Sonic Advance 2

Sonic Advance 2 is a 2002 platform video game developed by Dimps and Sonic Team and published by Sega in Japan, by THQ in North America, and by Infogrames in Europe. It is the sequel to Sonic Advance and is the second installment of the Sonic Advance trilogy, and runs on a modified version of its engine.

A third and final entry in the Advance trilogy, Sonic Advance 3, was released in 2004.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The first appearance of Cream the Rabbit and Cheese the Chao, two of the most adorable characters in the entire franchise!
 * 2) Solid controls.
 * 3) There are five playable characters: Sonic, Cream & Cheese, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy (who must be unlocked).
 * 4) Every character can perform a dash move; by pressing the R button while holding in a direction on the D-pad your character will air dash in that direction. This can be used to access alternate pathways, though every character has their own unique attributes too.
 * 5) Great story that is easy to understand yet still good.
 * 6) Beautiful graphics for the time.
 * 7) The sense of speed has been dramatically increased from the first game.
 * 8) Catchy soundtrack. (Hot Crater, Music Plant Zone, Techno Base Zone, and Egg Utopia Zone are great examples)
 * 9) When you collect enough rings and maintain your momentum, your character will enter a 'boost state' (signified by afterimages appearing behind them). Maintaining the constant movement is rewarding and it feels very exhilarating.
 * 10) Fun bosses.
 * 11) Beautiful true ending.
 * 12) It laid the groundwork for the Sonic Rush games, which would expand and improve upon the formula in many ways.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) To access special stages, you have to find seven Special Rings in the level and get to the goal without dying. Not only is this counter-intuitive in a game that emphasizes speed, but it's also frustrating because you have to memorize the level design and it's often impossible to backtrack to a previous area. To make matters worse, you can easily die in certain levels.
 * 2) * Speaking of the Special Stages, they still are frustrating.
 * 3) To unlock Amy as a playable character, you have to get the Chaos Emeralds with every character. This is due to the fact that each character has to collect all seven Chaos Emeralds individually.
 * 4) At times, it gets too focused in speed and has trial and error sections.
 * 5) Sky Canyon is hard if you are playing as Sonic, Knuckles, or Amy, until you realize that you have to press the R button and then it starts to get very easy. Also, its boss is unfair: when you get slapped by Eggman's giant hand, you will die no matter what rings you are at.
 * 6) Cream can be a nuisance to play as at times, especially since she isn't as fast as Sonic is.
 * 7) Cheap enemy placement, although not as bad as Sonic Advance 3.

Reception
The game received positive reviews and has a Metacritic score of 83 out of 100.