Sonic Advance

Overview

Sonic Advance is a 2001 platform game developed by Sonic Team and Dimps and published by Sega for the Game Boy Advance. It was one of the first Sonic the Hedgehog games to be released on a Nintendo console along with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on the GameCube, and was produced in commemoration of the series' tenth anniversary. The story follows Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy as they journey to stop Doctor Eggman from taking over the world. Controlling a character, players are tasked with completing each level, defeating Eggman and his robot army, and collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds.

Development began after Sega shifted its focus to third-party software development, due to the poor performance of the Dreamcast console. Sega recruited Dimps to lead development, making the game the first in the franchise developed by the studio. While Sonic Advance follows a similar style of gameplay to the Sega Genesis Sonic games, certain concepts and designs were reused from newer games such as Sonic Adventure (1998). The game was ported to Nokia's N-Gage in 2003 as SonicN, with ports to J2ME devices by Gameloft and Android by Sega releasing in 2011. The GBA version was re-released on the Wii U's Virtual Console in Japan.

Sonic Advance received positive reviews for its graphics, character animations, and faithfulness to the original Genesis games, but also received criticism for its short length and special stages. It was a commercial success, selling 1.21 million copies in the United States and is among the GBA's bestselling games. The game was followed by two sequels also on the Game Boy Advance; Sonic Advance 2 (2002) and Sonic Advance 3 (2004).

Official trailer

Gameplay Video. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Sonic Advance GBA Gameplay, ViMu2. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Platform

Developer

Dimps

Publisher

THQ, Sega

Series

Sonic Advance

Platforms

Wii U, Game Boy Advance

Age rating

ESRB E

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

Yes

Online multiplayer

No

Co op

No

Age ratings

ESRB

E

PEGI

3

CERO

A

CLASS IND

L

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Space and patches

Update patchNo patch

DLC

No DLC. Game Boy Advance games had no downloadable content.

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

No online features; every mode works today on any Game Boy Advance. Multiplayer needs a copy per player and link cables.

Online

Plays offlineYes

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	Game Boy Advance	87	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
IGN	9.1	10
GameSpot	7.9	10
Game Informer	8.5	10
Nintendo World Report	8	10
Nintendo Life	8	10

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Developers	Dimps, Sonic Team
Publishers	Sega, THQ (North America)
Director	Akinori Nishiyama
Producers	Yuji Naka, Hiroshi Matsumoto
Designers	Yukihiro Higashi, Masaaki Yamagiwa
Programmers	Yoshihisa Hashimoto, Takaaki Saito
Artist	Yuji Uekawa
Composers	Tatsuyuki Maeda, Yutaka Minobe

Notes for collectors

• Among the first Sonic games on a Nintendo system, after Sega left the console business.
• Play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles or Amy.
• The Tiny Chao Garden swaps Chao with Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 on GameCube.
• Sold 1.21 million copies in the United States.
• Ported to the N-Gage in 2003 as SonicN.

Credits

Publisher

THQ, Sega

Developer

Dimps

Director

Akinori Nishiyama

Released

2002-02-03

Age rating

ESRB E

Region

US

Time to beat

about 2 hours