A decent Sonic entry into the GBA liberary. Sonic Advance offers a light but enjoyable experience for any Sonic fan.
Sonic was famous in the 1990's for its great 2D games. Now that 3D games have taken over the market, Sega thought to make a new 2D Sonic game series for the GBA, which is the home of already great 2D games. In Sonic Advance, the plot is what you'd expect for a normal 2D Sonic game. Dr. Eggman is on the loose again and has hid the Chaos Emeralds in special stages, and wants to stop Sonic and his friends from getting them. The characters, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, have to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds before Eggman uses them to conquer the world.
Sonic Advance not only features classic-style 2D Sonic gameplay, but adds a couple twists so the game is more like the 3D Sonic games, such as Sonic Adventure. Sonic can summersault, spin-dash, grind on rails, and jump and attack robots. Tails can also jump and attack robots and spin dash like Sonic, but he can also swish his two tails to whip robots out and he can fly by spinning his tails together. Knuckles is a good choice as he can punch his way through stages as well as glide through the air. Amy, while not the best choice, features enough techniques that's interesting to see. The game has 7 zones. The first 6 zones have 2 acts, and at the end of the 2nd act, you will be treated with a boss battle, which will usually be Dr. Eggman with his machines. The last zone features multiple bosses, so be on guard. Besides beating the game with all 4 characters, you can also raise these little creatures called "Chao" in the Tiny Chao Garden. In the tiny Chao garden, you can buy fruits to feed your Chao, buy items for your Chao, or even another egg, which will hatch later. There are even 2 mini-games to play in order to collect rings to buy more stuff. In order to beat the entire game, you must collect the 7 Chaos emeralds in the zones. You will be treated with a special stage first, which makes you fall from the sky on a sky board and collect a certain number of rings in order to get the Chaos Emerald in that stage.
In addition to all this, you can trade or transfer Chao to other Sonic games like Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and Sonic Adventure DX: Directors Cut, both of which are for the Gamecube. By doing this, you connect your GBA with a GBA Link Cable to the GC. You can also transfer items and eggs back and forth to different games. All of this is pretty unique since you can take your chao for better training and raising skills on the GC games, but also raise them decently on the go as well. Sonic Advance, overall, does not do anything or revolutionize Sonic games, but still provides a mild experience for Sonic fans as well as GBA gamers.
Graphics:
The graphics are colorful like you would see in a Sonic game. The backgrounds are very detailed and the characters are well animated. Even the special effects look pretty good here. Sonic Advance pretty much shows what kind of atmosphere Sonic games really offer.
Sound:
The music trys to sound similar to the old-school Sonic music from the Genesis days, which is definitely not a bad thing. Many of the tunes are happy and catchy at the same time. This kind of music suits very well to the 2D Sonic games. Sonic Advance also features a couple tunes that will be familiar to Sonic fans that played other games in the series. The sound effects are both new and reused from other Sonic games, but they all mix up pretty well. Sonic Advance is very easy on the ears with its good music and sound effects.
Conclusion:
While Sonic Advance cannot outmatch the classics such as the Sonic games on the Genesis, it still provides a light enjoyable experience for both new and old fans of the blue hedgehog. Any GBA gamer would also not feel bad if they try this out. Sonic Advance reflects on the old-school games rather well in addition to having cool features such as raising Chao and transferring them to other games.
Pros:
-Reflects nice to the old 2D Sonic games for the Genesis.
-Colorful good graphics
-Peaceful, yet catchy Sonic-style music.
-Raising Chao is one enjoyable experience
Cons:
-The game itself cannot outmatch the classics
-The special stages can be a pain to complete