TGC's Sonic Advance Series!

Sonic Advance 2, the game which broke the "R" button and d-pad of my Gameboy Advance SP. It was telling when I would just play the game then immediately stop when I got to music plant.

"Yaaaaay, boost rush......and I'm done"

I don't know what convinced them to go with the "Speed is everything" route but it was the first step in a series of errors that I documented awhile back.
http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=38229

 

Once Advance 3 hits, I'll watch them all.

Are you going to tackle the other GBA games? I expect a Sonic Pinball Party video! :v:

 

I have to admit that while I agree with virtually all of the individual points raised in this critique, I can't get in board with the idea that Advance 2 is just "mediocre". Yes it is incredibly rough sound the edges, suffering frequently from samey and repetitive level design, cheap hazards and total superfluousness of extra characters (side note: Amy is literally just a Sonic skin in this game with all of her abilities acting exactly the same, even tricks and bound jumping), I honestly think that Advance 2 is the strongest of its series in just about every way. It's a game that you're supposed to perfect your skills in, and it's seriously fun once you've got your head around its shortcomings. Had they gone on to refine it rather than try and fail to strike balance between it and 1 for Advance 3, as well as not introduce the boost as we know it today in Rush, Sonic would have taken a very different course.

But saying that, absolutely fuck all the shit that the game throws at you. And those Special Stage rings are some of the worst game design ever, although the third game's Chao and keys are at just least as bad.

 

Me too, although I remember the first ROM being faulty as Sonic kept falling through the floor...

 

I recall being really thrilled about Sonic Advance 2 when I first played it via emulation, as it had a ton of style and one could make it through levels at top speed without stopping for anything. It's still a fine game, but as I turned into an old man who yells at clouds I found I much preferred a pace-breaker like Marble and Labyrinth or gimmick and input-heavy levels like Sandopolis than an entire game that's reductible to loops and rails. I don't think I'll ever bother accessing all Special Stages legit, given how needlessly harsh the Special Ring mechanics are.

Looking foward to the Advance 3 video.

 

Only having to collect the Chao once, and keys having lots of locations in each level but only needing one, says "No."

 

Have fun finding those 10 Chao spread across the three enormous acts and world map, and then managing to make it to the end of literally any level in Advance 3 without getting hit and therefore dropping the key. Plus once you were in the special stages they were horribly difficult to, almost guaranteeing the need to enter them several times to get a single Emerald.

Fuck that shit. At least in Advance 2 you could learn an optimal route for special rings and retry each Special Stage relatively easily. Both games almost require a guide to reach the special stages though, and I can't stress how bad both methods are. Advance 2's are just more workable when you know how, IMO. I can understand why people would prefer Advance 3s however. I just found it even more laborious, because I couldn't just enjoy a run of the stages to get access in Advance 3.

 

You both are missing the point. Member when you just had to find a single spring somewhere in the level? How bout just finding one of many giant rings? Let's not forget collecting 50 rings then finding a checkpoint.

What I'm saying is both Advance 2 & 3 are terrible. Just terrible. Why pad the game like that?

 

The special rings in Advance 2 would've been leagues better if you didn't have to get them all in one run and the ones you snag getting saved as permanently collected, with special stage access opening up once you got all of them in a given act. It would've also helped if there were fewer of them.

I know this to be true because Sonic Colors exists.

 

I mean, I literally said right there in my post that both methods are pretty bad, so...

 

Also one of the advantages of SA3's Chaos Emerald system is that you only need to every get them once. SA2 requires you get the emeralds 4 times in order to unlock Amy. It's one thing getting them as Tails and Cream and maybe Knuckles but good luck with Sonic.

 

Also, you don't lose the key in Advance 3 unless you die. Heroes was the one where you lose it on a hit.

 

The thing I absolutely remember the most about Advance 2, above all else, was that in comparison to the relatively-normal-written strategy guide for Advance 1, 2's was written in this hilariously overdone "HOW DO YOU DO FELLOW KIDS/TOTALLY XTREEEEEEEEEEEEEME" style that felt like it came straight from the 90's.

...which admittedly fit Sonic perfectly, but it was still just SO tryhard it was hilarious.

Also, the fact that there's only 2 pools of water in one act is just...hilarious? Why even have them there? It's like, sure, have water in solely one act, but to put the effort to have water physics in the game for...two pools? What? They're not even like more than five seconds what the fuck :v:

 

You're not even supposed to get into the water, as long as you hold right you'll be fast enough to run on top of it.

 

The special rings may be a pain in the ass to collect as Sonic/Amy but I prefer the SAdvance2 special stages over SAdvance3's. Once you learn a set path for the rings it's fun (and monotonous it you keep failing the special stage).

 

Yeah. Advance 2's Special Stages are really fun once you're in one of them. Advance 1's were broken and Advance 3's were just a bit run of the mill.

 

I think the plus for SAd3 against SAd2 is that not only did it save your progress in collecting everything, making it a much more forgiving process, but less of SA3's gameplay and level structure seemed to be working COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY AGAINST YOU collecting the requirements to the extent that SA2 did, which was pushing you to drive through the level as fast as possible with many instances if you failed to reach one of the rings once, that was it, you had to restart.

A shame because I liked the SAd2 special stages themselves, with the CD style pseudo 3D and even a ZERO cameo.

With all this said, I have to agree with some previous comments in that, in spite of the decrease in substance and the absurd tedium and frustration of unlocking what was mostly just stuff from SAd1, I did really like SAd2. It felt unique and intense and the cosmetics and music all just rubbed the right way.

 

Yeah, I never once managed to get into a Special Stage in Advance 2, but I did get all the Emeralds in Advance 3. I mean, it sucked, yes! But at least I was able to do it.

I still don't know which of those two games I liked less. On one hand, Advance 2 was really boring, but on the other hand, 3 wasn't much better in that regard, and it had those awful hubs. I also think the level design was more frustrating? It's been a while, but I remember going through a lot of cheap deaths in that game, which wasn't as prevalent a problem as in Advance 2 (besides Sky Canyon anyway).