It’s been one whole year since the heroic hedgehog had joined Nintendo’s latest handheld the GBA (Game Boy Advance) to share with the world his newest adventures in a totally different land. His popularity was back and booming with progression ever since that day but; it was only going to get better as this following year he was going to be thrown into another wacky adventure and this time he’s not holding back on any of his way past cool tricks! However, this attack won’t be as calm as before for the fact that Dr. Robotnik has captured and held captive all of Sonic’s friends from before including a new animal never seen before in the franchise...is this the end for the echidna Knuckles? Will this rose of Amy’s wilt away before she even has the chance of escaping? How will Miles be able to look back to his greatest friend whom gave him his own special name “Tails”? Looks like this hedgehog truly must be a Sonic Boom and break the sound barrier in time in order to reach as well as rescue his friends from the mad doctor once more!............Well what are you waiting for I told you time is running out so LET’S JUICE!


Graphics: 9 out of 10

Normally I would drop the score when a game re-uses the same exact graphics for its characters but I don’t think they could’ve made the graphics any better than they already were, now if you’re to consider other factors of the graphics for this game such as the backgrounds and new movements for the characters (which I’ll talk more into detail about that later in the review) then you’ll see that they actually stand up pretty well allowing you to sort of get a feeling of the environment that you’re playing in. One of the best examples I can give is the Music Plant Stage which if you’ve played any Mario Kart game then you most likely know how colorful Rainbow Road is, then basically picture and area like that but with platform that make musical sounds and piano board in some parts of the level. Another Example could be the Techno Base Zone where basically it’s kind of like being inside a computer chip with its different tones of green and dark atmosphere while trying to maintain your speed before you lose control and fall down into a deep abyss of binary coding (sort of like the matrix) well that last part is just a joke but either way I do enjoy the look of this level quite a lot as it gives off a nice atmosphere so I’d say that the graphic quality of this game deserves an even 9 out of 10.


Sound: 8 out of 10

As you might know from reading my previous review of Sonic Advance, I talked about how Sonic games were being made onto a Nintendo handheld and explained how just because it was on their competitors hardware that It wouldn't’t sound horrid at all but not exactly the best either. I’m kind of torn between which games music I like better the previous game’s music or this game’s soundtrack because both of them are very well placed and fit each scenario nicely, I do feel though after a lot of thought as well as a check of each games music one last time I feel that this game tops the original Sonic Advance just slightly in the music department. With Techno Base’s frantic and chaotic like beat/touch, to Sky Canyon’s peaceful and a touch of ambiance feel, alongside the Boss theme with its darker and more serious tone that its predecessor as it beats your mood up so you feel empowered in order to defeat Robotnik’s machines and save your friends. The sound effects haven’t changed all that much from the previous game though so I can’t say much about them meaning this is where I should end of this section by giving the score for sound....which is an 8 out of 10


Addictiveness: 8 out of 10

If you’ve played the original Sonic Advance then you’ll probably noticed something that they’ve improved drastically from before....that is the speed of the characters in the game, because they didn’t use to go very fast at top speed but this game made it right and you literally blast off once you reach your fasted speed. So much so that you end up having after images shown behind you while you’re running (sort of like Hyper Sonic from Sonic 3 & Knuckles). Although if you think that’s the only thing that they’ve improved on to make this game so much more addictive then crack out your box of brain age to calculate again as this games story *which I’ll be explaining later on* has more depth compared to the first game which just throws you in without any idea of what’s going on. Another interesting change is the Special Stages which have been remade to follow the same basic idea of collecting a certain amount of rings in the allotted amount of time however; the layout is based this time more so on the Sonic 3/& Knuckles Blue Sphere stages but with just a bunch of rings and ring multipliers, personally this is my favorite special stage concept out of all the games in the Advance series. But even with how much I loved the stage itself here’s the crux/hard point of the matter and I’m sure many people will agree with me that actually getting to the special stage has become so very ANNOYING in this game as unlike before where you just had to find a spring in order to enter the area, in this game you must find 7 Special Rings as this game calls them which are located at various places in a level and you must collect ALL of them before you can enter the stage as if you miss even one “well too bad for you then” the game says. Lastly the final thing I’d like to bring up once more for the addictiveness section is the Tiny Chao Garden to which I know you might be thinking “Well, it couldn't’t have changed all that much from before so what’s the point” You’re partially right and partially wrong as yes not a lot has changed from the original Tiny Chao Garden but they did add one new thing to this game’s garden which is a new game to play instead of the Rock, Paper, Scissors like game that you’d play to earn rings to buy things for your chao with a trampoline type game where you must launch Cheese the Chao into the air to collect all the rings in the level before he falls to the ground 3 times otherwise it’s game over.  Other than all of this nothing else can really be said here so let’s move onto the next section by rating this particular section with a 8 out of 10 rating.


Story: 6 out of 10

Sure this game's story may not be as impressive as Adventure 2’s or the game gear Sonic 2’s storyline but it’s still miles better than the previous game's. In this game Dr. Robotnik has come back to take revenge upon Sonic while trying to rule the world and he’s taken many precautions and kidnapped Sonic Friends: “Miles “Tails Prower the fox, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy the love warped Hedgehog” this is unbeknown to our blue peace-loving fur ball at the time. Sonic soon returns to find that his friends alongside the peaceful animals of Leaf Forest, immediately he determines that the mad doctor is at his rotten schemes again and dashes off to rescued his friends while saving the once calm land. Along the way he finds that a young rabbit by the name of Cream has been taken hostage by Robotnik for a reason that he couldn't’t figure out later she thanks him for saving her and as he leaves Cream talks about needing to save her mother....could there be a connection here? Will Sonic be triumphed in his quest to save his friends, will we also learn more about the peculiar new animal friend named Cream the Rabbit you just have to find out by playing the game! It sets a good mood for the player and gets them enticed into the game, however this most definitely isn’t even close to the original Sonic Games on the Genesis or Dreamcast however; it still holds up somewhat well today so to be fair I’d say a low middle of the road 6 out of 10 is acceptable for the story.


Depth: 9 out of 10

Now if you enjoyed Sonic Advance’s number of levels and wish there was more to it then you’ll most likely enjoy this game a lot more that reason as unlike before there are 7 main levels each with 2 acts and a boss stage at the end also with a Final Zone which can be selected after finishing Zone 7, although it doesn’t end there as if you’re able to collect all chaos emeralds with Sonic while having beaten the game with all the other characters (no emeralds) then you’ll be able to reach a Secret Level known as True Area 53 where you can then fight Eggman in the airless confinement of space and receive the true ending. In case you may have forgotten while reading the review this far I mentioned that they kept the Tiny Chao Garden from the first game in the series and how they changed one of the mini-games to a ring collecting game, and to be truthfully honest I seem to enjoy this games garden a lot more. You may also be wondering if there is anything you can unlock through normal means by beating this game or completing certain objectives? Yes, there are actually quite a few things hidden that you can achieve by doing finishing certain goals so here’s basically a list of things you can earn if you do the following objectives: First off the sound test mode (earned by beating the game with 2 characters both having all the emeralds, and 6 additional songs if you beat the True Area Zone with Sonic) Secondly; you can unlock the Boss Mode in time attack (by beating the game with 3 characters all having the emeralds) Finally; you can unlock a certain hedgehog (by having completed the game with all available characters having each emerald). If we are to look at everything we’ve talked about as well as shown so far, then I’d say this game can be quite long if you’re dedicated to unlocking everything and if not then you’re still in for quite a long adventure either way so personally asking me I’d say a 9 out of 10 would be an appropriate score for Sonic Advance 2’s amount of depth.


Difficulty: 9 out of 10

As much as I may like this game I will say it can be face smashingly hard at some times and usually requires your full attention because even though I said that I loved having more speed in this game compared to before, using that same speed at wrong times can lead to your downfall as there are several spots which may require you to grab onto a certain object or bounce off one but if you’re moving too fast you might end up passing it by or undershooting it because you tried to slow down after seeing it...which in turn can cause you to lose a life. The bosses at least to me also seem to be buffed up in difficulty almost requiring you to go and grab rings almost every 10 seconds or so, in case you have a curious mind and would like to know some examples of the difficulty with these so called Area Enemies I’ll give 3 examples of what I mean. I think I will start off with the boss that gave me the most amount of trouble when I first played this game as a child that would be the level boss of Sky Canyon, why is this machine so hard to defeat from the rest well because it may seem easy at first but half-way through the fight it can use 2 moves that can instantly kill you EVEN IF YOU HAVE RINGS! Basically what you want to watch out for is during its second phase is when its hand starts swinging around in a circle or when you’re really close to the machine and it’s about to slap your character. My second pick for the hardest would probably be Egg Utopia’s boss as this fight uses the same anti-gravity scenario that was used in the previous acts of this stage, sure it doesn’t seem that hard right...well the thing that’s hard is you don’t know when he leaves the screen what side he’ll come out on as it could either be the top or bottom. Down to the final example now which is Ice Paradise’s boss which is easy enough at first because you just have to hit the ship while bouncing off a disc and dodging bombs that he’ll drop a bomb about every 3 ½ seconds, just like the others though once he gets hit enough his speed will increase on how fast he drops the bomb as it was increase close only 1 second, so you really have to keep track of the bombs speed while trying to attack the doctor at the same time. This game is probably the hardest in difficulty out of all the advance games but I say it’s still fun to pick up every once in a while you just have to remember to take things carefully while playing though which sadly leaves me to give this game a 9 out of 10 for difficulty.


The truths of this games events have been revealed to you dear fellow gamers, your friends have been kidnapped be the evil doctor in order to take over the land. You of course can’t let any more harm come towards your friends so just like our hedgehog we must dash off to rescue them I mean they are our friend aren’t they so let’s juice and cut it loose. The question is...will you advance forward for the second time? Will Sonic Advance 2 times in a row? Only one way to find out by playing this game, enjoy your adventure young travelers...

                                                                                                                                                                                                Sonic57tm 2013
                                                                                                                                                                                             (Erick J. Davis)

mohammedroxx3 : My latest review is finished, I guess you could also call it my final review of 2013. I hope you enjoy it

GenesisJunkie : I've just looked over and completed my newest review so when you have the time to look at it here is your summons

Barathemos : Turns out I felt alright so I'm able to turn in the review now, so here's your own special summons.

camjim12 : Not sure if you'll be online to see this but I know you'd like to be summoned to this review.

Eirinn : I've submitted my newest and last review for this year so I figured you'd like to be summoned here.

Razor-987 : Knowing how much you like my reviews, I figured you'll like this one so here is your summons my friend.

mohammedroxx3 : My latest review is finished, I guess you could also call it my final review of 2013. I hope you enjoy it

GenesisJunkie : I've just looked over and completed my newest review so when you have the time to look at it here is your summons

Barathemos : Turns out I felt alright so I'm able to turn in the review now, so here's your own special summons.

camjim12 : Not sure if you'll be online to see this but I know you'd like to be summoned to this review.

Eirinn : I've submitted my newest and last review for this year so I figured you'd like to be summoned here.

Razor-987 : Knowing how much you like my reviews, I figured you'll like this one so here is your summons my friend.

After reading your review I went and dug around in my Gameboy/GBC/GBA box where I keep all my Nintendo handheld games (It is a sad dusty box) to see if I have this game or the first one, I have this one. It is a pretty good game, you do go alot faster in this game lol. I don't know if its just me but sometimes it feels like you are going faster then the camera can keep up for something.

This is a great review though man, super long but entertaining!

GenesisJunkie : Yeah like I said there are some problems with how fast you go and I also think you outrun the camera. I'm just glad I finally finished it, now I can begin my preparations for next year.

Details details details. lol You definitely explained this game in depth (not sure how, since it's another 2D side scrolling Sonic game, not that this is a bad thing), and the reader will know it much better after finishing it. That's a good thing, and helpful.

Dang. That attention grabbing intro and all of those categories full of such crazy amounts of detail. lol. Once again like usual, awesome job on that review man! Thanks for the summon! I guess your reviews is the best for last for 2013. Keep it up man!

mohammedroxx3 : Yeah I figured since this was actually one of my very first video game I ever played that it was going to be an awesome intro and have alot of information. I'm glad you enjoyed it and I wanted to make sure I ended off the year right so I made sure to finish this review before the holiday season ended. I hope you're looking forward to my reviews in the following year of 2014!
 
Eirinn : I know right I surprised myself with how huge it ended up being I didn't think it would be bigger than 1,500 words. I guess some of the things I said to mohammed above can help explain why I could explain so much hahaha I always hope my review can be helpful to others both in reading and writing,  I'll make sure to summon you to my reviews when I being writing them for the upcoming year. 

Excellent work on this man! And you're right, I do greatly enjoy your reviews, they are so well planned out and well put together man. This is amazing how you are able to review game so frequently and still make them so detailed and descriptive. I am glad that you summoned me to this because I enjoy reading your awesome work. This is a masterpiece and I wouldn't change it a bit. 


Keep up the great work and keep making more great reviews like this. You put all other reviews to shame with your awesome work Merry christmas! 

Razor-987 : Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it...it's funny because recently my reviews have been so huge that I've only needed to write one review although; I still want to write two because that's how I attracted so many of my fans like: you, mohammed, eirinn, and so many others. Well alot of my friends did say I was good at writing so I guess I can't help but write so much in little than a months time haha I'm not sure if I'd say my reviews are the best of the site (cause I seriously doubt that) but I do try my best. Merry Christmas to you as well my friend I'm just glad I ended my reviewing year and seasonal cheer (no puns intended) with this great review. 

camjim12 : Sure have, I haven't talked to you much since after the tourney we were in lol. Corny or not alot of people have said the same thing to me so as long as you enjoyed the review then it's perfectly fine, yeah I actually do the review all in one go (no drafts or anything besides time). Glad to see you still enjoy my reviews!