Sonic Battle

"Sega's fast-paced answer to SSBM"

Sonic Battle didn't really interest me, in spite of having the word 'Sonic' in the title. Fighting games haven't really interested me since Killer Instinct, but then SSBM with its quirky gameplay and unusual battle system drew me in. Sonic Battle continues SSBM's innovations in the fighting game genre, bringing a new style of fighting to the table, complete with classic Sonic characters.

Graphics

The sprites for Sonic, Tails and Knuckles return from Sonic Advance 1 and 2, while Rouge, Shadow, and the others have been shrunk down to 32-bit sprite mode. The battle areas are 3D moving arenas with their own obstacles and designs, from Emerald Beach to the Central Labs. The only downside to these arenas is the walls block the vision of your character, so if you happen to be behind them, you could be at the mercy of your opponent.

Sound

The battle music is slightly different from the music in the last Sonic game, but still enjoyable. There's some minor voicework done, mostly just one or two words interjected among some text dialogue. Rouge sounds weird, as does Sonic, but then, Sega's not been known for their fantastic voice actors. There are various noises made by your characters and enemies when they die, get hit, and smash into walls, but besides that there's nothing worth mentioning.

Gameplay

The story thus far: Sonic is relaxing one day on the beach when he finds an old robot that 'links' with him. You learn the robot can mimic whatever moves it sees, and is powered by Chaos Emeralds, and that's pretty much all you need to know for a Sonic game.

So here's how it works: A button jumps, B button uses your normal attack, R button unleashes your special attacks, and the L button guards and heals you. That's the barest basics, by the way. Pressing the B button repeatedly pulls off a combo attack, while pressing R on the ground and in the air have different results. Forward and B lets you do a heavy attack, while back and B does an upper attack, which is each character's version of an uppercut, and each one is pulled off differently. Probably my favorite is Tails' extend-o boxing glove that pops right out of the ground.

At the start of each round of battle, you're to choose your special attacks. You can choose from Shot, Power, or Set Trap, and you choose for your Ground, Aerial and Defend special abilities respectively. Sonic's Ground Shot, for example, has him doing a spin move and sending a shock wave along the ground, while his Aerial Set Trap lets him drop a mine when you press the R button in the air. Defend gives you absolute defense against one particular ability, like mines or shots. Each character has their own special moves for each ability, so experimentation and adaptation to each style is a must.

Each character plays quite differently, too. Sonic is fast and fairly strong, using mostly spindash moves and shock waves, while Tails flies and uses extend-o boxing gloves in his attacks. Rouge hovers and uses powerful kicks, and Knuckles actually rips boulders out of nowhere and throws them at his opponents. There are a total of eight regular characters, and at least two secret characters to unlock, so there's a lot to experiment with.

Emerl, on the other hand, is the strange gold robot powered by Chaos Emeralds that everyone wants. Emerl starts out quite weak, but can learn the moves of his opponents by equipping certain data cards you earn after battles. You can customize Emerl to your heart's content, changing his jumping ability, running power, combo attacks, etc. You can mix and match his moves so that he has a little of every character in him, or make him a clone of Sonic or any other character. However, Emerl is not able to use the most powerful data cards all at once. His memory is limited, and is expanded after fights. You can train with Emerl to improve his memory and give him the ability to equip more and better cards.

The battles themselves come in two varieties: survival, and KO count. The survival battles start you and your opponent with a certain number of lives, and your job is to defeat them before they beat you. KO count battles are just how they sound: be the first to get a certain number of KOs against however many opponents you may have. While you're able to see your own lifebar and heal yourself if needed, you can't see your opponent's, making it difficult to tell how well you're doing until they're actually down for the count.

Replay Value

In addition to the main game, which is played in episodes, Sonic Battle also features a number of unlockable minigames, a battle mode so you can fight your friends, and a training area to practice with new characters, or just to master some old ones. While the main game won't take terribly long to beat, you will have to train up Emerl a bit to get him strong enough to use the more powerful data, which might take a while. The single-player, however, can't hold a candle to the badass multiplayer mayhem.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/04