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Sonic Advance

ソニックアドバンス

Developers: DimpsSonic Team Publisher: Sega
20 December 2001
Sonic Advance [ソニックアドバンス] - cover art
Glitchwave rating
3.22 / 5.0
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393 Ratings / 2 Reviews
#2,248 All-time
#95 for 2001
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Releases 4
2001 Dimps Sonic Team  
Cartridge
JP
2002 Dimps Sonic Team  
Cartridge
XNA 7 85138 32099 1 AGB-ASOE-USA
2003 Dimps Sega  
Game card
US
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Title
A conservative but competent followup to the main series Genesis games
Sonic Advance is a 2D platformer very much in line with the main series of Sonic the Hedgehog [ソニックザヘッジホッグ] titles released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It features fairly large non-linear stages, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are still playable with move sets similar to their Sonic 3 & Knuckles appearance, and ring collecting, emerald hunting, spring hopping, and the act-zone structure are all still here. Theming for the zones will look familiar in places. Runtime is also comparable to individual Genesis titles, with 7 zones + a final boss act in a normal (non-emerald) run that won't take you more than a few hours to work through.

The most notable game play differences are the addition of Amy as a playable character, some tweaks to how the existing characters' moves work, and some further moves added for a touch of new depth to those characters' play styles. While each character is distinct enough to warrant replay, the stages seem designed primarily around Sonic. Playing with other characters will often allow the user to skip a number of the platforming challenges and beat some of the bosses with too much ease, making them better reserved for a 2nd+ play through, emerald hunting, or exploration (there is a stage-select screen). Also important is the new emerald mini-game. Now players trying to gather chaos emeralds must collect rings while free-falling with a faux 3D top-down perspective. I found it very difficult to judge whether I was correctly aligned with rings while falling, and gave up fairly quickly without any emeralds - this is the game's greatest flaw, and will impact any attempt at true completion.

Aesthetically, Sonic Advance meets the high bar set for it by its precursors. Characters' sprites are entirely new, based on their Sonic Adventure [ソニックアドベンチャー] redesigns. The music is on par with 16-bit main series Sonic titles (excellent), and along with the look of the stages feels very much at home in the series.

Bottom line: a mostly solid but very familiar feeling Sonic platformer. If you've played the Genesis titles (excepting maybe the slower paced debut) or a different Sonic Advance [ソニックアドバンス] game, how you feel about those will probably be close to how you'll feel about this one.
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Title
Sonic Advance is very much like the older Sonic games. This means it has the same flaws with the design. Going through the stages as Sonic means you are supposed to run fast, but much of the level design aims to stop you; bumpers to knock you back where you came from, or hidden spikes to get cheap hits on you. When you can run fast, you end up watching Sonic do loops, bounce off springs and this requires little interaction.

The initial levels are easy and you can run through them quickly. The later stages then become annoying. There's a water level (Ice Mountain Zone) where the movement is sluggish and you have to find air bubbles otherwise you will drown. It's more straight-forward than water levels found in earlier games, and it does have some land sections too. Angel Island is very maze-like and this is taken one step further in Egg Rocket Zone. This is huge and is split into a few sections with a time limit. It's quite frustrating how many paths send you back to a previous area.

The second stage of each zone ends in a boss. These bosses seem to be recycled or inspired by bosses in older games. Many of them can be basically taken down by brute force. As long as you recapture a ring when hit; you can just jump towards the boss repeatedly. The final stage, X-Zone is compired of 3 boss fights where only the final stage poses a threat.

You can play the game as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy who have different abilities. Tails can fly, Knuckles can glide and climb walls. Amy is considered the hard mode since she has no spin dash and doesn't have beneficial moves like the flying ability that some characters have.

I like the graphical style, and the sprite animations are great for the most part. The animation where Sonic shifts across the horizontal bar is very rigid.

Sonic Advance is typical Sonic and I'm sure Sonic fans will love this game. I'm not a fan of the series in general and this contains the same flaws. The game plays well enough, although the Game Boy Advance's small screen limits your viewing range somewhat. I did think it would be better if Sonic wasn't centered and was shifted to the left instead, allowing you to see further ahead.
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CaptainClam 2019-08-28T20:03:50Z
2019-08-28T20:03:50Z
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Catalog

dotnds ソニックアドバンス 2024-03-22T19:26:46Z
2024-03-22T19:26:46Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
JPEGNICO ソニックアドバンス 2024-03-20T22:13:00Z
2024-03-20T22:13:00Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
gabe0694 ソニックアドバンス 2024-03-17T15:38:49Z
2024-03-17T15:38:49Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
diegoiv4an464 ソニックアドバンス 2024-03-15T23:55:25Z
2024-03-15T23:55:25Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
eliottstaten ソニックアドバンス 2024-03-14T07:29:28Z
2024-03-14T07:29:28Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
bigcrunchbar ソニックアドバンス 2024-03-11T06:25:15Z
2024-03-11T06:25:15Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
5COTT ソニックアドバンス 2024-03-04T23:39:26Z
2024-03-04T23:39:26Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Noahsdream ソニックアドバンス 2024-02-23T18:51:42Z
GBA • JP
2024-02-23T18:51:42Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
slowkingbestgirl ソニックアドバンス 2024-02-10T01:56:50Z
GBA • JP
2024-02-10T01:56:50Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
peter_nantais ソニックアドバンス 2024-02-08T00:59:10Z
2024-02-08T00:59:10Z
4.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
JoshuaTheSCPKing ソニックアドバンス 2024-01-30T03:08:22Z
2024-01-30T03:08:22Z
5.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Moonlight_Shiori ソニックアドバンス 2024-01-27T03:17:24Z
2024-01-27T03:17:24Z
C
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Also known as
  • Sonic Advance
  • SonicN
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  • Previous comments (3) Loading...
  • Sunvin 2023-04-04 14:51:44.397388+00
    Playing with Amy was unexpectedly fun
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  • _Ryu 2023-05-21 16:04:57.192956+00
    The only good Sonic Advance game tbh
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  • PhrostByte 2023-07-05 05:50:26.473964+00
    Difficulty spike after the casino level is way too steep for my liking. Definitely could have done without the bottomless pits.
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  • omo_ree 2023-09-02 23:31:16.754149+00
    I got so lost in egg rocket zone
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  • Joe_Kloos 2023-10-14 06:43:40.795089+00
    This will forever the the best Amy has ever played in 2D Sonic. Her moveset is so unique from all the other characters and no less fun for it. Most of the levels are designed so well around her hammer abilities as well as her limitations. She's the second best character in the game only because she doesn't see the secret boss and the level after Egg Rocket is just too cheap with it's obstacles. It's a shame she will never return as how she was here.
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