Made me realize just how tough it is to make a great Sonic game, even with the 2D ones.

Momentum is never that satisfying and even when you’re allowed to pick up in speed, you are cut short or downright punished for it with the shit level designs. Sonic is not the title for precise platforming sections.

I got a game over and it started me back at the very beginning. Safe to say I’m not touching this again.

Check it out, it's 14-year-old me with a GameBoy Advance speaker pressed against his ear canal, mouth open while he pipes the most goopy-ass version of Scrap Brain Zone directly into his skull.

You can add Sonic Advance to the growing pile of reviews where I state, "I haven't played this since it came out." It's in good company, the Burger King Trilogy is in there. It's been so long that abandoning my previously held opinions on Sonic Advance and going in with no expectations was easy enough, though I did assume the consensus from my mutuals would be that Advance is among the best and most cherished of Sonic's handheld outings only to find it's pulled around a 3/5 average. A little surprising considering some of those mutuals think more highly of Sonic than I do, but now that I've closed the 20+ year gap... yeah, 3/5 seems about right!

Congratulations to Sonic Advance, because that practically makes it the best "traditional" handheld Sonic I've played.

Like the Game Gear games, Sonic Advance doesn't match the pace and feel of the Genesis titles, but the better hardware does allow for a much closer approximation, one that's pleasant enough in hand and which is only noticeably off to the kinds of people who are entirely too invested in this stuff. Like me. I just bought another copy of Sonic Mania, I'm up to five now, so I'd like to think I'm qualified enough to say that the way Sonic and his friend make contact with destructible objects and how they bounce off them doesn't quite pass the sniff test with me but it hardly ruins the game.

In fact, Sonic's physics feel perfectly in place with the way levels are designed, and that's really the most important thing. For the most part, stage design is pretty good. There's a nice mix of platforming and speed and plenty of routes that are made or less accessible depending on who you play as. The game does completely hit a wall and burn most of its good will by the time you get to Angel Island, though. The introduction of numerous bottomless pits, many of which the level directly funnels you into, is aggravating, and it's a problem that persists into the two single act zones that follow.

Also, not a fan of Amy. Dislike playing as her immensely. She felt bad in Adventure and she feels even worse here. These zones aren't improved by shafting you with a character that has a lower speed cap and movement abilities that purposefully feel bad. I'm sure there's some lunatic out there waiting in the wings who has dedicated a significant portion of their time to perfecting Amy's tech and will insist that it's not the game, it's the player. I don't care, I'm putting Amy in the contraption now.

Despite Sonic Advance's sloppy end game, I was pleasantly surprised with it overall, and that maybe says more about my insanely low expectations for a handheld Sonic than it does the game itself. Uh, end of review.

the beginning of this game is great! nostalgic, colorful as heck, straightforward, honestly no complaints.

HOWEVERrrrrrr after zone 5 this game falls off, and it falls off hard. it is clear to me that the devs really didn't want you to pick amy. there are several sections of the game designed to have spin dash, but amy doesn't have that. so you just kinda have to jank your way through it and hope for the best. the level design of zones 5 & 6 are abysmal, and they leave you asking "why am i even playing this?"

if you do decide to play this, and you pick amy, good luck warrior. i believe in you. o7

Neat little sonic game, but has a few things that hold it back from being up there with the classics for me.

The main issue I have with this game is that you feel quite sluggish to control, with jumps feeling very stiff and weird to get used to alongside an odd momentum gain that never felt that satisfying to me. The other issue is that the zones in this games latter half really like to throw a bunch of bottomless pits that kinda come out of nowhere to you so a lot of annoying deaths will occur (or maybe I'm just bad idk).

The game does make up for these annoyances however with a vibrant art direction and very expressive animation; the advance games have my favourite look from any 2D sonic game and I really hope the trilogy get a proper remaster one day. Each zone has a really nice setting and look to it that makes going through them enjoyable. Music is neat. Length is short enough to blast through in a comfy evening. Excited to see if they refine any of my issues in the second game.

Def play if you like 2D sonic.

Sonic and friends never looked this good in 2D until now. Advance is probably my favorite GBA game in terms of visuals, everything here looks so crisp, colorful and well animated. Sure, I'm probably biased since I used to make little sprite comics with the Advance sprites all the time when I was little, but still! Ending stills and menu sprites are also expertly crafted, this is just a beautiful looking game in general.

Plays really well too! I had tons of fun, and replaying the game for the true ending didn't feel exhausting since each character brings something different to the table. I even enjoyed playing as Amy! She can't roll into a ball but her somersault actually allowed me to get some crazy air time and complete certain zones faster than usual.

That said, god damn, every time I play a game on the GBA my ears feel like dying a little. I HATE the way every single game in this console sounds, 0 exceptions. Thank god for fan arrangements, because Sonic Advance has some really well composed tracks.

All in all, a great time. Even the special stages weren't that aggravating tbh.

Pros: The first ever Sonic game on a Nintendo console, and that right there, was a huge ass deal, and the game itself is decent enough too. It's a callback to the classic Genesis era of Sonic games, and you get the good and the bad with that. The visuals are nice, I'll start there, using the modern art style borrowed from the Adventure games, and there's also really well done 2D sprite-work too, where the characters are expressive with plenty of smooth animation. Which, speaking of, you can choose from up to four different characters to play as. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Most of their abilities from the Genesis games are back, with some new ones, like ground attacks where Sonic can slide kick, Tails can tail whip, and Knuckles can do a series of punches. And then there's Amy Rose, whom I believe this game is her first playable 2D platformer role, and she can't spin-dash, only use her hammer in a variety of ways, and it's creative, a change of pace anyway, though not the most fun with the way these levels are designed...

Cons: These levels kinda suck. They're big and sprawling, overstay their welcome, and are still filled with plenty of those oldschool traps, traps that especially get you on your first time through, or if you're just a beginner. Not great design, in my opinion. The visuals, while fine, aren't as iconic here as their Genesis forebearers, and the music not quite up to par either. Everything here does manage to demonstrate what Sonic is all about to a new audience on Nintendo consoles though, heh...

What it means to me: This game was unsurprisingly the first Sonic game I ever owned, considering I was a Nintendo only kid. I recall some stages including bullshit design that would frustrate me to no end (One particular stage required you to have the knowledge that jumping from the side of the wall would send you in the opposite direction to land on a platform otherwise inaccessible... Thanks, like I would've understood that mechanic as a child...). Honestly, what I enjoyed most out of this game was Chao Garden!! Yeah, that fun virtual pet type game from Sonic Adventure was included here too, and could even link up with Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on Gamecube! I always loved those little dudes, and how if you find the tiny rescued animals in the campaign, you could use them to modify your Chao (those animals in the campaign are just as cute in this one too, I recall the tiny elephant being adorable), and so yeah, some good stuff here, nothing great though, and the main game being full of bullshit really was a damper, which, when clumped altogether equals a middling package.

not too much to say! i like it! i think that this game has some of the best sprite art ever, like all of the main cast look great, the levels look fantastic, the music is also amazing

sonic has a weird philosophical problem in that, what is a sonic game supposed to look like? going fast is when it is at its best, but a 2d platformer needs obstacles. how you do add obstacles without the annoying seemingly random spikes or enemies that feel impossible to avoid? whats the solution? i dont know!

egg rocket zone is the most exciting level but i dont know if its the most FUN one? its conceptually great and the music is great. the boss absolutely SUCKS however, and is significantly harder than the final boss!

oh well!!!! will probably come back to this relatively soon :)