On handhelds, Sonic lives
Being a Nintendo loyalist all my life, I never enjoyed Sonic in it's full glory. There was a time years ago when I had a Sega Genesis temporarily, and Sonic 2 was all I'd ever want to play. Having only recently caught up with the world of GBA with the Classic NES series, I realized I missed out on Sonic's immersion into Nintendo's family. Sega's latest offering, aptly titled Sonic Advance 3, was a game I'd heard good things about, so I decided to give it a shot. Believe you me, it was money well spent.
The controls are fairly standard for Sonic, with A to jump and the pad to move, but you can't get too confusing when a game gets as fast as Sonic can. The levels are much longer, sometimes taking a good seven minutes to find your way through, and therefore much more challenging. It looks and feels completely new, and yet has that feel of Sonic 2 and 3; the use of trickier puzzles, but also keeping the sheer speed of the level. The new partner system can get you out of some bad spots. For example, playing as Sonic with Tails as your partner, you can hold the R shoulder button, let it go, and be vaulted high into the air. This comes in handy when you're underwater and are running out of air. Another example is if you pair Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic can fly on Knuckles' back for a short time if you hold R and jump. New to my eyes as well are two of the characters, Amy and Cream, even though I know they've been present in the Sonic universe before. I know nothing of their back story, but their addition, along with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, make for numerous partner combinations when playing through each level, offering different paths every time, meaning this isn't a game you can merely play through once and be done with.
SA3 wows with it's use of colour and level design detail throughout. In the first world, a highway called Route 99, while the gameplay difficulty varies by skill level, the different pathways, character and enemy sprites, and especially the backgrounds will keep your eyes going back and forth between your character and the scenery. Another example, in Zone 2, Sunset Hills, there is a constant orange hue to many things, which perfectly conveys the idea that dusk is at hand. Even so, you never fully lose sight of what it is you're trying to do, making the Sonic Team's use of the GBA even more impressive.
The music for each level is well done, to say the very least. Each zone's background music goes with what the area is; that is, Zone 99, a highway, has a faster pace, while Sunset Hills, a hilly-grass area, has a slightly more relaxed tune, one that is reminiscent of Green Hills from Genesis. Each character has a few little voice snippets here and there, for events such as dying (Sonic yells, "Whoa!"), level completion ("All right!"), and boss defeat (Robotnik yells "You're going to pay for this!"). Several sounds, whether or not they were in previous Sonic Advance adventures, were pretty much present in the Genesis days, such as the invincibility theme remixed (which I'm told is present in both other SA games), the ring sounds, the 1-Up sound, and so on.
Even though I've said you can't be over and done with this game after only one playthrough, you'll wonder why you decided to play through it again so soon if you were to immeadiately restart. The new character combos are interesting, and I'll admit I've done them a few times. However, I think this game is best served as the old ones were: play it, be done with it, then come back to it at a much later date. I originally played through it in a day and a half, left it alone for over a month, and then was able to pick it up again and play through it again as if I'd just bought it all over. When it comes to rent or buy, buy this game, because it's best served over a long period of time.
I was never a fan of 3D Sonic games like Sonic Adventure or Sonic CD, or even the really old Sonic 3D Blast. I'd also never played either Sonic Advance before. Recalling that old Genesis, I can say Sonic Advance 3 honors those games of yore, but also does it's own thing. Sonic Advance 3, whether or not you've ever played any other Sonic game, is a great addition to the GBA library. I suppose it's slightly ironic that it took the release of the Classic NES series and the retro Game Boy Advance SP to get me to take a look at what a truly classic series has managed to do with itself over the years. On the consoles, it is going in new directions, but here on the Game Boy Advance, Sonic the Hedgehog has truly found himself a new home, and his new home is well worth almost any price.