Sonic Advance - The Forgotten Series?

[Dizcrybe]

I've only played Advance 3. It was crap.

[RedSneakers]

Sonic Advance is what got me started on Sonic! I enjoyed them

[MedriFogmatio]

I'm glad to hear there's still some positive reception from the games! 


(also some personal pride in starting up a booming conversation for the first time.)

[krazystitch]

Sonic Advance 1 was a good game for what it was supposed to be, which was a 2D Sonic game you could carry around with you, so that's cool. It wasn't the best out of the series or anything, but I can forgive it since it was the first and was just sticking out the basics of what this could become. Nothing on it was spectacular by any means, but it wasn't really too bad either. Overall, a solid game that's good to play if you're out somewhere or just need to play some Sonic.

 

Sonic Advance 2 improved on the aspects of the first one, I'd say. Level design was better and more fun, very focused around going fast and speed. Animations were also changed here, if I remember correctly, stuff like when Sonic is running as max speed and all that. To me, the second one just brought me more fun and I really just remember more from that one than I do from the first one, I guess it's because I played it more and there must be a reason to went back to that one more than the first.

 

Sonic Advance 3 is a very good game in itself. The teamwork mechanic was well done and fun to play around with. Each character having specials abilities to change the way you play was actually really cool. The bots on your teammate really weren't god awful either, I mean, they could have been worse, but thank god they included that R button that automatically brought them to you. I think the weakest point when referring to this game would be the hub world. It felt unnecessary and just oddly planned out at times. When you got into the levels though, things would be a bit better and you could experience the fun of the game again.

 

All in all, a trilogy of fun games to have on the go. They're just to just pop in to your GBA and enjoy, and that's all there is to it.

 

Oh yeah, and having Cream as a partner in SA3 was fucking broken. (Go to 0:18)

 

[Salamander]

The only place where the Advance games are forgotten is Generations 3DS!  Ba-dum-tish!

 

It's been a long time since I played any of them, but my recollection is that I found Advance quite slow and clunky.  Bear in mind that I did play it when it came out, years before the faster-paced games like Advance 2/3 and the Rushes, so I find it quite curious that people say it's the closest to the Genesis games when I found it strange despite playing S3&K and CD on my computer for years.  Don't know what's going on there.  I liked the way it split Egg Rocket and Cosmic Angel into two zones despite being two acts of the same zone; I like it when the games challenge their own structure a bit rather than just obeying a rigid formula.

 

Advance 2: So you have to get all the Chaos Emeralds with every character, and to get to the special stages you have to find seven special rings scattered all over the place in each level, and my recollection is that it's really difficult to even find all of them, let alone get each in a single run... yeah, I played Advance 2 a lot, but I literally only got to a special stage once.  Maybe it's easier than I remember, but I'm sure not going to replay it to find out.  I did like that all but one bosses were a rolling boss, though.  I regard it as an experiment and I definitely think it was interesting to see a whole bunch of rolling boss concepts.

 

Advance 3: As with the rolling bosses of 2, I really liked how they implemented the teamwork mechanic.  I thought it was great that there was a game with that option available, that tried to do it even if it'd never be done again.  Similarly, for the hub worlds I liked that they tried it, even if the result was bland.  Having Gemerl around shaking things up was fun, too.

 

And for some factors common to all three games, I liked the fact that the first boss of all of them was a hammer robot.  It was great that they had that as a running theme; little traditions are great fun.  I also think that they actually tried to have some different level gimmicks to the norm; that was welcome.  Gameplay is clearly the sticking-point for many people, but I really enjoyed the fact that they tried for variety.  There's a lot going on in these games.

[MizukiMoon]

Amazing games  It's a shame they don't get the praise they deserve.

 

Sonic Advance in my opinion, was the best in the series. Why you ask? Simply because it had the look, feel and sound of the Mega Drive Sonic games, and to me this is an immediate plus. It's also quite a fun game to play, with some gorgeous level designs. It's fairly easy as well, which is another plus for a sucky gamer like I xP 

 

Sonic Advance 2 was a great sequel. My least favourite out of the three, but still great nonetheless.The main con about this game is the lack of enemies... making it really just a keep holding right until you reach the other end, kind of game. 

 

For Sonic Advance 3, I liked the new gameplay style they used. It was new, yet easy to grasp, still keeping the gameplay easy and again, has some nice level designs. 

[redhellc]

The advance games is what got me in the series, so yeah I like them.

 

The first one must be one of the sonic games I have played more, and I still do. The same with 2 and 3.

I think The sonic franchise went really well on the advance console, they are good games that I can still play the same as the classics for me.

 

I think those games where a light in that era, the same with the rush series. 

Edited December 29, 2012 by redhellc

[Your Vest Friend]

I think they're pretty forgettable. None of them really stuck out as fantastic games, and I got the same fatigue with them as I did with the classics, so they're not games I'd replay when I want a quick time killer. 

Edited December 29, 2012 by VEDJ-F

[JezMM]

Oh, that is one thing I forgot to mention that I seriously dislike about these games - in all of them it was way WAY too hard to unlock the true final boss.

 

1's special stages had awful perspective... perception, and were stupidly hard to find, especially with any character other than Tails.

 

2's were just generally hard but at least the 3D effect was tolerable.  Unfortunately getting into them was obnoxiously difficult.

 

3's were just a cocktease in the sense that at first they were slightly easier to get into... yet also harder.  The chao weren't crazy hard to find and then special stage keys could be found all over once unlocked, and the stages themselves were quite doable.  Then you get to like... Zone 4 and it gets as stupidly hard to get into them as the first two games but now it's 9 chao and then a key and then the stage.

 

 

I never saw the true ending of any of them which sucks because Advance 2 is one of my fave Sonic games otherwise.

[Lamor]

I never had a chance to try these games out. Of course I could use emulator but ehh.. I may get these games eventually.

[Kuzu]

Anybody seen Tornado, I'm sure he'd love this topic.

[SHADIC180]

I lik advance 2 & 3 because it introduced cream & cheese, that powerful emerl, & the tag team combinations.

[StaticMania]

I like advance 2 & 3 because it introduced cream & cheese, that powerful emerl, & the tag team combinations.

 

Emerl was introduced in battle not advance 3, also since you didn't specify what exactly was introduced in those combinations that technically would mean Knuckles' Chaotix introduced it first.

[JezMM]

Emerl was introduced in battle not advance 3, also since you didn't specify what exactly was introduced in those combinations that technically would mean Knuckles' Chaotix introduced it first.

 

He did say "that powerful emerl".  I assume he just didn't know Gemerl's name.

[Spin Attaxx]

BTW, does Gemerl seem like the poor man's Metal Sonic to anyone? You could replace him with Metal and (aside from the last cutscene) nothing would change. What was Gemerl doing in Eggman's boss machines anyway?

[SuperLink]

My guess is Gemerl was Eggman's attempt to replicate Gizoid technology that didn't go so well.

 

Because, well, anything that powerful would probably gain sentience and turn against its orders anyway if it wasn't made right.

I always really loved that plot so I guess that's why I preferred Gemerl to Metal, even tho yeah it wouldn't really have changed the game either way.

[JezMM]

If you take Advance 3 on it's own yes Gemerl could easily be replaced by Metal Sonic, but considering it was meant to be a follow-up to Battle's story, not so much.

 

 

Plus let's be honest, if they had turned Metal Sonic into a giant very un-Sonic-like robot for a final boss in the sky AGAIN... gaw.

[Burtzman]

Gmerl was cool. I wish there were more interesting boss fights against him alone. I'd love to see him have a cameo in a future game, since he actually wasn't destroyed.

[Potada]

I loved Advance 1 & 3, but could never really get into 2 as much for some reason. It might have been the whole "collect 7 special rings in one go" thing for each act. The only one I could even finish completely was 1. That final Special Stage on 3 was just...so much rage quit.

[Burtzman]

The final special stage in Advance 3 gets my vote for hardest special stage of all time.

[D-Metal X]

Gemerl fusing with Eggman's machines is because the Gizoid can integrate weapons (in addition to learning techniques by observation), right? Eh, if it's not true I'll keep it as my personal headcanon. XD

And I want Gemerl to come back so badly.

Edited December 30, 2012 by D-Metal X

[SilJeff]

... ok they USED to make good sonic games. Haha

i do find it odd how Dimps' AND Sonic Team's Sonic games went to shit around the exact same time...

Anyways, I really enjoy this trilogy. Since the Genesis games got ported into a collection on the DS, I would love for the Advance games (and maybe even the other GBA Sonic games like Battle) get put on a collection on the 3DS

[Tornado]

Every time someone says Advance 3 has good level design I throw up in my mouth a little.

[Solkia]

Advance 1: Pretty good, but whoever designed those Special Stages and the ways to get to them was either and asshole or an idiot.

 

Advance 2: It's okay, could've been better. Special Stages were even worse and so were the methods of getting to them.

 

Advance 3: "Lets try to make this game suck as much as possible, the first 2 were well made, we can't be doing that anymore" -DIMPS board meeting.

[Kuzu]

While I do think Adv. 3 was the weakest of the three, and by had the worse level design, I don't really think it was outright bad......or maybe the experience was so bad I just blocked it from my head.