Sonic Battle

"The series' epiphany."

Let's go into a very brief history of the Sonic games, shall we? First, there was Sonic the Hedgehog, a promising game that defined a console and overthrew the corporate mascot of the time. It had two direct sequels, Sonic the Hedgehog CD and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which introduced new trademark characters and went off in slightly different directions. Both were remarkable games, but there really wasn't anything "sequel-y" out of these games except using the same character. But the Mega Drive was not done yet. Following in the footsteps of Sonic 2, its full potential was realized in Sonic the Hedgehog 3...or at least, it would have been if Sega hadn't chickened out and split that game in two. The other half of this game is Sonic & Knuckles. Both of these games by themselves are of decent length, but put the two together with that brand new lock-on technology, and - my god! Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles! The ultimate 2D Sonic experience! For most fans, the Mega Drive titles were and still remain the series' pinnacle.

Skip a few years ahead. The Sega Saturn, despite making decent marks in Japan, didn't last due to lack of interest overseas. The killer ap, Sonic Xtreme, was canceled due to internal politics. Cue to the release of the Sega Dreamcast and Sonic's reign in the 3D market, Sonic Adventure. Now, a lot of people have problems with this game, but for all intents and purposes it remains the closest Sonic has gotten to "getting it" in 3D. It even follows the plot of Sonic 3 & Knuckles closely. Of course, its sequel, Sonic Adventure 2, went of in a different direction, but who can resist those Chao? It also introduced Shadow the Hedgehog, which seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now, (very quickly 'cuz I gotta get to the review) Sega is third party. Since entering the third party market, it remade Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for GameCube. Alright, that's what I'm talking about! It looked like Sega wasn't in deep trouble. I mean, all of Big the Cat's cameos were removed, but we can forgive that since the multiplayer was expanded. Besides, who can resist those Chao? Er, anyway, Sonic Advance and Sonic Advance 2 were soon released, which could connect to SA2B. Did I mention the Chao? But besides that, the former was a decent but flawed emulation of Sonic's 2D past, while the latter outdid itself with "HOLD RIGHT AND RUN, ALSO HERE'S A FEW INSTANT DEATHS AND A DAINTY BUNNY WITH A CHAO." But I can forgive that, the Advance games were pretty much experiments by Dimps and nothing serious. There was also Sonic Adventure DX (I refuse to call it "Director's Cut"), which awkwardly ported the original Sonic Adventure to the Nintendo GameCube as well.

Which brings us to Sonic Battle. Ah, yes, Sonic Battle. Now, our pal Sonic's had a lot of spinoffs over the years (I've only touched on the main series), but these days, seeing as how Sonic has stuck to some semblance of a (jumbled mess of a) narrative, it's hard to tell exactly what the spinoffs are anymore. Is Sonic Battle a spinoff? In my opinion, yes. However, I still think this game was the turning point of the series. This was the game that showed which direction the series was turning towards. Forget Sonic Heroes for the moment - this was out in Japan just a little bit before Heroes hit the market. So, let's dig right in, shall we?

The game's premise is simple. It's a fighting game with Sonic characters! They've done that before with Arcade's Sonic the Fighters, how could they mess it up on Game Boy Advance? Well, let's see, shall we? The game begins with Eggman and some new robot character that irrevocably becomes tied up with Shadow the Hedgehog's backstory (more on that later). You'll notice that the cutscenes are uninspired and consist of still closeup images talking over a black background or one of six overworlds of the game. So Eggman ditches the robot and Sonic finds him on the beach for some reason, and Sonic ultimately decides to care for the robot and names it Emerl. Other characters discover about this. Cue zany antics involving interaction with Emerl.

The first thing that catches your eye is that you spend half the time with Emerl, the new character, rather than any of the Sonic characters you came here to play as. Emerl is slow, clunky, weak and stupid. But don't let that put you off - for battling the other characters (more on that later as well), Emerl learns abilities that he could allocate as his moves. Over time, he becomes a powerful character. Why, he could have the Chao of Cream (seriously?), the speed of Shadow (...) and the recovery of Gamma (sigh - MORE ON THAT LATER). He also gains experience points after every battle so you can use more higher ranked abilities. After you customize your Emerl, you can save and make two other movesets. And that's not counting the ultimate sets, the colors or other such rare data. Impressive, eh?

Don't let that fool you, it gets downhill from here.

First is the combat. While it seems that you get a variety of moves and such, there's two special moves you can choose at the beginning of each round with the R button. There's three types of special moves you can choose from for each character and two variations of that move. The types are speed, power and trap (which is usually some kind of bomb), while the variations are on ground and in midair. You can choose ground and midair, but you can't pick the same exact type of move. As you've probably guessed, the special moves are effective. CPU opponents will walk right into you as you perform a special move. Oh sure, they'll gain an immunity based on whether you've used your midair or ground move, but just alternate special moves and you've won.

Ah yes, the rounds. There are multiple rounds for this kind of thing. Not content with getting beat once, this game works in five or ten rounds each. Often you'll win a five round match only for him to get up and have a subsequent ten-round rematch. It's as repetitive as it sounds. Sometimes, you'll fight against a character and immediately have his buddies join and you'll fight multiple. It's not only repetitive, it's also frustrating. This one of the factors that kills the game - it's simply not that fun to beat up other characters in such a limited fashion. Oh sure, there's multiplayer, but good luck finding three buddies with the same game and a link cable.

I've mentioned recovery earlier. The L shoulder button allows you to sit still and recover your meters. It also allows you to turn the camera and... Wait, there's more than one meter? Why, yes. There is a health meter and a second meter (it's some Japanese name they forgot to translate - Ichikoro, I think?). The oriental meter fills up over time, I guess, and when it fills up your character flashes. What does this mean? It means their special attack will kill the assaulted character in one hit...provided their immune system isn't acting up, that is (seriously, every other time, you'll forget and stumble on their auto-barrier - oh, and if it fails, they get the one-hit kill status!).

Did I mention that the soundtrack is putrid? 80% of it is cheesy fake guitar-like bleeps. It's horrible. Every other Game Boy Advance game I've played has better music. The only halfway decent tracks are Holy Summit and Emerl's theme, which were remixed in the Sonic Advance 3 OST anyway so you're not missing much. There are even voice clips, but those are incredibly grainy. Seriously, Nintendo can do voice clips well on the GBA, why can't Sega? Sonic sounds like an eighty year old man sometimes, Knuckles sounds overly constipated, and Tails is...off. Even for his voice actor's standards.

But hey, we've talked enough about the gameplay, haven't we? Why don't we focus on the plot? After all, most players are willing to forgive the gameplay if the storyline is compelling and keeps you playing. Let's see, Sonic's friends all live in or around the borough of Emerald Town, were the beaches are sunny. Central City (AKA Station Square's replacement) is right next door, and Knuckles lives just north of here on a mountain. Hooh boy, my continuity alarm shook me up, there.

First of all, why in the ever mother of ever did Knuckles decide to abandon Angel Island? His duty is to guard the Master Emerald. Er, yeah... Remember that, Sega? I guess they don't care anymore, but Knuckles is only involved if there's a threat to the Emeralds / the planet. What's he doing just north of a suburb and west of the city? Is Angel Island hovering low this time of year? I don't get it, that makes no sense. And when did Sonic ever live anywhere permanently? Didn't Tails reside in the Mystic Ruins? This isn't even the biggest problem with the story...

So soon in Sonic's story, we come across Shadow the Hedgehog, who's still alive because...erm...it's a plug for the then-upcoming Sonic Heroes. Shadow wants to reawaken Emerl. Or rid him of his evil programming. Or destroy him. It's not exactly clear. He renounces his entire big moment in his previous game as "just for Maria" (this was before Shadow the Hedgehog [the game] screwed it up further). Um, yeah. Way to go. Thanks for saving the earth. You really learned something. Jerk.

Okay, I can forgive bringing Shadow back in Battle, we didn't see the tough times that were ahead. But why Gamma as well? Gamma served his purpose. He was definitively dead. Oh, wait, okay, FINE, that's CHAOS Gamma, but it's still a robot using Gamma's leftover parts. Last I checked, he went kaboom. There wasn't much left to salvage. And wait, Cream the Rabbit's a pacifist against fighting? Um, yeah. That's why you fought alongside Sonic in Sonic Advance 2, helped Amy in Sonic Heroes, and trained your Chao to be a sickeningly cute harbinger of death and destruction, right?

Okay, okay, I'm getting caught up in character inconsistencies, but wait. I want to go over some more things. There are cheap Emerl replicas made by Eggman called E-121 Phi (but Omega is E-123, and that game... OH, I give up). They emulate certain characters. They don't mix and match like Emerl, so it's pretty much an excuse to fight Tails or Amy (with metallic skin) again. As if that weren't enough, there are also cheap Chaos Gamma clones called Battle Robos (ooh, original) that Eggman sold to GUN or something, I don't know. Factor that in with the repetitive gameplay, and... oh boy.

For that matter, when did Sonic's world become ruled with violently punching and kicking people? "Hey, Emerl, meet my friend Tails, now go kick his butt." - "Roar, I am the mighty Knuckles, I'm single-minded and will only listen to those who best me!" - "Hey, sugar, I'm Rouge. I'm stealing you. But before that, wanna see who's the best?" Is that how they shake hands in Sonic's world? No wonder the spiky blue wonder ran away from his problems. Everyone's a warmonger. And for some reason, in this game everyone is their archtype times ten. Really. Amy's a bigger air-headed ditz than ever, Tails is turbo genius extraordinaire, Knuckles is much stupider than usual (he's NAIVE, Sega!), and Sonic can't spell Kentucky.

I'm not going to spoil the end of the game for you, but the last episode contains the spontaneous return of two things in the series. They should be very familiar to you. They've changed a little, but they still do their thing, I guess, and they've been waiting all these years to turn up again. And what to our heroes do? They...don't recognize them. Oh, come ON, Sega! I know you've messed with their attention spans in this game, but wouldn't it have been awesome to have a real reference to a previous game? One that wasn't, y'know, superficial?

I've played through in the hopes that the dialog gets better. And honestly, there are one or two genuinely amusing spots. But those are far and few between, and really, as a whole it doesn't really get better. But then again, what can I say? The whole game is filled with lack of polish - the translation's the same as the in-house job option it was in the Japanese release. This is a game where the Chaos Emeralds are all one color, so it's only fitting. I guess they tried for replay value with the "replay the episodes and discover Prof. Gerald's journal," but it's not a good enough reward. And it blatantly contradicts Sonic Adventure 2's plot as well... And for that matter, Shadow the Hedgehog, as well! That's quite a feat.

With all these things going against it, I can't really give it anything higher than a 3/10. There are a few moments in the script, but you're better off reading a game script online. The game is just not worth it. This game marked the direction the series was going. No, it wasn't the Adventure series, that was Sonic's first foray into the realm of 3D and of course changes were to be had. It wasn't Shadow the Hedgehog, that's a little late to the blame game, and it sure as heck wasn't Sonic 06 (although that was probably the lowest the series has sunk to, that and Sonic Genesis). No, it was Sonic Battle. If Sega's third party stance didn't spell trouble ahead, this game cemented it.

Ah yes, before I close the review, I've mentioned Sonic Advance 3. Well, that game is, believe it or not, follows up on this game. However, unlike Sonic Advance 2, it's actually, surprisingly, pretty good. I'm stunned. It's actually a good, solid Sonic game. I don't really have anything negative to say about it except that the Special Stages are hard to get into, but I'm not reviewing that game. All I can say is, despite seemingly being retconned out of the series by later games, it's easily the best handheld Sonic and possibly one of the only exceptions of this decade. If you had to pick up any portable Sonic game, get that instead. It has my recommendation.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/09

Game Release: Sonic Battle (US, 01/05/04)