Sonic Battle

"A must-buy for the holiday season!"

This game is so awesome, you'll want to import it from Japan! And here's why!

Gameplay: 10 out of 10
The gameplay is very easy to pick up, but it'll take a while for you to truly master it. Like the basics of the Advance series, A is to jump, B is to attack, stringing together attacks to create combos! Talk about simple! Then there's the R button, which allows you to special attacks, such as Sonic's Bounce Attack, and Amy's present trap move!
L allows you to recharge your life energy and your OHKO meter. Once the OHKO meter's full, use R to knock out your enemy!

Story: 7 out of 10
It's a fighting game, so it's not supposed to have story, but it has a above average story, anyway! It starts with Eggman scolding Emerl for not fighting. After a while, Eggman gives up, and dumps Emerl on Emerald Beach, outside of Emerald Town, where Sonic lives. Sonic then walks down to the beach, and finds Emerl. Emerl then links with Sonic!
Sonic, now Emerl's master, decides to take him to Tail's house. In front of Tails' house, they were intercepted by Shadow, and fought him. During battle, Emerl watched Sonic and Shadow, and learned to fight! It seems Emerl the ''Gizoid'' can learn attack techniques by watching them being done, or being on the recieving end of the attack! The real adventure starts after that!

Graphics: 10 out of 10
What can I say? The graphics rule, hands down! From Sonic's attack animations to Emerl's 100+ poses, it's all nicely animated, with no slowdown!

Sound: 8 out of 10
Awesome, awesome, awesome! The tunes are very nicely done, with 38 tunes to hear along your journey! After a LONG time, though, it'll get real annoying...

Play Time: 5/10
The whole game can be beaten in under five hours, including the time it takes to train Emerl.

Replayability: 6/10
The only real replay factor her is Emerl, a fighter you can COMPLETELY configure him, even change his color! Of course, you'll need to capture data by having him fight, and the color data, while awesome, is pretty hard to come by.

Rent or Buy:
BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT!!!! You won't regret it spending 40 bucks on this! Even if you rent it, you still won't regret it!

Overall: 8/10
It's just the little things that nag this game down to it's 8-point rating, such as the music gets old, and Emerl's battles can be VERY frustrating if you're too lazy to equip skills to him. Overall, this is an above average game, that everyone should pick up and play.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/03