I actually liked collecting the Special Rings in Vanilla Advance 2, but yeah, having to do it every time just to access the special stages and then said special stages being some of the most annoying and least fun in the franchise was kind of overkill... especially with how lousy the rewards for collecting the Emeralds with everyone are(Amy should have been unlocked just from clearing Sonic's story like the others, the Tiny Chao Garden and Sound Test should have been available from first boot, and Boss Attack should have, at worst, required beating XX Zone with every character or have been limited to bosses the selected character had beaten in the main game. I would have preferred if the Special Rings had been more like the Dragon Coins in Super Mario World, KONG letters in Donkey Kong Country games, the Flowers in Yoshi's Island, the Star Coins in New Super Mario Bros., or the Chao Boxes and golden beetles in Sonic Adventure 2, where either they are completely optional and give you an extra life if you collect them all, increase your chance of accessing an optional mini-game, contribute to, but are not strictly necessary for reaching a target score, or if they are required for 100%, you only need to collect them once and they aren't the key to an extra, mandatory challenge that's arguably harder than just collecting the minor MacGuffins). Anyways, so wish I could give these new Advance 2 hacks a go... Damn my useless eyeballs. Though, I'm curious, does the Special Ring timer hitting 0 just lose the opportunity to get an Emerald on that run, or does it kill you and make you restart the level? If it just loses the Emerald, it's probably a decent challenge. If it kills you, that might be a bit too punishing to new players, especially if this change is ever implemented with new levels... Also, does reaching the goal with enough special rings in tow net you the emerald directly, or just get you te special stage? Because like I said earlier, it isn't collecting the rings alone that makes getting Chaos Emeralds a bitch in Vanilla Advance 2, but the special stages being both hard to get into than hard and unfun to beat.
That's my bad, I've released a fix here: https://github.com/MainMemory/AdvanceTools/releases/tag/1.11.2
I'd prefer a system more like Sonic Advance 3, honestly. You only ever have to find each one once and then that's IT, forever. Advance 3 was a far better game than 2 for several reasons, and this was a big one.
Great to see some serious work being done on the Advance series - loving what's been shown so far. One thing I've always wanted to see was 8-bit levels runnning in the original Sonic Advance; the physics etc. in Aspect's 8-bit Sonic titles always bug me a little (though do seem to improve a little each game, and fare a little better in Triple Trouble which also embraces some of those quirks), and I always wonder how the layouts would feel in a game with more traditional Sonic-style physics. Sonic Advance fits the bill nicely, as speed caps aside it does a pretty good job of mimicking the original games on a smaller scale. Plus, the relative scale of the characters in relation to rings/springs etc. is pretty much the same as the 8-bit titles! I know it'd take a lot of work even to get just the layouts over, not only because the 8-bit games use a different way of contsructing their level layouts, but also because things like rings and springs are often baked into the level blocks themselves. So there'd be a lot of work blanking out any tiles featuring those elements, then adding them back into the layout as actual stage objects. Nevertheless, I'll be keeping my eye on all of this, as if modding for the first Advance game becomes more accessible I may just try and have a crack at actually doing it...! = )
The other thing you'll find is that the 8 bit layouts are rather small when you have Advance movement speed. Not saying don't do it, just might want to consider a Mania style expansion as a bonus project!
This is my VERY scuffed attempt at bringing Green Hill Zone Act 1 to SA2. Level is pretty buggy, especially the loop which took me forever to figure out how to implement (works like maybe 1/3 of the time) but hey, it can in fact be completed. It goes without saying that sonic advance modding is still in its infancy, so the tools required to make these levels work are obviously rough around the edges. That and I'm probably way in over my head trying to figure out how this stuff works with my limited knowledge. That said, working on this was fun and informative; I even attempted to give it that SA2 flair with some boost pads (I admittedly do like them, yes), ramps, and the boost hoop...things. Might wait for some more developments in the tools before I decide to revisit porting levels/making my own, but this is the best I could pull off for now.
Nice one! It looks like it plays well for GHZ, I mean Sonic controls wise, which is surprising to me. I went in believing I'd see behaviour giving the impression of Advance series, I guess it really is the stage design after all.
Sorry to drege this old post up, but is there any chance I could actually chat with you about Advance 3? I'd like to pick your brain about what is generally undesirable about it so I can apply the feedback once I eventually get around to messing with it.
Sure! Keep in mind I reaaally don’t like Advance 3 tho, so you should definitely look for a variety of feedback about it haha
I noticed this topic hadn't been updated in several months, and I just wanted to ask: is there a mod of Sonic Advance 3 that fixes Sonic's physics to not be as slippery when playing with the Sonic + Tails combo? I could've swore there was, but it seems extensive modding of these games is fairly new. In general I'm looking forward to a full revision of Advance 3, if that's on the plans for anyone modding it. There are large swaths of time where I'm enjoying what I'm playing, and then suddenly a crushing block or bottomless pit ruins your day (and it only continues to increase in frequency as the game goes on). EDIT: Also wanted to say I recently played Sonic Advance Double Take. Very good edits all around! I still think the enemy and spike placement is still a little cheap, but I think it makes sense to keep some of the original's "personality" still there at times lol. I also played Sonic Advance 2 SP and find that to also be good, though flawed in a bit of the same ways (keeping more of the cheap enemy placement and pits than I expected it to). Still good improvements, though!
Not that I'd be able to play it, but my biggest curiosity is if anyone has made a Cream in Advance 1 hack or started messing around with porting levels between games. The three games play radically differently from each other, so part of me is curious how say, Advance 2 levels would play with the slower pace of Advance 1 or vice versa or how Advance 3 levels would handle without the partner mechanic.
I have been able to do some rudimentary level ports, but Advance 2 greatly expanded the amount of pieces levels have to work with, so most levels from 2 and 3 cannot be ported back into 1 without major reworks. And that's not even getting into the objects, which would take a ton of extra work to port.
This truly is marvellous progress with how modding the Advance trilogy is going! As a kid, I was always incredibly frustrated that you couldn't turn Super Sonic in regular levels and it admittedly is the reason why I have some bias against the trilogy (as petty as it is) - I wonder how big of a scope such a task would be with what knowledge we have now currently.
