Sonic Advance 2: One of The Best 2D Sonic Games

 Sonic Advance 2: One of The Best 2D Sonic Games

M. Abrar Bagaspati

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Game mechanics, game system, and core loop is an important part of video games. Game mechanics are how the game will function. How the player moves around, interacts with the environment, and things related to gameplay. Game system sets the rules on how the game is going to be played, such as quest system, skill tree, and EXP. Core loop is the fundamental set of repeating actions that the player performs in-game in order to progress through the game.

Sonic Advance 2: A Stylish 2D Platformer                            

Sonic Advance 2 is the 2nd installment of the Advance trilogy. Advance trilogy is a spin-off series released for the GameBoy Advance (GBA) handheld console. It’s a fast paced 2D side scrolling platformer. It was released in 2002, being developed by Dimps with a little bit of help from Sonic Team. The story follows Sonic trying to rescue his friends as Eggman kidnapped them in order to conquer the world. This game also introduces 2 new characters into the Sonic franchise, Cream The Rabbit & Vanilla The Rabbit. At first, you can only play as Sonic. But as you progress through the game, you’ll unlock more characters. Even though each character plays fundamentally the same, each has its own moveset to make them stand out.

The Mechanics

Core Mechanic

Since Sonic Advance 2 is a platformer that focuses on movement and speed, its core mechanic would be its Momentum based movement. Unlike other platformers, Sonic Advance 2 doesn’t have a run button. Instead, Sonic will start with a slow jog and increase his speed the longer he runs.

Primary Mechanic

-Jumping is used to traverse around the level, jump between platforms, and evade enemies. The function of jumping is not only for movement. We can destroy enemies by jumping on them, and in order to deal damage to bosses, we need to jump on them. We can jump by pressing the A button. If we do a simple press on the A button, we’ll jump, but we can jump higher by holding the A button.

-Spin Roll can be performed by pressing the down D-pad as you move. It acts as a roll (hence the name spin roll). By entering the spin roll state, you’re able to destroy enemies. You’ll also carry more momentum and the maximum speed cap is increased in this state.

-Boost Mode is a state that is activated when the player runs at the maximum speed cap for a few seconds. When the state is activated, the speed cap will be vastly increased and the player can run at an even faster pace.

Secondary Mechanic

-Spindash can be performed by holding down the down D-pad button and keep tapping the A button multiple times. By releasing the down D-pad, you’ll gain a burst of speed forward. The more you tap the A button, the faster you’ll go.

-Air Tricks can be performed by pressing R button + D-pad after jumping from a spring, dash panel, or a grind rail. If you press the R button + any of the horizontal d-pad, you’ll dash forward/backward. While if you press the R button + up d-pad, you’ll do a some sort of double jump gaining extra height. If you press the R button + down d-pad, you’ll dash down.

-B Action is an attack that any character can do. As the name suggests, the action can be performed by pressing the B button. It allows the character to do some sort of attack.

Fluff Mechanic

-Taunt is an animation that can be triggered by holding the up D-pad button.

 

Game System

Game Level

Sonic Advance 2 uses a level system for its stages. Each area (or called zone) has 2 platforming acts (levels), and 1 boss act. In total there are 7 zones in the game.

Score System

The scoring system is pretty self explanatory. You can increase your score by doing many actions such as destroying an enemy, air tricks, and reaching the end goal. You can also increase you lives by reaching 50.000 points

Lives System

The player starts with 3 lives, though in the game it’ll show you that you have 2 lives (Last live is shown as 0). Every time the player dies, the live count will be reduced by one. There are ways of increasing your lives such as an extra live box, reaching 100 rings, and scoring 50.000 points.

Rings System

 Each level will be filled with these golden rings, simply called “Rings”. Rings act as your HP. As long as you have 1 ring with you, you’ll withstand and survive any hits. One thing to note, even if you have 100 rings, more or less. You’ll lose all of your rings if you get hit. Rings can also work to increase your score.

Core Loop

Sonic Advance 2 is like any other platformer. You go from point A to point B. Simple as that.

Start of Level.

The character will start with a small taunt animation before getting ready as a countdown from 3 starts. When the countdown reaches 0, the character will move forward a little carrying a little bit of momentum for the player to continue with.

Going Through The Level

As you run through the level, you’ll encounter many obstacles such as pits, spikes, platforms, and enemies in the form of badniks. Not only that, there are objects such as springs, ramps and rail that’ll help you go through the level. Platforms such as flying platforms, uphill and downhill land, and loop-de-loop exist in the levels as part of the area you must go through.

End of Level.

When you reach the end goal, you’ll be rewarded points based on how fast you were going passing the end goal. The faster you go, the more points you will be rewarded with. But if you try to press and go the opposite direction to stop yourself, you’ll gain even more points based on how close you are to the end goal. The closer you are or the faster you stop the more points you’ll be rewarded with. Not only that, your rings convert into points after you finish a level. The time you finish the level also plays into how many points you’ll get. The quicker you finish the level the more points you’ll be rewarded with.

Characters

After we went over the main mechanics & systems, of course we’ll talk about Sonic Advance 2 playable characters. When you first play, you can only play as Sonic. You can unlock more characters as you progress through Sonic’s story. Two things that each character have is a mid air action and a spindash.

Sonic

Sonic is the speedster. His movesets support him moving forward and focuses on high-speed platforming.

-Mid Air Action (Insta-shield)

For Sonic, pressing the A button mid air will give him an insta-shield. The insta-shield increases Sonic hitbox by a little and also gives him invincibility for a split second. Though if you press the A button mid air near an enemy, Sonic will automatically home in onto the enemy.

-Air Dash

Pressing the d-pad twice in any direction you’re pressing will make Sonic dash in the air to the direction you pressed.

Tails

Tails focuses more on aerial movements. His movesets support vertical platforming.

-Mid Air Action (Flight)

By keeping tapping the A button mid air, Tails will be able to fly for a few seconds. His flight can make Tails reach areas that Sonic couldn’t.

Cream

Cream is similar to Tails, focusing more on aerial movements and vertical platforming.

-Mid Air Action (Flight)

By keeping tapping the A button mid air, Cream will be able to fly with her ears.

-Chao Attack

By tapping the B button, Cream will order her pet chao Cheese to attack any nearby enemies.

Knuckles

Knuckles combines aerial movements while also supporting horizontal platforming.

-Mid Air Action (Glide)

By holding the A button in the air, Knuckles will enter a glide state. During a glide, Knuckles will float forward yet slowly descend to the ground. The longer you glide the faster you’ll go.

-Climbing

During the glide state if you hit a wall, instead of falling, you’ll latch onto the wall and be able to climb up or down.

Amy

Amy is a secret unlockable character after finishing the game with all characters. Unlike other characters, Amy cannot spindash nor can she simply destroy an enemy by jumping on them. Amy’s gimmick relies on her piko-piko hammer.

-Mid Air Action (Hammer Attack)

This is her main method of attacking. You can’t simply jump on top of the enemy to destroy them with Amy, you must time your mid air action so Amy can do her hammer attack to destroy the enemy.

-Hammer Attack

You don’t always need to do your hammer attack in the air, by pressing the B button on the ground you’ll do a hammer attack on the ground.

Conclusion

Even though Sonic Advance 2 was not made by Sonic Team themselves but by another team that goes by the name Dimps, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. Dimps has implemented things from modern Sonic into the 2D games. It’s fast-paced, stylish, and fun. Unfortunately, it’s stuck on the GBA and has not seen any official re-releases.

Source:

https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic_Advance_2#Playable_characters 

Sonic Advance 2 (The Game)