Sonic Advance 2

"Because you know you hate Sky Canyon Zone."

I can't think of a good introduction for this review, so I'll say it simply: Sonic Advance 2 was nearly close to suckage. It doesn't suck, but it's pretty close to it. It's difficult to emphasize it because it's hardly at all like the original game, but somehow, SONICTEAM and Dimps teamed up once again and managed to make a Sonic game where they refuse to allow you to run fast, and doing so would penalize you immensely. More on that later; I bought Sonic Advance 2 hearing it was approximately three times faster than the original game. Faster means better, right? Wrong. I wasn't disappointed at this game at first, but as I soon found out, Sonic Advance 2 became more repetitive than the characters and level progression of the upcoming SONIC HEROES, something which Sonic fans could not think of to be humanely possible.

Basic mechanics are the same. You have a total of up to five characters to choose from; Sonic is the only one playable at first, he being the only one who can rescue other characters, and Amy will hardly be unlocked by those of the impatient. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles retain most of their trademark abilities from Sonic Advance (well, their most useful ones, at least), ranging from Spin Dash, W Kaiten Attack, Propellor Hikou (Propellor Flight), and Kakkuu Hikou (Glide Flight), and basic abilities such as Bound, Shippo Kougeki (Tail Attack), and Drill Claw. Interestingly enough, the characters no longer are able to look up or push against a wall; pressing and holding up will trigger their "waiting" animations.

For the differences, newcomer this time is young Cream, a rabbit with unnoticeably deformed ears, and her suicidal companion Cheese the Chao, and they're arguably the cheapest characters to ever enter the Sonic franchise since the maneuverability of Knuckles was introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Cream plays exactly like the other characters, except she has two special abilities: Fan Hikou, which is a horizontal-advantageous version of Tails's Propellor Hikou, and Chao Attack, which is an on-screen homing attack which eliminates enemies, items bubbles, and bosses (yes, that's right; you can use this little cheater to beat a boss in fifteen seconds flat without ever having to approach it).

Another major introduction is the Boost mode, which pushes your character's speed to maximum while collecting the ever-so-frequent rings. There are attacks for Boost mode, but chances are you're never going to use them because you won't be worrying about running into an enemy as much as running into a pit of spikes or a bottomless exit. Then the dreadful grinding has returned, and it's just as cheap as ever; they're about as frequent as those in SONIC Adventure 2, every character can grind now, and the problem is that no balancing is required, so unlike the former game, it's not really fun to grind. Finally, there are Trick actions, which are triggered by the R button after hitting a spring or a ramp. Trick actions are useful for attacking enemies (with the exception of characters Tails and Cream), gaining extra height, or repicking up your speed after you land on solid ground.

There are seven zones this time and they each have three acts, the third act consisting entirely of the boss, which I'll get to in a bit. Acts have underwent a minor metamorphosis; there is only one pointmarker per act, and their locations are not too friendly this time around. Enemies are noticeably scarce in early zones, and there are less multiple paths to take. In Sonic Advance 2, (almost) all you're going to be doing is holding down the right button and pressing any other button when necessary, so basically, it's more "mindless running" this time than usual, and I use this term with caution, because when you're not running full-stop, you'll be at an extremely slow pace searching for Special Rings, but very little exploration is involved in Sonic Advance 2. For bosses, you are running along an endless path with rings coming at you faster than Shadow could utter "Maria," and Dr. Eggman's trying to escape you at the same moment. His attacks are ridiculously easy to predict, but chances are you're still going to pull your hair in frustration (especially the Knuckles boss in Sky Canyon Zone) because just landing a hit isn't easy. Surprisingly, the final boss in XX-Zone is the easiest quacker of them all, considering you're barely moving at all and it's possible to pick up lost rings.

The Special Stages are back, and in this case, they're more of a pain to get into than to accomplish. In each act there are seven Special Rings scattered about, and... that's right, you're going to have to find them all, which sucks if you're playing as Sonic or Amy because it's practically impossible to backtrack without any aerial abilities to assist you. Once you spend countless hours searching for and memorizing Special Ring locations, collecting all seven will warp you to a Special Stage reminiscent of Sonic CD's, except without the pretty textures and obstacles. Unlike in previous ring total-based Special Stages, you'll have to obtain 300 rings in 120 seconds for each Special Stage. Well, there is one obstacle, and he sure isn't pretty: It's ZERO, and he's stupider than ever. ZERO chases you around the Special Stage and when he lands an attack you... well, you know. The ideal strategy for Special Stages is to keep running and achieve as many ring combos as possible, for they can increase their tallies by 2x, 4x, 20x, and so on and so forth, resulting in huge bonuses. Keep this in mind when you see a bundle of black ring orbs floating around, for they are worth a whopping five rings and can really add up if you have a multiplier at least by 5x.

Landing 300 or more rings in a Special Stage gets you the Chaos Emerald for that zone (and for that character; Chaos Emeralds are no longer shared within the game, so you'll have to earn them all individually). Earning Chaos Emeralds plays a slightly more important role than simply unlocking the traditional Super Sonic final battle; collecting them all with one character unlocks the Chao no Puchi Garden, which is practically the same exact boring thing from Sonic Advance with a different minigame. With two characters, you earn the sound test; three unlocks boss stages in Time Attack mode. Earning all seven Chaos Emeralds with all four default characters gets you the legendary Amy Rose, who plays exactly like Sonic minus a few abilities and does not live up to the challenge that was provided in the original game, considering she can now run and spin like everyone else. Additionally, earning all seven Chaos Emeralds with Sonic and beating XX-Zone unlocks the Super Sonic ending (thankfully, still no Super Sonic in zones), but I'm sure you all already know about how that works.

Graphics
Most of the character sprites have undergone a major overhaul; thanks to the game's increase of speed, running animations of the characters are reminiscent of SONIC Adventure, I.E. Sonic's legs no longer spin in a circular animation. Zones have noticeably less detail than usual, considering the fact that there is hardly any foreground. As for Special Stages, while they barely have much landscape, they're still attractive while looking at, and the limited 3D capabilities on the Game Boy Advance are used as an advantage here. Lastly but not leastly, small cutscene segments have been thrown in for good measure, which feature story progression, credits memories, or even a mug shot of Super Sonic himself. There is a little special animation at the end of the game after True Area 53 featuring Sonic dashing into the horizon, although it only lasts for half a second and your eyes have to be quick to scope out every lovely detail of it. It still is noticeable and pleasing to the eye nonetheless.

Gameplay
As I mentioned earlier, Sonic Advance 2 practically depends heavily on "mindless right-button pressing" rather than anything else innovative. One go with Sonic through this game is good and all. Perhaps some characters can perform abilities that others can't, but really... How often do you use Tails's Propellor Hikou in this game? Or what about Amy's Pikopiko Hammer? Or the characters' Boost mode attacks, or mid-air B button attacks, or anything for that matter? Chances are, all you're going to depend on in this game are the D-pad and A button. Perhaps the occasional B button, but really, there isn't anything advantageous about the Propellor Hikou or Kakkuu Hikou. All characters zoom through Sonic Advance 2 exactly the same way, which makes this game seem like SONIC HEROES has actual variety.

Zone Structure
Unfortunately, Sonic Advance 2 continues the legacy of retaining absolutely horrible level design in the Game Boy Advance series. Wheras Sonic Advance at least attempted to put a little depth into the zones (and succeeded at times), none of the zones in Sonic Advance 2 really stand out, with the exception of Music Plant Zone. I have yet to see the difference between any of the other six zones in the game, other than different level textures and background music. I remember once reading a review of Sonic Advance 2 in a magazine scan where the reviewer comments that the zones are basically racing strips placed over a heap of nothingness. That's exactly what Sonic Advance 2 is: There is nothing "leafy" about Leaf Forest Zone, nothing "firey" in Hot Crater Zone, or nothing "snowy" in Ice Paradise Zone. Music Plant Zone stands out very well because of the various instruments and musical notes that are scattered about the zone as obstacles and items, but it's like SONICTEAM and Dimps focused only on this zone and thought little of the other six tragedies of levels.

Sound
To go with the speediness of Sonic Advance 2, this game's soundtrack accompanies it very well. Sonic Advance retained quite a few dull and often slow tracks, while nearly every tune here is speedy and quick. During boss battles, inflicting 50% damage on Eggman's machine starts up a faster and arguably better boss theme. True Area 53's music fits the occasion much moreso than The Moon Zone from Sonic Advance, which was merely a "Here comes trouble" melody as compared to the sequel's final boss. Unsurprisingly, Sonic Advance 2 borrows quite a few themes from the original game, namely Character Select, Zone Select, Chao no Puchi Garden, and Special Stage, although most of these have been remixed and remastered depending on how far into the game you are with each character. The sound effects have been borrowed straight from Sonic Advance, and Cream makes a little childish noise (which sounds a bit like a Japanese cartoonish hiccup) when she sends Cheese to kamikaze into bad guys. Overall, nothing extraordinary about the sound effects or whatnot.

If anything, Sonic Advance 2 isn't a game which one should automatically buy without trying it out beforehand. It's less than decent and reflects just as much effort into it by SONICTEAM as the previous game (I.E. not very much at all). It is borderline better than Sonic Advance, I'll tell you that, but it won't be until Sonic Advance 3 where SONICTEAM manage to realize some (but not all) of their past mistakes and fix (or at least try to fix) the errors that plagued the first two games. Like with Nintendo and the Super Mario Advance series, it actually takes SONICTEAM three tries to make a half-decent Sonic Advance game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/05