Sonic Battle

"Is Sonic a good fighter?"

Introduction
A couple years ago, if anyone ever told me that one day I would be able to play a Sonic game on a Nintendo console, I would laugh at his face. However, due to strange events this is today a truth... Those who expected that this would be a ''normal'' Sonic game would be fooled, as this is a fighting game in which you will see lots of characters from the series already known (like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and so one...) and new ones, like a girl who seems like a bat or a black version of Sonic, whose name is Shadow (I think so :-\ ). So, about the game...

Gameplay
Like I already said, this is a fighting game in which you will be able to play as Sonic and lots of his fellows... The battles placed inside an arena, in which you can hit your opponent with different moves and, once you defeat them 3 times, you win the battle. There is also a robot which you find in the story mode, and since he doesn't appear to have his own moves you will need to teach them moves, what can be done by ''equiping'' him with some cards won in the battles, being this action only possible if the robot has enough experience to equip that card, like what happened concerning weapons in some Final Fantasy games. As you progress through the game, you will face more battles, which can make you win new cards and give more experience to the character that you are controlling at the moment. There are also other modes apart from the Story mode, like a Battle Mode (where you can fight against up to 3 rivals), Training Mode (the name says it all, don't you think so?), Challenge Mode (defeat some enemies to reach the next level) and more...
As you may imagine, this is mainly for playing with other people, which will require more gameboy advance units and a Link Cable, so that you can play and also for trading cards.

Story
When Sonic was just passing by at the beach, he finds a robot there. In a little time, he finds out that many people want that robot, so he chooses to take him up to Tails so that he can fix the robot... That's how the story starts, and up from there it will evolve into a nice plot, in which you will be able to play not only with Sonic but with all those friends and foes that I already said...

Graphics/Sound
Both the graphics and the sound is quite nice. I must say that the graphics are among the best ones that I've seen on gameboy advance, since the menus are really well drawn and the characters in the story mode are also nice. Only the battles aren't so much good, as you may see some ocasional errors. The sound is good, but the theme in the battles appears to be the same all the time (as far as I remember...), which may get you somehow bored...

Play Time/Replayability
This game has an high play time and replay value, due to the number of different characters you can play with and the number of cards you can collect (it reminds me of Pokemon!), but will you really enjoy playing it for so long?

Final Recommendation
Well, the game surely is nice. So, why did I gave it such a low mark? I'll say the truth, mainly because I don't really enjoy this type of game, I just tried it because I heard a lot from it and I wanted to see if it was as good as people say... Listen, if this is your type of game you should get it!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/21/04