Post by 1:( on Jan 20, 2006 1:43:06 GMT -5
So I picked this up for Game Boy over the weekend. Being a huge fan of the old Sonic games on Genesis, I was interested in how well Sonic was doing these days, especially since I knew Nintendo would add some interesting twists. I turn on the cartridge and there's two games waiting for me so I turn on Sonic Advance first. I see right away you're given the option to play as either Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or Amy Rose, a new character since the Dreamcast days. I pick Sonic first. The graphics are an obvious improvement. The gameplay is a little awkward...Sonic seems to be harder to control than the old Genesis games. The cool shields like fire and water from Sonic 3 are gone, but there are some new kind of boxes for different ring values. The old generic shield is back. The levels reminded me of the vs. mode from Sonic 3...the second level was a secret base, the third was a cross between Casino Night and Carnival Night. I was especially fond of the music, it was really layered for a handheld game system and catchy to boot. I was already familiar with the game play of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles(although Knuckles had a new trick where he could tread water), but playing as Amy was something different. She has no spin dash and doesn't flip when she jumps. Basically you have to use a hammer. You can use it while standing or while jumping. The lack of a spin dash is frustrating for obvious reasons if you've ever played Sonic games before. The hammer had an advantage that you could attack enemies right in front of you from a safe distance, but was a pain in the ass because you had to hit an extra button while jumping instead of being a guaranteed hit. Still though, incredibly solid game, not too long compared to others, but a gem none the less. Sega's still got it.
Afterwards, I tried out the pinball game. There's not much to be said for the most part...once you've played one pinball game, you've played them all. But one cool feature was a roulette table...you could shoot the ball into a number picker and have higher odds of winning based on how many times you could get a ball to sink in the corners in two minutes, then the wheel would spin and you got rings for having a winning number. Neat.
Afterwards, I tried out the pinball game. There's not much to be said for the most part...once you've played one pinball game, you've played them all. But one cool feature was a roulette table...you could shoot the ball into a number picker and have higher odds of winning based on how many times you could get a ball to sink in the corners in two minutes, then the wheel would spin and you got rings for having a winning number. Neat.
