Sonic Advance

2025-01-13
I remember having mixed feelings about this game as a kid. It was a really fun Sonic game but as with all Sonic games--I now realize as an adult--they get real hard after a point. The first two zones are so fun, so vibrant, you get to go so fast, the music is so delightful and then BAM you hit zone 3 and you are in the...water? Sonic, a character who's whole thing is "Gotta go fast", is now in the water where not only can he not Go Fast but also he can drown. How does a game change from cheery and fun with a slight challenge to slow, boring, with too much of a challenge?

Really, every zone after the first is too hard in all the wrong ways. You have enemies that hit you from off screen, you have falls to your death with no indication that they aren't just another fall that leads to a platform below, the whole oxygen mechanic--I mean the final zone just feels like an endless series of traps meant to break up your fun. And that last zone is SO long. I think I spent like 10 minutes on one run and then lost my last life and had to start over.

Maybe I'm evaluating it too much on it now being 2022 instead of 2002 but while I think it's a really cool first game for someone getting their GBA in the early 2000s there are better choices and better, less frustrating platformers.

The music really is dope in the second zone though.

2022-08-16
I remember having mixed feelings about this game as a kid. It was a really fun Sonic game but as with all Sonic games--I now realize as an adult--they get real hard after a point. The first two zones are so fun, so vibrant, you get to go so fast, the music is so delightful and then BAM you hit zone 3 and you are in the...water? Sonic a character who's whole thing is "Gotta go fast" is now in the water where not only can he not move quickly but also he can drown. How does a game change from cheery and fun with a slight challenge to slow, boring, with too much of a challenge?

Really, every zone after the first is too hard in all the wrong ways. You have enemies that hit you from off screen, you have falls to your death with no indication that they aren't just another fall that leads to a platform below, the whole oxygen mechanic-- the final zone just feels like an endless series of traps meant to break up your fun. And that last zone is SO long. I think I spent like 10 minutes on one run and then lost my last life and had to start over.

Maybe I'm evaluating it too much on it now being 2022 instead of 2002 but while I think it's a really cool first game for someone getting their GBA in the early 2000s there are better choices and better, less frustrating platformers.

The music really is dope in the second zone though.