Sonic Battle

[Ducktor Naldush]

Stone Fists!

I really enjoyed Sonic Battle. It's not a good game per se, and the music eats your soul and your sanity, but I really liked it. Why? Heck, I don't know, the game itself is so broken, on so many levels, that I can't explain why the heck I love this game, and why I still play it every now and then.

Edited January 27, 2011 by Fralit

[The Tenth Doctor]

Sonic Battle is one of my all time favourites. I was addicted to it for years and I could play it with my friends. we got most of the moves (97% if I remember) and we sure did have fun!

Of course Character wise, I have some things to say. Firstly, this was the game that made me loathe Cream. Her story was a nightmare for as I put it...

Emerl: Cream there's the door! uh oh! robots, I'll take care of them!

Cream: No don't hurt them!

Emerl: But Cream, they're killing me!

Cream: Violence is wrong!

Emerl: They're killing you Cream!

Cream: I don't care! Its wrong to cause pain!

Yeah, hence Cream lost my vote forever. Also remember Virtual Training? If you lose one match, Tails just derides you. Grr.

I did love Sonic Battle. I could play the game for hours and not get tired of it. Emerl was such a neat character and its sad that he died. At least they pulled it off and kept him dead( I don't care what Sonic says, Nothin ain't gonna come out that Emerald Shard!).

[Rusty Spy]

He stayed fucking dead!

Emerl was such a neat character and its sad that he died. At least they pulled it off and kept him dead( I don't care what Sonic says, Nothin ain't gonna come out that Emerald Shard!).

You people seem to act like this is a constantly recurring problem with characters.

[Rabid-Noodles]

It was good and I enjoyed the art style too.

[Hybrid]

Sonic Battle was enjoyable to play sure it had its ups and downs but what game doesn't. Back then it was a different style of gameplay for me. But I have to say what really stud out for me was the art style, I loved it. How much? Just check my deviantart. http://nextgenproject.deviantart.com/gallery/24385745?offset=0

[goku262002]

You people seem to act like this is a constantly recurring problem with characters.

Thats gemerl. hes just a upgraded phi copy with some of emerl's memories.

Edited January 28, 2011 by goku262002

[Rusty Spy]

It counts.

[leemours]

Ha love this game always wondered before it came out if the flaming head logo was a chracter .

Also does anyone here remember the whole Japanese version controversy of Rouge the Bat especially this bit of Dialouge

Rouge: Eggman! That Bastard!

Haha I remember the fourums were all like DUDE! lmao

Ha love this game always wondered before it came out if the flaming head logo was a chracter .

Also does anyone here remember the whole Japanese version controversy of Rouge the Bat especially this bit of Dialouge

Rouge: Eggman! That Bastard!

Haha I remember the fourums were all like DUDE! lmao

[Phos]

This one story I read in a review for this game about how a guy got a replacement battery cover for his game boy advance that didn't match the gameboy was more entertaining than this game. Well, more unironically entertaining. The story of Sonic and Tails giving Chaos Emeralds to a robot that they know destroyed an entire civilization while simultaneously behaving as though they require anger management was quite hilarious, though what they actually meant to be humor fell flat more reliably than gravity.

I guess its nothing if not consistent, though, as it has one of the worst fighting systems of any game I've ever played, consisting of the most monotonous move sets and strategies I've ever seen. The differences between the characters are few and far between and only serve to to make the game at large or even the character that possesses them substantially worse. Rouge, for example, enters a hover state after jumping that mostly just serves to kill your momentum and makes escaping from the gang of CPU opponents that inevitably forms even worse. All of the special moves in the game just made the game take longer to play, the only reason you would want to use them would be to exploit the comically basic super meter.

And not to offend, but I find the praise I'm seeing in this thread almost bewildering. I want to say, "Hey kid, here's a nickel, get yourself

[Tornado]

The story manages to be both horrible (the main plot, anything involving Amy) and well written (stuff involving Shadow, some of the Rouge stuff, the ending to an extent). It also seems that much of it was retconned almost immediately afterwards when ShtH came out, but I forget the specifics.

The music is absolutely nails-on-a-chalkboard bad. It constantly sounds as if the speaker in the GBA is going to explode at any moment.

The fighting engine would theoretically be pretty good as a Power Stone-style brawler, but it is so ridiculously unbalanced and poorly thought out that any attempt to play it against others always results in a rush to choose one of the several characters with easy infinites, and spamming them until everyone else is dead (Cream and Tails, Cream especially, had particularly nasty ones that Blacklightning outlined above, but they were far from the only ones). And the customization system absolutely destroys any balance the single player might have had, because you can apply all of the infinites to Emerl quite early in the game if you are lucky. The difficulty curve is completely schizophrenic, as well.

Despite all that, I've always had some kind of ridiculous attachment to this game. I can always pick it up for short bursts at least, which is far more than I can say for the cancer that is Advance 3.

I want to say, "Hey kid, here's a nickel, get yourself

As developed by Dimps. Craaaazzzy (Well, not really. Not if you know anything about them as a company, but you get my point).

And by the way, despite what it appears to be, I am not actually here on the forum. It is only your imaginations.

Edited January 28, 2011 by Tornado

[goku262002]

It counts.

Not really.

The Phi's were just cheap easy-to-produce copies of emerl. they only had 1 skillset of each character alas emerl had many skills he learned from various characters. the phis were just obedient machines where as emerl only listened to many people. do i have to go on with these differences?...

When emerl died, eggman wanted a replacement that would listen to his commands only instead of the loophole(s) emerl had. so he upgraded one of the cheap copies to gemerl and gave him machine merging capabilities and weaponry instead of fighting techniques.

Gemerl did have some of emerls memories but those could've been added after tails fixed him. Gemerl also didn't have his "full potential" mode either like how emerl did. the stone on his head was just a gem or a camera that eggman could watch through. Not really sure what that stone was on the top of his head was for...

And not to offend, but I find the praise I'm seeing in this thread almost bewildering. I want to say, "Hey kid, here's a nickel, get yourself

SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium

Developer(s) Dimps

Yeah real good suggestion there.

Edited January 28, 2011 by goku262002

[Signpost]

Sonic Battle is one of the coolest games ever except for the fact that certain characters are ridiculously broken (e.g. Tails, Cream, Amy, SHADOW, and Emerl once he's at full power). The only thing I didn't like is how much Sonic sucked as a character while others are crazy good (like Cream and Shadow).

Still, fun game. It would've been better if they made the characters more even. And even including the point system for Emerl he can be pretty freakin' cheap.

[Sean]

Yeah real good suggestion there.

That's the whole point. 2D games are Dimps's specialty.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Gemerl did have some of emerls memories but those could've been added after tails fixed him.

So in other words, Emerl is still alive after Tails downloaded his memories back, but with new abilities. This isn't exactly helping your case very much.

[Tornado]

Yeah real good suggestion there.

Yeah, you know, Dimps. The company that helped make this:

That was founded by several members who left this company:

Including people who directly worked on this:

And this:

And this:

And, most importantly, this:

So, suffice to say, regardless of whatever shortcomings they may or may not have in regards to Sonic games, they probably know how to make fighting games.

And by the way, despite what it appears to be, blah blah blah etc etc.

[Phos]

As developed by Dimps. Craaaazzzy (Well, not really. Not if you know anything about them as a company, but you get my point).

Their 8 bit recreation of Sonic 2 (Sonic Pocket Adventure) went pretty well, so it's no surprise that this game turned out alright, especially considering that it's basically an 8 bit CvS 2. Plus, I wanted a handheld game, so it was either that or Jump Super Stars.

[Chaos Rush]

...maybe Dimps should stop making Sonic platformers and work on a Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Fighting?

[goku262002]

So in other words, Emerl is still alive after Tails downloaded his memories back, but with new abilities. This isn't exactly helping your case very much.

Again, not really.

These arn't emerl's memories but memories of his friends that had experences with him. it would be like you experencing a fond memory but in another person's eyes...same memory, just not from your point of view. So gemerl can't really say hes "emerl" if he has someone else's memories of the events that happened to emerl he can only understand why he was created/upgraded to fight sonic and why his new friends chose to fix him instead of leaving him for dead.

Hes gemerl, not emerl. he lives to keep emerl's memory alive while being his own "being". Besides we don't even know gemerl has the same personality as emerl. all we know from SADV3 is that he still thinks of cream as a close friend. we don't even know he has a voice! (did the phi's ever speak?...)

*sigh* this would all be solved if we had another game with gemerl in it.

Edited January 28, 2011 by goku262002

[Dr. Crusher]

No, G-Mel is/became Emerl.

Obviously he was a generic killer robot that happened to be based off of the Gizoid when Robotnik first made him, but once Tails decided to "fix" G-Mel, the latter is suddenly running around, playing and having fun with Cream. Just like Emerl.

Somehow, the Emerl/G-Mel case isn't nearly as much of an ass pull to me as Shadow's case.

Not to go off topic, and I'm not being butthurt or raging or any of that nonsense, but what's with the Advance 3 hate?

[turbojet]

Not to go off topic, and I'm not being butthurt or raging or any of that nonsense, but what's with the Advance 3 hate?

Do not get Tornado,who oddly enough, keeps popping up in my imagination, and Sean fuckin' started. I've seen so many rants of theirs about that game in particular, I could give you a manuscript about the gist of their hatred of that game. Hell, I'm surprised Phos didn't relapse into "Physics HAX" when Sonic Advance 3 or any Dimps made Sonic game was mentioned.

[SuperStingray]

^Yeah, while it's not nearly as good as Sonic Advance 1, it's still an improvement from Sonic Advance 2... well, the level design anyway, but I guess that's not really saying much.

Anyway, Battle's gameplay WAS pretty repetitive- there's a reason fighting game stories are generally short- because there's not much variety in the gameplay to support something that long. That being said, Emerl's customizability did make for a great mechanic, the characters were very well balanced and the writing was fantastic. No one left that game without character development of some sort. Well, except Chaos. But even Gamma who was on the sidelines most of the time, sort of adds some deeper questioning to Eggman's methods when you compare his personality from when he was powered by a living creature to how he's powered here- by a soulless rock.

If there's anything I hold against the game though... if you've heard my opinions on the original Sonic 2 bonus stages, you're probably aware of my opinion on Mode 7. 2.5D fighters like those old arcade sidescrollers already annoy the hell out of me since it's difficulty to tell if you're paper-thin character is on the same plane as you're foe, so imagine my problem here where the issue is magnified by a rotatable camera. A well designed camera, maybe, but it's not exactly helping the issue.

I guess all in all, it was an above-average game whose potential was hampered by the GBA's hardware.

[Legendary Emerald]

I loved Sonic Battle when it first came out, and played the hell out of it.

... but I felt the same way about Sonic Heroes when it came out, too. My opinions of both games have dipped CONSIDERABLY.

Sonic Battle has a terrible combat system, a repetitive storymode, and multiplayer that no one ever played. One of the only thing it did get right was the music. I quite liked the style of music in the game, and was happy to see if make a return in Sonic Advance 3, where it was again one of the very few enjoyable things about the game. Battle's graphics were also quite nice, and the characters animated well. There was a nice "style" to the game all around, just not anything to back it up. All flash, no substance.

[Speederino]

I doubt anyone cares about spoilers since this game is seven years old, but I'm giving out a warning anyways. This topic will most definitely contain spoilers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSiveUs3a84

So I recently played through Sonic Battle all the way through for the first time. I had re-started it a couple of times before, but the repetition really started to grind on me each time. But a couple of weeks ago I finally forced myself to stick with it and not give up on really tough missions.

And I loved it.

Once you learn the ins-and-outs of the combat system, it actually becomes kind of addicting. It certainly isn't perfect- if you're lucky enough to obtain an ultra-rare and powerful card, you can become almost unbeatable with the right combinations. (Heloooooo, Homing Attack! Once you get that, it's almost impossible to lose) And even if you do get addicted, it isn't the sort of game you want to play for hours and hours on end. Regardless, it's very fun, surprisingly deep, and really rewarding. But what really surprised me about Battle is that it accomplished something no other Sonic game has never even come close to doing:

I ended up really caring about the story.

For me, Sonic stories pretty much range from being unbearable (Sonic 2006, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Heroes) to inoffensive (Everything else). But Battle actually feels well-written, with (mostly) great characterization and dialogue. With the exception of Amy, anyways. I know Amy is supposed to be in love with Sonic and all, but I felt she came off as being too much of a crazy psycho-stalker in this game. But I'm willing to ignore this, because another character is done so beautifully that I can forgive one or two missteps: Emerl.

Emerl is the only post-Adventure character that I have downright loved, because his character development is handled so damn well that I seriously came close to crying when he died, and I am not ashamed to admit it. Watching Emerl grow as a character was exactly like watching a child grow up. He starts off as a baby, knowing only a few basic words and unable to really comprehend the world around him. Then he becomes a toddler, seeing Sonic and Tails as parent figures that he constantly wants to "play" with. Soon after that, he's a regular kid who starts playing pranks and imitating people he finds cool. This cycle continues until he becomes just as smart, mature, and capable as any other character, and able to take on his own challenges without assistance.

I seriously felt like I just watched a baby grow up into a fully-functioning (likeable) adult. A Sonic game has never been able to make me feel so attached to one of its characters before now. Why can't all Sonic stories be like this?

EDIT: This was also the first time I ever legitimately wanted to see Eggman die a slow and agonizing death. While I don't think he ever intended to kill Emerl, the blood (oil?) of one of my favorite characters is on his hands.

Edited November 25, 2011 by Speederino

[Solkia]

Had some of the best dialogue imo.

[Tori Himemiya]

Oh Sonic Battle how repetitive you can be. However that doesn't stop you from being old fast does it?

Sonic Battle has one of the best stories in the series, adding a robot who the player would come and love very well. I think Sega outdid themselves in writing this masterpiece.

Its still pretty fun despite its flaws. I wanna see a remake of this on the DS because its original multiplayer did suck.

For ultimate trolling btw:

Having Rouge Jump + Shadow's second jump or Ultimate Second Jump = HE'S NOT COMING DOWN!!

And I swear that Shadow Power Combo you get from passwords is gamebreaking.