Didn't see another thread covering this topic, so here we go... Huzzah!! It has finally been done! The first ever Sonic Advance level mod is now available to the public! MASSIVE thanks to MainMemory for creating AdvanceTools and the Sonic Advance 2 decomp team for their research. Hopefully this is the start of a brand new era of 2D Sonic modding (probably not lol, those Genesis games do be enticing) and I hope everyone who plays the level enjoys what I've cooked up!
Very cool stuff, nice work! Always been curious what Advance might have been like if it had more than 2 grind rails. Would definitely be interested in seeing what it plays like if the physics attributes were tweaked to be less molasses-y. Excited to see what's to come!
I think the key to getting more people interested in modding the Advance games is making sure that the tools currently being developed are as user-friendly as possible. Very excited to see what can be done in the future, as this is something I dreamed of seeing done since I was a teenager. The extra use of the grind rails is very fun to see indeed.
This is really exciting! Always loved the Advance games so I can’t wait to see what hacks the community makes. Might check out the tools myself.
It should. Wasn't able to get mGBA to start a multiplayer session myself, but that's an emulator issue. I'm sure running it on a flashcart would have no trouble at all. If anyone ever does a multiplayer race on one of my levels, lemme know asap lol!
I wonder if anyone can guess what all I have in the cards... I'm doing everything I can to ensure Advance modding gets off to a good start.
Great to see more of the handheld games getting the Sonic Retro treatment, kind of like the SMS/GG games, there's alot of potential here that hasn't been realised due to their relative lack of popularity compared to the main series. Looking forward to what you come up with!
So I think the oddly intense dude commenting on the youtube video was referring to this. https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Advance_Editor No idea if anyone did anything with it though.
Since you asked for guesses… I’m guessing the “quest” games are level packs that alter the level design to be in the style of the sonic advance game that came out the year of the quest (Advance 1 came out in 2001, Adv2 in 02 and Adv3 in 04) Regardless, I want to compliment you for making and sharing a new level for Sonic Advance! I haven’t played it, but I’m excited about the possibilities this could open
I don't believe so. I asked around and apparently this editor can't even edit objects like rings, so fully functioning levels wouldn't have been possible. Stay tuned... mwahahahaha ...and thx lol
I suppose I should put a link to AdvanceTools in here: https://github.com/MainMemory/AdvanceTools/releases/latest This includes tools to extract all level and sprite data from the ROMs (I only have addresses for the US releases for now), build a new ROM using modified data, project files for Tiled to read and write levels from the games (copy the appropriate folder into your extracted project), a level converter, a batch image exporter (BG2Img), and an object definition editor for future tools.
Introducing... Sonic Advance: Double Take!! Double Take makes many small changes to the level design of Sonic Advance, highlighting some of it's best features, while also tweaking some object placements and outright removing many unnecessary hazards to hopefully scale back on some of those "Dimps-isms". Many new grind rails have been added for Sonic and Amy to utilize, giving them both much more replayability and plenty of new exclusive routes to take! New special springs have been added to every act! There are now 3 in each act (meaning 6 per zone), but since Ice Mountain holds 2 of the Chaos Emeralds, it has 4 in each act to accommodate. This brings the special stages much closer to the Genesis originals. Enemies have been added, switched around, or even outright deleted to help balance the difficulty curve of the game! Many unfair bottomless pits and blind leaps of faith have been filled in, and almost every orange booster (with the exception of ones needed to beat the game) has been yeeted straight back into Sonic 4, meaning momentum based platforming and rolling physics reign supreme once again! This, of course, does mean Amy will have a much harder time navigating some sections of the game, even needing to take alternate routes outright, but this really helps drive home that she is Sonic Advance's expert mode. Are you up to the challenge? Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yb6xmiSA_yPkCYy66pqdmNbiAiExxlth/view?usp=sharing All in all, Double Take isn't meant to completely replace Advance 1, moreso just provide an alternative way to experience the game, both for old fans and people who'd like to give it an honest shot. Thanks for playing (if ya do) and I'll hopefully be back in the near future with another Advance Trilogy rom hack! (I've got a simple yet groundbreaking idea that will change how people play Advance 2 forever mwahahahaha...)
You're an actual angel. The best game in the trilogy now made even better? Sign me the fuck up Definitely playing this asap
Get back to me on that. Any feedback/suggestions people have for how to further improve things will almost certainly go into a v1.1 update.
Advance 1 is probably my least favorite of the Trilogy, but I still wish I could play this thing. Also, Burst mode in Advance 1 and Cream in Advance 1 when? I might be in the minority here, but I really enjoyed just how fast Advance 2 was once I got good enough to clear levels without dying or slowing down and almost always favored a combo with Sonic when play Advance 3 since he was the only character that could grant a team Burst in that game... plus, I really like wrecking things with Cheese... Still, damn these useless eyeballs.
this is so cool. trying to reduce playing games with my wrist injury atm but I’ll check this out and give feedback when I can! I also have many ideas for Advance hacks but sadly…I think I’ll end up missing this SHC. At least there’s always next year!
Between this and Advance 2 SP we are absolutely spoiled when it comes to advance improvement mods. I don’t know when I’ll have time to play this, but I’ll provide feedback when I do. I’ve owned a gba with the advance games since I was 6 years old. It makes me so happy for these games to finally get more modding attention
Did a full Sonic playthrough this morning. Overall a great effort to touch up the level design and make the game feel a bit more polished, which I really appreciate! Ultimately because I've been playing this game for more than half my life I've become kinda good at avoiding the bullshit level design. But still, I didn't have a single bottomless pit death, when I usually always screw up once or twice(especially in Ice Mountain zone.) So...guessing you worked your magic here And the infamous Egg Rocket spring/spike combo at the end of the stage has been fixed...you know the one, haha The extra grind rails are nice, it feels like a real part of Sonic/Amy's kits instead of the level designers putting two of them in Neo Green Hill and then forgetting about it for the rest of the game, lol The removal of speed boosters is always appreciated, although Advance 1 isn't too bad with them, so I'll admit I probably wouln't have noticed if you didn't say it in your initial post :p The extra special springs are much appreciated! I've found 6 of them in total (and then failed 3 of them, lol), which makes it way more in line with the classics where you can reasonably find and get all the emeralds in a playthrough instead of the "find a guide on youtube" design mentality of the advance trilogy. Overall, as a level design hack this is pretty much perfect, at least for me. Sonic Advance 1 is very close to my ideal Sonic game, so I wouldn't want to see much changed honestly. Making the later zones less...Dimps, for the lack of a better word, is all you could really do to improve to level design...and you did it! Good job! There's some stuff I'd like to see changed in Advance (Uncapped life counter, level transitions and playable Super Sonic, mainly), but I realise it's out of the scope of this hack and probably impossible with the current tools we have. Still, seeing a hack like this is making me hopeful we'll get some of those improvements someday...and I can't wait :p Advance 2 and 3 are where most of the heavy lifting is required, really. Love Advance 2 to bits but there's definitely a lot of questionable level design in the second half of the game, and Advance 3...well if you can somehow manage to make me like Advance 3, good job lol Spoiler: Glitch? I couldn't use this special stage spring in Casino Paradise no matter how hard I tried. Since I already completed a special stage in this act, does it mean the game is hard coded to only let you complete one special stage per act? Or is this spring just glitched?
