Sonic Battle

"Yikes! Sega tried something new again."

This game is exactly what happens when Sonic Team tries to do something new without getting popular opinion.

Graphics: 8
The visuals are nice. The 3D environment show the GBA's power. The sprites are similar to Sonic Advance 2, but there's been enough new moves to make them fresh.

Sound: 7
Decent. The sound is good, and won't hurt your ears, but it can get repetitive after hearing the same battle theme over and over.

Multi player Value: 10
This game is perfect for grabbing some friend and beating each other senseless. Imagine SSBM for Sonic on the GBA. That's how good it is.

Single Player Value: 4
I know this may seem strange, but hang on. After playing some Training and Challenge mode, you will be utterly addicted to the gameplay. The combat is easy to pick up. Each character throws his own twist into what is essentially a single fighting style. This means that is you understand one character, it won't be long to get the others.
So what makes this bad? Here it is. The Story Mode puts together everything that shouldn't be in a good Sonic game. The storyline is a bit odd, considering this time it's Sonic and Co. gathering Chaos Emerald to feed a doomsday weapon. The entire game pretty much revolves around training Emerl, the robot. This is done by going into combat. But here lies the problem. To get stronger, he needs to fight dozens of battles before his power is raised significantly. You can't simply rush through the game, going from one event to the next. You'll need to stop, and train about ten times or so in the same place before continuing or else Emerl won't be strong enough.
Then there is the worst of all. The game's difficulty balancing. The first Episode may be easy, but the game quickly gets cheap and unforgiving. There will come times when you won't land a single hit. Expect to reply battles many times before winning. Though the AI can be easy at first. Sometimes repeating the same move over and over will win you the match. But later that same technique won't work as the AI will block almost anything you throw. Not to mention the final fight is virtually impossible even when Emrel is at his absolute strongest.

Conclusion: 2
What really kills the game is it's lack of audience. If you are a hardcore Sonic fan, this game will disappointed you as it has none of the genre defining qualities of a Sonic game. If you are a hardcore fighting enthusiast, you'll find the combat system far to simple with no real chance for strategy or button mashing. Most is left to timing and shear luck. And having to repeat useless training to slowly improve on skill before being able to progress in the story will make anyone unhappy.

I warn you. You will get addicted through the first one or two Episodes, but later it will be nothing more than frustration. If you want to play this game you must have a Gameshark v3 or a Codebreaker. There virtually is no other way to beat the game.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/04