Game #1088: Sonic Advance 2

  So this is what it feels like to be DarksydePhil.

 I have fun memories of the Sonic Advance series during my emulation days, back when I was younger, so I've been looking forwards to playing these games. Sonic Advance 1 hasn't aged the best, but it's still a decent game, and when I first popped in Sonic Advance 2... man, it was amazing, it was exactly like SA1 but better. But there's a reason there's such a large gap of time between  my entry on the first game and this one... and that's because after the first few stages the game became an annoying chore, to the point that I absolutely despise this game and I can't believe it received so many high scores back in the day. Thankfully, I managed to find some modern video reviews that hated the game as much as I did, so I'm not alone here.

 First impressions are great, the graphics got overhauled and the sprites look even better than before. The game is faster, and you get a lot of new moves, like a ground pound and a homing attack with Sonic. It's also easier to go faster, and there's a new fifth character, Cream the Rabbit. That said, every character that isn't Sonic must be unlocked and can only be unlocked by playing as Sonic. For some reason they toyed around with the B button attacks, for example, Knuckle's has a two-hit combo, instead of three hits, and Sonic's B now propels him forward a little bit. Since this is a game built on speed, these melee attacks are useless and serve no purpose.

 As I said before, the first half of the game is really fun. Stages are large and have a ton of alternate routes and the bullshit is kept to a minimum. Then comes Sky Canyon. I was stuck here for the longest time, at first because you're never told about the game's new mechanic, Boost-tricks. When you enter boost, while on air, you gain a new set of moves with the R button, and you NEED to use the R-Up air jump to proceed if you don't want to die. And even after you learn that, this level is just poorly designed, lots of bottomless pits and routes that shoot you or direct you towards your death or enemies you just couldn't possibly see coming, and even if you did see coming, if you try to homing-attack them you'll be the one losing rings. The next three stages after this one are just as bad, with routes that seem to lead only to your death and springs and grinds that shoot you directly into pits, spikes or enemies. Supposedly they say that this game brought a new meaning to 'hold right to win', but that only holds true for the first four stages, as the next two are poorly designed garbage. Stage 7 is well designed too, and Stage 8 is just a boss rush. But those two stages from hell ruin the game.

 These two levels are so bad I felt as if I was Darksyde Phil. All the time I was crying and whining about how there was no way to know that was coming up, which is true in this case, and all sorts of excuses, which in this game are actually valid complains. So, if anything, now I know how DSP feels when he plays videogames. And, unlike him, I definitely pressed jump.

 Characters have jumping abilities, like before. Tails can fly for a little while, Cream can fly for a longer time, Sonic has a homing attack and Knuckles glides, as for Rose... I don't know since I couldn't be bothered to unlock her. Thing is... unless you initiate the jump, you won't be able to use these abilities. A lot of times your character will automatically jump off the grind rail or ramp you were running on, and in those cases you can't use your abilities, severely limiting what you can do on air, and it's hard to initiate those jumps since you move so fast. Heck, when jumping off springs you can't use these abilities either. Until you understand this, it feels like the controls are stiff and not responsive. And once you understand it... it feels so limiting.

 Boss fights are automatic scrollers, so you're constantly running to the right. These makes boss fights cumbersome and a bit more annoying than they should. What's worse, trying to pull off any jumping ability(Flight, Glide, Homing Attack, whatever Rose does) will kill your momentum, sliding you to the left, so there's only one way and one way only to tackle these bosses no matter who you are playing as. LAME. And by the by, if you die it's back to the start of the zone, so if you get to a boss after going through one of the annoying stages... it's back to the first zone. Good luck, have fun. Bosses, as a whole, feel rather gimmicky and based a bit on luck, so they weren't much fun. And what about boss 7? You're never told that you can shift gravity pressing up and down, as it's not a mechanic anywhere else in the game. The previous stages did play with gravity, but you had to go through signs, so it makes no sense and until you figure out that you can actually do this you won't be able to beat the boss.

 It's funny, because it's often been said that 3-D Sonic killed the series, while the 2-D Advance series kept it alive. The 3-D Sonic games I've been playing, sans Lost World, have been satisfactory, but this game? It's one of the most poorly designed games I've played. After the halfway point of the game, the level design goes down the gutter, as it doesn't play well with the speeds you are supposed to reach or the size of the screen. Since the poor level design got me stuck on the latter stages of the game.... I spent more time with the awful half of the game, which means my experience with the game was dreadful. And that blows, because 70% of the game is REALLY good, but it's also really easy so you'll clear it in no time, and that 30% percent left is were I spent most of my time with... which is why in this particular case, the small but awful part of the game overweighs the best parts about it. What can I say, I absolutely despise Sonic Advance 2, even though I feel that the new mechanics and the first half of the game are actually superior to Sonic Advance 1, the other half of the game just kills it dead thrice over. I hope Sonic Advance 3 can redeem the series.

 3.0