Sonic Advance

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Sonic Advance is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Dimps, and published by THQ for Game Boy Advance. It was released in Japan on December 20th, 2001, in North America on February 4th, 2002 and finally in Europe on April 12th, 2002 through Infogrames. Sonic Advance was also ported to Nokia's N-Gage system on October 7th, 2003, under the title SonicN.

Gameplay

The game has four characters, Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and, for the first time as a playable character in a classic-style 2-D Sonic game, Amy Rose. Sonic can have Tails follow him, Sonic 2-style, by entering a special code (Up-Right-Down-Right-L-Right-R-Right-A) at the character select screen. All characters have separate save-games which record their individual progress.

Each character has his or her own unique ability which is a determining factor towards the game's overall difficulty. Their special moves are all retained from Sonic Adventure. Sonic can dash in mid-air, Tails can fly and swim, Knuckles can glide and climb walls and Amy has her hammer. Amy is considered to be the toughest character to play as because of her inability to spin-dash or spin-attack. Each character's strengths and weaknesses particularly come into play when fighting bosses or trying to find access to the special stages.

The special stages are accessible from Special Springs, which are placed around certain acts. Chaos Emeralds can be collected if one passes the stage. The Chaos Emeralds are "shared" between characters.

Zones

Neo Green Hill Zone

Neo Green Hill Zone is the typical easy grassy stage common to all Sonic games. The boss of this zone - sometimes referred to by fans as "Egghammertank I" (due to the name of Sonic Advance 2's first boss being called "Egghammertank II") - consists of Robotnik driving back and forth across the screen in a vehicle wielding a large hammer, which swings around and tries to crush players. Before the player actually get to the boss, Robotnik appears in his eggpod and then runs off. The Knuckles boss music (part 1) also plays at this point, for an unknown reason.

• Character with an advantage for the Boss: Amy (If players simply jump on top of Robotnik and press Down+B, they can bounce off the boss 7 times in a row. However, Robotnik starts the "hammer catapulting" strategy too quickly for them to take the last hit off him in the same streak).
• Neo Green Hill Zone was the pre-release name for Aquatic Ruin Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Secret Base Zone

This zone is similar to Metropolis Zone from Sonic 2. In the very first part of Act 1, the game uses a floodlight effect, which was re-used in Sonic Advance 2's Ice Paradise Zone. In this zone, the boss is Robotnik on a giant spring. He is very easy to dodge and hit, and has one special attack, which is to jump above the screen for a few seconds and then land, which will hurt players unless they are in the air when he lands.

• Character with an advantage for the Boss: Tails (He can fly up and hit Robotnik several times in a row due to the way he bounces, and can also stay in the air for a while when Robotnik does his special attack). Knuckles is also useful, for essentially the same reasons as Tails.

Casino Paradise Zone

This zone is effectively a downgraded version of Sonic 2's Casino Night Zone. In this zone there are spinning dish-like objects, which are re-used in Angel Island Zone. The boss in this zone is in a special arena, where Robotnik and a spiked ball come out of one of 8 pipes around the screen and travel to the other side.

• Character with an advantage for the Boss: Knuckles (He can punch while crouching, which is an excellent strategy for beating the boss without getting hit a single time.)

Ice Mountain Zone

This zone is extremely similar to Sonic 3's Ice Cap Zone, including the water (it is the only zone in Sonic Advance with water) and the snowing effect. The boss here is fought underwater, and players must not only hit Robotnik and dodge his attacks, but also make sure they do not drown. He will drop up to 2 to 4 stalagmites onto the player (which is unrealistic, as ice actually floats on water), which he or she must avoid, and (if playing as Sonic or Knuckles) use to step on to reach Robotnik or the surface. The water will drain away once the boss has been beaten, which usually causes the player to notice the minor design flaw that the character will, if at the same position as the water level while it is draining, be treated as first above the water, and then below, and then above, etc, which essentially causes them to move downwards at the same speed of the water level, and for the "splash" sound to be constantly played. This has no effect on gameplay, and has happened in every 2D Sonic game since the original Sonic 1.

• Character with an advantage for the Boss: Tails (Using Tails, players can simply Swim to the small space of air at the top of the screen, which automatically causes Tails to fly, and use his tails to hit Eggman)

• Character with an advantage for the Boss: Knuckles (Players can simply get to the space of air at the top, and Knuckles will be able to tread the surface of the water, allowing them to stay near Eggman)

• Character with an advantage for the Boss: Amy (Using Amy, players can simply press Down+B to get to the surface for air, and A->B to jump and hit Robotnik.)

Angel Island Zone

Strangely enough, while it is named after the Sonic 3 zone, it is extraordinarily different, mainly in that it is not grassy, and is also a sky zone. While in the ending of Sonic & Knuckles, the island did end up floating again, this does not explain the lack of grass in the Sonic Advance version of the zone. Another reference to Sonic 3 & Knuckles is in the boss, which is not Knuckles himself but instead Metal Knuckles. It takes place in two parts, the first part in which Metal Knuckles has only Knuckles' attacks (spindash, gliding and punching), and afterwards in part 2, Knuckles goes from red to gray, and gains an extra attack: shooting missiles from his mouth. The music also changes at this point. After you beat Knuckles, characters go right to find Robotnik, who promptly runs off.

• Character with an advantage for the Boss: Sonic (Sonic's Insta-Shield can, if timed well, hit Metal Knuckles while he is gliding without Sonic taking any damage.)
• Character with an advantage for the Boss: Tails (Tails' propeller tails can, if timed well, hit Metal Knuckles from below while he is gliding without Tails taking any damage.)

Egg Rocket Zone/Cosmic Angel Zone

Although the second Act of this zone is renamed to "Cosmic Angel Zone", it is still the same Zone for a number of reasons: one, both acts are called Zone 6, two, it would make no sense for Cosmic Angel to be called Act 2 if there was no Act 1 in the zone, three, there is no boss in Egg Rocket, and four, they both share the same image in the act select screen. However, of all the zones, this is the most unconventional, as there is a major change in graphics and music between the two Acts, no endsign in Act 1 and no capsule in Act 2, and a strange "sectionization" of Act 1 where the rocket splits off and players are given 5 minutes to complete the section they are in. The boss is very difficult - the only boss in Sonic Advance needing a two-stage attack. Eggman is moving along a row of orbs, and is usually on the underside with spikes on top. He will fire orbs at players, which will hurt them (and it is worthy to note that in this boss, if players lose their rings it is difficult to get more than 3 back, 4 if they started with a lot of them). Players must first jump near to him, to turn his eggpod upside down so that he is on the top, and then jump onto the eggpod itself to hit. There is also a design flaw shown in this boss if players play as Knuckles and make the last hit while on the left-hand side of the screen: after beating the boss, they can climb down the left wall and watch Eggman hovering to the right of you in his "blackened face" image for as long as they like, which does not at all affect gameplay but is, however, rather humorous to some.

• Character with an advantage for the Boss: Knuckles (He can cling onto the wall after attacking, taking him out of reach of Eggman's spikes - very useful when he speeds up in the last 2 hits - and can then jump off at speed to avoid the harmful orbs.)

X-Zone

The X-Zone is home to the final boss, and down-graded versions of the first bosses of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 (i.e. they are destroyed after 4 hits). The Final Boss itself is protected at all times when it isn't attacking. Robotnik has four attacks; he can: shoot a bomb at players (at one of 2 different angles, jump to avoid); fire a laser beam at them (duck to avoid), try and grab them with a giant hand and then shake their rings away (jump to avoid), or simply try and run into them. Players' best chances to attack are when he does attacks #3 and #4 as he is unprotected for a long time, but if they want to complete the zone quickly, they can try and hit him when he does attacks #1 and #2, too. There is no real advantage to any character, however Tails can beat the Sonic 1 boss remake very quickly by flying up and attacking from below.

The Moon Zone

This zone is secret, and can only be accessed by collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds and then completing the X-Zone with Sonic. A side-note: Once players have completed the Moon Zone once, they must either access it from the act select screen or play through starting from Zones 1 to 6; if players start their game in the X-Zone, even when playing as Sonic, they will just see the normal ending instead of advancing to the Moon Zone. In the Moon Zone, Sonic will start as Super Sonic and has 50 rings. He loses one ring per second. Players can gain about 10 extra rings by dashing into the Pacman-shaped orbs that Robotnik releases from his mech, and must dash into the mech's head to attack him. He will attack by flinging his arms over his head, and by launching a sweeping laser over the ground; both of his attacks will not damage players but simply render them unable to move for a short while.

Completion of the X-Zone yields the normal ending. Completion of the Moon Zone yields an extended ending.

Reception and follow-up

The release of Sonic Advance was somewhat controversial as it was both the debut of Sonic on the Game Boy Advance and of an original Sonic game on a Nintendo system. The two video game giants have had a notorious rivalry that lasted for over a decade. It was generally well-received from Sonic fans and critics alike, although some feel that it is "too slow" for a Sonic game. The game's success lead to two sequels, Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic Advance 3 as well as spin-offs such as Sonic Battle and Sonic Pinball Party.

SonicN

SonicN is essentially Sonic Advance for the Nokia N-Gage. It was a launch title for the N-Gage and was released in North America on October 7th, 2003. Packaging is a box the same width and thickness as the popular DVD "keep case", but exactly half the height. Media for the game itself is an MMC ROM, which means that progress can be saved in the deck. English-language versions are not region coded.

The game itself is identical to the Game Boy Advance version except for the exclusion of the Tiny Chao Garden. It runs a bit slower on the N-Gage hardware, and the screen resolution has been altered, which is considered an issue by some. The N-Gage's screen is portrait, so the most notable change in gameplay is the choice between a full resolution mode with a narrow view, or a letterboxed 4:3 mode with scaled-down graphics. Many fans and veterans of the game regard this as a lesser gaming experience.

While copy protected, the protection was defeated within days of the release by a group calling itself Blizzard (no relation to the developer).

Trivia

• The background music in the Options mode is a remix from the music in Scrap Brain Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog.

• The background music in the Player Data mode is a remix of the music in Starlight Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog.

• The background music in 2P mode is a remix of the music in Emerald Hill Zone (2P mode) in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

• The first two bosses in X-Zone retain their own music themes from their previous game counterparts. The first one has the boss theme from Sonic the Hedgehog; the second one is from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

• The picture of Amy on the red drawer (on top of Sonic's picture) in Sonic Battle is the headshot of her pose in Sonic Advance.

• The background at Casino Paradise Zone is similar to the background at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

• The first zone is called "Neo Green Hill Zone", which may be a reference to Sonic 2 Beta.

• This game was released on a combo pack along with Sonic Pinball Party.

External links

• [Sonic Advance] at MobyGames
• [Sonic Advance] at the Open Directory Project
• [Sonic Advance] page at [The GHZ]
• [Gamefaqs Entry on Sonic N]
• [Sonic Advance Time Attack Records] at [The Sonic Center]

 

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From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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