Sonic Battle Game Boy Advance
  • Publisher: THQ
  • Release Date: Jan 5, 2004
User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 1 out of 9

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  1. Luigibarqs
    Nov 28, 2011
    6
    Sonic Battle is a Party fighting game for the Nintendo Gameboy Advanced portable gaming console. The audio in my opinion is very hard on the ears and not very enjoyable while the sound effects and voice clips are pretty generic overall. All of the characters have various different moves and abilties which makes every fighter unique. A fighting robot character is also included in which you can customize the movesets, stance, abilities and colour palette to your liking based on what you have unlocked which brings replaybility to get all abilities and to try different combinations of moves. The stages usually consist of a bland flat map with a few cube-like figures to stand on and have music that vary from addictive to forgettable but the annoying instrument choices make it hard on the ears for some. The modes in the game consist of Story mode where you can complete for each individual character, Challenge mode in which you aim for the highest score while completing all the battles successfully under a selected difficulty, minigames which are all multiplayer over a link cable except for one which is a Knuckles themed minesweeper game that can be played in single player, single matches either with AI opponents or with friends over a link cable with one to four fighters and editable settings like lives, teams and stages. The storyline consists of Eggman trying to take over the world with robots that can mimic the abilities of who they watch and one of these robots manages to get into the hands of Sonic, his friends and his rivals. The battles can vary from extremely easy to extremely difficult and almost random intervals which leads to a really strange difficult curve. The battling system consists of simple combos, attacks to launch enemies airborne, air attacks that can harm and/or slam them into the ground with amazing force, running attacks, a healing/charging ability and three special signature moves of the types "Trap" which is a special move which plants a trap in the arena, "Air" which is a special move done in the air and finally "Ground" which is a special move done on the ground. The game will start out extremely difficult unless you grind experience points and abilities for your customizable robot character. You will realize after awhile that the AI opponents are extremely stupid. If you get far enough away from one, they will sit there and charge energy until you come within their range, on a rare occasion, they may come after you after a certain time period expires. They are also easy to lead around the arena and lead face first into your incoming attacks. AI opponents usually refuse to block or get out of the way or block when launched by an upward strike which can lead you to easily juggling them with the same upward strike until they lose their current life and respawn or are eliminated form the match if on their last life. You can also spam your special move that they aren't resistant to for easy KOs. The game overall is decent if playing solo and even better with friends to play with on multiplayer, its limited and flawed in areas while amazing and varied in others.… Expand
  2. ohaiKendyl
    May 19, 2011
    7
    It's far from exceeding the Super Smash Bros series, but the truth is that Sonic Battle is an OK fighting game with lots of multiplayer value. Pros: Fantastic graphics and 3-D fighting arenas; a surprising amount of depth in strategy during Battle; Emerl's ability to use Skill Copy is almost limitlessly customizable; lots of multiplayer value. Cons: Limited roster; Battles require lots of repetitive button-mashing; fighting with 2-D sprites in a 3-D environment results with often unresponsive controls; "hit-or-miss" soundtrack.… Collapse
  3. KendylKlownfish
    May 1, 2011
    7
    It's not going to win any fighting game awards, however, kiddies will obsess over the excessive amount of cartoon violence jammed in their GBA. Pros: Fantastic graphics for the GBA; basic control; variety of characters and 3-D action boards. Cons: The repetitive button mashing will turn some gamers off; imbalanced character roster; poor soundtrack.
  4. JeffB.
    Apr 6, 2004
    8
    Screw plot and Theme, all I wanted to do in this game was kick some shit out of people with emerl. Like other GBa sonic games, this one had little plot. The fighting is fun, and the graphics are decent, I didn't like how emerl died in the end, it was also hard to gain experience, but once you got good there was no stopping you.
  5. KameronS.
    Feb 15, 2004
    10
    This game rocks!!! one more thing. Clarke Middle School Is AWESOME!!!!
  6. MarkB.
    Jan 16, 2004
    8
    I think a lot of reviewers were unfair to this game. The plot is excellent, and all the characters are shown how they really are. Sonic is over-confident, tails is shy, knuckles just wants to fight, etc. Plus, some very good voice clips are sprinkled in the game. I think its good, and my main complaint is that training emerl can take a lot of training.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 28 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 28
  3. Negative: 3 out of 28
  1. Weekly Famitsu
    70
    7 / 7 / 7 / 7 - 28 [Vol 782]
  2. AceGamez
    90
    A charming game with a riveting plot and, most of all, a fun and challenging engine at heart.
  3. GBA Central
    50
    Won’t last long as a single player game - combat’s a little simple and the gameplay modes on offer are just too dry to provide any lasting entertainment.
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