Sonic Advance 2

Sonic Advance 2 is a side-scrolling platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Dimps and published by THQ for the Game Boy Advance. The game was released in Japan on December 19, 2002, in North America on March 9, 2003, in Europe on March 18, 2003. It is based on a modified version of Sonic Advances game engine.

Story
Dr. Eggman is capturing all the furry forest animals and turning them into robots. He has also kidnapped Sonic's friend Tails, Cream and Knuckles. As such, Sonic rushes off to stop Dr. Eggman, rescue his friends and collect the Chaos Emeralds once again, and save his friends.

Gameplay
Basic gameplay is an improvement on Sonic Advance, with much of the earlier features intact. Compared to its predecessor, Sonic Advance 2 is faster, contains more and larger level designs, is more challenging, has a faster paced sound track, and offers better control over the playable characters. There are seven zones, each containing two acts and a boss battle, and there is a final zone at the end of the game that consists purely of boss fights. Obtaining all of the Chaos Emeralds unlocks the Extra Zone.

All characters can now perform various stunts when flying through the air and not curled in a ball (i.e. after being launched from a spring or similar). These are activated by holding a direction on the D-pad and pressing the R button. Some of these stunts can be used to destroy enemies.

Press the D-pad UP and the R button to move upward.

Press the D-pad Right and the R button to move forward.

Press the D-pad Down and the R button to move downward.

Press the R button alone to move backward.

Another new feature is shattering the sound barrier. If a character runs as fast as possible for a period of time without stopping or slowing down, they will shatter the sound barrier and leave a trail of afterimages behind them. While in shattering the sound barrier, it is possible to run over water, and the attack used with the B button becomes more powerful. The delay before reaching shattering can be decreased somewhat by collecting rings. Certain objects in the level (red booster wheels, for instance) will instantly force the character into the state. This also shows that Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and Amy can run faster than the speed of sound, although this is mixed up and scrambled in later games.

In each act, there are seven Special Rings. Collecting all seven of these and completing the Act, without dying, will take the player to a Special Stage, where a player can win a Chaos Emerald. The stage accessed and emerald obtained both depend on which zone the player was in when they accessed the stage. Unlike Sonic Advance, emeralds are not shared between characters.

All bosses in this game, except for the final boss, take place while running along a horizontally wrapping area, akin to the Mushroom Hill Zone boss in Sonic and Knuckles. Rings will appear in groups of three. This format causes many attacks to be completely useless, and once the player has lost his or her rings, it is difficult to regain them as they fly off the left side of the screen.

Zones
The zones in order are as follows:
 * Leaf Forest is a hidden paradise of green grass and towering emerald green formations, complete with a small lake.
 * Hot Crater is a bustling volcanic mine, with lava and machinery at every turn.
 * Music Plant is a place where you can unlock the inner child in you. With gigantic xylophones and a "bouncy" carnival like feel, you are bound to want to spend a large amount of your time in this zone.
 * Ice Paradise is a frozen city, filled with chilly caverns and icy Badniks.
 * Sky Canyon is a floating island, similar to Angel Island, that is complete with crags, labyrinths, and windmills. In the first time around, you fight Knuckles as the boss.
 * Techno Base is a gigantic computer-like area filled with neon lights and digital rails for you to grind on.
 * Egg Utopia is a large Death Egg-like base floating about in the sky. It is similar to Egg Rocket/Cosmic Angel from the previous game.
 * XX is the final stage for all characters except Sonic. All the bosses from throughout the game are fought once again, although easier to destroy. The last boss is a giant Eggman robot, similar to Sonic 2, being the only non-side scrolling boss in-game.
 * True Area 53 is a Doomsday Zone-type Super Sonic level, set in deep space.

Bosses
The bosses are similar to the boss of Mushroom Hill Zone from Sonic & Knuckles in that they're constantly scrolling right, with the only exception being the background of the final boss in the XX Zone (they are all moving right, and the character sprites are moving). Rings appear quickly from the right side of the screen in mid-air groups of three, but are finite in their total amount. Each Boss is a new attachment to the Eggmobile and are all driven by Dr. Eggman except for the Egg Saucer in Sky Canyon which is driven by Knuckles if you play as Sonic. After you beat Knuckles once, Eggman is the driver of the Egg Saucer from there on no matter which character you select.

Special Stages
This time, instead of finding a relatively easy Special Spring, hitting it, and playing the Special Stage, you must track down the seven Special Rings in each act. This can be extremely difficult, as the rings can be found anywhere on the stage. To make matters worse, they must be found in one go, meaning that death will cause collections to disappear. In the Special Stage, the player moves in a full 3D space and collects rings while dodging the robot E-100 Zero. The environment accessed depends on both the zone and character played at the time. The reward is a Chaos Emerald. Getting all seven as Sonic to unlock True Area 53, while repeating this with the other three characters unlocks Amy as a playable character.

Secrets
* How to unlock Tiny Chao Garden:

To unlock the Tiny Chao Garden, the player must collect the 7 Chaos Emeralds as any character. The Tiny Chao Garden is basically the same as it was in the original Sonic Advance, except the rock-paper-scissors game has been replaced by a Breakout-esque game where the player collects rings as Cheese, while Cream bounces him on a spring.

Pre-release version
Although this game marks Cream's first appearance, her playable debut was originally planned for Sonic Heroes. Sonic Team shifted her debut game to Sonic Advance 2 to help the game feel fresher. The game was originally supposed to star Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, just as the original Sonic Advance had. Additionally, early videos of Sonic Advance 2 showcased the game with a completely different, more laid-back soundtrack and re-used character select graphics.

Reception
The game received mixed and positive reviews, but ratings showed the game was better received than its predecessor.