Sonic Advance 3

"The best Sonic on advance so far"

Foreward: I bought this game with mixed feelings. I liked advance 1 but I hated advance 2. I also played through Sonic Heroes and I was not to impressed with the whole new team idea. But being I have been a longtime Sonic fan I cant help but buy it anyway despite other instincts inside my head that tell me otherwise. Well I must say I'm happy with the outcome.

Story:2/10 Story? What story? There is your basic Dr.Eggman plans to take over the world unless you stop him but thats pretty much all you get from the story. Its 2-d Sonic anyway. What do you expect? There is a new character called Gemearl which is a basic remake of emerl for though.

Graphics:7/10 The grapics are basically the same as advance two. They run very smoothly. So its nothing really new but still looks great.

Sound: 5/10 The sound may seem great to most people and it is OK. But it just doesnt compare to the old sega genesis Sonic tunes in the different levels in those games. There are some decent tunes in the game. I like the menu music that has the chao racing music from Sonic Adventure 2. Also the music from Sunset hill that has a slightly altered form of the orginial Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1 on genesis. There arnt many voices you mostly hear Eggman yell "Your going to pay for this" as he flys away after you beat a boss.

Gameplay: 10/10 This is where advance three really shines. The team feature in this game is very useful. Each character having their own special traits and abilitys mixing with another charcter can make some very cool results. The combo I found myself using the most was Knuckles and Tails. Some characters are better suited as partners while others are better suited for the lead. Sonic is a terrible partner but is a good lead character. Tails is a better partner than a lead character. You have to expieriment with different characters to find which combination is best for you. There are very few flaws with the control and the only thing they could have done to take the team control a step further would be to press L and change whoever your partner is to take the lead. That would have been nice. But beggars cant be choosers and I'm happy with how the new team ideas turned out.

Levels:8/10 The levels in advance three are all unique in their own ways and unlike in advance three after you beat an act if you get a game over you dont have to beat that act again. Thats where the new adventure feilds come in. They are not like the ones in sonic adventure 1 but they are like mini levels that you run trhough to enter each different act. This was definitly a good idea. The only complaint I have is the acts all seem like the same level to me with not to much difference between act1 and act 3. It does make the game longer though so I guess its ok.

Last thoughts: Overall I like this game. If you likeed the first two advances you will love this game. I still dont think these games can compare to the genesis games though. Oh and Sega needs to think of a new way to use Super Sonic. When it was an original idea to use him in the last part of the game on Sonic adventure 1 it was a cool idea. But if they really mean it when they say this game is meant to keep sonic to his 2-d roots than they should make Super Sonic in all of the levels just luike in genesis. Super Sonic in the last stage of the game is 3-d sonic NOT 2-d

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/04