Sonic Advance 2

"A major improvement on speed, with an emphasis on "speed"."

Sonic Advance 2 is the sequel to Sonic Advance. Sonic Advance was the game which brought back the 2D Sonic platformer after many years but the game presented itself with a lack of speed presented, and that just did not stand out what Sonic games are suppose to be. Is the sequel like it? Let's see...

Story - 7/10
The same old story with Sonic and his friends needing to stop Dr. Eggman from collecting the Chaos Emerald and conquering the world. It's been so many times that it is starting to feel like a drag. Of course, no Sonic game really requires a story but still, a little something extra besides the simple same stuff wouldn't hurt.

Gameplay - 9/10
What Sonic Advance lacked is what Sonic Advance 2 makes up and that is the focus on "speed". I put quotes in speed simply because the speed itself is both a good thing and a bad thing. Wait what? Speed in a Sonic game is a bad thing? That sounds like an odd oxymoron.

Let's just get this said: Sonic Advance 2 is a fast paced game, end of story. The game literally has you moving your character at a speed where it looks like the background becomes blurry. This makes the game feel so intense to play that you feel like as if you are on a roller coaster ride where you can't let go of the seat you are in. That's right, it is that intense of a roller coaster ride.

The game mechanics are simple and are like many of the other 2D Sonic platformers: get to the goal in the "acts", defeat the boss, and move on to the next stage or "zone" as the Sonic games call it. In this game, there are 5 characters you can choose from, one of which you must unlock after completing the game entirely so I won't go into detail about said character. You basically have your 3 main heroes Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and a new character named Cream and her Chao Cheese. Sonic has his fast speed, Tails can fly, and Knuckles can glide and climb walls. Let's talk about Cream for a second. Cream is basically your "very easy difficulty" character, simply because her abilities just make the game look so dang easy that it feels like a joke. She can fly like Tails can, but what makes her stand out is her "Chao attack" where she sends her Chao to attack a certain enemy in range. This even works on bosses, so therefore, you could just send out her Chao attack and you wouldn't even have to touch the boss to defeat it. It's cheap, but compared to the rest of the game, having one character just clear every stage is not even enough.

For the stages themselves, clearly the developers did not make them so that the average player would be able to beat the game with a hold of the right directional pad and the occassional A button jump. The major new game mechanic introduced in Sonic Advance 2 is "Boost mode" which causes your character to move at their maximum speed after running at a constant speed and this process is sped up by collecting rings. The stages have so much obstacles that for the first timer around, achieving boost mode and then maintaining it almost seems impossible since you are going to clash into walls all of a sudden or enemies which are just roaming around. But then there is also the new "tricks" system where you can press the R button to perform tricks after getting shot to in the air by a ramp, spring, and whatnot so you can maintain that speed. That's pretty much a major portion of any Sonic game: memorization to make sure that you remember that you are not suppose to fall down in that same platform or touch those same spikes that stick out in a corner near a way. Sonic Advance 2 is no different, and while there are many obstacles in the game, once you got the stage down, you can truly feel the speed that there is in the game.

Fighting the bosses themselves certainly bring up a new feel. Not only there are new ones, but the developers decide to throw in a new idea also. As oppose to fighting the boss in a certain non-moving location, in this game, they decide to make them all moving. So now you are on a runway trying to catch up to the boss and attack it. And this is what you do for all the bosses except the final boss. Many of them are pretty short and simple, although the running part of it makes the boss harder to fight against.

Besides the main game, the game also provides multi-player games where you can fight against another person via link cable. There are two kinds of competition: A Ring race and an Act race. In a Ring race, the one who collects the most rings under a time limit wins. In an Act race, you and another person race against each other in one of the acts in the game that you have unlocked. It certainly is a good addition, but there is nothing about it that stands out. Still, it is not bad if your friend has a Sonic Advance 2 game pak also and one of you a link cable.

With all those positive aspects of the game, I couldn't give the gameplay a 10. While the focus on speed is a great thing, it just doesn't match with one portion in the game; this would be entering the Special Stage. Out of everything in this game, collecting the Chaos Emeralds is literally a tedious task that is near impossible to do without a guide. I'll explain. To get a Chaos Emerald, you have to clear a Special Stage, and in order to enter a Special Stage in this game, you have to get the 7 "Special" Rings that are scattered throughout the level. Sounds easy right? Wrong. This is definitely the most frustrating task that you can put up with in this game simply because of how the two things don't combine: collecting and speed.

Due to how each stage design is, it is difficult to actually collect all those special rings. There are too many tall walls, long pits, and other obstacles in the stages that it is impossible to go backwards most of the time. So when you are collecting those special rings in an act, if you happen to miss one along the way, you will have to start all over and collect again. Worst of all, you have to do this for all 4 characters, and then later on, the 5th character when you unlock it. Tails, Cream, and Knuckles have better advantages but Sonic is the toughest one you can do this tedious task since he simply does not have any moves that will allow him to go backwards. Combine it with speed and you can "accidentally" zoom pass a certain section and never will be able to go back again, thus meaning you have to do the act again. Fortunately, there are 2 acts in each zone, so you have a choice to do which one to enter the special stage, but even that really doesn't matter unless you know an act better than the other. As for the special stage itself, you collect rings on a stage platform while avoiding a robot that is going to chase you down and try to steal your rings and slow you down. That sounds easy but it is only easy in the early ones. The later ones get so difficult that you literally would have to do as much combos as possible to get enough rings in the time limit alloted. You have better hope you could pass it on the first try, otherwise you would have to go back to the tedious task of collecting those special rings. Good luck to completing this, you are going to need it.

Graphics - 9/10
There isn't much to say about the graphics. They aren't bad for graphics on a GBA. The colors are vibrant and bright, making each stage stand out. I like how they show that you are entering boost mode by placing holograms behind your character. The sprites are great to see, some reused ones from Sonic Advance, but there are many ones. Overall, the graphics make the game more enjoyable.

Music/Sound - 10/10
As oppose to using some remixes like it did in the prequel, this game utilizes an entirely new soundtrack of music and this new soundtrack fits well with the game. The background music are enjoyable to listen, with a more upbeat to it than the music in its prequel. Some of the new tracks that were introduced in Sonic Advance are used here such as the stage select and character select screens music. Overall, it is just suiting to the game which makes the game stand out more.

Replay Value - 9/10
Special stages, enough said. That itself should last you a long time, especially when you have to do it with all 4 characters and then the 5th character that you unlock. Most of the unlockables in the game don't come until you get all the Chaos Emeralds for the characters so that gives you a good incentive to do them. I like how they made a 5th character unlockable after doing all of that, it is definitely worth it. Besides doing the special stages, you can also do Time Attack to test your skills at an act and see how fast you could go. By doing so, you can really get that feel of speed if you get a fast time.

Overall - 9/10
In all, Sonic Advance 2 is the game where the focus of speed is definitely explicit. Besides one difficult task to do, the game as a whole is just awesome to play and it is definitely a game which should be considered to get if you are a Sonic or a platform-game fan.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/28/08

Game Release: Sonic Advance 2 (US, 03/09/03)