Its hard to believe that its been 25 years since Sonic Advance was released for GBA. Sonic Advance is considered to be a legendary game because it was the first major Sonic entry to appear on Game Boy Advance. Sonic Advance was developed by Dimps and published by the Sonic Team and it felt like a reinvention of the Sonic series. In 2001, Sega had pulled out of the console wars due to the Dreamcast console being a flop along with increased competition from Xbox and Sony entering the console wars. While Sonic Adventure 2 from ’01 was very popular following its release the original Sonic Advance game also managed to appeal to causals who were once fans of the original Sonic trilogy from the Genesis era. Sonic Advance felt like an improved version of the older 16-bit entries from the Sega Genesis. In Sonic Advance players saw more refined level designs along with being able to play as multiple characters including Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose. Each character in Sonic Advance had their own special ability that would help them complete level in the game.

Sonic Advance consisted of nine zones with most being divided into two different acts. Similar to previous Sonic games players could collect the seven Chaos Emeralds throughout the game through special stages in Sonic Advance. Similar to older Sonic games the original Sonic Advance game had memorable OST’s but they were not quite as iconic as the soundtrack from the 16-bit trilogy from the 90’s. Sonic Advance felt like it was trying to recreate the magic Sega made back in the early 90’s and to some extent they were successful. Sonic Advance reused the formula of bright gimmicky stages along with fast paced 2D platform action and catchy music. Sonic Advance was designed to provide an alternative to those who weren’t huge fans of the Sonic Adventure series from ’98-’01. Sonic Adventure 2 was 3D felt darker and more cinematic and story driven while Sonic Advance featured 2D gameplay and was more basic. Sonic Advance along with its sequels are often overlooked by many gamers because of how much competition there was on GBA especially with the Mario and Pokemon series.

The Sonic Advance series felt like an attempt to make 2D Sonic titles popular again and to some extent it happened because each game ended up being better than the last from ’01-’04. After its release Sonic Advance managed to reach at least 1.5 million copies in sales which decent. Sonic the Hedgehog was one the few gaming mascots from the 90’s that was still a huge attraction during the 2000’s decade. There are many people who believe that in terms of overall popularity ’01 was quite possibly Sonic the Hedgehog’s best year in to the 2000’s decade. Sonic Advance is one of those games that deserves a modern day remake but judging by how long its been it seems unlikely to ever happen. Sonic Advance is still a very fun 2D platform game to play 25 years later due to its addictive gameplay and high replay value.