IGN Review of Sonic Battle

Sonic Battle isn't the first fighting game featuring Sega's mascot; keen arcade gamers may remember the little seen Sonic the Fighters machine back in the mid 90s, or even the cameo of one of those characters in the Saturn system's Fighters Megamix. But even though it's not the first, it is a pretty original fighter in its own right, lifting a few key elements and themes from Super Smash Bros. and putting them into a new fighter that introduces an impressive 3D environment and a satisfying, combo-laden combat system. It's simple on the surface, but it's also deceptively complex and offers a different style of battle on a system that doesn't exactly thrive with fighting designs. It's good stuff all the way through.

Features

• More than nine characters
• Story, Battle, and Challenge Modes
• Team Battle and one-on-one figts
• Cartridge save (one slot)
• Link cable support for four players (single and multi-cartridge support)

Sonic Battle isn't going to win any awards for depth in its fighting engine...Street Fighter II this is not. The controls have been kept simple for a quick and dirty battle experience that's light on moves but heavy on combo-striking action. There's only one main attack button, but like Super Smash Bros., using it in combination with the directional pad will enable different strikes. Combo this with the shoulder button for special moves, both on the ground and in the air, and the potential for multiple hits against multiple enemies increases significantly. And there's a line-up of more than nine characters in Sonic Battle, each with their own special attacks, so there's plenty of opportunity for customized fighting in this GBA game.

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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