Okay I know screen crunch was also the theme of the last thread title, but trust me it’s really a problem.
Dr. Eggman is stealing animals and putting them into robots in an attempt to take over the world. Uh… you’ve heard that one before, haven’t you? That’s, uh, pretty much the entire plot. He’s… also kidnapped Tails, Knuckles and some child Sonic’s never met before. Yeah that’s it for plot summary.
But that’s fine, because you’re here to see Sonic run his way through colorful, creative environments, and boy does he do that in this game! While Sonic Advance 1 was certainly a solid platformer, this time around they really wanted to make Sonic and his friends feel like they’re running at breakneck speeds. And if nothing else, they succeeded. The sprite work on its own is fantastic, but the speed they manage to convey is actually quite impressive. Now, is the stage design good enough to add challenge without punching you in the mouth for daring to enjoy motion for just a little too long? Uh hm well uh yeah ha ha yeah thethingisyouwillrunintosomanyspikesandenemiesitwillnotbefunny. There are problems with the screen size again.
It’s the first world, and you know what that means! Everything’s easy enough that you can stretch your legs without worry! That’s right, with so few things placed to ruin your day, you can just run and jump to your heart’s content! Oh, and I guess we also need to save a child. But mostly, we’re here to have fun!
Sonic has rescued Cream and her pal Cheese. Now the manual doesn’t mention it, but Cream’s mother was also captured. Which is probably why she’s bothering to follow Sonic directly into a volcanic crater. Which would be foolish, but she can fly and Cheese can dismantle a large vehicle so they’re actually fine.
We may not be getting a traditional musical number, but we’ve reached the levels where platforming will play a jaunty tune. Music Plant is an area full different instruments (and Canadian Smarties) that will launch Sonic and Cream every which way and make a little noise as they do. It’s certainly a unique area, though I can’t imagine it’s good for the ears if you’re the one being launched out of a trumpet. Hopefully these two have earplugs!
We’ve got Tails back, so now we have two options if you want to fly over the ice world. But if this is an ice paradise, then surely we want to engage with ice mechanics. Certainly, none of them will dump you into a death pit. You can trust i- oh wow no that’s not even remotely true.
Well, here we are. The canyon hanging over a giant death pit. Sonic’s at a clear disadvantage here without any sort of body part that allows flight, but we need him for the boss so that’s not a concern for anything that happens on-screen. And speaking of the boss, it seems like Eggman isn’t making an appearance today. Guess he needed some time off.
After a brief clash with Knuckles at the canyon, we’ve got our (mostly) full team! Putting the embarrassment of getting tricked by Eggman again, Knuckles leads the way into Techno Base. Is Techno Base actually just a big computer inside, or are these weird decorations? Who knows, but we’ll be running through it all the same.
Once again, Eggman has built his own version of the Death Star, a life goal of his second only to building a theme park. This time around it’s Egg Utopia, a base where you’ll spend about as much time running on the ceiling as you do on the floor. There’s also a high volume of rudely-placed traps, but there’s been plenty of those in places Eggman hasn’t built so it’s kinda just par for the course rather than a notable security effort.
We’ve cleared Egg Utopia, but Eggman’s not done fighting just yet. He’s rebuilt all of his other machines with duct tape, and has a couple more new ones laying in wait afterwards. Sonic and his crew team up for the boss rush, but if the fight moves on to the vacuum of space, we might just need the power of the Chaos Emeralds to win this one.
Eggman has been defeated (twice) and the day is saved. What else is there to do? Well, not much because there aren’t any bonus stages or anything. But we did get Amy as a reward for getting the Chaos Emeralds with every character, and there are a bunch of animations I never showed off from the way I played the game. So let’s take a quick look at all of the extras of the game.
And with that, we’re done with Sonic Advance 2! @moderators , this one can be put into Completed LPs.
