see Game Boy Advance games again?

 

But game boy was supposed to be Nintendo's third tier! Anybody remember that?

Did anybody even believe that when they said it?