The OTHER GBA Sonic games.

[AlphaRuby]

While I see a topic open for the Advance trilogy, I opened this topic so people can talk about the other Sonic games on the Game Boy Advance.

 

I understand that there were only a few non-Advance games made for the system, but I wanted to make a separate thread.

 

The only Sonic GBA game I've played that isn't Advance 1 is Genesis, and you'll probably all know how I feel about that.

[BakingBluePotatoe]

I have fond memories of Sonic Battle... it was so unique at the time, and being a "Sonic" it was even cooler then!
I still love it to this day... I'd probably replay it more often if I wasn't so distracted with other games and projects.

 

Also, while I loved the CONCEPT of Sonic Pinball Party, I really didn't like how it was executed, especially the story... oh, and FORGET about raising a chao there, it's a royal PAIN to get fruit just to FEED your chao! >.<

[Blue Blood]

I still want a sequel to Battle- the series could do with more adventurous spin-off titles than just Riders (which has always been mediocre at best). Battle was repetitive, shallow, unbalanced, potentially broken and constantly good fun. I guess it must have performed badly in sales?

[Indigo Rush]

The other Sonic games on the GBA? That really only leaves us with Sonic Battle, Sonic Pinball Party and Sonic Genesis, unless you also want to count the SEGA Smash Pack (Sonic Spinball), which really wasn't all that special.

 

Sonic Battle was a pretty good fighter, but had some very tedious moments, especially at the beginning. I only started having serious fun with it after I completed every story mode and was able to customize Emerl more fully. Sonic Pinball Party was alright, but they missed a very serious opportunity by not making Sonic the pinball. Even Mario Pinball features Mario as the pinball, how could Sonic of all characters not give that another shot?

 

And the less said about Sonic Genesis, the better.

[Mr Useful]

None were really good. We had Genesis which is universally hated. 

We have Pinball Party which is just Sonic Themed Pinball. There was also the few episodes of Sonic X that got a GBA release.

 

We had battle which in all is a pretty shitty fighter(Knuckles vs 3 power boosted 102-Gammas as a main story mission). The story constantly shits on you by power up the enemies or by having multiple enemies gang up on you. The story is also very repetitive, KO this guy 5 times, now KO this guy 10 times or now KO a power boosted version of this guy. The game just doesn't work on a Game Boy Advance because of lack of buttons, primitive 3d(or lack of interesting things done with the 3D). Maybe if it were released on DS it might have been better.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Dom

[Jolt_TH]

I quite liked battle to be honest, it's the only other GBA sonic I have after advanced 1 and 3 (my brother had 2), infact I have a spare copy, boxed, if anyone wants it

The battle system was fairly fun and varied, just a bit repetitive that most of the missions were "knock Tails out 5 times" done? Good! Now "knock tails out 10 times"

And it was like that for every chapter. Not to mention the waaay OP final boss and the "charge, sp shot, 1 hit KO" tactic to beat him.

It's a real shame the mono games weren't available in single player, I hardly had anyone to play with

[iDEATH]

Isn't battle part of the advance  series anyway? Doesn't SA3 follow on its story?

 

 

What are the Sonic X episodes? I've never heard of those.

[Tornado]

As much of a regular game with a Sonic coat of paint it is, Sonic Pinball Party is easily one of the best pinball games released in the past 15 years that isn't just a collection of real pinball tables. The pinball physics (lol) are pretty spot on, and the table design is pretty good.

 

 

 

And the Samba de Amigo table was pretty interesting.

[Vertekins]

What are the Sonic X episodes? I've never heard of those.

 

Basically they were Sonic X episodes on a GBA cartridge

 

 

I believe they were US-exclusive and the video and sound quality tends to be pretty awful. Also, you can't actually use it on a GBA Player.

[Blue Blood]

Isn't battle part of the advance  series anyway? Doesn't SA3 follow on its story?

 

Chronicles is heavily influenced by Battle, but that doesn't make it part of the Advance series either. The Advance series was made by Dimps, and Battle was by Sonic Team. Not to mention the three games in that trilogy don't really have any chronology beyond "No Cream > everyone meets Cream > Cream is still there". 

[Tornado]

He's referring to the Emerl -> Gemerl thing, which to be fair never really made any sense even at the time.

[Blue Blood]

He's referring to the Emerl -> Gemerl thing, which to be fair never really made any sense even at the time.

 

I know what he was referring to, but that doesn't mean Battle is part of the Advance series. It's a spin-off.

[Indigo Rush]

Aside from the out-of-nowhere connection between Gemerl and Emerl, there's no reason to consider Sonic Battle as a part of the "proper" Advance series. In my opinion, the state of Sonic Battles place in the canon is already questionable as is. If you take out Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3, you've scarcely caused any plotholes. In fact, you've probably fixed several, especially in Shadow's campaign.

[Tara]

Sonic Battle was a broken and repetitive fighting game with terrible perspective and lackluster soundtrack, but I have fond memories of it.  I lament the fact that my GBA and copy of the game were stolen.

 

I like Sonic Pinball Party, too.  There isn't much to say about it, though.  It was a nice little pinball game.  I can't beat the story mode to save my life, though.  Last I checked, I was stuck on Metal Sonic.

 

I was also intrigued at the time by the Game Boy Video, particularly the Sonic X episodes.  I've come to see now, however, that they are nothing special and are, in fact, just a cheap gimmick for quick money, but it seemed pretty novel at the time.  I'm still curious to know what happens when you put it in a Game Boy Player.  Does it just not play?  Does it play terribly?  Like, what features does it have that allow it load on the GBA but not the GB Player?

 

As for the Battle/Advance debate, I agree with pretty much everyone that although Advance 3 continues where Battle left off, I wouldn't by any means consider Battle an extension to the Advance series.  I wouldn't consider ShTH an extension of the Heroes series just because it continues with the subplot of Shadow having amnesia.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Akito

[Autosaver]

I still want a sequel to Battle- the series could do with more adventurous spin-off titles than just Riders (which has always been mediocre at best). Battle was repetitive, shallow, unbalanced, potentially broken and constantly good fun. I guess it must have performed badly in sales?

 

SUMO

BLUEBLOOD IS CALLING YOU.

 

make a sonic fighter.

[iDEATH]

Basically they were Sonic X episodes on a GBA cartridge

 

 

I believe they were US-exclusive and the video and sound quality tends to be pretty awful. Also, you can't actually use it on a GBA Player.

 

Interesting, never seen those before. Video and Sound quality is a lot higher than I would have thought the GBA would have been capable of....

 

Aside from the out-of-nowhere connection between Gemerl and Emerl, there's no reason to consider Sonic Battle as a part of the "proper" Advance series. In my opinion, the state of Sonic Battles place in the canon is already questionable as is. If you take out Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3, you've scarcely caused any plotholes. In fact, you've probably fixed several, especially in Shadow's campaign.

 

Ah, wasn't aware of it causing plotholes if included in the series. I've only ever played SA1 and Battle for a little while, the emerl/gemerl thing was the only thing i knew

[Blue Blood]

SUMO

BLUEBLOOD IS CALLING YOU.

 

make a sonic fighter.

 

Not if it's a Smash clone or a more typical fighter, thank you very much.

[Brad]

I maintain that Sonic Battle was a good game. I thought the combat was fun and easy to get the grips with and the story was pretty damn good too. Emerl was a great new character and his customization options were always fun to take advantage of. Music was catchy, if nothing spectacular. 

[Speedy]

I guess I mainly liked Sonic Battle for it having a story. I enjoyed watching the characters talk a little more than they usually do...

 

Like most games that have you fighting other characters in a kind of arena, Battle was most fun with at least two players. Like Super Smash Bros. You can spend some time playing it on your own, completing the story and unlocking stuff, but it's only really fun in multiplayer.

 

The minigames were fun, though. There's that one that has Knuckles digging for stuff in a minesweeper setting. I swear I still wouldn't understand what to do in minesweeper if it wasn't for Knuckles.

[Sean]

Sonic Pinball Party is actually my favorite GBA Sonic game, and probably my most played one unless somehow I managed to play the first Sonic Advance even more.

[Autosaver]

Sonic Pinball Party is actually my favorite GBA Sonic game, and probably my most played one unless somehow I managed to play the first Sonic Advance even more.

I had the two-in-one GBA cart that included Pinball Party and Sonic Advance. Two great games in one.

[WarioBone]

Sonic Battle was surprisingly fun, but horribly unbalanced.

 

Pinball Party was too fucking hard/boring to push me past the first level in Story Mode, which is sad, because I wanted to see the NiGHTS interaction.

 

Haven't played anything else.