Sonic Advance

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Sonic Advance
Platform
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Sonic Advance

Chaos Emeralds
.

Development began after Sega shifted its focus to third-party software development, due to the poor performance of the

J2ME devices, and is available on the Wii U via the Virtual Console
in Japan.

Sonic Advance received positive reviews for its graphics, character animations, and faithfulness to the original Genesis games, but was criticized for its short length and special stages. It was a major commercial success, selling 1.21 million copies in the United States and is among the GBA's bestselling games. The game was followed by two sequels also on the Game Boy Advance; Sonic Advance 2 (2002) and Sonic Advance 3 (2004).

Gameplay

Screenshot showing Sonic running around a loop in Angel Island zone, the game's fifth level. The HUD on the upper left-hand corner shows the timer, score, and amount of rings the player has.
Sonic running through a loop.

Sonic Advance is a

cheat code, players can control Sonic while Tails runs alongside him, similar to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992).[3]

The game takes place over six

boss fight with Eggman; after hitting him eight times, Eggman will flee and drop a capsule of captured animals. Each character starts the game with a number of lives, which are lost when they are hit with no rings in their possession, crushed, drown, fall in a bottomless pit, or exceed an act's 10-minute limit. The game ends when the player runs out of lives, although they can retry the current act from the beginning if they have any continues.[1]

Special springs can be found near the top of certain acts.

Chao.[4] Players can transfer their Chao between the Tiny Chao Garden and the Chao Garden from the GameCube versions of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2.[2] The game also features a competitive multiplayer mode, where up to four owners of the game can race to the end of a level or search for Chao.[4]

Development and release

An indigo-colored Game Boy Advance (GBA), the handheld device Sonic Advance was developed for.
Sonic Advance was developed for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld console

In January 2001,

Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance (GBA) being primary focuses.[6] A team of developers was formed to begin development on Sonic the Hedgehog Advance (later renamed Sonic Advance), a Sonic game for the GBA to commemorate the series' 10th anniversary.[7][8] Dimps, a studio formed by several former Neo Geo Pocket Color developers and funded by Sega, Sony, and Bandai, developed the game with assistance from Sonic Team.[9] Sonic Team conceived the game, but was understaffed on employees familiar with the GBA hardware and so recruited Dimps.[10] Several Dimps members worked on the critically acclaimed Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (1999) for the Neo Geo Pocket Color.[9]

The developers decided to return to a gameplay style similar to the original Genesis Sonic games, which Naka felt was refreshing. Despite this, they also incorporated concepts from

GameCube's GBA link cable, making Sonic Advance one of the first games to use the cable.[13] It also features graphical techniques such as rotation effects and Mode 7.[4]

Sega announced Sonic Advance and two other GBA games on January 30, 2001.

J2ME mobile port version of Sonic Advance was developed and released worldwide by Gameloft in 2011, which contains only four Zones: Neo Green Hill Zone, Secret Base Zone, Angel Island Zone and Casino Paradise.[27]

Reception

Sonic Advance received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregation website Metacritic.[28] The game sold 1.21 million copies in the United States, making it one of the bestselling games for the GBA.[33] It earned $36 million by August 2006. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 12th highest-selling game launched for the GBA, Nintendo DS or PlayStation Portable in the United States.[34]

The game's presentation was well received.

AllGame said the game relied too much on nostalgia, but felt it was still a "winning formula" and called the game enjoyable.[12] The game's use of the GameCube link cable was praised; IGN noted the replay value and variety it offered,[2] and GameSpot called it interesting, and felt it made good use of the GBA's connectivity to the GameCube.[1]

Certain elements received more mixed responses.[1][12] GameSpot felt that Sonic Advance lacked polish, and criticized the difficult special stages.[1] IGN's only criticism was the presence of problems from earlier games, such as "an inviting stretch of roadway that begs to have your character blaze across it at top speed, only to have a spike strip jab you in the feet somewhere in the middle".[2] Nintendo World Report thought the game was too short and criticized the exclusion of the Super Sonic replay mode from earlier games.[4] Reviews for the N-Gage version were mixed; GameSpot criticized its choppy frame rate and encouraged readers to buy the superior GBA version instead.[35] IGN agreed and felt the N-Gage's vertical screen and omission of the multiplayer modes had a negative impact on the ported version.[36] Overall, reviewers felt Sonic Advance was a solid addition to the Sonic franchise. Nintendo World Report felt the game was not perfect, but was still a game that "deserves a spot in your GBA case".[4] IGN agreed, and stated the game successfully recaptured the spirit of classic Sonic gameplay while feeling unique and taking advantage of the GBA's capabilities.[2]

Legacy

In 2009,

USgamer named it the sixth best, stating that while it did not feel like the classic Genesis games, its graphics were "gorgeous", which helped make the game a standout for the franchise.[40]

Sonic Advance was the first Sonic game released for a Nintendo console.[15] GamesRadar considered this significant, as Nintendo and Sega were fierce rivals throughout the 1990s; Sonic Advance helped end this rivalry by "reducing Sonic's die-hard brand loyalty to a distant memory from the halcyon-toned 1990s".[39] The two companies worked closely in the following years, collaborating for the first time in 2003 with F-Zero GX. In 2007, both Sonic and Nintendo's mascot Mario featured in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.[41] Nintendo Power wrote that Sonic—created as opposition to Nintendo—seemed at home on Nintendo consoles;[42] GamesRadar said Sega and Nintendo were now "like old friends".[39]

Sonic Advance was also the first Sonic game developed by Dimps. Sega continued to contract the company in following years to create many games in the series. The first of these were two sequels to Sonic Advance—

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (2010) and the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions of Sonic Unleashed (2008) with Sonic Team.[50][51] Several journalists have noted that Dimps' handheld games have received consistently better reviews than Sonic Team's home console games.[39][52] GamesRadar wrote this was because Dimps "managed to keep the spirit" of the original games alive in theirs.[53]

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: ソニックアドバンス, Hepburn: Sonikku Adobansu
  2. ^ The others were rereleases of ChuChu Rocket! (1999) and Puyo Puyo (1991)

References

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  3. ^
    ISBN 9780970646866
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External links

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