Sonic advance 3 is a game that I had written off multiple times for good reasons. The game front loads you with two of it's biggest flaws. The terrible hubworlds and maybe the worst opening level in any sonic game. I would die to a stupid hazard in route 99 and drop the game promising to come back someday. Well that day has finally come and I'm happy to report that advance 3 does get better.
The first real positive for sonic advance 3 is that this without a doubt the sonic game that has the best understanding of how to use multiple different characters at the same time. How it works is that each of the five playable characters (sonic, tails, knuckles, amy, cream) all control as they did in advance 1 and 2. But you also choose a second of the 5 playable characters to act as a partner and blending together the two movesets into something new. Some of my favorites include,
Sonic and cream giving you a horizontal air dash and the ability to breathe underwater.
Knuckles and tails gives knuckles a small double jump at the start of a glide.
Sonic and Amy make amy control like her advance 2 self (aka just sonic).
Knuckles and amy allow knuckles to spindash on walls
Cream and Knuckles has cheese rotate around cream as a shield.
Now on top of the style system, Advance 3's level design and gimmicks improve a lot over route 99 (the first level) as the game goes on. Now while none of it quite reach the heights of sonic 2 and 3 at their best (this is Dimps we're talking about) they all do manage to give a really good balance between levels more focused on speed vs more platforming heavy levels. And surprisingly zone's being 3 acts each isn't a problem. On top of that unlocking new characters as you go along and trying out new combo's in older levels gives advance 3 on paper the most replay value of any 2d sonic game.
Finally advance 3 I think has my favorite sonic soundtrack of any dimps sonic game. Highlights include, sunset hill act 2, ocean base act 1, twinkle snow act 1, chaos angel act 3, nonaggression, and the ending theme but the whole soundtrack is fantastic.
However while I do have really positive things to say the game still is only a 7 for a reason. The hub worlds are without a doubt the worst part of this game, and while plenty of the 3d sonic games have hubworlds you can usually access individual levels quickly from a menu, having to slog through these clunky 2d hubs to get to a level you want or having to go back to the start of a hub any time you want to switch characters is such a pain in the ass especially when you can't even hit select to switch which character is the leader and which is the partner.
And of course you have the other standard advance game problems like how a lot of the bosses are cheap, the level design is never a tight as the genesis games, (Advance 3 has maybe the worst possible first impression of any sonic game I've played) and the special stages are a pain in the ass (though probably least bad of the trilogy)
But I think part of what draws me to sonic advance 3 his how much of this the series left behind going forward. This was the last 2d sonic game to try and go for momentum based controls until sonic mania. The last 2d sonic game where you could play as tails or knuckles (as player 1) until sonic mania. The last 2d sonic game where you could play as amy. The last sonic game where you could play as cream, the only mainline sonic game to feature gemerl, the last sonic game to have the original english voice cast from sonic adventure. And most tragically to me, the last sonic game to feature 2d sprite based adventure artwork.
Now, while I wouldn't say sonic advance 3 was the last game of the adventure era, I would argue it was the last good game of the era, and I'm glad I can now appreciate it for what it is, flaws and all
The first real positive for sonic advance 3 is that this without a doubt the sonic game that has the best understanding of how to use multiple different characters at the same time. How it works is that each of the five playable characters (sonic, tails, knuckles, amy, cream) all control as they did in advance 1 and 2. But you also choose a second of the 5 playable characters to act as a partner and blending together the two movesets into something new. Some of my favorites include,
Sonic and cream giving you a horizontal air dash and the ability to breathe underwater.
Knuckles and tails gives knuckles a small double jump at the start of a glide.
Sonic and Amy make amy control like her advance 2 self (aka just sonic).
Knuckles and amy allow knuckles to spindash on walls
Cream and Knuckles has cheese rotate around cream as a shield.
Now on top of the style system, Advance 3's level design and gimmicks improve a lot over route 99 (the first level) as the game goes on. Now while none of it quite reach the heights of sonic 2 and 3 at their best (this is Dimps we're talking about) they all do manage to give a really good balance between levels more focused on speed vs more platforming heavy levels. And surprisingly zone's being 3 acts each isn't a problem. On top of that unlocking new characters as you go along and trying out new combo's in older levels gives advance 3 on paper the most replay value of any 2d sonic game.
Finally advance 3 I think has my favorite sonic soundtrack of any dimps sonic game. Highlights include, sunset hill act 2, ocean base act 1, twinkle snow act 1, chaos angel act 3, nonaggression, and the ending theme but the whole soundtrack is fantastic.
However while I do have really positive things to say the game still is only a 7 for a reason. The hub worlds are without a doubt the worst part of this game, and while plenty of the 3d sonic games have hubworlds you can usually access individual levels quickly from a menu, having to slog through these clunky 2d hubs to get to a level you want or having to go back to the start of a hub any time you want to switch characters is such a pain in the ass especially when you can't even hit select to switch which character is the leader and which is the partner.
And of course you have the other standard advance game problems like how a lot of the bosses are cheap, the level design is never a tight as the genesis games, (Advance 3 has maybe the worst possible first impression of any sonic game I've played) and the special stages are a pain in the ass (though probably least bad of the trilogy)
But I think part of what draws me to sonic advance 3 his how much of this the series left behind going forward. This was the last 2d sonic game to try and go for momentum based controls until sonic mania. The last 2d sonic game where you could play as tails or knuckles (as player 1) until sonic mania. The last 2d sonic game where you could play as amy. The last sonic game where you could play as cream, the only mainline sonic game to feature gemerl, the last sonic game to have the original english voice cast from sonic adventure. And most tragically to me, the last sonic game to feature 2d sprite based adventure artwork.
Now, while I wouldn't say sonic advance 3 was the last game of the adventure era, I would argue it was the last good game of the era, and I'm glad I can now appreciate it for what it is, flaws and all