Sonic Advance 2

"Dr. Eggman is up to his old tricks!"

- Tagline

Sonic Advance 2 (ソニックアドバンス２) is a platforming game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Dimps for the Game Boy Advance in 2002. It was published by Sega in Japan, while THQ released the game in North America and Infogrames in PAL regions. The game is the sequel to Sonic Advance and is based on a modified version of said game's engine.

Sonic Advance 2 is more fast-paced compared to its predecessor, focusing on more linear, rapid gameplay with additional features, larger Zones and greater difficulty. The game also introduces Cream the Rabbit and her Chao friend, Cheese, who would become recurring characters in the series.

Plot
Taking place on an undefined island, Dr. Eggman has again begun kidnapping Animals and turning them into robots so he can build the Dr. Eggman Empire. This time however, he has kidnapped Tails and Knuckles too. Learning of his friends' kidnapping, Sonic rushes off once to save them. Along the way, Sonic saves a young rabbit named Cream and her Chao friend, Cheese, after defeating Eggman and his EggHammerTankII. Cream then joins Sonic on his adventure to find her missing mother, Vanilla.

Sonic soon rescues Tails from Eggman too, although Tails has no idea what Eggman is up to, who joins Sonic on his mission. When Sonic finds Knuckles, the echidna has been tricked by Eggman into fighting Sonic. After being defeated and chided by Sonic, Knuckles comes with him to get back at Eggman. The heroes eventually track Eggman to his Egg Utopia space station, which they destroy, and Cream finds Vanilla in the aftermath, unharmed.

If the player has not gathered all seven Chaos Emeralds for Sonic by then, he falls down to earth after destroying Egg Utopia, where he is greeted by his friends. If the player has all the Chaos Emeralds however, the last story will unlocked. As Vanilla is by herself watching Flickies, she gets sucked into a cloaked mech piloted by Eggman, who then takes his mech into space. With Sonic and his allies arriving too late to save Vanilla, Cream begins crying, but Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and goes after Eggman. Destroying Eggman's mech, Super Sonic grabs the Capsule containing Vanilla. During atmospheric reentry though, the Capsule breaks apart, causing Sonic to revert back to normal. Sonic still catches Vanilla and lands safely though, and Cream shares a tearful reunion with her mother while Sonic is welcomed back by his friends. Amidst the celebration though, everyone notice Sonic is gone, having left for his next adventure.

Gameplay
Sonic Advance 2 is platformer game with five playable characters to choose from: Sonic the Hedgehog, Cream the Rabbit, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna and Amy Rose. Aside of Sonic, the characters have to be unlokced by defeating certain Zone Bosses in the Single Player Mode of the game. The basic goal in the Single Player mode is to reach the end of each Act of a Zone (a level in the game) in ten minutes. Like Sonic Advance, the game has automatic saving progress, as the game saves the specific character's process, including the Chaos Emeralds, which each character has collected and will be "shared" between all of them.

All playable characters in the game have basic moves Spin Jump, Spin Attack and Spin Dash, as well each playable character has different set of melee moves, like in Sonic Advance. Pressing up on makes the playable character do unusual different Appeal animation, that is only featured in this game. Because of this, the basic maneuver to look up and down to view the surroundings is not present in this game. When the playable character is floating in mid-air, the player can activate the Mid-Air Trick Action by pressing R button and holding a different direction on to make the playable character perform rapid move to given direction. The Trick Action is useful to reach high or long distances, where the player's normal momentum cannot make him/her reach. Some of Mid-Air Trick Actions for certain playable characters can destroy enemies as well.

Another new feature introduced in Sonic Advance 2 is Boost Mode, that can be achieved when the playable character has reached to maximum running speed. Running through Dash Panels or horizontal Springs can easily make the player enter the Boost Mode as well. The Boost Mode gives an ability to perform Boost Action for each playable character by pressing. However, the Boost Mode will also make the playable character vulnerable for enemies and obstacles, which can be hard to notice at high speed. If the playable character comes to rapid halt or slows down, the Boost Mode will be deactivated.

Items and objects are almost the same as featured in Sonic Advance, as Rings are found around Zones and protect the playable character from taking damage, grant extra lives by collecting 100 of them, and rewards with points in the end-of-Act score tally. When the player gets hit, all Rings got scatter around and the player is able to collect remaining Rings back. Rings can also affect on acceleration, as the player can increase the running speed easier depending on the amount of Rings he/she has. A character will also lose a life if they spend too long underwater without replenishing air supply (air underwater lasts for 18 seconds), fall into a bottomless pit, or run out of time. Passing through Checkpoints saves the player's progress and he/she returns to the latest one after losing a life. However, losing all lives marks the end of the game. The player can also find floating Item Boxes with identical set of power-ups seen in Sonic Advance, which are Ring Bonus that grants five, ten or random amounts of Rings, Shield that protects from taking hit once, Ring Magnet that attracts all Rings nearby, 1-Ups, Maximum Speed that increases the player's running speed for couple of seconds and Invincibility that grants temporary invincibility.

The level design in Sonic Advance 2 is more extended and linear to be entrenched around more fast-paced gameplay with multiple pathways to choose. Certain Zones like Music Plant and Techno Base can have unique, ascetic varieties for recurring objects and gimmicks to fit Zone's scenery. For the first time, the player can simply walk toward Springs to be launched in the mid-air as opposed to hop on it. The game also features to Launchers and Dash Circles from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, as Launchers send the player fly forward as well given an ability to perform the Mid-Air Trick Action and Dash Circles simply make the playable character dash towards the given direction where they are pointing. Grind Rails, that are previously seen in Sonic Advance, are more expanded as part of almost every Zone in the game.

Each two Acts have seven Special Rings, which give access for the player to a Special Stage. Special Rings are scattered around the Act as the player has to follow certain route to find all seven of them and reach to the end of the Act. By losing a life, the player has to collect all Special Rings around the Act again. Once entering the Special Stage, the player has given change to get a one of seven Chaos Emeralds, as collecting all seven of them unlocks the final Zone for Sonic and the game's good cinematic ending.

Other moves

 * Grinding: a gameplay element expanded in this game, as all playable characters can grind along the length of Grind Rails. The player has to land on starting point of the rail to grind and he/she can simply jump off it.

Items

 * Rings
 * Item Boxes
 * Ring Bonus (5, 10, ?)
 * Shield
 * Ring Magnet
 * 1-Up
 * Maximum Speed
 * Invincibility
 * Checkpoints
 * Special Rings

Goal bars
In Sonic Advance 2, goal bars are present at the end of each Zone's first and second Act. As passing through them, the player is awarded a 300-800 points based on how fast the playable character runs while crossing it. Behind bars are three sectors, where the player can stop by pressing opposite direction on for getting extra points. Otherwise, if the player moves too far away from the third sector, the playable character will stop at one place automatically without receiving any points. This also applies if the player does not have enough of speed when he/she passes through bars or decelerates the speed without pressing the opposite direction.



Also, it should be noticed, that the player does not receive these extra points from sectors if the player has collected all seven Special Rings from the Act, as the playable character enters the Special Stage.

Playable characters

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Cream the Rabbit & Cheese
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose

Non-playable characters

 * Dr. Eggman
 * Vanilla the Rabbit
 * Guard Robo
 * Chao
 * Animals
 * Seal
 * Koala
 * Gorilla
 * Peacock
 * Rabbit
 * Lion
 * Penguin
 * Swallow
 * Deer
 * Mole
 * Parrot
 * Sea Otter
 * Elephant
 * Skunk
 * Kangaroo
 * Flicky (cameo)

Zone Bosses

 * EggHammerTankII
 * Egg Bomber Tank
 * Egg Totem
 * Aero Egg
 * Egg Saucer
 * Egg-Go-Round
 * Egg Frog
 * Super Eggrobo Z
 * Undefined mech of True Area 53

Zones
Sonic Advance 2 consists nine Zones with most of them sorted for two Acts each. After the second Act, the player faces against Dr. Eggman in one of his constantly moving machines in a separated boss Act. Almost all battles in this game are reminiscent to Mushroom Hill Zone boss fight from Sonic & Knuckles, as the player is constantly moving while trying to reach and hit Eggman's machine. Each boss machine takes eight hits (six in Easy Mode) and after doing third and fourth hit, Eggman intensifies his assault.

To enter the ninth Zone, True Area 53, the player must have clear the game once with all the seven Chaos Emeralds and then choose it in the "Select a Zone" screen. The Zones in their order are:


 * Leaf Forest
 * Hot Crater
 * Music Plant
 * Ice Paradise
 * Sky Canyon
 * Techno Base
 * Egg Utopia
 * XX
 * True Area 53

Special Stages
Special Stages are special levels for collecting Chaos Emeralds. The player has to find seven Special Rings and reach to the end of the first or second Act of each Zone. In the Special Stage, the player moves constantly around a flat, 3D terrain filled with Rings, as the goal is to collect certain amount of 300 Rings scattered around the Special Stage in two minutes. In the 3D terrain, the player has given different control scheme as using to steer the playable character, pressing down on  to stop in one place and pressing  to jump.

Collecting Rings forms combos of doubling, tripling, quadrupling, and quintupling the value of each Ring. There are different items and gimmicks around each Special Stage to utilize, as well avoiding Guard Robo that is able to make the player lose Rings.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer mode in Sonic Advance 2 allows multiplayer gaming for four players in total. By entering the VS Mode menu gives to the player choise to two different multiplayer modes. To play, players has to connect up to four GBA systems with 1-4 Sonic Advance 2 Game Paks using one or more Game Boy Advance Game Link Cables. When using 2-4 Game Paks (one for each player is necessary), select "Multi-Game Pak Play." When playing with one Game Pak, select "Single Game Pak Play." VS Mode offers up to two multiplayer modes, one for each different Game Pak.

Like in Sonic Advance, the same playable character cannot be used by more than one character though. Only first two Acts of each Zones that the least one player has cleared in the Single Player mode, can be chosen.

Multi-Game Pak Mode
Race is the multiplayer mode only available in "Multi-Game Pak Play". The goal of this Multiplayer mode is to reach the Zone's goal bar within ten minutes and faster than anybody else. Each player's location is marked for everyone by colored cursors. If a player loses a try along the way, they must start from the beginning of the Act or from the last Checkpoint they reached. Any of four player who does not reach the goal within one minute of the first player, is automatically disqualified.

Along with traditional Ring Bonus, Maximum Speed and Invincibility items, this Multipayer mode also includes exclusive Item Box power-ups for affecting the opponents which include Confusion, Warp, Attack and Brake.

Single-Game Pak Mode
Get the most Rings is the multiplayer mode only available in "Single-Game Pak Play". In this Multiplayer mode, the player who collects the most scattered Rings in 3 minutes throughout a separared Leaf Forest Act. This Act does not have starting point or the goal bar, making the Act loop everytime when players reach to the end of it. During gameplay, players do not have special abilities and can attack their opponents by using Spin Jump, Spin Attack or Spin Dash to make them drop up to ten of their Rings, which they can then steal. The players can also break Item Boxes with question marks on them to get Ring Bonus or Mosaic, that makes opponent's playfield around them become a blurred mosaic.

Time Attack
Time Attack in Sonic Advance 2 allows players to replay previously cleared Zone with goal of getting the fastest record possible. The player can choose to play through either Zones or separated Boss levels, that has to be unlocked separately by clearing the game with three playable characters with all Chaos Emeralds. Also, the Zones available here depend on how far the player has gotten in Single Player mode with each playable character.

Options
Options is the settings menu for Sonic Advance 2 which holds the following options:
 * Player Data: Enter the name to be used in records or view the results of multiplayer mode games. Names can have up to six letters. Here, the player can also look up records from Time Attack mode by choosing Time Record and top scores from Multiplayer modes from VS Record. Also, the name setting becomes the second option when the player starts off the game for the first time.
 * Level: Changes the difficulty level of the game. There are two levels, "Normal" and "Easy" (Easy mode decreases the hitting points of bosses from eight to six).
 * Time Up: Select whether or not running out of time causes characters to lose a try.
 * Language: Change the language of the messages to be displayed between "English" and "Japanese." In Japanese version though, the Japanese language is the only option, while on PAL releases "French," "Spanish," and "German" are added to the option. Also, the language setting becomes the first option when the player starts off the game for the first time.
 * Button Config: Change the functions of and . "Normal" is the default functions, and "Reversed" switches the function.
 * Sound Test: Listen to the various music tracks and sound effects used in the game. The player has to unlock this mode by clearing the game with first two playable characters, each having all Chaos Emeralds. In order to unlock Sound Test tracks 58-63, the player has to clear the Extra Zone as Sonic.
 * Delete Game Data: Delete all game data (Note: The Tiny Chao Garden cannot be deleted).

Tiny Chao Garden
Tiny Chao Garden is a simulation minigame where players can raise Chao. Similar to the Chao Garden, this mode however comes with several limitations: Chao do not age, can only interact with a finite number of items, and there can never be more than one Chao. Players can link the Tiny Chao Garden to the Chao Gardens in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle to transfer Chao or items from the Tiny Chao Garden and to participate in races.

The player has to unlock the Tiny Chao Garden at first by clearing the Single Player mode with any playable character with the seven Chaos Emeralds. The Tiny Chao Garden is basically the same like in Sonic Advance, except the Janken mini-game has been replaced by Chao Bounce, breakout-esque game where the player collects Rings as Cheese, while Cream bounces him on a Spring on wheels. The revision of the Tiny Chao Garden in Sonic Advance 2 is Version 2, as giving Chao an abilities to Swim and Fly if it has high enough stats to, and will emit Z's when sleeping.

Development
Sonic Advance 2 was first revealed at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2002, along with introducing the new character, Cream the Rabbit, that would be available for play in-game. According to Sega, Cream is designed as playable character to pick up for beginner players.

Trivia

 * This is one of the few 2D games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series not to have a water-focused Zone. Only few parts in Leaf Forest and Ice Paradise have only small water sections. Characters like Tails and Cream cannot perform any ability by tapping button underwater, making one of only games where Tails cannot swim.
 * Sonic Advance 2 is considered as challenging game due the Special Rings being incredibly difficult to find.
 * This marks the fifth game in the series, where Knuckles has been tricked into fighting against Sonic by Doctor Eggman.
 * Cream replaced Amy from Sonic Advance in this game in many ways. For instance, she is the only female in the main four, and she is present at the Sound Test screen, holding a tambourine.
 * This is the only 2D "Sonic" title where pressing up on does not make the camera scroll up, as each playable character performs appeal animation. Part of Knuckles' appeal animation includes him punching the air in front of him, as doing this near close to a Badnik can in fact destroy it.

Videos
Japanese trailer= Japanese trailer (Sonic Mega Collection)= Japanese commercial =