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Sonic Advance

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Sonic Advance
Sonic Advance
In-game characters clockwise from right: Sonic, a Chao, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles.
Developer(s)Sonic Team
Dimps
Director(s)Akinori Nishiyama
Producer(s)Yuji Naka
Hiroshi Matsumoto
Artist(s)Yuji Uekawa
Composer(s)Tatsuyuki Maeda
Yutaka Minobe
SeriesSonic the Hedgehog
Platform(s)Game Boy Advance, Nokia N-Gage, Android
Release'Game Boy Advance'N-Gage'Android'Virtual Console (Wii U)
Genre(s)Platform, action
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Sonic Advance (ソニックアドバンス, Sonikku Adobansu) is a 2001 platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Sonic Team and Dimps and published in Japan by Sega for the Game Boy Advance. It was later published by THQ in North America and by Infogrames in PAL regions. It was released in Japan on December 20, 2001, in North America on February 3, 2002 and finally in PAL regions on March 8, 2002. It is one of the first Sonic games to be released on a Nintendo console. Sonic Advance was also ported to the Nokia N-Gage on October 7, 2003 under the title SonicN. A version for Android devices was released in Japan on November 25, 2011.[1]

Gameplay

Sonic runs through a loop in the fifth zone, "Angel Island Zone". HUD features clockwise from bottom left: lives, ring counter, score, and time elapsed.

The game follows Sonic and his friends as they travel through various zones in order to stop Dr. Eggman from taking over South Island. The game features four playable characters; Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy. Each character has the same moveset as they did in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, with the addition of a melee attack. Each character has a special ability, such as Sonic's splice shield, Tails' flight and Knuckles' gliding and climbing abilities. In her playable 2D debut, Amy cannot perform the Spin Dash or get into ball form when jumping like the others, and must rely on her Piko Piko Hammer to defend herself, making her unique amongst the characters. Grind rails first introduced in Sonic Adventure 2 also make their first 2D appearance. Sonic and Tails can also be used at the same time during the story by inputting a cheat code at the character selection screen. When playing as both characters, the gameplay is similar to that of Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The player can only control Sonic and a CPU-controlled Tails follows him.

There are 6 normal zones, each of which contains two acts. In each zone, Act 1 is cleared by reaching the goal and Act 2 is cleared by destroying the boss robot at the end and opening a capsule which subsequently falls and releasing animals trapped inside it.

If the character is damaged, they will drop all their rings, however, if the character has no rings and takes damage, they will lose a try. A character will also lose a try if they spend too long underwater without replenishing air supply (air underwater lasts for 18 seconds), fall into a gap, or if the time exceeds 9 minutes and 59 seconds. Losing a try will require a character to start from the last checkpoint passed, or from the beginning of the act if they have not passed any checkpoints. If a character loses a try when the number of tries remaining is zero, the game will end.

Special Springs can be found near the top of certain acts. Each normal zone contains one Special Spring, except for Ice Mountain Zone which contains two: one in each act. By jumping onto these springs, the player can reach a Special Stage—each spring goes to a certain special stage every time it is jumped on. The stages see players fall down a tube on snowboards while trying to earn enough rings to complete the target amount. By winning the stage, the player receives a Chaos Emerald, although there is only one emerald per stage, so the same stage cannot be repeated for multiple emeralds. Unlike most other classic 2D Sonic games, the Emeralds are "shared" between all the characters. Once the player has collected all the Emeralds and completed the X-Zone with all four characters, they can access the Moon Zone by completing the X-Zone again with Sonic.

Tiny Chao Garden

Sonic Advance, like Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic Pinball Party, features an extra game called the Tiny Chao Garden, in which players can raise Chao. Players can transfer their Chao between the Tiny Chao Garden and the Chao Garden from the GameCube versions of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. Tiny Chao Garden is more limited than the Chao Garden: Chao don't age, can only interact with fruit and three toys (which must be bought in the Tiny Chao Garden itself), and only one Chao can be in it at once. An egg can be stored in the garden too, and hatches as soon as there is no Chao in it. Chao can only leave the garden by being transferred to the Chao Garden or by running away when players don't take care of them. Fruit, toys and eggs must be bought with the rings collected in the normal game or two minigames. Rings, fruit and eggs can be transferred to the Chao Garden, but not from it.

Development and release

Footage of the game was showcased at Sonic's 10-year anniversary party in June 2001, which mainly focused on the contemporary Sonic Adventure 2.[2]

Reception

Sonic Advance is notable as it was both the debut of Sonic on the Game Boy Advance, and of an original Sonic game on a Nintendo system; the company with which Sega had a notorious rivalry that lasted over a decade. It was generally well-received from Sonic fans and critics alike. The game's success led to two sequels: Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic Advance 3, as well as handheld spin-offs such as Sonic Battle and Sonic Pinball Party.

In March 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked Sonic Advance as the 75th greatest game ever released on a Nintendo console.[10]

The game sold rather well; by July 2002, it had shipped over one million copies worldwide.[11]

Legacy

Sonic Advance is recognized as significant in gaming history for introducing a main Sonic game to a Nintendo console (ports such as Sonic Adventure 2: Battle do not count), as Sega and Nintendo were rivals during the 1980s and 1990s until Sega ceased manufacturing consoles in the early 2000s. The game's strong sales also helped cement Sonic's place on the Game Boy Advance.[12]

Ports

A port of Sonic Advance titled SonicN was released as a launch title for the Nokia N-Gage in North America on October 7, 2003. Gameplay is identical to the Game Boy Advance version, except for the exclusion of the Tiny Chao Garden. The game runs slightly slower on the N-Gage. The most apparent difference between the two versions is the screen resolution: The N-Gage's screen is portrait unlike that of the Game Boy Advance, so the player is offered a choice of two modes: a full resolution mode with a narrower field of view, or a letterboxed 4:3 mode with scaled-down graphics.

A port for Android devices was released in Japan on November 25, 2011. No announcements for other regions have been announced yet.[13]

Another port was also released for J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition).[14]

The game was released on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan on February 18, 2015.

References

  1. ^ http://www.computerandvideogames.com/327530/sonic-advance-hits-android/
  2. ^ Torres, Ricardo (July 2, 2001). "Sonic the Hedgehog turns 10". GameSpot. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  3. ^ ゲームボーイアドバンス - ソニック アドバンス. Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.116. 30 June 2006.
  4. ^ "Sonic Advance for Game Boy Advance Review - Game Boy Advance Sonic Advance Review". Gamespot.com. 2002-02-08. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  5. ^ "GameSpy.com - Reviews: Sonic Advance (GBA)". Gamespy.com. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  6. ^ "IGN: Sonic Advance Review". IGN.com. 2002-02-05. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  7. ^ "Sonic Advance (gba: 2002): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  8. ^ "Sonic Advance Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  9. ^ "Sonic Advance for Game Boy Advance - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  10. ^ "100 Greatest Nintendo Games - The Complete List". Official Nintendo Magazine. March 3, 2009. Retrieved June 21, 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ Harris, Craig (July 1, 2002). "Sonic Gets a Sequel". IGN. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  12. ^ Harris, Craig (March 14, 2003). "Sonic Advance 2: Sonic returns to the GBA in a deeper and much more challenging platformer". IGN. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  13. ^ http://www.tssznews.com/2011/11/28/sonic-advance-re-released-to-android-in-japan/
  14. ^ http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Mobile/Sonic+Advance/review.asp?c=31562
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