Sonic Battle
Publisher: THQ
Platform: Game Boy Adv
Genre: Action Adventure
Release Date: 1/7/2004
Keep price: Not for Sale
Number of Players: 1
Member Rating: 7.9 (251 ratings).
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Publisher: THQ
Platform: Game Boy Adv
Genre: Action Adventure
Release Date: 1/7/2004
Keep price: Not for Sale
Number of Players: 1
Member Rating: 7.9 (251 ratings).
Write a Review of This Gameadvertisement
Features
Even with the "keep it simple and maniacal" fighting engine, Sonic Battle is a satisfyingly deep and engrossing gaming experience on the Game Boy Advance. Before each battle players alter their attacks based upon aerial, ground, and defense moves, choosing how each of these attacks is weighed in battle. This choice determines which moves can be performed during a fight, so balancing it one way will force players to attack and defend significantly different than another way. There are five different ways to configure your character during battle. Players can also choose to play in different rules: earn a set number of KOs, or win with the most KOs in an amount of time, or in a survival match with the last man (or hedgehog) standing as the winner.
Much of the depth is all in the Story Mode where players work their way through a plot to rescue a new Sonic character: a Chaos Emerald-powered robot called, what else, Emerl ("BAM!") By fighting through the different scenarios, you'll earn special abilities from the many different enemies, which are then stored inside Emerl. Now here's where it gets cool: Emerl is completely customizable. With the earned abilities players can create their own fighter to suit their own battle techniques. There are more than a hundred different moves to collect and choose from, and players can even battle their own Emerl against another's Emerl via the game's multiplayer link-up features. This customization feature keeps the lasting play high because it encourages many plays through to get all of the available techniques for your collection...and the cartridge can hold three different customizations to switch up the action quickly.
One of the features that made Super Smash Bros. so darn cool on the GameCube was its attention to gameplay statistics, and it's clear that the team responsible for Sonic Battle kept this in mind for its own game design. This fighter, too, tracks an enormous amount of player and fight stats including play time, how many regular and special KOs were performed, how many times the different modes were played, which character was used the most and least...and the list goes on. Everything's saved to the cartridge via the save RAM, so it can be pulled up at any time in the Battle Record menu option.
There has also been a good amount of effort placed on multiplayer in Sonic Battle. Naturally, four players can go at it in any of the arenas, and thanks to the element of having your own view of the screen the game's camera keeps the action focused on your own character. On top of the arena battles, Sonic Battle also features a host of single cartridge multiplayer mini-games that become unlocked after performing set tasks in the single player modes. They're nothing super special (one's a simple Bey Blade-style spinning top fight in an airborne arena, for example), but they definitely add a significant amount to the value of the overall game design...especially since you only need one copy of the game to take advantage of these games.
While Sonic Battle is a surprisingly enjoyable fighter on the GBA, it isn't without its problems. The action can seem just a tad too random at times, especially with three characters ganged up on one and the fact that it's tough to focus on any one opponent because of the 3D environment; opponents can be in front, behind, and to the side of the player's character, and the controls have a tough time determining which character the player wants to "uppercut" or "heavy attack" using the D-pad and button combination. The graphics engine puts forth a genuinely impressive and very playable 3D experience, but it's clear that there are limitations: characters get obstructed behind objects instead of the engine turning it transparent (or offering a cheat to show the character in a stippled form). The camera also doesn't scale to follow the action or characters when they move far apart, a function that definitely would have come in handy. Because the arenas expand much further than the system's screen can display, opposing characters will frequently disappear off the sides without those handy-dandy off-screen arrows to indicate where they all went.
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