Sonic Battle

Sonic Battle is a fighting game developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA for the Game Boy Advance. It is meant to be the sequel to Sonic Advance 2 and was released in Japan in December 2003 and in North America and Europe in January 2004.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Total of 8 playable characters (10 if you include unlockable characters) with their own episodes that continue the story and moves it along: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Cream, Shadow, Rouge, and Emerl with their own unique abilities:
 * 2) * Sonic can run fast, use break-dance and spin attack.
 * 3) * Tails can fly and use machines, like a mechanic boxing glove and even an orb gun.
 * 4) * Knuckles can glide and use giant rocks to attack.
 * 5) * Amy can boxercise and use her hammer.
 * 6) * Cream uses her friend, Cheese to fight.
 * 7) * Shadow can teleport and use other Chaos Powers.
 * 8) * Rouge can also glide and use trap mines.
 * 9) * Emerl can copy moves of all the characters, as well as mix & match them.
 * 10) The first and only appearance of Emerl, and he is the main character this time instead of Sonic.
 * 11) It is satisfying to beat up your enemies, as you can use your special ability on them to push them far away. It also KOes the opponent in a single hit if the Ichikoro Gauge is high and the player uses a Special Move.
 * 12) Plenty of modes that the game offers.
 * 13) * Story Mode makes you play on hub worlds and battle with opponents to move the plot along.
 * 14) * Battle Mode makes you battle with 3 (or fewer if you choose it to be like that) opponents. There is also a Team Mode so you can play in 2v2 battles.
 * 15) * Challenge Mode makes you battle with a randomized character and if you win, you level up.
 * 16) * Training Mode lets you train your fighting skills to a character with no AI.
 * 17) Amazing graphics and visuals for GBA standards and 2003 standards, featuring 3D-rendered arenas that look good, and the hubworlds.
 * 18) * The graphics are reminiscent to the Advance trilogy.
 * 19) There's even arenas in the hubworlds if you want to go to them, meaning if you want to train Emerl some more, you can keep playing in the arenas and continue the story when you're done.
 * 20) It is canon to the Advance series and it worked well as having a fighting game in a platformer series was executed well.
 * 21) Awesome soundtrack that takes advantage of heavy metal and techno.
 * 22) Easy controls. You can move around by using the D-Pad, Jump by pressing the A Button, Attack by pressing the B button, and use your special attack by pressing the R button.
 * 23) The mini-games are fun, especially Shadow's Speed Demon, where you can race in Radical Highway from Sonic Adventure 2!
 * 24) The story has quite a neat premise: Eggman studies a 4000-year-old Gizoid made by an ancient civilization and tries it as a destruction weapon but fails, choosing to use the data he collected on the Gizoid to build Gmerl, giving some Sonic Advance 3 foreshadowing.
 * 25) * Also, the ending is genuinely heartbreaking: Eggman overcharges Emerl with energy, hoping that he would estabilish a link with him. However, said energy causes him to become a destruction weapon again. Sonic tries to stop him with the Master Emerald, but it gets broken in the process, forcing him to fight the Gizoid until he self-destructs, which happens after Emerl becomes conscious again and briefly thanks Sonic and friends for everything, much to their upsetment (even Shadow, who was initially deadset on destroying him for the sake of the world's safety).
 * 26) 2 unlockable fighters: Chaos and Gamma each with their own special moves.
 * 27) * Chaos can swing his arms around and liquify.
 * 28) * Gamma can grow mechanical arms and shock opponents with them.
 * 29) * It's also nice to see the Sonic Adventure characters return.
 * 30) If you 100% complete the game, you can play in Green Hill Zone, like in SA2.
 * 31) Great voice providing from the Sonic Heroes cast, especially William Corkery, whose performance as Tails is miles better here than it was in Heroes.
 * 32) "INITIATING RECOVERY MODE."

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Although the 3D render in the arenas are cool for a GBA game as most GBA games are 2D, all of the arenas are basically the same except their appearances, They are all 2D planes with 3D blocks to jump on.
 * 2) The hit detection sometimes can be tedious.
 * 3) Limited moveset due to the Game Boy Advance only having four buttons. (Not talking about the D-Pad), as a result, fighting can be tedious sometimes.
 * 4) Emerl is very slow. It would feel like a chore to play as him while you are fighting a fake.
 * 5) * It doesn't help that there's a fight against two fakes where Cream is present, but she does absolutely nothing at all.
 * 6) The music can sound a little weird to some people because of the lead guitar synth.
 * 7) There's a blocking move, but it's so intricate to pull off, as well as extremely pointless. Even after the game teaches how to perform it, the player will more likely not use it.

Trivia

 * This is the second fighting game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, after Sonic The Fighters.

Reception
Sonic Battle received generally mixed reviews and has a Metacritic score of 69 out of 100.

Videos
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