Sonic Battle (GBA) Review

Introduction Sonic Battle newest sonic game to hit the GBA and along with Sonic Pinball Party the second non “normal” sonic game in as many month. And per Usual Robotnic or Dr Eggman as Sega want to call him now is up to his usual tricks terrorising the world but no this time he is just trying steal this robot called Emryl but gives up after he cant get it started. But along comes Sonic and lo and behold he wakes up but the robot cant talk probably and all he seems to do is what ever Sonic does, sure its pretty dicy but after Robotnic finds out its alive he trys to get it back using good old Rouge and Shadow shows up too wanting it later. You’ll soon find out that Emryl runs on Chaos Emeralds and that put Knuckles in the picture because as we know he is the master of Chaos Emeralds. Sonic Battle is a fighting game and youll soon find yourself fighting your way through the game and powering up Emryl with Chaos Emryl if its still not clear to you what this game is then read on.

Graphics Before we get into the nitty gritty of the game play, the Graphics must be critiqued. Sega has made Sonic Battle with its complete different look with all the characters with big black sharp borders a bit like old comics. The menus are well made with a lot of detail which makes the game look presentation wise rather good. Most of the Game is played through either the Narrative which is static Characters with text down the bottom and then there’s the Main Over world is just a Static 2D world which you character Mainly Sonic walks around. And finally the Battle mode which makes up most of the game and its looks the best. Basically when you get involved in fight the arenas are Fully 3D Mode 7 areas in which you can walk, run, jump,, punch, kick and kill in. However the Characters on the Screen are the same sprites from Sonic Advance and look a little rubbish when compared to the much better 3D engine but you cant expect everything. Once the action gets started is when the game begins to shine special attacks use the same type look of attack from the Golden Sun Games, I dont know what there called but if you can tell me, tell me! However with all these effects, E3 engine and 4 people running around it does slow-down when everyone is doing things at the same time.

Sound This is were the game both disappoints Area and shows the GBA abilities. If you dont know what I mean then I mean basically the music, tunes or midi or whatever you want to call if plain disappointing, it really is just a bunch of cartooning midi loops and I really would of thought better of Sega they Didnt even include the main sonic music theme. Hey I know its not a Sonic Game as such but please Its just not a Sonic Game unless you do it, also no SAYGA! At the start just the rubbish coin noise. But the bit that I do like is the voices from the game however since there is not a lot of them (there ripped from the GC version of Sonic Adventure 2 I might add) Its not a lot to make think any more of the game but it still is rather good to have that kind of stuff included.

Game play Ever played Super Smash Bros on the Cube? Well then youll know this game the minute you pick it up. Basically you fight you way through the game battling lots of different foes and friends. The further you move through or the better you do in a match the more upgrade cards you can get for Emryl and it also has an RPG elements that certain attack and defence can go up or down. The battle are rather simple and at sometimes just down right STUPID! If youve already gone to the bottom of the page and seen the score then youll be wondering why. Well I tell you its not the fact that you use two buttons to attack A and R or use them in conjunction in with each other thats fine its a simple fighting game not a complicated one. Its not the fact the Heal or Block is useless because by the time you get healing or block someone else has hit you from behind. The lows score however is because 1. You have to be in exact pixel line with them to hit that. Now that is ok in a 2D fighter but a little harder to pull off on 3D Games. And the Low score is basically because all you have to do is just keep smacking the absolute rubbish out of the person you are fighting to win, But to do that you have to be in the exact line with them. Also when you punch or kick the punch or kick doesnt happen straight away it take a couple of microseconds which is enough for the character you are fighting to hit you back. This game would of been so much better if the game play niggles didnt let it down, buts that what is happening and that why the game play is the main problem in this game. Also with the Main Game is Battle which is Multi-Kart but still none the less fun when you play it but it suffers from the same problems as the main game and with for REAL people can get really annoying. Also included which I found very fun is some mini games which you can use one cartridge for. These Mini Games are Nothing like the main game and are more of a side track like the Mini Game in Super Monkey Ball but they are fun and thats what there for.

Difficulty The story mode its self is not hard buy because of the rubbish gameplay it makes it very frustrating A because you gonna get sore finger because all you seem to do is keep smacking down buttons and B because you can never get a punch in because of the alignment and because of the fact that the punchign on the main characters are slow.