Sonic returns for a second outing on the Game Boy Advance. Once again, Sonic is called upon to save the world from the evil Dr. Eggman. On this occasion, Sonic is joined by friends Tails, Knuckles and Cream the Rabbit, the latest addition to the Sonic team. Each comes with a set of unique moves, allowing you to reach certain areas through-out the levels. However, unlike Sonic Advance, you must complete the game as Sonic to unlock the other characters. Chaos Emeralds and Special Rings litter the stages. To collect the emeralds (transforming Sonic into Super Sonic for the final battle with Dr. Eggman), you must find the special rings hidden in each stage to unlock the bonus stage. Complete the bonus stage and the emerald is yours. You'll also get the chance to collect and raise chaos, and trade them over to Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on GameCube, through the use of the GBA/GC link cable.
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The game didn’t delete all of my progress after a game over so maybe I’ll come back and finish it soon, even if it gets a bit same-y its fun enough.
That's not a thing though, sure bosses in sonic games are easy as hell and you can just juggle yourself on them until they die in 5 seconds. That's fun though being able to cheese boss fights is fun. This game tries to make them last longer and harder by putting you in auto run sections where you catch up and hit the boss. This doesn't always work a lot of them can be beaten immediately still and I actually like almost all of them except that stupid one in the sky level with the insta kill hand. It's harder than the final boss of the game. In fact the only reason XX is the hardest level in the game is because it makes you fight that one again.
Anyways outside of that I actually liked this game, though I would have put it down after 2 playthroughs if the game didn't give me the funniest completion reward in any game ever.
I never wanted to 100% any of the advance games because the special stage requirements and the stages themselves are the worst in the series, but I did so for this one because I wanted to play as Amy Rose, literally the only reason. Sadly she isn't as different as advance 1 but she is still fun mostly because this game overall is better than 1.
Honestly I think I like this game more than I should, but I also hate it more than I should at the same time because of the bosses.
Overall a great sonic game though.
It's not awful; the visuals are even better now, my favorite addition being the "act start" animations for the characters, it controls a lot better and there are new movement options when jumping off springs or rails. Speeding around here feels good! ... Until you fall down a bottomless pit.
Also, uh. Possibly the worst emerald hunt in the series so far? The SP Rings SUCK.
Look, I don't mind a larger emphasis on exploration. Sonic CD is still my favorite 2D game in the series, but the difference between that game and Advance 2 is that CD was built with that exploration in mind. Not only that, but CD only had you finding 2 thingamabobs in each past version of the acts. Here, you have to find 7 of these fucking special rings before you can enter a special stage. Got 6? Tough shit, you're not going in. SP Rings don't carry between acts either, even though you can only nab one emerald per zone. Oh, and emeralds aren't shared between characters. Just dickheaded decisions all around.
Pretty disappointed ngl. Here's hoping Advance 3 wraps the trilogy up nicely.