Bashing Sonic Advance 2

Ultra Easy Mode was a 100% completion reward in the Mega Man Zero games until the compilation made it available from the beginning. Maria in Castlevania Rondo of Blood is another example that matches Cream's, as she's also unlockable very early on the game.

On topic, Sonic Advance 2 is a very stylish, action packed game that also lacks substance because every stage has the same flow. I find my opinion of it lowered over the years whereas stage designs from Sonic 1, CD and the more busy ones from 3&K have grown on me for at the very least bringing a change of pace to the gameplay. Never bothered to access the special stages either.

 

I'm not saying it hasn't been done, I'm saying it's a stupid idea. Pokemon White 2 locked its Easy Mode behind the Elite 4 and IIRC the game was mocked for it. It makes no sense to lock an easy difficulty behind completion of a harder one. Probably why Zero/ZX Legacy Collection made it available immediately in the first place.

 

I guess I was thinking more like how Super transformations feel like "easy mode rewards". But, now that I've thought a bit more about it, the level design and enemy placement is brutal enough that playing as an overpowered-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-cast character feels almost like fair compensation.

Now, if I wanted to add a more balanced take on the concept to a game with less sadistic level design and enemy placement, maybe I'd add "C Monitors" which grant you a Chao follower, which functions like Cheese does, but leaves after you take damage (it "takes the hit for you" and goes away...).

 

I see, I guess Super forms could be considered a form of easy mode, but i would consider it more an OP weapon. That kind of stuff is a typical reward.

 

You know, I actually agree with virtually every point raised against the game in this thread but I still really enjoy it and despite those flaws, I still don't even think it's an objectively 'bad' game either.

I think what works really well in it's favour for me is that for all intents and purposes, Advance 2 serves as the predecessor to the 'Modern' or 'Boost' gameplay style (whatever you want to call it) and I absolutely love that. It was also flashy as hell and trying to speedrun it when it was new gave me near endless replayability.

Oh yeah, this is a 'bashing' thread, huh... Sky Canyon Zone is absolute dog eggs.

 

I'm just mad no one told me the game glitching out and giving you every single emerald and item only lasted until you reset the game. Would have used it a little more before resetting when I was 8.

 

Sonic Advance 2 was my first GBA game ever, which was my first console I got for myself in about 2002/3 with money I paid from my first part time job working at my local library.

I still remember going into that Wal-Mart so God damn well, so amazing. So it has a sweet spot in my heart, but no, it's not a good Sonic game. It's not God awful, is all.

The Emerald collection in particular, even with a guide; is annoying and memory work rather than actual platforming skill.

I like the art, and the level themes are kinda neat and creative. Secret Base, Music Plant...the music is also fairly nice. The presentation is good. None of this can really save it, but it helps.

 

Another reason to bash it then, it's really bad if that gameplay was born so soon.

 

Despite being the Bashing thread, I will give Advance 2 the credit that the Boost mechanic is more intuitive here than what came later in Rush/Unleashed. You had to build your speed first and maintain it long enough in order to the Boost state to kick in, rather it being tied to a gauge you could access at anytime and could easily refill like in the later titles. (Granted, due to how uniform the level structures are here, it's not exactly hard to get to the Boost state in this game, but I digress.) I think another Boost game could benefit bringing back the Advance 2 method; like having it as a alternative "hard mode" for more skilled players used to the Rush/Unleashed Boost format.

But with that praise aside...yeah, this game is for me a bad catalyst for what happened with 2D Sonic gameplay, much like how Adventure 2 was for 3D Sonic gameplay. It threw the (momentum physics/platforming) baby out the bathwater in favor for having speed, speed, and even more speed, and practically every 2D game that followed (excluding Mania) was built from its influence. Can't really forgive it for that.

Everything else surrounding Adv. 2's design I'd happy to join slating it for as well. The special stage medals are actively counter-intuitive to the game's structure pacing and it makes me wonder what the hell the designers were thinking. Same goes with having to collect the Chaos Emeralds as every player just to unlock Amy as a playable character. Add me to the Sky Canyon hate train as because that's where I stopped playing the game, the level design was bad enough that I haven't even been able to reach its notorious boss fight. For what it's worth, I think Advance 3 may have the worst level design and physics/controls of the entire trilogy; but I at least got to the last regular level before I dropped that title.

 

That's exactly the question: the more they wanted to push speed, the worse the related mechanics became. In Sonic Rush I could still enjoy boosting to some extent, but being the primordial element to build any game, be it in the style of Advance 2, Forces, or anything in between, is what ruins the result. I could enjoy boosting in generations because it felt a lot more casual and integrated in the level's pace, as opposed to to games where you have to boost to win but sometimes and only sometimes not.

 

It's just a different gameplay style. Boost games still allow you to 'earn your speed' but in a different way - you don't directly earn 'top speed' but you earn good times in levels by learning their layouts, when and how to use the boost and, in later titles, making clever use of things like the stomp to suddenly stop your momentum when needed. A skilled player can hold the boost button down the whole way through those levels and keep it topped up with clever dropping of it and tricks, badnik smashing, etc. Whether you like it or not is a different matter, as is whether you think it's better than the momentum-based physics of the originals (I don't), but I absolutely resent the implication it's 'boost to win' whenever it's brought up.

 

It's not bad but the way the special stages work makes the game feel really redundant, and the levels are designed in such a way that only Tails really handles stages differently from others. Cream's main difference is in trivializing bosses and as with Advance 1 Knuckles may as well have not been there at all.