Sonic Advance 3

Sonic Advance 3 is a 2004 2D platformer game developed by Dimps and published by Sega. It is the sequel to Sonic Advance 2 and is the third and final installment of the Sonic Advance Trilogy.

Plot
Taking place after the previous game, the game follows Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream to keep Eggman's assistant, Gemerl, from building empires on the seven chunks of the world.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It introduces the partner system, allowing you play as one character but with another character following you which gives you their special abilites.
 * 2) Incredible and detailed graphics for GBA standards, pushing the console to its limits.
 * 3) Solid controls, like its prequels.
 * 4) You no longer have to unlock Amy by getting all seven Emeralds with five characters individually.
 * 5) Kenichi Tokoi returns to compose the soundtrack, which is just as amazing as the previous installment in the trilogy. Have a listen!
 * 6) The storyline is decent: Eggman builds a robot named Gemerl by using data collected from Emerl from Sonic Battle and he uses Chaos Emeralds as an experiment to at long last, build his so dreamed empire.
 * 7) Nice open-world hubs where you can explore and find all the acts of zones.
 * 8) Fun boss battles, especially the final Nonaggression Zone.
 * 9) The characters have voiceovers in this game unlike the previous games.
 * 10) You can earn Silver or Gold Medals depending on your performance. As a result, the game has very good replay value.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) In order to access to Special Stages, you have to find and collect all 10 chao in 3 acts in a zone, which is strange for a speed-based platformer game, and also time-wasting.
 * 2) *Some of the Chao are also hidden in very poor place areas, some of which require a guide to even find them.
 * 3) **Speaking of the Special Stages, they are Still worse.
 * 4) Some character combos can be a bit poor.
 * 5) Poor enemy placement as usual. Robots come out of nowhere and attack you easily as you don't even have a chance to react from it.
 * 6) *Route 99 is the worst case of this.

Reception
Sonic Advance 3 received mixed to positive reviews. Metacritic gave it a 79 out of 100, praising it for its replay value and new teamwork mechanic.

Trivia

 * 1) If you play as Sonic and Knuckles as your partner, the life symbol will look like a mirrored version of the Sonic & Knuckles logo.

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