Sonic Advance Despises You

Is Sonic Advance the true Sonic the Hedgehog 4? Let's find out.
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[@spontman]

Fun fact not related to Sonic Advance whatsoever: I have a Twitch channel now! www.twitch.tv/spontman

[@SonicTheCutehog]

You'll learn why "Dimps Level Design" is a meme

[@kindasomeviews]

Ah yes the "Pits Advance" series is truly a classic. How great it was that it extended to Rush and (ESPECIALLY) Rush Adventure

[@kingstarscream320]

Dimps Sonic is 2D Sonic for advanced players.

[@_Hero_Link_]

​@@kingstarscream320ah, i see what you did there

[@sonicultimateyt1090]

Wouldn't be surprised if they made a kid Icarus game

[@esmooth919]

It is especially egregious in the Sonic Rush series. Idk about Colors DS, tho, cuz i never got to play it.

[@robertlauncher]

My least favorite thing about this trilogy is how cumbersome they make getting the emeralds. We had it perfect with Sonic 3, just find one giant ring and jump in. Advance 1, despite being mildly annoying, is also the nicest of the trilogy in this regard. Be afraid, be very afraid.

[@yusifudo46]

I only got the Emeralds in 1 after a few months and almost a year with 3. I still haven't gotten them with 2 to this day.😅

[@robertlauncher]

@@yusifudo46 I’ve only done it in the first game. 2 especially is the example of “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

[@fictionalmediabully9830]

​@@robertlauncher Just remember that these games were designed to be played by children. Because they have a lot more time for games but less money, they're going to play the same games over and over again. So games with "ain't got time for that" completion goals more or less serve as time wasters until they can afford the next game. Of course, you could argue such valuable time is better spent on learning. Well, don't argue with me; argue with kids, lol.

[@Hysteria98]

3 is the only one I ever fully did. I found 3 to be the easiest.

[@robertlauncher]

@@fictionalmediabully9830 No, I’d argue time is better spent on better games. Because I was a kid when this came out, and that was my solution, back to Wario Land 4.

[@NeatOnTheRocks]

Ok "Twitter Zone" got me I'll give you that

[@kakhome1]

If this one has evil level design, I can't even begin to imagine what you'll say of Sonic Advance 2's design (imagine Egg Rocket, but most of the game...)

[@spontman]

@@kakhome1 Oh boy...

[@gamedestroyer112]

Sonic advanced 3 is even worse tho. In advanced 2... collecting all 7 emeralds requires you getting 7 special rings as all characters to get amy and super sonic and chao garden. And ya dont get to play as super sonic in the main game. 3 is even wprse as you need to collect 3 chao per stage and its literally the same after that. Use an emulayor if ya wanna try this. But 2s stages are at least good. and the bosses actually are unique this time. And it feels oh so much smoother. ​@spontman

[@robertlauncher]

@@gamedestroyer112I don’t entirely agree there. If I remember right, Advance 3 saves your chao so that you don’t have to do it in one run, and the levels are better designed for exploration with fewer points of no return. Advance 2 expects it all in one run and often will destroy your chance the instant you pass one of the special rings because why would I want to be able to backtrack when the game is making me collect things?

[@msgameandcake628]

@@robertlauncher Yeah, Advance 3 levels are very much designed to be explored, and the ways that different character combos modify your abilities makes exploring and re-exploring levels an enjoyable experience. You only ever need to collect each chao once, and going into the chao garden area of the level select shows you a list of all chao in the game, letting you know what levels you still need to explore more and even where the chao are within the levels relative to eachother. Really, I'd dare say that chao collecting in Advance 3 is probably one of the best parts of getting the chaos emeralds in ANY Sonic game. Then the game makes you collect the Special Keys in order to actually enter the special stages. After playing through every level in an area to collect all of the chao, probably going through each stage multiple times, the game makes you replay levels even more in order to collect 1 Special Key per level completion, which translates to 1 attempt at a special stage in the hub area. At the very least, while the Special Keys are technically "hidden" within the levels, I don't think I've ever played through a level and missed one after I'd unlocked the ability to find them by collecting all the chao. Replaying levels while experimenting with different character combos can help somewhat, but even that can only help so much if you need to retry the special stages repeatedly, and these special stages are HARD! Especially near the end, they expect some pretty excellent precision in order to get the chaos emeralds! If the game just let you have infinite special stage retries after finding all the chao, or even just gave you the chaos emerald for finding all the chao at all, that would be the perfect chaos emerald hunt! This middle step with the Special Key adds a layer of tedium that is difficult to ignore, unfortunately.

[@orangeslicerz]

Really? I don't really see that much except for sky canyon.

[@pencildude9516]

Does anyone else notice how Sonic has peach colored eyelids in Advance 1 and 2, then in 3, his eyelids are blue?

[@ceumadorgas9407]

Never played Advance 1, but Adv 3 is the first sonic game I ever played and I replay it from time to time. Just like you said about Adv1, Adv3 also shines in exploration, but punishes you unfairly in the level design department. Let me explain myself a bit, it isn't exactly the level format that is the problem, but the enemy and hazard placement (which is part of level design of course). If there were less punishing spikes, pitfalls and weirdly placed enemies, those games would be masterpieces! Can't say the same about Adv2 though, I hate that game, specially the bosses.

[@fictionalmediabully9830]

"Sonic Advance" is an enjoyable game, despite its hostile behaviour towards newcomers. Fair warning: the sequels are even more evil. 😈

[@Benjawin6671]

"They had us in the first half ngl"

[@Rutawind]

After watching an Amy speedrun, you'd be surprise how easily she can cheese Egg Rocket. Sonic is the true hard mode lol

[@Surgemaster2012]

As someone who has played Sonic Advance more times than any person should, the more I play it the more Amy's gameplay just feels perfect. She comes off as a character with her own strengths and weaknesses, rather than a gimmick. I get that a more casual perspective can make her off putting, but I also think people place TOO much emphasis on surface level observations and just assume she's bad without even understanding her playstyle. Even after they played the other three. For me, Advance 1 feels like its level design is most suited around Amy's abilities once you understand how they work, especially her useful Hammer vault from Adventure, which can be used to gain speed on loops if you time it right, (In fact I recommend trying this while running, as she can make it up slopes you'd normally spin dash around, there's also a bit of forward momentum to it too) can gain fast horizontal momentum on slopes and hitting springs with her hammer is so useful for shortcuts. All the levels in some way have a use for Amy's abilities, Ice Mountain plays up her ability to hit springs (as she goes twice as far hitting springs, which can make her find Special Springs as good as Tails in some cases) In fact as early as Neo Green Hill Act 2 you can hit the first spring you find with Amy's hammer, then use the hammer spin to bounce off of a badnik and a shield box onto a higher path, and in Ice Mountain her Hammer spin can be useful for mid air descending and springs, so well and proper hammer vault timings (especially how much distance you can gain underwater using it) come on full display and she breaks the boss of that level. Even in Egg Rocket this is also useful. In fact when I play Advance 1 I almost always play Amy with Tails thrown in because he is the second best character after Amy, because of his high airtime and ability to cheese certain bosses. Also if you hammer flip as you're running down slopes Amy will go far horizontially. Amy can also be broken against bosses too, especially the first boss, ice mountain boss and the mecha Knuckles. Even the cosmic angel boss is good for Amy (even though that boss sucks design wise) by comparison the more I play the game, the worse Sonic felt because the game's levels are designed around verticality and the upper paths are designed to be faster, Sonic is the ONLY one of the 4 who lacks any means to scale any level vertically unless you know the level design well. My big issue is he plays the game too honestly and all of its dishonest features hit the hardest because of it. Even his insta shield lacks range because Amy's hammer has range to combat enemies too. Her flaws don't come into play that much once you know how she works. Even the Hop has uses.

[@WSBM14]

Figures. Sonic fans tore Amy apart for being too different from Sonic because they didn't have the attention span to understand the point, and sega responded by making her too similar to sonic or not playable at all

[@Cyberguy64]

I hate that modern Sonic stuff has just turned Amy into "Girl Sonic with a hammer." She was always more interesting as the relatively weak character who was full of unique tricks and techniques to make up for it. It played into her character as "The fangirl who pushes herself to impress her superhero crush" really well too. It was inspiring.

[@_Hero_Link_]

that's what i'm Saying

[@lpfan4491]

I beat the game with every character and all of them were fun to play. 😭

[@kingdedede5570]

sonics insta shield is so bad in advance

[@-oldhope-]

Why am I just finding out that youtube has sound? AMAZING video, and the first video I ever *heard* on youtube the platform- I will share this

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

Isn’t “Ice Cap with water” just Ice Cap Zone?

[@somehelluvafanboy8357]

Finally, a review of Sonic Xylophone Saxophone (you started it, you son of a biscuit)

[@TheAzulmagia]

I enjoyed Sonic Advance as a kid and even 100% completed Sonic Advance 3. I never had Sonic Advance 2, though, and wound up trying it years later. Boy howdy, did I *hate* Sonic Advance 2.

[@MikeDeeJackson]

14:09 Super Sonic does his best Kazuya impression from Tekken 1 😂

[@donstar8318]

Mooned by Sonic…. Oh dear…

[@justyumi4410]

Evil Con Carne, you say? 😳 seriously though, those special stages are rough.

[@N3Selina]

something about "super sonic goes back down to earth and oges like mmmmmmmmmmmm!" is just so funny good video

[@officialFredDurstfanclub]

Oh ho ho wait until you get to Advance 2

[@reshawshid]

I'm glad to see that you recognize the spikes coming out of nowhere as bad game design. So many people nowadays excuse things like that just because some game journo failed the Cuphead tutorial years ago. You're right, the game shouldn't just come at you out of nowhere. And for a long time, that was just understood by devs and gamers. 10:49 You missed an opportunity to put in one of Eggman's "Get a load of this" lines. 12:11 It's a good thing you added "yet" there, because oh boy, you're in for a treat with Advance 2. The stages themselves WOULD be fine, but... well you'll see.

[@littlegreengoblin1038]

I think the reason this game was so light and had a simple story was because this was the first game after SEGA stopped making consoles, so they had to market to an entirely new audience now by having their games on Nintendo systems. I’m pretty sure it’s the same thing with Sonic Heroes

[@ToluwanimiAdeleke]

After seeing the first special stage I gave up. My 11 year old brain couldn't comprehend such travesty (I'm 14 now tho) but still it's dimps😅

[@esmooth919]

2:02 Ice Cap Zone (Sonic 3) had water in it.

[@spontman]

@@esmooth919 Where?! I've never seen a single drop of it.

[@LegendaryEvil75]

​​@@spontmanWhen I played the game as Knuckles and made it to ice cap zone act 2, I actually saw water in the underground cave (even though the water just covers a bottomless pit so I have no idea why they even added water in ice cap in the first place. Maybe just for the floating platforms on the water).

[@LateefA519]

This is a sonic game for experienced sonicplayers.They really challenge the plalyer a lot more than the genesis classics

[@jruler93]

It took me years to figure out the trick to the special stages in this game. Here's the trick; don't go all the way out to the walls, only go partway. If you go out too far, you'll mis nearly every ring. Also, when you fail, you can grab a nearby checkpoint, find 100 rings or a 1up monitor and die, then make your way to the special spring for another attempt. That's faster than trying to do the whole stage over again.

[@Mikeystar45]

I enjoyed your music selection while you reviewed Sonic Advance. Most of the tracks I recognize from a couple of atmospheric drum n' bass albums released during this decade. Nice stuff!! 🙌

[@supper_e1823]

This game is an essential part of my GBA game collection. Playing through the game over and over with all of the characters is very fun. This was the game that got me through a long flight a few years back. Great game! ^-^ We don’t talk about the special stages though…

[@jackskellington3545]

0:04 THQ Nordic? Weren’t they the dudes behind Cars The Video Game, Cars Mater-National Championship, and Cars Race-O-Rama, and other goated non-cars games?

[@sonictiger6716]

Shadow Gens review when?

[@spontman]

when i make it

[@SaadakAbdulkadir]

3:23 as a baldi fan, i got makor whiplash with that

[@LozioMann]

I got an ad after seeing a single frame of his face I think I went into shock and recovery

[@Master_48]

Thank you for making this video. I thought something was wrong with me when I was grumbling about the cheap 'beginner trap' setups to myself. I feel seen now. Hopefully Sonic Advance 2 surpasses my expectations, I've heard it's fast paced.

[@StinkTerios]

Sonic Advance seems to be a great test to find out if your sense of perspective is broken or not.

[@Godzilla30801]

Yes! New video! Really good one too. I like how you touched on the amazing idle animations. Genuinely some of my favorites ever. Also, I don’t mean to scare you, but the level design problems don’t get any better in 2 and 3. I actually think Advance 1 has the best level design out of the trilogy lol. Still fun games, just occasionally infuriating as well 😂

[@hendester05]

OMG, One of my favourite Sonic games in an evil incarnate of one of my favourite Sonic games?😅

[@animosity3771]

12:59 I found the safest way to beat this boss was to chill on the opposite side, wait for the boss to charge, then hit them and switch sides. Repeat. 12:00 As someone who got the emeralds legit, yikes. Wonder how much time I personally wasted.

[@SonkDoesStuff]

sonic advance's special stages can go take a walk in hell

[@FlyingDuckMan360]

@SonkDoesStuff They have a special spot reserved for them there, along with Christina Miller, David Zaslav, and the CEO of Mattel.

[@lesonicvic]

Never struggled with the Sonic Advance 1 special stages, they are quite easy, the hardest part is finding them. Still hasn't beaten the 7th stage in Advance 3, and I won't talk about the Advance 2 ones.

[@CarlosSilva-bh4bi]

I believe Sonic Advance 3 actually is the best of this arc of the story It goes after Sonic Battle and its about eggman discovering how to use the Master Emerald to bend reality

[@furballo1992]

amy can do her hammer front flip. Get her running at max speed where her hammer appears and then attack she will do the flip.

[@Nastara]

I remember this game and Sonic Advance 2 had some sort of cart error that would randomly unlock the final stage for you. Was fucking surreal.

[@SaddieMoon]

The special stages become way better and easier to understand (for the most part) if you use a save state right before starting the special stage. Like, it was able to allow me to figure out where I need to be to be able to collect the rings on the sides of the screen without abusing the spin ability. I guess kinda like playing them because of it.

[@noah_ignis]

This was a good video especially since Sonic Advance was my first game and yea the more times i go back to it i know how to avoid the beginners traps but its very BS with its level design i still have a fondness to it but i rather play other 2D Sonic games for me this was a good introduction back in 2006. Also that little moment where you talked about the music was literally you after eating Taco Bell I've never laughed this hard in your videos despite you having very funny out of context moments and this really had me on the floor. Keep up with the videos ☺️🤣

[@randomfromscratch]

i guess i at least know to stay away from SAdvance's special stages, considering how Rush was the only one to get the halfpipes somewhat right (it took me so long to get every emerald in that, but i did it. thankfully, DIMPS wasn't evil that time around and made it to where you can attempt special stages infinitely just by finding something to perform tricks on and... well, performing tricks. the amount of boost you get resets after exiting, so it's a cheese)

[@kingstarscream320]

You’ll love the Advance 2 bosses. They are high octane action all the way through, with the speed of the fight controlled by player skill.

[@TheFatestPat]

This game's horrible Special Stages taught me about depth perception.

[@henrybitencourt]

12:50 elon musk has ruined the letter X now instead of "x zone" is "twitter zone"💀

[@evilartnboy]

There is a reason I only got to the sky zone once as a kid

[@Cool2Smart]

"To Ice Cap with water" so just ice cap, got it

[@timtanium7074]

A couple months back I played all three Advance games on their original cartridges with the Gamecube's Game Boy Player (specifically the fan made GBI that makes the visuals and framerate not suck. Also no save states or advanced features of course) and had a lot of fun with this one. I am extremely split on how I would rank the three games imo because they all have their ups and downs but I also got all the chaos emeralds in each game and it was a horrible slog for ALL THREE!!! Tentatively gonna say Advance 1 is my favorite right now

[@TophDaGreat]

Still have my copy in my GBA to this day

[@JustJulyo]

I skipped this and went straight to 2

[@FlyingDuckMan360]

@JustJulyo I wish I had done that myself.

[@FlyingDuckMan360]

I have not played Sonic Advance 1 in years because of how goshawful the Special Stages are. You have to be pixel-perfect to get the rings you need to get the Chaos Emeralds, and it's simply not worth my time and frustration.

[@espelhodasconstelacoes]

Cool analysis man! God bless ya and Jesus loves ya! :D

[@donstar8318]

Oh jeez… r we mathing… sonic shouldn’t be that crazy….

[@-oldhope-]

Second time watching this video and I only just realized it's about Sonic? Hello?

[@Amit7.]

Special stage 7, don't try it!!! The devil made this 😢

[@Edafe-p9i]

I've played this game and beat it when I was 8, and reviews like this made kid me go: "get good, scrub". Still agree with that statement.

[@LobotomyTC]

"This game is clearly trying to keep things simple to appeal to older fans." Not quite. Sonic Advance was the first Sonic game not released in a post-SEGA Hardware world. They basically thew Advance 1 out there as a soft reboot for people just coming in. You also missed an ability Advance Sonic has. Jump and doubletap forward or backward.

[@esmooth919]

10:01 And here we are at the worst part of all of the Sonic advance games. Emerald hunting was always a chore, and Advance 3 is the most egregious! I just know I'm never going to 100% Sonic advance 2 ever again!

[@adg1390]

I never chose Sonic in those games, Amy is so fun 🎉

[@docjoe86]

The feeling is mutual!

[@thefizzwizz1662]

Something tells me you'll either love or hate Advance 3 (which is my personal favorite of the 3). Probably love but you can never really know with these things. Also whoever said "fuck no" to getting the chaos emeralds in Advance 2 They were right. Don't even bother. If you think the grind for Advance 1 is bad...

[@SaddieMoon]

I wouldn’t say it’s evil. But it’s got problems in its level design.

[@sonicmeerkat]

you used that title too soon, advance 2 is pits galore and has the most cumbersome special stage entry in the entire series, only closely matched by 3 which doesn't require you to meet the requirements in one attempt.

[@jacobleetaylor]

Been waiting for this video 👌🏻

[@lpfan4491]

If Sonic Advance hates me, then Sonic 2 wants me dead. Seriously, Advance 1 is not that bad, I 100%ed it with android touch controls. No idea about Advance 2 or 3 tho, never played them.

[@francesfuego6950]

Idk I like these games but in my personal list sonic advanced is on the lower tier . I think Sonic Rush easily takes its place for Nintendo handheld sonic.

[@JJFBlaster]

So you CAN play as Tails in this game? Got it

[@spontman]

I can't comment one way or the other

[@Sonic-q6i]

Nah this that good shit

[@manslikeaqeelsonicadvances8566]

This game is cool.

[@M0mazosMissy]

Me yet again watching the game i enjoyed and loved being destroyed by fanbase

[@Me22231]

You Can Keep Sonic & Knuckles Genesis For All I Care But I Want Sonic 3 To Be a Better Genesis Game Without Knuckles in It Cause I Think It's Time We Replace Knuckles in Sonic 3 Genesis Game With Scourge The Hedgehog

[@curtainsandsuch]

You Talk Like Queen Deltarune

[@hamzamohamed6774]

5:25 bro you didn't even test it Press down and B at the same time

[@SAFTA_SONIC-AI]

We at tubetastic love you

[@josh984gamer5]

Give me advance 2 or especially 3 any day

[@Magaleg]

Sonic advance is fire

[@kingstarscream320]

What a classic. Advance 2 is even better. Those SNK veterans were definitely trying to make more challenging games than the Genesis games.

[@jasofficial6438]

Same 0:18

[@RedNK]

6:13 you sly dog

[@GamingAficionado-s4k]

0 views in 0 seconds bro fell off (I am a little shit I could not resist)

[@notimportant3033]

4 likes in 1 hour, bro fell off

[@spontman]

​@@notimportant3033 0 likes in 11 minutes? smh

[@GamingAficionado-s4k]

@@notimportant3033 its in ur name buddy

[@Alizamk1]

skill issue

[@TheBlur182]

The exagerated rant about the special zones made me unfollow you

[@spontman]

k

[@baka-ptmx3523]

Noob 😂

[@ChrisRoblero-o5c]

😑oooooohhhhhhh