Sonic Advance 2

Sonic Advance 2 fars surpasses its first outing with graphics, moves and new characters. One good thing I noticed was that you only had Sonic at the beginning and you had to unlock the other four, Cream the rabbit and her Chao Cheese, Tails the two tailed fox, Knuckles the echidna and finally Amy Rose the pink hedgehog.

This offered challenge as you had to fight Eggman in order to play as your friends.

The game offers much more tactical moves in order to help you reach higher places or to find secret items or simply to survive. Such as when you are flying through the air and you want to get to a far off platform, you can press both the direction you are heading and the R button and you will gain a small bit of speed to help get there.

The acts and zones are much longer than Sonic Advance which gives you more room to explore and makes it more challenging to find the seven special rings which take you to the special stages in order to find the seven Choas Emeralds.

The boss fights with Eggman have been completely changed. Now you are constantly running and Eggman has a huge machine and has many traps to attack you. Rings appear as you run so use them wisely. He is no push over as some of the bosses have very weel been thought of and it also depends on which character you are using. In my opinion Cream is the best character ti use.

Now with the characters. As usual Sonic is the fastest character, good jumper and has aerobatic moves. Sonic can be used to clear the acts of the zones quickly and to get rid of enemies that can be annoying. These are his advantages, his disadvantages are that it can be hard to find secret things as him since he is very fast and does not have abilities to let him reach high places such as Tails and Cream have their abilty to fly and Knuckles can glide and climb up walls. Sonic can also have a hard time battling against Eggman's bosses. However, Sonic is still of the of the best characters.

Now, onto our new characters, Cream the rabbit and her trusty Chao friend Cheese. Most people assume that Cream isn't a very good character because of her appearance but do not judge a book by its cover as Cream shows this. First of all, she is not like Amy in Sonic Advance, Cream has a good running speed and when she jumps she also rolls into a ball like Sonic, Tails and Knuckles while Amy cold not do this. Cream can also fly by flapping her ears, Cream is a faster flyer than Tails but you have more control over Tails and he has a longer amount of time in the air. Cream attacks by using Cheese, which is brilliant as you can send Cheese to attack as long as Cream is close to an robot. Cream can also use Cheese as a shield when she jumps. Creams disadvantages are mainly the fact that she can get hit easily. Cream is the best character to use when battling Eggman as she does not have to get to close to him by send Cheese to attack. Cream is on of the best characters in the game.

Probably the most popular character in the series is the one and only Miles "Tails" Prowler. As you all know Tails is known for his ability to fly. He may not be as fast as Cream when she flys but he has better control and can stay in the air longer. Tails have useful attacks using his tails and also his jumping moves. When he flys his tails can be used to attack enemies in the air. Tails has a good running speed a bit behind Knuckles and a little over Cream. Tails disadvantages are that he is very vunerable when in the air and can get hit very easily and since he cannot move that fast in the air he can get hit by traps easily.

Knuckles is the most powerful character in the game. He has an excellent running speed behind Sonic and has very useful abilities. His ability to glide over the platforms and to climb up walls can really help you in tight spots. He can jump high and can use his punches to get robots out of the way. Anything that is in front of Knuckles when he glides can be attacked. His disadvantage is that he is probably the hardest to control which can make it annoying to find the special rings and secret places.

I can't comment on Amy as I haven't unlocked her yet but she was a good character in Sonic Advance so I think that she will be better off in this one.

The bad thing about Sonic Advance 2 is that it is a little too challenging for its own taste. The seven special rings are a nightmare to find, and if you die you lose them all so you would have to go back and find them again. Also the same with Sonic Advance is that you can move so fast that you don't notice the traps on the ground or the empty spaces that plummet you to your death (the annoying Sky Cannon zone).

These are just minor though as you don't really notice them as you have nothing but just high speed and jumping fun with these four (remember I haven't unlocked Amy yet) amazing characters wuth their own set of unique moves!

The main problem is how you fight the bosses. The Boss Fights have been re-designed, resulting in you chasing them rather than fighting them in an "arena" like in the previous Sonic games. This was a terrible idea as I didn't enjoy the boss fights as much as before (and I love a good boss fight). They should have had our heros fight the boss in an "arena" like in previous games.

However, the new Burst Mode is excellent. It was a nice new feature to the game. I also liked the new Trick moves. It took me a few minutes to work out how they were done, but once you get the hang of it, they're gread. Is it me, or does Sonic's
R + -> move remind you of Chaotix's Espio?

The game has some good charatcers, each with their strengths and weaknesses and signature abilities. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are as good as they've always been. Cream is a bit iffy as she makes the game to easy. She's a good character, but her Chao Cheese just makes it to easy for my liking. Sega have made many characters over the 10 years and it would have been better to see an old classic like Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2 or Espio from Knuckles Chaotix being re-used (although they are both in the new game Sonic Heroes).

The game's lifespan is excellent. This time you need to get Seven Special Rings which are littered through out the level. You really need to do some serious exporing to get them (I presonally reccomend the stratagy guide as the map in it REALLY helps). Plus the special stages are great fun to play. They can be challenging (especally the last to), but still fun to play. Plus you need to get the Chaos Emeralds with EVERY charatcer to unlock everything.

All in all, this is a great game. The only real problem is the boss battle mode. The old style was perfect. As the old saying goes:
"Why fix something if it isn't broken?"
None the less, Sonic Advanced 2 is defetly worth buying if like me, you grew up with Sonic.