Sonic Advance 2

 Game Boy Advance
  • Publisher: Sega
  • Release Date: Mar 9, 2003
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 104 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 69 out of 104
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 104
  3. Negative: 9 out of 104
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  1. Tokyochuchu
    Mar 19, 2012
    6
    Sonic Advance 2 is a decent addition to the franchise. It has a great sensation of speed, and although the earlier levels involve a bit too much mindless running, the latter stages are quite memorable. The game also has a high quality soundtrack, that fits well with other Sonic games. The running boss battles... Well... They're very much a love-it-or-hate-it type of affair, as they breakSonic Advance 2 is a decent addition to the franchise. It has a great sensation of speed, and although the earlier levels involve a bit too much mindless running, the latter stages are quite memorable. The game also has a high quality soundtrack, that fits well with other Sonic games. The running boss battles... Well... They're very much a love-it-or-hate-it type of affair, as they break from series tradition. I certainly fall on the former, with the bosses being the undoubted highlight of the game. I must say, though, that the bosses do represent huge difficulty spikes and are not balanced well with the action stages that preceded them. All in all, Sonic Advance 2 is a solid title with a good amount of content. But beware the Egg Utopia boss... That guy means business!!… Expand
  2. ModernRetroMan
    Dec 27, 2012
    7
    I love Sonic and this game does the hedgehog justice. I will talk about the good first and then the bad. The animation of the characters are fun and will make you smile. There are obstacles in the level that are fun and different for each level and do not feel like a gimmick. This music is fun as with any good sonic game. Also the music level is a joy to play and very creative.The wholeI love Sonic and this game does the hedgehog justice. I will talk about the good first and then the bad. The animation of the characters are fun and will make you smile. There are obstacles in the level that are fun and different for each level and do not feel like a gimmick. This music is fun as with any good sonic game. Also the music level is a joy to play and very creative.The whole game reminds me of Sonic 2. However there are some major and minor problems. The two major problems are bad convenance and some bad level design. Both of which are in the sky canon level, what the gamer doesn't know is sonic has many more attacks then one would expect, so one would never test it out. There is one small problem with that, there is a certain jump Sonic has to make in sky canon 1 using a trick that the player does not know unless he/she looks at a walkthrough or reads the book of all the attacks. If Sonic doesn't make this jump, he goes down a path that only a flight character can make, and dies. Of all the other moves sonic has (8 last I counted- 9 if you count "running') only about 2-3 are needed, and when trying to use all these moves to complete a level, the player will do moves he doesn't want to do, making gameplay a little wonky. The way to fix this is rather going "mega man X" and giving sonic very little moves with tight controls or "yoshi's island" a medium amount of moves with non-annoying tutorials. The final small complaint is the level enemies, there are too few and too easy, some jump out of your way.
    If you made it this far, great! I will end this by saying even though I focused on the game's problems, it is small when compared to the good. This is a well designed game. Everything was thought out and it feels like a classic Sonic game. The game is not too easy and not too hard. A well planned game that can stand up against its old rival Mario any day of the week    … Expand
  3. RodrigoMan636
    Mar 20, 2016
    6
    A game that sometimes makes the gameplay a little uncomfortable and while annoying.This game is not bad or good, it's a decent game.I like is the level design is very colorful and lively and that makes it go higher rating
  4. Untitled94
    Aug 16, 2017
    7
    Enjoyable when playing it casually, but when trying to complete it...still OK. It did improve on some things from the first SA, but it has the same problem from Sonic 2, where Sonic went too fast in the game. The biggest problem I have with this game is you have to collect all 7 chaos emeralds in a really stupid way with all characters! It's a good game, but there's just stuff that makesEnjoyable when playing it casually, but when trying to complete it...still OK. It did improve on some things from the first SA, but it has the same problem from Sonic 2, where Sonic went too fast in the game. The biggest problem I have with this game is you have to collect all 7 chaos emeralds in a really stupid way with all characters! It's a good game, but there's just stuff that makes it not as good as the first one.… Expand
  5. nullsolaris
    Jun 30, 2018
    7
    Cool game with some major flaws.
    tl;dr: It's very fast, looks good, sounds good, handles nicely, but it has poor level design, getting into special stages sucks, and a lot of unlock requirements are awful.
    For the most part, the game is a straight upgrade from Sonic Advance 1, with more speed, better graphics, better music, better presentation, it's just an impressive game all around.    Cool game with some major flaws.
    tl;dr: It's very fast, looks good, sounds good, handles nicely, but it has poor level design, getting into special stages sucks, and a lot of unlock requirements are awful.

    For the most part, the game is a straight upgrade from Sonic Advance 1, with more speed, better graphics, better music, better presentation, it's just an impressive game all around. It's a very slick game.

    The controls are pretty solid. Sonic's physics aren't quite as good as Advance 1's, but the increased speed and R-button trick system really help smooth things out. It's a shame that the B-button attacks are still basically useless... beyond Cream's, which I'll get to in a bit.

    The sense of speed the game provides is its biggest highlight, with a "mach barrier" speed boost that happens when each character runs at their normal top speed for an extended period of time. The trick system gives Sonic and friends way more air control after springs and other launchers, and it's brilliant.

    Unfortunately, the stage design is really rough at best.
    Blind launches over pits, enemies placed directly in the way, lots of little "react or get hit" sections, etc. It's rough.

    Still, when the game flows, it's brilliant, and you can feel all the little additions made to the game to keep it feeling fast just click.
    When it doesn't... yikes. Sky Canyon is a terrible stage that exemplifies all of the issues with the level design in this game. Music Plant is fun, but it has a few parts that just kill your flow completely. Egg Utopia is pretty good, except sometimes you're just flung into the void and you've got no idea why you just died.

    Getting into the special stages is obnoxious too. You have to find seven special rings in each stage, and the stages are not designed for exploration or backtracking, you need a pre-planned route to get to them. At least the Mode-7 style special stages themselves aren't too hard.
    Some of the unlock requirements are maddening.
    You need all emeralds to enable the Chao Garden (which was available at the start in Advance 1).
    Two emeralds to enable sound test (seriously, what was going on here?).
    Boss attack is unlocked after getting all the emeralds with three characters (at least you can just play XX, since it's just a boss rush anyway).
    Getting all of the emeralds with all four starting characters unlocks Amy (it's not worth the effort, she's a pink Sonic here that's slightly worse -- as many issues as Advance 1 Amy had, she was still interesting to play as, although I probably wouldn't be so hard on her here if the unlock requirements weren't so onerous).

    Running bosses are a mess.
    Sonic's double-tap forward dash almost makes them tolerable, since it makes it much easier to catch back up to the bosses, although some are still a bit obnoxious.
    Cream trivializes every single boss, up to and including the final boss, just by pressing B. Her B-attack targets any single enemy on screen and hits it. Repeat until the boss is dead.
    The rest of the characters have to slowly approach each boss, desperately hope they don't get hit, and try not to miss. Whatever happens, you're probably going to have to slowly run up again. Also, if you did get hit, your rings fly off. The stage loops around after a point too, so you'll probably run out of rings to collect if you take too long. Running bosses are a cool idea, but they're marred by the rough execution.

    In conclusion, the game is fast and sleek, but has a bunch of issues. It flows quite well, except when it doesn't, and it often doesn't. It looks and sounds great, and it's really polished... except for the actual stage design being really rough.    … Expand
  6. OmegaChase1002
    Dec 13, 2022
    5
    It's literally hold right to win. It's more autopilot than Sonic Forces.
    The Special Stages are really annoying to unlock, and the later half of the game then starts getting cheap with hazard placement. The game is so easy it's boring in one half, and insanely frustrating in the later half, with absolutely no in-between.
    Why even get the Emeralds, anyway? Vanilla never gets kidnapped if    It's literally hold right to win. It's more autopilot than Sonic Forces.
    The Special Stages are really annoying to unlock, and the later half of the game then starts getting cheap with hazard placement. The game is so easy it's boring in one half, and insanely frustrating in the later half, with absolutely no in-between.
    Why even get the Emeralds, anyway? Vanilla never gets kidnapped if you just don't go for Super Sonic.    … Expand
  7. Luigichief
    Aug 26, 2020
    7
    The level design is excellent and well diversified. And some worlds are really challenging. The game is full of new controls compared to its predecessor. The difficulty of the boss's fights is one of the biggest in the franchise (at least like normal Sonic). Now you can also select the levels and change your character between them at your discretion. One of the first Sonic films to haveThe level design is excellent and well diversified. And some worlds are really challenging. The game is full of new controls compared to its predecessor. The difficulty of the boss's fights is one of the biggest in the franchise (at least like normal Sonic). Now you can also select the levels and change your character between them at your discretion. One of the first Sonic films to have cutscenes, but they are very few and barely add. The story is the same as always.… Expand
  8. E102Gamma
    Aug 8, 2023
    7
    Attempts a new format of gameplay surrounding a new mechanic called "boost mode". Visuals, music and character animations are a sizable step up. Unfortunately, the gameplay is a slight step down due mainly to the Gameboy Advance's limitations. This was the fastest game in the series at the time though the Gameboy Advance's screen is too small for the player to see much coming. DespiteAttempts a new format of gameplay surrounding a new mechanic called "boost mode". Visuals, music and character animations are a sizable step up. Unfortunately, the gameplay is a slight step down due mainly to the Gameboy Advance's limitations. This was the fastest game in the series at the time though the Gameboy Advance's screen is too small for the player to see much coming. Despite this, the levels don't take advantage of this oversight too often for it to ruin the game entirely. As a matter of fact, the new boost mode mechanic makes this one of the most influential and important games in the series as it would pave the road follow up games would follow. The bosses are the best of the Advance series with three exceptions: Aero Egg, Egg-Go-Round, and Eggrobo Z. Special Stages are the worst in the series especially since the Chaos Emeralds are not longer shared among characters. Would recommend primarily for its influence on nearly every game in the series going forward.… Expand
  9. FeelStar
    Nov 25, 2022
    5
    Sonic Advance 2 is the perfect example of hold right to win gameplay. The game tries to do the SA2 styled speed stages in the 2D space and it's way less good because of it. The game has it's moment so of fun with the first half and continuing to have banger OSTs and good graphics for the GBA. But the go go go idea the game has make it the worst in the Advance trilogy and stands as simplySonic Advance 2 is the perfect example of hold right to win gameplay. The game tries to do the SA2 styled speed stages in the 2D space and it's way less good because of it. The game has it's moment so of fun with the first half and continuing to have banger OSTs and good graphics for the GBA. But the go go go idea the game has make it the worst in the Advance trilogy and stands as simply an average game.… Expand
  10. Yojimbo2015
    May 7, 2023
    7
    More hedgehog-based, speedy, colourful and not-quite-as-good-as-Mario platforming fun.

Awards & Rankings

11
#11 Best Game Boy Advance Game of 2003
10
#10 Most Discussed Game Boy Advance Game of 2003
7
#7 Most Shared Game Boy Advance Game of 2003

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. Eurogamer
    90
    It takes a tried, tested, and thoroughly flogged old genre and injects some more speed and ingenuity into it, and there's a heck of lot of replay value here, even if the game's levels can probably be beaten in a few hours.
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  2. Gamestyle
    80
    Slight negativity aside, Sonic Advance 2 represents Sonic at its best - fast, slick, looking great and offering yet more of those bonus features (now unlockable, however). Whilst technically there have been better Sonic games, none have managed to quite capture the frantic essence of speed and style like this does.
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  3. AceGamez
    80
    People looking for a good side-scrolling game will enjoy it and Sonic fans everywhere will be delighted at another chance to return to the old-school roots that made Sonic so great back in the day.
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