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Post by MentalAnalysis on Sept 23, 2011 20:14:00 GMT
I think Sonic Adventure 2 improves everything the previous one had. Can anyone say that they really enjoyed playing through Big The Cat's story in Adventure 1?
When I heard that City Escape was going to feature in generations, I was pleased as hell as I used to play through that level non-stop. Even after I finished all of the additional mission, I return to that level just for fun.
Tails and Eggman's levels were odd to include in a sonic game, I must admit but if the Gamma levels in the first adventure proved anything is that its fun to blow [censored] up!
The Knuckles and Rouge levels....I admit were boring. if not frustrating at times. Especially when one of those levels included a time limit! screw you Rouge.....5 minutes is plenty MY ASS!
Shadow, I actually liked (Hell, he's my favourite character of the modern era). Sure he was the obvious Wario to Sonic's Mario but he was also an interesting character as sega provided back story for the character which made you invested in the ultimate lifeform.
Out of interest, what is Sonic's backstory outside of the cartoons and comics? Tails and Knuckles kinda have vague hints to their past thanks to adventures 1(mostly Knuckles...which leaves me more confused on how he ended up being the last survivor) but nothing to really to write down in stone....whatever, they're video game characters!
as much as I loved the hub world in the first game, I was happy they got rid of it. Kinda stopped the flow of the game at times, especially when they throw a vague puzzle your way...
Finally, the final battle was indeed too cool. The set-up alone was pretty sweet and armageddonish. In under 5 minutes you must defeat an evil lizard mutant going mach speed towards the earth by flying into the monster and popping it's zits!
In short, I thought it was fun and probably one of my favourite video games of all time (its definitely up there in the top 15)
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Post by Arch on Sept 30, 2011 11:57:34 GMT
Sonic Advance, 2002 - Game Boy Advance Incoming controversial opinion: I think SA1 is better than either of the next two Advances. Sonic Advance is often commended as a solid Sonic 2D adventure, but a fair few dislike how few risks it takes. I like it for that exact reason. The game is a great example of taking what worked in the past and cramming it into the next generation. Everything seems so "classic", from the way the characters move, the item boxes, certain music to the original Badniks. It's a Mega Drive game on the Game Boy Advance and I love it for that. The levels aren't massively well-designed, they're decent and I think that's a good start. Neo Green Hill Zone is actually an interesting start, beginning on a multi-tiered beach, before moving up into the hills, descending down into the woods and then culminating in a bridge battle. Good stuff. Secret Base looks a bit naff but is actually really fun to play, a great platforming level. Casino Paradise is a good rip of Casino Night, as is Ice Mountain of Ice Cap. The real adventure begins with the ruined Angel Island and Egg Rocket Zones, both still causing me real trouble today. It's a shame that I believe Cosmic Angel to be the only real duffer in the game, something that will be repeated with similar levels Cyber Track and Techno Base. It's a great feeling to be playing a 2D game with Tails and Knuckles alongside again, the first good occasion since Sonic & Knuckles (I think). I'm not a fan of Amy, essentially being 'hard mode', but I just haven't given her a good enough going over (chortle). The special abilities for each character work out brilliantly and being able to fly, glide and wall-climb is just as refreshing as it used to be. As SA2 focuses on speed and SA3 on teamwork, Advance is the last example of a 2D platformer with the classic characters that really just focuses on getting the gameplay down and creating new foundations that can be elaborated on. It's a great start for the new generation and is one of my favourite games in the series. it also led to a boom in sprite comics, which is a good and bad thing
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Post by ShayMay on Sept 30, 2011 12:08:07 GMT
My problems with Sonic Advance are twofold: the afore-mentioned level design, which is pretty forgettable, and the physics. Now, I know, the Mega Drive fanboy alarm bells are ringing just now. Yes, they're not the same as the Mega Drive games. That's not inherently a bad thing. However, they've always felt a bit backwards to me. Perhaps it's the level design, but they have always felt clunky, kind of... stiff? I don't know, it's hard to explain. Still, good game. One of the few I rarely play as Sonic in.
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Post by Beeth on Sept 30, 2011 12:46:04 GMT
I quite enjoyed Sonic Advance. Bought it when it came out, I believe it was the first game I got on getting back into the series. A decent trilogy overall, though I can't help but feel they're disappearing into obscurity in recent times, like Sonic Pocket Adventure. Sega have barely made reference to the series, if at all, in recent times. No appearances on collections, compilations or ports to other systems (I mean, the Game Gear games got some extra coverage this way), and even with Generations on its way I've yet to hear the Advance series being given so much as a mention.
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Post by Nam on Sept 30, 2011 13:26:23 GMT
I liked Sonic Advance. It was a good game, but as Arch said, very forgettable. I remember some of the bosses, and Amy being actually a lot of fun and variety in attacking and strategy, but the rest... Can't really remember it. It sort of blurs past in a sea of mediocre looks, forgettable gimmicks, and nothing unique about it. Once again, Advance two was speed and tricks, Advance three was teamwork, but the first offering doesn't bring anything new, and has very little memorable.
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Post by Arch on Sept 30, 2011 15:34:45 GMT
Sega have barely made reference to the series, if at all, in recent times. No appearances on collections, compilations or ports to other systems I don't know how recent we're talking, but the box art and descriptions of the games were in the Secret Rings "Special Book" (I think). As for Generations, the Game Gear games have received just as little attention, probably because they're focusing on the main series. There's not too much you can take from an Advance game that hasn't been done better in another game. It would be nice for them to be playable in another game at some point, though.
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Post by madhair60 on Sept 30, 2011 19:39:37 GMT
Good game. A bit too familiar and sparse in design, and the special stages are a bit obnoxious. Really liked Hidden Base zone though. The Super Sonic level sucks more than it should really be possible to suck.
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Post by Baron Canier on Sept 30, 2011 20:26:34 GMT
I'm very fond of the first Sonic Advance, so much so that I still play it every now and again; it's so very fun to blast through. I love how much fluidity and personality they gave the sprites.
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Post by Mambo's Here! Look Busy! on Sept 30, 2011 20:31:19 GMT
I played my stepdad's copy of Sonic Advance, after he got bored of it(!) Probably because he just couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do! hahaha! I liked it too, pretty much for the same reasons - it looks like a Mega Drive game and pretty much plays like one.
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Post by madhair60 on Sept 30, 2011 21:42:10 GMT
Sonic Advance [...] looks like a Mega Drive game DOES IT [censored]
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Post by Mambo's Here! Look Busy! on Sept 30, 2011 22:37:49 GMT
As in its 2D. Muppet.
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Post by MentalAnalysis on Sept 30, 2011 23:46:36 GMT
Sonic Advance pretty much hit all the spots for me 1. 4 different characters, each of their own abilities and skills and selectable from the start. Best of all, they were optional (unless you REALLY wanted to play the super sonic level, which I heard wasnt worth putting the time into collecting all of the chaos emeralds) 2. You could have Tails follow you around like old times. 3. Mecha Knuckles was a clever boss for Angel Island Zone (in my opinion) 4. Despite Amy's shortcomings, she was a fun character to use when you got the hang of her 5. [censored] was portable! 6. most of the music in the game was catchy, even memorable for some levels (such as Neo Hill Zone and Angel Island) 7. Animations and art-style fitted the game well, giving the overall presentation a stylish and fun look. 8. Of course, the the nostalgia factor of a simple sonic game but for my young mind, it was so much more. Something I can't seem to get out of recent games (of any kind, really).
Future Sonic advance games were great but the first one was just more memorable.
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Post by Badly-Drawn Manchild on Oct 1, 2011 9:17:43 GMT
I really like Sonic Advance. It was the first Sonic game I recall coming out after Sega went third-party, and for their first Sonic game on a Nintendo console (back then I never thought I'd see the day!) it was a corker. It's the nearest Dimps has ever gotten to capturing the feel of the Megadrive Sonic games; afterwards it just wouldn't be the same.
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Post by Arch on Oct 2, 2011 10:20:58 GMT
Sonic Advance 2, 2002 - Game Boy Advance Ignoring the releases of SA2:B and Mega Collection, we move straight on to the next Advance. There's not actually that much to say after already going over the first Advance, they're fairly similar titles. Same sprites (to a degree), much of the same gameplay. The big difference is the ramp up in speed. It's possibly the game in the series most criticised for its "hold right to win" philosophy and that's perhaps most observed in levels like Hot Shelter, where grabbing on to ziplines and rushing through yet another booster sees the entire level fly by. It's also obvious when you actually have to brake at the end to get a decent score. Level variety is an improvement on the first game but there aren't really wholesale differences. There's another ice level, another sky one with bottomless pits, more green areas, another space level. Music Plant is the one true diversion and it's always a blast to play, if not a bit cheap in some enemy placement. Sky Canyon is awful; it relies too much on using techniques that you just wouldn't use elsewhere and the checkpoints seem too few and far between, perilous when you're always worried about leaps of faith. XX is a pretty rubbish final level, just recycling old bosses that weren't that good to start with. Elsewhere, the bosses in general are criticised for their "Get Back Here Boss" running battles. I really like them since they require perfect timing, perserverance and often a change in tactics later. The Special Stages, much like the rest of the game, are ridiculous to get into, requiring seven Special Rings anywhere in the level without dying. The stage itself is actually one of the better ones in the series. Music is ok, memorable-ish but not classic. Cream the Rabbit is also a fun addition, despite making bosses a little too easy with Cheese to throw at things. It's definitely my least favourite of the Advance series, with the Rush games doing a much better job of 2D speed.
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Post by MentalAnalysis on Oct 2, 2011 18:45:08 GMT
Introducing Cream the Rabbit, probably the cheapest character in the sonic games. She could run as fast as sonic, fly like tails and orders her Chao to attack all of her enemies, making those boss fights almost effortless.
I remember this being the first handheld sonic game where rails became part of almost every level.
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Post by madhair60 on Oct 2, 2011 20:42:41 GMT
Brilliant game for time attacks. Probably the cheapest level design in the series though. [censored] Sky Canyon.
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Post by Nam on Oct 2, 2011 22:24:50 GMT
Was this the one where they introduced doing tricks off every ramp for a bit of extra height/distance? I remember going through the level pressing R (I think that was the button) more than any jump button.
Yes, Cream was unbelievably cheap, rendering the levels trivial, and the bosses pointless. Cathartic in a way though. Otherwise the levels were the similar sort of blandness to the first Advance, but the special stages were stupidly harder to get to. I never even got to one, managing to get maybe six special stage rings out of seven in one act.
I liked the bosses to be honest, lots of variety, even though they were all based on the same "chase the boss" concept. However, the fifth one is just ridiculously hard. No boss should ever have an instant kill attack quite that bad. Final boss was actually disappointing, a whole game of running after bosses, then a direct repeat of those bosses, then the last boss is just stood on the end of a platform. just me, but a boss that chased you would've really been better perhaps.
But yes, fun game, can be got through stupidly quickly in some levels.
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Post by ShayMay on Oct 2, 2011 22:45:53 GMT
Sonic Advance 2 is my favourite Sonic Advance purely for nostalgic reasons. I got this, along with my GBA SP (which I had been wanting for aaages) and Metroid Fusion, and played them all in turns for about 3 days straight. Music Plant is a thing of beauty. One of my favourite Zones, period, and I'd like to see that concept taken and re-used in 3D at some point.
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Post by Beeth on Oct 3, 2011 8:32:18 GMT
I was particularly fond of Sonic Advance 2, by rights more than I should have been. There was a bit of "hold right to win" about some of the levels, but there were a good variety of routes to take if you took it more gradually. I quite liked the variety of the zone themes. Music was quite catchy also. If anything though, the special stages (esp. accessing them) were bloody annoying. I've no idea how I managed to get all the emeralds with one character, never mind all five* of them, that was a task and a half. Even more so after realising** I couldn't get all the special rings on Techno Base 1 with Sonic, and had to learn the locations on 2 as well. Managed it all in the end though, was absolutely thrilled. I still revisit the game occasionally even now.
*Yes, even Amy, despite having no reason to. Still, bragging rights and all that.
**Until Stu proved me wrong on a youtube vid. I've still no idea how he did it though.
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Post by Arch on Oct 3, 2011 11:11:10 GMT
Sonic Pinball Party, 2003 - Game Boy Advance Famed for being able to roll into a ball and almost as famous for being flung across faux pinball tables in every game, a Sonic-themed pinball game was inevitable. That was Sonic Spinball, an interesting spin on the genre. It was maybe a surprise, then, that they produced another pinball game for the hedgehog. This time, however, Sonic was on the outside looking in. Sonic Pinball Party is a run-of-the-mill pinball game, with a normal pinball table (mostly) and a normal ball. In story mode, the general idea is to reach a certain amount of points, sometimes before the "other person" does, usually in a mandatory time limit. The basic idea is to summon Eggman by shooting your ball into the "EGG" hole and then doing the same to Eggman's hole (lol). This monotony can be broken up by doing one of the sub-games on the table, but the "RING" quest takes far too long. Pinball Party is an improvement on Spinball because there are six Sonic-themed levels, all based on the first Sonic Advance game. Unfortunately, bar minor tweaks to the themed table, the game plays exactly the same in each level. There's pretty much no variety from level to level; each one has that big loop on the right, Eggman appears at the left, the Chao are in the same place - there's no real reason why you'd want to switch level. The variety is presented by the NiGHTS table, which feels much more fun to play than the Sonic one, and Samba di Amigo, which is average at best (or maybe I just don't get it). There are also minigames in "Casinopolis" but they're generally not very fun and would have served better as in-game sub-games. Music is taken directly from Sonic Advance, although there are some great remixes of Starlight Zone and Can You Feel The Sunshine, which are very welcome. I enjoy this every time I go back to it, but not for very long. It's just a pinball table and not a very interactive one, so it's up to you whether you like bog-standard pinball games or not.
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Post by Beeth on Oct 3, 2011 11:31:26 GMT
Never bought this, mainly down to having never seen a copy of it. Looks okay-ish though. Another thing I discovered was that while most of the Sonic Advance music was lifted directly for their respective levels in Pinball, Neo Green Hill had a bizarre pseudo-remix of Act 2's music in its place.
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Post by MentalAnalysis on Oct 3, 2011 17:27:38 GMT
Never really played it, even when I heard of the mystical world of emulators I still didn't bother to play it. Felt weird how they didn't use Sonic as a Pinball (or...Spin ball :3) and having a storyline involving Tails and Amy under Eggman's command with mind control.
That said, the music was pretty good with remixes of previous sonic games, even from the likes of Sonic R.
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Post by madhair60 on Oct 3, 2011 18:47:29 GMT
Good little pinball game. Slight. Not a lot to say about it.
Had lots of obscure Sega fanservice in it (Burning Rangers), and a chiptune version of "Open Your Heart", if I recall correctly.
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Post by Samface on Oct 4, 2011 12:41:28 GMT
You do, there were a bunch of other tunes in there - Super Sonic Racing, some Phantasy Star Online stuff...
Nice little game. I still play it on occasion.
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Post by Arch on Oct 7, 2011 10:52:03 GMT
We're back! With...
Sonic Battle, 2004 - Game Boy Advance
I have such a love-hate relationship with this game, one that I didn't think possible, especially with a handheld title. I love: The whole story, especially the relationships between every character and especially Emerl and that ending. I hate: Repetitive battles. There's not much worse than having to slug your way through a tough battle with 5KOS, only for them to instantly revive for a 10KO battle.
If you hadn't gathered, Battle is a fighting game that's a fast improvement on Fighters (if you ask me). Taking place in "3D" arenas, several sprites duke it out with a wide range of techniques and even more special moves. It's these special moves you'll be using the most often, as they're pretty hard to block and a fully-charged one could OHKO a foe. When you're training up Emerl, you might find yourself using one or two specials almost constantly, as he just can't hold up against some enemies most of the time. It's this that grates me, the random selection of level-up data means that you can't develop Emerl in the way you want and you might never get that attack you want.
The story, by far the game's main draw, revolves around finding Gizoid Emerl and training him up, only to discover he's destined to ravage civilisations and suchlike. You really get attached to Emerl throughout the tale as he grows from a "baby" into a fully-functioning killing machine, so everything that happens to him really matters. Other characters get shining moments too, including Cream coming out of her pacifism, Amy raising her "baby", Rouge leading poor little Tails on, Knuckles' reliable gullibility - no character gets left behind (except Chaos and, I guess, Chaos Gamma).
Aside from the story, there's not much to keep you from coming back. Every battle is exactly the same, so you really have to want to see the ending to slug through them all. The levels are all fairly bland, but at least there's a few designs and you get to fight on each a good few times. "Escort" missions in the Gimme Shelter (great name, btw) can [censored] off, though. Music's alright, nothing special.
As far as I can think, Battle is the last Sonic fighting game and I wonder if they'll ever risk another full-blown fighter in the veins of Fighter. If you enjoyed the story, Chronicles makes a go of another one but Battle still has it down as the better experience.
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