Sonic advance is cool. with cool music, characters and backgrounds.

Let's see. Classic Physics? Check. Long, platforming-challenging levels? Check? Result. The closest thing to a classic Sonic game since Sonic 3&K. It has beautiful graphics and fluid gameplay.

However, it does have problems that keep it from being perfect. There are a few moments where there are cheap bottomless pits. It's good to have four playable characters, but some of them don't do anything to improve the replay value of the game. I always use Tails to find the special stage springs, but that's pretty much it. Knuckles doesn't have walls or routes specified for him, and Amy is COMPLETELY WORTHLESS. Also, the special stages aren't anything special.

Still, awesome game for awesome GBA fanatics.… Expand

The levels are excellent, but raising chao is pretty much pointless unless you buy Sonic Adventure 2. With SA2 it's excellent!

Even if it's a bit formulaic, Sonic Advance is one of the funnest Sonic titles since Sonic CD. Pros: Rich, colorful graphics; basic controls; it's fast, but easy to learn; fairly decent multi-player mode. Cons: Regardless of the control's will to run faster and never stop, a lot of the levels were designed to refrain you.

It's not "groundbreaking", but at least it sticks to its roots, resulting with one of Sonic's fastest adventures to date. Pros: Beautiful graphics; fast and fun gameplay at classic Sonic speed; excellent multiplayer; lots of characters. Cons: "Hit-or-miss" level design; nothing "brand new".

Sonic Advance is the first game in the Sonic Advance series and, ironically, is for the most part better than the two sequels that followed it. The first Sonic Advance doesn't contain poorly implemented team gimmicks and brokenly convoluted level designs from Sonic Advanced 3, nor does it have the hurling a million miles an hour through bland empty levels filled with cheaply placed bottomless pits and obnoxious enemy placement from Sonic Advance 2. Sonic Advanced instead borrows from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Sonic trilogy game roots for inspiration. There is a nice balance between platforming segments and speedy segments in all of the levels, going out of your way to slow down and explore your surroundings is rewarded with new routes, unique springs that lead to Special Stages and various kinds of power-ups. the boss battles are very creative and are a decently difficult without feeling too cheap. There are multiple playable characters each with unique controls and abilities to make the experience playing with each character different. The level design is kind of both good and bad, although it does borrow amazing concepts from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Sonic trilogy, it kind of plays too safe for the most part leading to only very few truly new objects or concepts to explore, another problem is that the level design from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Sonic trilogy is designed for a larger screen resolution and when converted to the screen resolution of the Gameboy Advance, doesn't work as well as it could have unless you where able to see farther ahead of yourself and therefore more of your surroundings, it would make enemies and traps like spikes much easier to avoid due to more visibility giving the player more reaction time. The music is decent with both classic sonic music from the Genesis/Mega Drive games and music completely original to this game both coexisting, and doing a pretty decent job at it. For those that like other things to do, you have a Mini Chao Garden, Time Trials and a Multiplayer VS mode to mess around with. overall, the game is decent and a nice tribute to the classic games in the series of old from the early 1990s, it has it flaws, sure but it is a fun game that is easily superior to the absolute wrecks that where the two sequels, Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic Advance 3.… Expand

Sonic Advance is a great title that places more focus on precision platforming and less focus on the speedier elements of Sonic's gameplay. It feels nicely old-school as a result and comes the closest to the original trilogy of the more recent 2D games. There are a few annoying faults that restrain it from true classic status, though. These would be the game's cruel placement of spikes (usually waiting at the end of an 'autopilot' ramp jump) and the way that the enemies always fire their projectiles either while they're off screen or as soon as they appear on it. Basically speaking, both those obstacles are neigh on impossible to avoid, ninja reflexes notwithstanding. The final boss also deserves a mention for being a huge disappointment, requiring more luck than skill. Sonic Advance is a great game in the franchise but it doesn't quite rank up there among the best.… Expand

This game could have been excellent, but it is completely ruined by levels that are too long and too frustrating. It's totally unbalanced. You can't have sudden bits of precision platforming in a game that encourages you to zoom around at high speeds!!! You'll constantly die from things that weren't your fault and there's nothing more annoying in a video game than that. Do Sonic Team even test their games anymore? Former Sonic games have always just about managed to stay on the right side of this little misdemeanour, like running into enemies that suddenly appear as your hurtling at breakneck speed. But this oversteps that line completely, it's a nightmare. And as for the number of blind jumps? It's totally unacceptable.… Expand

Don't read any of the reviews here. Only trust reviews below 6 for this game. It's terrible for me. Why? I'll explain it to you.
Sonic Advance is supposed to be basically what everyone calls "itz awsme, lik Soonic CD". I don't agree with any of that. This game is like an insult from Sega, telling everyone to screw off until next time. Why do I say this? Because the level design is terrible. The first two levels were enjoyable. But that's the issue, it's ONLY those two levels. While it makes sense that the later levels are supposed to get harder, it already loses my patience, reaching the "maximum ragequit" mode. You want a collection of hates? Here you go.
First of all, the spikes. They. Are. EVERYWHERE YOU SEE. And plus, they place them at the rudest places ever. There's a spike where you are going to land. There's a spike where you are running. There's a spike where you are stopping at. There's a spike near your rings/items. There are so many freaking spikes, there is no way you can speedrun this game without dying at LEAST once. Another thing is the new enemy, the robot mole thing. It's exactly like spikes, except you can destroy it. And the level design has so many of these guys, like the spikes. I don't need to go through the same rant of how they are everywhere. And also, near the final levels, there is an overkill of enemy spawns. It's like the TMNT game for NES, where every house has hundreds of enemies on your screen. That's what the final levels do. What, are Sega the inventors of that game too? Are they trying to bring back "classic" frustration?
Now let's get on with good things. You can become the awesome speedy guy that you saw in the older games. No, not those terrible older ones. I mean the classic Genesis ones. Those ones were fast. So is this game. That's a good thing, children! But the overkill of enemies of the levels just limit the speed, because you have to keep stopping, and then you go. The original Sonic games never wanted you to stop, you could keep going! Nope, not with Advance. And the extra moves for the characters don't help. Sonic has a roll attack thing like he does in Sonic Adventure. He also has an extra jump attack if you hit the A button twice. What help does an extra jump do?
Oh, did you hear me again too? If you are a grammer person, that's right. MULTIBLE CHARACTERS. It was bad enough in Sonic Adventure. It was even worse in Sonic Adventure 2. Don't tell me you're gonna screw up classic Sonic with this. You have the following characters. Tails is basically the clone of Sonic, except it's a tiny bit slower but he can fly. Knuckles is an EXACT clone of Tails, and his punching moves don't help at all. Amy is useless, and the hammer doesn't help.
Now the final two things I want to talk about are VS. mode and Tiny Chao Garden. VS. mode is the multi-player mode for this game, and it's fun. At least, if both players are equaly skilled. And the level design is terrible with all the stupid loops everywhere. What it is, explaining. You and a partner try to kill each other with loops and stupid power-ups. Done deal. The rings kind of take out the fun though.
Tiny Chao Garden must be the main reason this game was created at all. To use it, you must BUY a GameCube and BUY Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Then you BUY a GameCube-to-Gameboy Advance cable and get some Chaos and other stuff in the GameCube version. Connect the two games. Do something that I can't explain. You have your Chao in Sonic Advance. The thing is that you can basically raise him on the go on Gameboy, send him back on GameCube, and his upgrades are there. The thing is, the only way to raise him is get food, and the food is crazily expensive. And the two minigames have the most stupidest amounts of points you get when you win. Not worth the time.
If you see this game, find it for a price of free, or at least $1 buck. Don't get this game at all on any of other price. The game is frustrating, stupid, and is NOT like Sonic CD at all. Don't even try calling it the masterpiece it was. Get the 2nd or 3rd, those two were so much better than this. Nope, don't even reach for this game because it has Tiny Chao Garden. Not for VS. mode either.… Expand