Review: Sonic Advance 3
Review by
STARDINGO |
06/17/2004 |
12:53:55 PM PST
The latest Sonic game lets you team up with another character and another player, but the series is starting to lose steam.
What?s different this third time around for Sega?s little blue ball of extremity? The hook in Sonic Advance 3 is that you can play as any two of the five heroes (Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Cream) at the same time with a friend controlling the second character on a second GBA. The catch is that in single-player mode, you can?t switch to the secondary hero; they?re mostly just there for backup and show, and to help you perform special combo moves unique to each duo. The way you progress through levels has also changed a bit as well. Rather than simply moving from act to act in a linear fashion, the game now features a ?hub? world that connects each stage?s three acts and boss level. Hub worlds also contain mini-games?if you can find them?that earn you bonuses like extra lives. But despite these changes, the basic Sonic 2D building blocks?the straightforward ?go right and go right fast!? gameplay?are still the foundation, and the tendency toward repetition (it?s all springboards, loops, and grind-rails in Sonictown) won?t win any new fans for the franchise.
Aside from some garish tunes in the Toy Kingdom, the game sounds and looks great, and the use of color and character animation is a step above even the already sharp-looking Sonic Advance 2, but the series is definitely losing momentum. The hedgehog species is heavy on attitude but has a hard time with evolution.