"Long Awaited, But to be Long Awed At"

Intro
I have been a little disappointed with SEGA's more recent offerings, and so was reluctant to pick up this game. I felt that they got close to restoring Sonic's glory with Sonic Advance 2, but that didn't feel perfect, but after playing this game, it felt that it was a huge advance forward in Sonic Advance 2's direction, as I thought that game was good and going in the right direction.

Graphics 9/10
Taking advantage of the DS' power, the Zones are excellently coloured and vary from each other greatly, putting the best of SEGA's own previous 2D games to shame. They are impressive, and very colourful, yet sustaining well-designed themes. The game is actually a 2.5D game, with some 3D elements in it, such as the polygonal characters and boss battles, all of which do not look out of place. The enemies look impressive, and rather comically, most of them resemble Dr. Eggman, and the G.U.N. robots that first featured in Sonic Advance 2 have been transformed from polygons to pixels perfectly. The graphics are sharp and clear, with everything distinguishable. Animations of all things that move in the game are fluent and few things look clunky or jerky; an exception is Sonic's/Blaze's navigators, Tails and Cream respectively, but they're about okay anyways.

Controls 10/10
Very tight, much tighter than any other Sonic game I've played, but this is necessary for the pace of the game. Jumping is incredibly controllable, where you able to make the shortest and longest of jumps with pin-point accuracy. There are a nmber of moves that either Blaze or Sonic can pull off, and can be executed easily, such as rail tricks and airborne tricks, both executed with the R trigger, and the speed booster, by pressing and holding X/Y to use it. Skidding in this game is very tight, where your character can come to a halt in a very short distance, useful to avoid falling into pits. Unless you blink, that is...

Game play 10/10
Sonic Advance 2 was a true pioneer for this game; all about raw speed, reflexes and skill. However, unnecessary moves have been taken away such as airborne tricks for every direction and ground attacks. Some new features have been added in their place; the speed gauge and rail tricks. The speed gauge is really useful for recovering after getting hit, or steaming around the stages like a speed demon, able to send the character running at full speed in an instant, but is easy to deplete, so you can't depend on it and have to use it wisely. The use of the two screens can be confusing at first, but once you get used to it, you'll be glad that it means no more blind jumps, or getting killed by that certain obstacle that had just crushed Sonic for the umpteenth time. That doesn't mean it's easy. This is not a very forgiving Sonic game, with the need of reflexes and skill to get past each act, or to get a good grade rating at the end of each level. Level design is clever, with the acts large enough to last you more than a minute despite running around really quickly, and you are rarely forced to stand still. Each level is a roller coaster ride of speed, and moving through each acts is very fluent, even in the later Zones, where you wold normally have to take your time to wade through obstacles. On the other hand, obstacle design is much better, requiring split-second timing and execution (and also memorising level layout) to get past the more elaborate traps which can send Sonic or Blaze into a pit if the wrong move is made. One really great thing that SEGA decided to do is allow you to recover all the rings you drop when you get hit, and not just up to 20, which is handy if you happened to have 99 rings and no lives left, and was stuck on act 2 of one of the later Zones.

Sound 8/10
It's good, but doesn't truly feel like Sonic music. It seems so...different from the other Sonic game's music. Might the the extensive use of vocals in the music. It does help thicken the mood the game has, however, so there's little to complain about. There are some voice clips, which are rather good, but some you will shortly find annoying, such as Tails, who watches over boss battles; when you get hit again for the 1,000 th time against one of the tougher bosses, you'll get fed up with him crying "oh, no, Sonic!". On the other hand, hearing Blaze say "never get on my bad side" never gets tiring. Sound effects are pretty good, some of them all the way back from Sonic 1, but never have sounded stale. Some sound effects do sound a little out of place, such as the death chime.

Summary
I recommend you buy this. It breaks the trend of Sonic games a little, as did Sonic Advance 2 in its time, so rent it if you are unsure. Ultimately, it's a good buy, a game that is surely one of the best, if not the best Sonic game out there. You've done a great job, SEGA.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/07