Sonic Advance 2 Game Boy Advance
  • Publisher: Sega
  • Release Date: Mar 9, 2003
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 26 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 26
  2. Negative: 2 out of 26

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  1. Nov 28, 2011
    Sonic is back in action for the second time on the Nintendo Gameboy Advanced Console. The music and sound effects are unique and varied and a joy to listen to. There are four game modes, The main game, Time Trial mode, link cable multiplayer racing and chao garden mode which is an unlockable.
    Both the multiplayer racing modes and the Chao Garden are limited distractions/minigames which
    distract from the main experience temporarily but don't add much to the replayability factor of the game as a whole. The sense of speed you get in this game is absolutely amazing but with this in mind it come at a cost. The level design feels empty and bland for the most part and enemies like to be right in your way stopping you speed and momentum or hovering over a pit waiting to knock you into it. The level designers have a guilty pleasure of removing the ground out from under you while you are going at top speed and sending you frequently tumbling into bottomless pits which is not only frustrating, it shows a lack of quality in the level layouts from the stage designers. All Red Rings in a stage need to be collected to play a special stage which is fustrating as your speed and momentum (or sometimes the lack of it) make it difficult (or in Sonic's case) next to impossible to get it if you miss it the first time which forces you to replay the stage yet again. If you thought getting to the Special stage is hard enough, completing it is just as bad if not worse, with needing to approach rings at a specific angle to get the highest amount and avoiding a fast robot with will attack you and make you lose a large amount of the rings you are carrying. There are a large amount of unlockable characters with different abilities and play styles which give uniqueness and replayability to the game. The boss battles feel more like a chore than actual fun (except one unlockable character which can spam projectiles but that makes them far too easy). A Chao Garden mode can be unlocked which is compatible with transferring with your Chao Gardens from your Sonic Gamecube games if you have them and a GBA Controller cable. I tried playing this game on a Nintendo DS Lite console to see how it played and I found the button placement changes made the game next to unplayable, especially in the more complex later portions of the game which require near perfect reflexes down to the seconds to avoid plummeting into bottomless pits. Overall, when it comes to this game, it proves that a great sense of speed isn't everything in a Sonic game, sloppy stage layouts and poor design decisions makes the game much more difficult and lot less enjoyable than it could have been otherwise. Expand

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 23
  2. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. It takes a tried, tested, and thoroughly flogged old genre and injects some more speed and ingenuity into it, and there's a heck of lot of replay value here, even if the game's levels can probably be beaten in a few hours.
  2. Slight negativity aside, Sonic Advance 2 represents Sonic at its best - fast, slick, looking great and offering yet more of those bonus features (now unlockable, however). Whilst technically there have been better Sonic games, none have managed to quite capture the frantic essence of speed and style like this does.
  3. People looking for a good side-scrolling game will enjoy it and Sonic fans everywhere will be delighted at another chance to return to the old-school roots that made Sonic so great back in the day.