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That's cool! I LOVE amazon! Finally gonna use my gift card!

WOAH They Look Awesome!!

Thw emerald shirt looks pretty good tbf

Looks great, I want one of those shirts!

It might be a me-thing, but I would be way more interested in Merchandise without the "year of shadow" slogan, just a cool pic. Not only does it draw eyes from the cool pic, but also dates the merch. Like it implies I should stop wearing it by 2025.

https://sonic-city.net/2024/04/18/fearless-year-of-shadow-merchandise-now-available-on-amazons-merch-on-demand-service/ This is interesting, but expected, nonetheless. That said, it is nice to see the Year of Shadow get some merchandise like this. They are starting to put effort into this thing, it seems. What do you all think of this?

Ah yes, the Advance trilogy. One of my favorite Sonic games on the handheld (including Sonic Battle!) Advance 1 is the classic, sort of a pseudo-sequel for S3K. Giving us Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and the first time, Amy as the core cast to stop Dr. Eggman. I love that Dimps brought some nostalgia tracks (Scrap Brain, Star Light and the Invincibility themes from Sonic 1) and brought in some great music. Shown that the classic Sonic gameplay was still enjoyable. However, people criticize on Amy's gameplay, being unique by not having a Spin-Dash and using her hammer abilities (in which I enjoyed). A couple of stuff is that getting the Chaos Emeralds can be quite a hassle: you have to find the Special Stage Spring in the zones and have one chance to get the Chaos Emeralds by going down a tunnel on a hoverboard collecting rings... yeah, those Special Stages were a bit wonky. Another is that after collecting the Chaos Emeralds, you will get the true ending by beating the final boss as Super Sonic, which turn a lot of players off after using Sonic's transformation for S2 and S3K and following Adventure series' formula via the last zone. Advance 2 was the debut of Cream and Cheese (with their GOD-TIER moveset) and the beginning of the boosting formula by picking up the speed. Not only speed but also grinding becoming a standard which allow all characters to grind rails, not just exclusive for Sonic like its prequel. This was also the debut to perform Trick Actions. Also, brought in the best unique zone and music, Music Plant! However, this is the game where things becoming difficult for replayability. Yeah, Sonic and his friends gotta go fast (Sonic X!) but it can be annoying. Issues are these, first, in this game, in order to get the Chaos Emeralds, you will have to find 7 special rings so boosting will make you miss them! And it isn't just one time, say like you collect all emeralds as Sonic and it's done for the others, no... you will have to do it 5 TIMES because you will have to unlock Amy after collecting the Emeralds for all 4 characters first (Sonic, Cream, Tails and Knuckles) and do her run too! What's even worse that the new Special stages is collecting rings and to avoid... ZERO, that's right, the robot that was chasing Amy in Adventure 1 and she defeated it in her story. Fine and dandy but then the stage is very, very slippery ala Sonic CD special stages, just without water to touch that will decrease your time. Also, the boosting doesn't favor when facing the bosses as Eggman (and Knuckles at Sky Cannon) are auto-scrolling, can be difficult for some characters (but not for the god-like Cream!) Then because the game forces replayability to unlock stuff that were previously available in the prequel: Sound Test, Tiny Chao Garden and then Amy. Speaking of Amy, she now has the Spin Dash after Dimps/SEGA/Sonic Team listened to critics. This game is my least favorite of the 3 because how difficult to find the 7 special rings in each zone (at least you have 2 tries but you will have to remember where exactly those rings are located) and oh, yes... pitfalls! Advance 3 changes it up a bit. Continuing the boost formula but having a partner included ala Knuckles Chaotix with a hint of Sonic Heroes, using the Speed/Flight/Power system. Interesting enough, using the returning five characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Cream, pairing them in different teams provide the cast the most changes in their movesets and mechanics. Examples including anyone paired up with Cream, Cheese will change its design to look like another character, or paired up with Amy and everyone has their own hammer. Not just that but in turns of unique abilities such as Knuckles can charge like a spin dash when climbing, Amy has a GIANT Hammer and use balloons when pairing with a flight character, Cream has a lifesaver when going on the water and Tails can fly...differently. Speaking of Chaotix gameplay, players can grab and hold their partner in a ball form to perform throwing or gain more height advantage. Speaking of the stages, however, while having nice themes and for the first time, going outside the of the Death Egg/Space Zone as the finale, this game brought in Chaos Angel as the final zone, giving it a Sky Sanctuary Zone but worse, (with the best damn music of all!), the game has bad notions of placement with enemies, spikes and pitfalls, lots and LOTS of pitfalls for its level design! In terms of replayability, it is very much forgiving than Advance 2, when collecting the Chaos Emeralds, although this time players have to find 7 Chao first, THEN, locate the Special Key to get to the Special Stage spring in the hub worlds. This game was way more enjoyable than Advance 2 as 3's presentation and music shines brightly. A shame that Sonic Team/Dimps did not add a 6th character for a Power type to balance it out. I also forgot, the Tiny Chao Garden for the first 2 games (wish Advance 3 has it but Sonic Pinball Party does) has its charm, if you have the link cable for the Game Boy Advance and connect it to your Gamecube for Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Adventure DX for everyone who wants to raise their Chao on the go. We need an Advance collection (also include Pinball Party and Sonic Battle) as soon as possible!

Advance 1 is a classic. Literally! It is every bit as much a classic Sonic game as Sonic 3 or Mania are, and the only way it fails to provide what those games did is by being rather short, and having some bullshit design in the last two zones. There's also the special stages, unlocks and Super Sonic being really poorly-executed, but that's a staple across the entire trilogy. Why Advance 2 thinks that "do everything with everyone" is the right solution to the question if "where do we put Amy in this one" is beyond me. Advance 2...well, it's certainly something. I don't think it's necessarily unworthy of following up Advance 1, as it has a lot of good stages and the energy of the speeds you reach is truly special. The problem is that the bosses are possibly the most annoying in the series, that running style just doesn't lend itself well to the precise maneuvering the game asks of you. The other problem is that the level design is simply a lot less designed, with Sky Canyon being one of my most hated zones in the entire franchise, constantly throwing you into these do-or-die moments where if you don't react with split-second timing, your ass is falling a hundred miles into a death pit. The other stages after this have their issues, but none surpass sky canyon. Advance 3 is good. Probably not better than Advance 1, but I like it! The team/partner mechanic feels like an evolution of Chaotix's idea, and while it has a lot of bad combos...there's no reason to not just use the good ones, since there's only a couple actual gates that require a specific character (usually Knuckles) for a Chao or whatever. It's also the longest, prettiest and best-composed of the three. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I see people say 3 has the worst level design in the series. This thing is way more forgiving than Advance 2, and I don't think having some annoyingly-placed enemies and spikes changes that. Anyway, yes: absolutely put all 3 of these games (frankly, bring Battle and the 3 Rush games along with it) in a collection with widescreen, toggleable lives and maybe just add floors where there was empty space in Advance 2 and Rush 1. I would pay for it, I think a lot of people would pay for it, I'm honestly shocked as to why it hasn't happened yet.

Great trilogy. Hard to play these days unless its via an emulator. They Need a port with a bit of spit and polish along with Rush trilogy (i count ds colours in this)

I'm just gonna quote what Comic Fan 13 said about the Surge get-up on a YouTube community post:

@Cyb3rkn1ght,I'll go when i'm 21 just to sing songs there then! You can also find these songs on the official Joysound website!

now, now @ShadowForeverand @Maple Syrup. are yall even old enough to go to japan bars?

One thing. I adore them.

JAPAN, I'M COMING! Always to new horizons!

OHHHH SURGE AND KIT LOOK SO COOL!!! Wait. MIMIC?!

Low-effort bonus episode, anyone? This is our discussion of Karl and Ken's canceled Archie plans!

There's some good talent behind this like the creator of Star Trek Lower Decks, so it could be pretty cool.

Updated the doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ENT18rQXcoLnvIuqKfLuxfCcvveb5vO1yL5Cbm0oVNY/edit?usp=drivesdk After having completed Hellfire Saga last week, I present to you another completed game. Super Mario 3D Land. It was surprisingly fun, but perhaps a bit too easy for my liking. The adventure is short but sweet, and one I'd recommend to anyone who'd want to get into the series. The formula gets even better with its sequel too! But that's another story for another post. Games completed: 19 NOTE: The second save file is the most recent one.

Pretty much that. SEGA demanded them to use AoStH's design, that's it. They had to do what the licence holder told them to. They got to follow the guidelines from the Sonic Stylebook from 1994.

I'm fond of them. I respect how they experimented with the 2D Sonic formula, bringing in more playable characters, or having a game of (almost) only rolling bosses, or trying alternative character combinations. They tried to accommodate an expanded range of buttons and came up with new ideas for special stages and means of special stage access. Many of these ideas were duds (I never got to the true final boss of Advance 2 either), but I think they were worth trying and gave these games a strong identity. It was an interesting era to be a Sonic fan. Also, for me Egg Rocket's structure, where it repeatedly separates vertically before becoming a completely different zone in its second act, is really memorable. Should've been in Sonic Generations 3DS.

I respect them. It's cool how each of them has distinctive identity. Great graphics. But they nothing more than okay. 1 was classics Sonic-light 2 was an experiment prototype that we should try to do refine (boost is not the same) and 3 was ambitious, but I kinda hate most combos. I usually stick to 1-2 per character. Level design could been better. I hate all the special stages, I never got to final boss of Advance 2. Lastly some additions were additions for additions sake. How often did you use "punch" button, when spinning does the same thing without loss of speed?

I've talked so much about them over the years that at the moment I don't feel like going into an in depth analisis again, so I'll try to be short. I love the Advance games... both artistically and gameplay-wise. They have issues, plenty of them, but they also had so much identity and brought many new ideas to the table of the classic formula, that was used as their basis. If instead of being side games for an handheld console they were developed with the budget and the care of a mainline product, I'm pretty sure they would have been the peak of Sonic in general. It took decades for Super Mario Wonder to get even remotely close to having the animations of their platforming mascots to be expressive as the ones in the Advance trilogy, that even today IMO are still undefeated. Advance 2 is my favorite, but I also like Advance 1 a lot, especially as Amy due to her harder but more satisfying gameplay. I also liked the tag actions in Advance 3. I wish there was a spiritual sequel that took all the best elements of the 3 games and fused them into one...

#14/52 - Metal Slug (Arcade) PEACE FOREVER!

So I've just completed Sonic Advance 3, concluding my experience with the Sonic Advance series. I've never heard much of them before giving them a shot, just the fact that it was more 2D Sonic was enough to convince me to give them a try. I found the experience to be overall a mixed bag. On one hand, the graphics were a great aspect of the trilogy, with plenty of bright colors and fun designs for enemies and bosses that are tailored to their respective worlds. Advance 3 especially. The UI was fast and clean, nothing janky or hard to understand, and the controls felt very smooth and clean. However, on the other hand, Advance 1 and 3 go with shockingly bad level design practices like a large amount death pits, little reaction time to upcoming enemies when Sonic's at blazing speeds, lacking communication of which direction to go in any given stage, and, especially in the case of 3, difficult and often times frustrating bosses that don't communicate how to cross the finish line well enough. Advance 2 was a bit different. The other Advance games go more into the vertical platforming route instead of horizontal, in lieu of Sonic CD, but Advance 2 goes even more into the vertical department, which creates more replay value in which route to go the next time I'm playing. Advance 2 also sees the only appearance of auto-scrolling battles in the trilogy, and if you've read my blog I released about an auto-scrolling bosses, this is my preferred choice to smash Eggman's contraptions. So yeah, there's my two cents.

I thought the one that birthed PG-13 was Indiana Jones and the Heart Ripped Out Of A Guy's Chest.