Sonic Advance 3 [GBA SP] Review

• submitted by LusterPurge94
• posted 2 months ago
• 0 of 0 recommend this review

In the early 1990s, Nintendo was doing very well with its incredible franchise, the Super Mario games. Sega had been attempting to compete with Nintendo's sales, but hadn't managed to come close, until the release of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise games in 1991. For the first few years, Sonic's games sold more copies than Nintendo's.

Then, toward the late '90s, Sonic's popularity plummeted with a number of terrible games, while Mario excelled with many great games. Even through the early 2000s, Sega had trouble making games that were as good as, or better than, the early ones.

Until the release of the Sonic Advance series.

In 2001, Sonic Advance 1 hit the market, playable on the Gameboy Advance. There were sequels that were better, but the greatest one was the third- Sonic Advance 3.

In my opinion, Sonic Advance 3 has the challenges of the Sega Genesis games that were released a decade previously with several added twists. The player chooses a main character to control, as well as a partner character controlled by the game. At first, these characters are Sonic and Miles "Tales" Prower, but after completing certain levels, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, and Cream the Rabbit (respectively) become available for play.

Depending on which main and partner characters you select, different abilities will be available, such as climbing a wall, swimming, floating, flying, spinning, using a hammer to hit enemies, and others. Certain areas of the levels can only be accessed if the player is using a specific character combination, with different move possibilities.

The gist of the game is this: Dr. Eggman has stolen the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald (as usual) and is trying to build his ultimate empire: Eggman Land. Sonic and/or his friends must traverse through seven "Zones," all of which are made up of three "Acts," as well as a Boss fight. After the seventh boss has been defeated, the player challenges the Final Boss, in a one-act stage.

In addition to the main storyline, there is also a side challenge one can take. Throughout the acts of every zone are scattered Hidden Chaos (as in the floating pets). There are ten per zone. If the player manages to obtain all of the Chao in a zone, then he or she can zip through that zone and try to get a "Special Key." With this, the player can access a secret area with the key and go to the Special Stage.

The Special Stage is a 3-D area, in which the partner character is flying a plane with the main character standing on top. The player must aim to get a certain amount of rings (presented by the game) in the maze before the end. If the player does not, he or she must re-obtain the Special Key. If he or she does, then a Chaos Emerald is obtained. Only one per zone can be found, so don't try completing the same Special Zone over and over.

Once all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected, then if the player collects 100 rings in a zone, Sonic will transform into Super Sonic.

My overall opinion of the game is this:

The gameplay and music are fantastic, almost as good as Sonic & Knuckles for the Sega Genesis. There are challenging acts, puzzles, and boss fights that pay homage to the original bosses. Indeed, this is one of the greatest Sonic-franchise sidescrollers ever made.

The game isn't perfect, though (no game, in the history of the world, is totally perfect). One problem I have is that to get to the separate Acts of each Zone, the player must traverse a "Zone Map," which some might say is a warmup for the challenges to come. I say it's just frustrating, so if you lose all your lives and start from the Zone Map, you have to go through the same, old places again. This is especially frustrating when battling the Final Boss.

Also, the concept of having to search for Chao hidden in the Acts may seem like a fascinating hunt, but after a while, it gets very irritating, having to go through the same Acts over and over again. The Chao are indescribably difficult to find, and the Special Zones are indescribably diffucult, and get harder as they go on. Trying to beat them again and again just gets frustrating after a while.

Indeed, Sega may not have regained the glory they had in the early '90s, but they sure came close with these games. If they could only learn to make good games, maybe Sonic would be one of the most world-wide popular franchises again.