The enemy Advances
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 9:23 pm
So I got Sonic Advance 3. To make a long story short, it's exactly what I was expecting: slightly above mediocre, quite a far shot from good.
Dimps has indeed, believe it or not, addressed nearly all of the major complaints with Sonic Advance 2, but I guess the thought of making a good game was too much for them to handle, so they found a whole slew of new ways to screw up.
The biggest new complaint is that Sonic's acceleration is based on how many Rings he's holding. Apparently this was also true of Advance 2, but I never even noticed it there, and here it's painfully obvious. At the beginning of the stage, Sonic controls like a wet sack of manure, and when you do finally collect enough Rings to embue him with some semblance of maneuverability, he moves too fast, which makes platform jumping situations trickier than they should be. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I really prefer it when my character's maneuverability doesn't shift everytime he takes damage.
The next big issue are the visuals. Goddamn, but this may well be the ugliest Sonic game ever, and that includes G Sonic. I look at a stage like Toy Kingom and I start realizing that this series has lost something it's never going to get back. The seizure-inducing graphics aren't made more bearable by the fact that everything's super sized. Much like Sonic & Tails on the Game Gear, you can never see enough of your surroundings to be comfortable.
The pair system is, as expected, just a gimmick. Basically, your teammate gives you access to a unique move or two, but it's not hard to decide who you should bring along: almost all the new moves are impractical and useless. All you have to do is find the partner who gives your character the same moves he's always had. Or you can just team up with Cream who gives you the ability to fling Cheese. It's hard to imagine why anyone would want to pair up with Amy, who takes away your ability to automatically spin when jumping.
On the bright side, the horribly dysfunctional rolling bosses are gone. The new ones still manage to be too frustrating, but the good news is you don't have to finish Act 2 every time you want to play them again, plus you only ever have to defeat each one once. (There are only a couple of them I think I'd ever get the urge to fight again.) The new robot, Gmerl, is totally redundant. Basically, you encounter him 4 or 5 times over the course of the game, and he's got the same basic, Mecha Sonic-esque attacks every time, plus a new one. Either way, he can be trashed in two seconds flat if you're willing to lose your Rings.
We're back to 3 Acts per Zone now, which is definitely a good thing, and there's even musical variations for each one, but I wish there some visual differentiation as well. One of my favorite things about S&K is that things changed between Acts, so you could tell you were still in the same Zone, but there was visual differentiation to keep it fresh. The level design, by and large, is better than the previous two Advance games, but still suffers from poor object placement that results in alot of cheap hits. The spike traps are out of control, now. It isn't clever design to place a set of spikes, as Squirrelknight put it, "everywhere it makes sense to stand." Also, the early Zones are alright, but by the time you get to level 5 or so, the possibility of falling to your doom makes you afraid to run at max speed. It's especially bad in Chaos Angel, which otherwise would probably be the coolest, most appealing new stage in the game.
I am, however, extremely pleased to see the return of the various devices that littered the lands in Sonic 3. Each Zone has a few unique speed or momentum-gaining contraptions, and it's usually pretty obvious just by looking at them how you're supposed to use them. Kudos to Dimps for that, at least.
Also, the new enemies possess rather impressive evasion skills. Usually it's no trouble just to bop or roll through the badniks without breaking your stride, but I find myself usually just letting these guys live. They contain only Rings, no helpless animals, so I feel no guilt.
I haven't actually played any Special Stages yet, but I still think the "find the Chao" entrance system is the best idea they've had since Sonic 3's "find the giant Rings." Like the puzzle mode in Sonic Pocket, it gives you reason to go back and explore the stages, plus, since every Chao you find is saved permanently, it's significantly less frustrating than the 7 emblems bullshit of Advance 2. Frankly, I even like this better than the "have 50 Rings at the end of an Act" gig.
The hub areas between stages become a nuisance very quickly. It's easy to keep lives stock-piled by playing the not-fun mini games accessible from these areas, but I would've rathered if your player count was simply recorded in your save data like it used to be.
All in all, while I think there's alot to be said for losing the pin-point precision system employed by Advance 2, Advance 3 still lacks the depth and creativity of the 16-bit days. It isn't as out and out frustrating as its predecessor, but it still just isn't a whole lot of fun, and I think three chances has been plenty enough to get it right.
Dimps has indeed, believe it or not, addressed nearly all of the major complaints with Sonic Advance 2, but I guess the thought of making a good game was too much for them to handle, so they found a whole slew of new ways to screw up.
The biggest new complaint is that Sonic's acceleration is based on how many Rings he's holding. Apparently this was also true of Advance 2, but I never even noticed it there, and here it's painfully obvious. At the beginning of the stage, Sonic controls like a wet sack of manure, and when you do finally collect enough Rings to embue him with some semblance of maneuverability, he moves too fast, which makes platform jumping situations trickier than they should be. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I really prefer it when my character's maneuverability doesn't shift everytime he takes damage.
The next big issue are the visuals. Goddamn, but this may well be the ugliest Sonic game ever, and that includes G Sonic. I look at a stage like Toy Kingom and I start realizing that this series has lost something it's never going to get back. The seizure-inducing graphics aren't made more bearable by the fact that everything's super sized. Much like Sonic & Tails on the Game Gear, you can never see enough of your surroundings to be comfortable.
The pair system is, as expected, just a gimmick. Basically, your teammate gives you access to a unique move or two, but it's not hard to decide who you should bring along: almost all the new moves are impractical and useless. All you have to do is find the partner who gives your character the same moves he's always had. Or you can just team up with Cream who gives you the ability to fling Cheese. It's hard to imagine why anyone would want to pair up with Amy, who takes away your ability to automatically spin when jumping.
On the bright side, the horribly dysfunctional rolling bosses are gone. The new ones still manage to be too frustrating, but the good news is you don't have to finish Act 2 every time you want to play them again, plus you only ever have to defeat each one once. (There are only a couple of them I think I'd ever get the urge to fight again.) The new robot, Gmerl, is totally redundant. Basically, you encounter him 4 or 5 times over the course of the game, and he's got the same basic, Mecha Sonic-esque attacks every time, plus a new one. Either way, he can be trashed in two seconds flat if you're willing to lose your Rings.
We're back to 3 Acts per Zone now, which is definitely a good thing, and there's even musical variations for each one, but I wish there some visual differentiation as well. One of my favorite things about S&K is that things changed between Acts, so you could tell you were still in the same Zone, but there was visual differentiation to keep it fresh. The level design, by and large, is better than the previous two Advance games, but still suffers from poor object placement that results in alot of cheap hits. The spike traps are out of control, now. It isn't clever design to place a set of spikes, as Squirrelknight put it, "everywhere it makes sense to stand." Also, the early Zones are alright, but by the time you get to level 5 or so, the possibility of falling to your doom makes you afraid to run at max speed. It's especially bad in Chaos Angel, which otherwise would probably be the coolest, most appealing new stage in the game.
I am, however, extremely pleased to see the return of the various devices that littered the lands in Sonic 3. Each Zone has a few unique speed or momentum-gaining contraptions, and it's usually pretty obvious just by looking at them how you're supposed to use them. Kudos to Dimps for that, at least.
Also, the new enemies possess rather impressive evasion skills. Usually it's no trouble just to bop or roll through the badniks without breaking your stride, but I find myself usually just letting these guys live. They contain only Rings, no helpless animals, so I feel no guilt.
I haven't actually played any Special Stages yet, but I still think the "find the Chao" entrance system is the best idea they've had since Sonic 3's "find the giant Rings." Like the puzzle mode in Sonic Pocket, it gives you reason to go back and explore the stages, plus, since every Chao you find is saved permanently, it's significantly less frustrating than the 7 emblems bullshit of Advance 2. Frankly, I even like this better than the "have 50 Rings at the end of an Act" gig.
The hub areas between stages become a nuisance very quickly. It's easy to keep lives stock-piled by playing the not-fun mini games accessible from these areas, but I would've rathered if your player count was simply recorded in your save data like it used to be.
All in all, while I think there's alot to be said for losing the pin-point precision system employed by Advance 2, Advance 3 still lacks the depth and creativity of the 16-bit days. It isn't as out and out frustrating as its predecessor, but it still just isn't a whole lot of fun, and I think three chances has been plenty enough to get it right.
