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Sonic Wiki Zone
For Special Stages in general, see here.

The Special Stage (スペシャルステージ[1] Supesharusutēji?) in Sonic Advance 3 refers to a series of seven special levels. To enter the Special Stages, the player must first find all ten Chao hidden in each Zone. The player then needs to find a Special Key in an Act and complete it. This key can be used to activate a Special Spring on a Zone Map which will lead into that Zone Map's Special Stage.

Much like in previous Sonic Advance titles, the main objective in the Special Stages is to collect at least a certain number of Rings to stay in the Special Stage, and when successful, the player is awarded a Chaos Emerald. Once all seven Chaos Emeralds have been obtained (by clearing all seven Special Stages), Sonic can enter Nonaggression directly after clearing Altar Emerald.

Description

The Special Stages are enclosed area resembling an upside-down half-pipe with a transparent roof and a starry sky above it. It also has a large checkered field below it. The color of the Special Stage corresponds to the Chaos Emerald in it.

Gameplay

Upon entering the Special Stage, the playable character finds themselves standing on the wings of the Tornado 2, flying overhead of the Special Stage. The primary objective is to collect to collect enough Rings to pass through two segments of the stage, much like the 3D Stages in Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble. While on the Tornado 2, the player is able to move freely around in the air on the Tornado using Controlpadds and jump by pressing GameboyA, reaching out to the Rings that appear. Failing to collect enough Rings before the end of a segment will result in the player being expel from the Special Stage empty-handed. Should the player succeed in passing through the two segments however, they will rewarded with a Chaos Emerald. Along the way, the player will encounter different objects that can either aid or obstruct the playable character.

Whether the player passes or fails to obtain the Chaos Emerald, the Special Key used to access the Special Stage will be gone, meaning that the player will need to find another Special Key in an Act to attempt the Special Stage again.   

Objects

Image Name Description
Ring Golden hoops that the player must grab enough of to collect a Chaos Emerald.
Ring Booster A floating hoop. Flying through one causes the Tornado 2 to transform. For the next few seconds afterward, the Tornado 2's speed will be increased and the amount of Rings the player collects will be doubled.
Bomb Red spherical bombs. Hitting one of them will result in the player having five Rings subtracted from their total amount.
Missile Badniks Missile-based Badniks that will try to fly into the player or shoot projectiles at them. However, the player can destroyed with a Spin Jump in order to earn extra Rings.

List of Special Stages

No. Screenshot Correlating Zone Rings required Chaos Emerald
First segment second segment
1 Sonic Adv3 SP stage Route 99 80 160 Red
2 SonicAdvance3 GBA SpecialStage2 Sunset Hill 80 160 Blue
3 SonicAdvance3 GBA SpecialStage3 Ocean Base 90 180 Yellow
4 SonicAdvance3 GBA SpecialStage4 Toy Kingdom 90 180 Green
5 SonicAdvance3 GBA SpecialStage5 Twinkle Snow 100 200 White
6 SonicAdvance3 GBA SpecialStage6 Cyber Track 110 220 Turquoise
7 SonicAdvance3 GBA SpecialStage7 Chaos Angel 120 260 Purple

Special Stage Mode

File:Sonic Advance 3 02.png

Special Stage mode.

After the player collects all of the seven Chaos Emeralds and is currently at the main menu, by inputing the following: Up, Rgba, Down, Lgba, Right, Left; a secret small menu appears titled as Special Stage Mode. In this mode the player plays through all seven Special Stages consecutively as Sonic and the objective is to collect as many Chaos Emeralds as possible by completing Special Stages. However, once the player fails a Special Stage, the mode ends there and thus the player can exit back into the main menu or retry the entire mode again from the first Special Stage.

Trivia

  • In the early versions of Sonic Advance 3, the stage does not need to be finished; the players can just exit the Special Stage with the key in their possession. However, in the final release of the game, the Act must be completed without dying.

References

  1. Sonic Advance 3 (Wii U Virtual Console) Japanese instruction booklet, pg. 40.

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