Sonic Advance 2
From Sonic Retro
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| Sonic Advance 2 |
|---|
| System(s): Game Boy Advance |
| Publisher: Sega |
| Developer: Sonic Team / Dimps |
| Genre: 2D Platform |
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Sonic Advance 2 is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series that was released for the Game Boy Advance. It is a side-scrolling platformer based on a modified version of Sonic Advance's engine. Compared to its predecessor, Sonic Advance 2 contains more and larger levels, the overall difficulty is higher making it a more challenging game, an enhanced sound track, and offers better control over the playable characters. Most levels start in a corner of a map and require to move uphill or downhill.
This game was the first to introduce Cream the Rabbit. With her, not only can you fly faster than Tails, but Cream can summon Cheese the Chao to kill an enemy or hit a boss by pressing B.
All characters can now perform various stunts when flying through the air and not curled in a ball (i.e. after being launched from a spring or similar). These are activated by being launched off of any spring, trampoline or ramp, then holding a direction on the D-pad and pressing the R button. Some of these stunts can be used to destroy enemies in the air while not spinning or to reach high-up places. In Sky Canyon, these are required.
Another new feature is shattering the sound barrier. If a character runs as fast as possible for a period of time without stopping or slowing down, they will shatter the sound barrier and leave a trail of afterimages behind them. While in shattering the sound barrier, it is possible to run over water, and the attack used with the B button becomes more powerful. The delay before reaching shattering can be decreased somewhat by collecting rings. Certain objects in the level (red booster wheels, for instance) will instantly force the character into the state.
In each act, there are seven Special Rings. Collecting all seven of these and completing the Act, without dying, will take the player to a Special Stage, where a player can win a Chaos Emerald. The stage accessed and emerald obtained both depend on which zone the player was in when they accessed the stage. Unlike Sonic Advance, emeralds are not shared between characters.
All bosses in this game, except for the final boss, take place while running along a horizontally wrapping area, akin to the Mushroom Hill Zone Boss in Sonic & Knuckles. Rings will appear in groups of three. This format makes any attack other than jumping and Sonic's insta-shield or Cream's ability to command Cheese to attack completely useless, and once the player has lost their rings it is difficult to regain them as they fly off the left side of the screen; both of these facts have led to the bosses being heavily criticized by fans. Spin-dashing, however, IS possible, but extremely difficult to do in real time: one must go to the right side of the screen, then suddenly brake, and very quickly stop braking, duck and spindash before reaching the left side of the screen.
This is one of several games to include the Tiny Chao Garden minigame. This game requires you complete the game with one character and all seven emeralds to unlock it.
Contents
Special Stages
The special stages require you to get 300 rings under a time limit. And getting to them is even harder! You must take a certain route through a level to gain 7 Special Rings, and not die under any circumstances or you will lose them all.
Production Credits
Executive Producer: Hideki Sato
Producer: Yuji Naka, Hiroshi Matsumoto
Line Producer: Koichi Sakita
Director: Akinori Nishiyama
Art Director: Yuji Uekawa
Designer: Sachiko Kawamura, Kazuko Ito, Makoto Yonezu
Programmer: Takahiro Hamano, Yoshihisa Hashimoto, Takaaki Saito, Katsuya Kuramoto, Tatsuaki Nakashima, Hiroki Yoshitake, Takaya Yamane, Shin-ichi Manabe, Kuninori Douno
Sound: Hironobu Inagaki, Atsuyoshi Isemura, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Yutaka Minobe, Teruhiko Nakagawa
Sega of America
Localization Producer: Yosuke Moriya
Localization Manager: Osamu Shibamiya
Vice President of Product Development: Jin Shimazaki
Project Test Lead: Joseph Mora
Testers: Leonard Ko, Adam Zehring, Ian Grutze, Cody Drake
Vice President of Entertainment Marketing: Mike Fischer
Senior Product Manager: Rich Briggs
Creative Services: Robert Schonfisch, Matthew Shell, Miles Steuding, Arianne McCarthy
Advertising: Caroline McNiel, Teri Higgins
Public Relations: Kirsten Merit, Bryce Baer
Manual Production: Yoshihiro Sakuta, Satoru Ishigami, Colin Restall
Special Thanks: Rozana Hui, Kathy Schoback, Yusuke Suai
THQ Inc.
Executive Vice President - Worldwide Studios: Jack Sorensen
VP - Product Development: Philip Holt
Executive Producer: Brian F. Christian
Producer: Derek C. Smith
VP- Marketing: Peter Dille
Group Marketing Manager: Alison Quirion
Associate Product Manager: Heather Hall
Director - Creative Services: Howard Liebeskind
Senior Creative Services Manager: Kathy Helgason
Creative Services Manager: Kirk Somdal
Media Relations Manager: Reilly Brennan
Associate Media Relations Manager: Erik Reynolds
Resources
Box Art
EU cover
JP cover
JP Player's Choice cover
Artwork
| Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems | |
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2001 Sonic Advance | Tiny Chao Garden 2002 Sonic Advance 2 2003 Sonic Pinball Party | Sonic Battle 2004 Sonic Advance 3 | Sonic X: A Super Sonic Hero 2005 Sonic Advance & Sonic Pinball Party | Sonic Advance & ChuChu Rocket! | Sonic Advance & Sonic Battle | Sonic Battle & ChuChu Rocket! | Sonic Pinball Party & Sonic Battle | Sonic Pinball Party & Columns Crown 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis Demos Sonic Advance 3
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