Sonic Advance 3

"What's old is new again"

Eggman, Eggman, Eggman. You just never give up, do you? That's right, Eggman is once again the villain in this, the third game of the Sonic Advance series. You still choose from a group of animals (once you've unlocked them) and run your fuzzy butt off, smashing robots and collecting rings to keep you alive. There are still Chaos Emeralds to be gathered. It sounds like it's the same as every 2D Sonic you've played already.

But it's not.

Sonic Advance 3 shakes things up by introducing a teamwork aspect to the game. It's not quite like in Sonic Heroes, though; you can only have two characters in a team, and you can't switch to your partner at will. Instead, you have to do it between acts. On the other hand, you can use any two of the characters you have available, rather than preset teams as in Heroes. This, of course, means many different team possibilities.

"But Mouseboy," you say, "What difference does your choice of partner make if you can't control him or her yourself? Well, inquisitive reader with questionable grammar, your leader and partner can perform team-up moves to reach places you couldn't otherwise get to. These moves vary depending on who your teammate is, and most are quite useful. The levels are set up such that using these moves will allow you to take alternate paths and collect out-of-the-way things, but it doesn't feel tacked on as a gimmick. The levels are quite large, with many places to go depending on which pair of mammals you are using. That, of course, can be a problem if you lose your way.

Speaking of losing your way, that has happened to me more times than I care to admit on the map screens. These screens begin every zone, and within them you have to find the rings to take you to each act. This is easy most of the time, because any deviations from simply walking to the next act ring from the last are usually just to seem cool rather than be challenging. However, there are times when you really have to work to get where you need to go. You're not timed, though, and there are no enemies or other ways to die, so messing up is just a minor annoyance rather than a potential game-over.

Then, of course, there are the graphics. If you've played Sonic Advance 1 or 2, or Sonic Battle, you know what to expect. The graphics are pretty much the same as in those games (no 3D levels as in Battle, though). For those unfamiliar with them, the characters are much more cartoon-like, for lack of a better term, than their Genesis counterparts, and are in the new style seen in the 3D Sonics. I rather like the graphics, but of course they're bound to get old by the fourth game, and I did indeed get slightly tired of the too-familiar look before I was through. That isn't to say there's nothing new at all since the previous games. There are several new animations for the characters, mostly having to do with the previously mentioned team-ups. They fit right in with everything else as if they were always there.

Oh, and this is the first Sonic Advance to feature voice acting. It's limited to death cries and victory cheers for the most part, as well as Eggman's angry yells as you beat the crap out of him. I've heard both the English and Japanese voice acting, and at the risk of saying the same thing as everyone else does about the Sonic games' voice acting, I greatly prefer the Japanese. On the other hand, since there isn't much speech, you should be able to tolerate the English well enough even if you normally dislike it. You'll have to, since you can't change the language of the voices; it's either live with the English or import. As for the rest of the sounds, nothing will really surprise you; there's decent music, but nothing really stands out except for the several variations of a familiar Sonic level theme within each act on one of the zones. I enjoyed this zone the most, owing greatly to the music. I can't really remember much of the rest of the music save for one or two songs, so I guess isn't very memorable. The sound effects are the familiar noises of jumping, spindashing, ring grabbing and so on; not much new there.

You'll enjoy this game if you like Sonic as much as I do, and probably will even if not. Don't expect much of a story, because while it's there, it isn't much, let alone on the level of Sonic Adventure or its sequel. This game is old-school Sonic with a twist, and if that sounds tempting, then get the game and start spindashing your way to happiness.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/04