Platform: Game Boy Advance

ESRB Rating: E for Everyone (after all, you don't even kill people, you just un-roboticize them)

Storyline/Background: Although this game does not HAVE much of a storyline, that is fine. Most Sonic games don't have much anyway. So, Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, or Tails, depending on who you choose to play as, must go and stop Robotnik from roboticizing the animals.  his is just like the classic Sonic games. Just so you know, this is out of fivwe stars, and in difficulty I mean how difficult. Stars in parentheses reflect the ratings
of the earlier Sonic games. When I refer to earlier Sonic the Hedgehog games, I am most particularly refering to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles.

Graphics: **** 1/2 (****)

Of course, this isn't nearly as good as GameCube, but I'm comparing this to Game Boy Advance/Sega Genesis graphics. The graphics are good (typical of a Game Boy Advance) and are better than a Sega Genesis', or at least the Sonic games for Genesis.

Sound and Music: *** (*** 1/2)

The invincibility music is cool, but otherwise it didn't flatter me. In Sonic & Knuckles, I liked the Lava Reef Zone music, and in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 the Casino Night Zone was cool. However, none of the music was especially good in this, except for the invincibility music, which you hardly hear anyway. The opening music is fairly decent, if you can wait a few seconds for the scene with Robotnik and the Chaos Emerald to finish, though I liked the opening music for the other games.

Fun Factor!: **** 1/2 (**** 1/2)

This game isn't QUITE as fun as the others, but at least it saves your game, allowing you to go back to levels you completed, instead of having to use some cheat to gain access to all the levels.

Replayability: *** 1/2 (** 1/2)

You can link up with friends, and try to beat your time scores, and there's the Tiny Chao Garden, but the only thing that would keep most people playing is trying to get all of the Chaos Emeralds and unlock the secret ending stage.

Difficulty: ***, ***** (*** 1/2)

Trying to get all of the Chaos Emeralds is a toughie, adding two stars to its total. That was hard in the original games, and it's even harder here! In fact, it's really hard to get just ONE!

Controls: **** (**** 1/2)

Okay, so I've been giving lots of games good ratings for the controls. But what do you expect? Game Boy Advances don't have complicated controls. And anyway, pressing A makes you jump, B attacks. It's a lot like the Genesis games, except that the three buttons (which did the same thing) have changed into two which do different things. And all of the characters have new abilities in this game. I like that.  However, it does make it a little difficult to remember what button does what, except in Sonic's case, at least...

Overall: **** 1/2 (****)

I've always liked Sonic games, and I never thought I'd see one for a Nintendo platform. But here one is! I haven't played the Sonic Adventure 2: Battle remake for GameCube, but I hear it's good. You can link it up with the Game Boy Advance (if you have Sonic Advance) and transfer Chao, but that's pretty much it. Don't get Sonic Adventure 2 just because you have this (or vice versa), buy them because you like the games.

Recommendation: If you're a Sonic fan,  get this. This game is quite good; better than most of the Mario games I've seen for Game Boy Advance. If you like Sonic or action games, this is a good game to get. Since Nintendo?s not making new Mario games for Game Boy Advance, I'm trying to provide alternatives, and this is one. The only problem is that, at least at this moment, it's a tad pricy... everywhere I look it's $40. The lowest price I found was $34.49, and that was a used cartridge. You might want to wait for the price to go
down before you buy it. The game is great, but I still think they charged $10 too much.

Want to review a game yourself? Email me!
Go back to Lemmy's Reviews.
Go back to my main page.