This is a classic . Sonic got a few spin-offs on the GBA outside of Sonic Advance Trilogy and this alongside Sonic Pinball Party were the 'main' ones. Sonic Battle was developed by Sonic Team and it is a sudo-3D brawler!
I loved this game when I was growing up and still have a soft spot for this game. For a Game Boy Advance title, Sonic Team made a 'big' game using some fun fighting mechanics.
So, how does Sonic's second round in the ring after Fighters fare? Lets find out!
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Lets start with the story first. Now, one must ask "Wait....a story in a fighting game?!" Why yes, a large story mode was created for this game and takes up a significant amount of gameplay time.
So before I dive into how the fighting works, lets start with the plot!
The story is of Eggman finding a very old robot named Emerl:
Eggman learns it can take in the Chaos Emeralds and become stronger the more it 'eats'. If this reminds you of Chaos from Sonic Adventure, then you are right! Eggman just never learns, does he :').
Anyway, he ditches the robot and Sonic ends up finding it. After showing it his power, it forms a 'link' with Sonic and begins following him and his friends around. Everyone wants the robot, with it bonding with the core Sonic cast (Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Cream, ect) as he joins them on adventures and brawls.
This all leads to Eggman making a new Death Egg and its up to Emerl (due to having the seven chaos Emeralds inside him) to fight Eggman in the Death Egg.
This......doesn't go too well and we end up having to put down our new friend by the hands of Sonic and the game ends with us morning the death of our robot buddy :'(.
What I like about this game is that the story while not super interesting, has a lot of great character moments. For the Dreamcast Era games, this has my favorite Sonic story out of all of them in that era and that is from the character interactions.
Emerl takes in personality elements form Sonic and friends over the game and its nice seeing this robot grow into a new character in the series; we see why the cast likes him from various interactions.
We also get insight to the lives of Sonic and friends; Rouge flirts with Sonic and that grosses him out, Amy is like a mother figure to Emerl, Emerl and Shadow have a special connection, Knuckles and Emerl but heads due to Emerl having Sonic-like treats and its great seeing characters like Gamma (though not the same one from Adventure, a version called 'Chaos Gamma instead) and Chaos again.
I really liked this story and a handheld fighting game having a better story then the console games.....I don't know if I can say that its impressive or funny XD! But yah, a fighting game with a great plot .
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The combat mechanics are a lot of fun, as they are simple with two attack buttons (B and R) but you have a ton of hidden depth. Each character has a launcher, three hit combo and slam attack with B button. But the R button has a lot of different moves. You have three types of attacks for R that you can 'equip' before fights; melee attacks that can do a lot of damage, distance attacks, or throwing/placing bombs.
But its different for each character. Sonic has a wave attack that has him spin dashing in place and when he revs up, he launches a wave and his air attack has him slamming into the ground ala bounce attack......or you could have Sonic do an airral wave attack and him having a homing dash that is linked to a tossed ring.
Shadow is another example, as you can use Chaos Blast in unique ways (either turning invisible then unleashing the attack or having it be a air attack that auto-slams into the ground) and his bomb can be controlled with the D-Pad.
Every character has a ton of depth and it makes fights a lot of fun. You also have guarding (tap L) and healing (holding L) too.
Emerl is really fun here as his entire moveset can be customized. As you play the story mode, he 'learns' abilities from everyone and this leads you to having a ton of flexibility for movesets. You can give him Knuckles Glide, Shadow R attacks, Amy's B attacks and Sonic's stance and color pallet for example.
You have literally hundreds of combinations to play around with, making him a lot of fun to play as ! It takes the 'create a fighter' ability most fighters have and turns it on its head.
Overall, fun core mechanics and the levels work well with them. Due to everyone having a double jump (jump + dash/glide/flying/ect), it makes the swiftness of Sonic and friends apparent as you fight. Hidden areas can be used to buy sometime to heal yourself or you can position yourself to have a nice spot to use some distance R attacks.
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The presentation for this game is really impressive honestly. It takes the strong sprite work from Sonic Advance and gives it more animations, detail and adds 3D movement into the mix.
Sonic and friends have a great style here too, with more 'tough' looks to reflect the fighting push this game has and the strong style of the Dreamcast Era shines through.
The soundtrack is classic Sonic and it makes the GBA sing .
Emerald Beach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm2cCIxaXno&index=5&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Green Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCW_w_dBZ1c&index=22&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Emerald Town: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjsYCF3wPUM&index=4&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Tails Lab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oekHkgzshY4&index=6&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Holy Summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8KhvScR9YQ&index=7&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Central City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_9bH3gPbl0&index=9&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Battle Highway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-UJ2FV4yik&index=11&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Club Rouge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZvh-_vFrbs&index=14&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Colosseum E-121 Φ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFzVdXQw3no&index=17&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Death Egg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lujxsai08TE&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy&index=20
Final Boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZCJ7C9BCRA&index=21&list=PLXRkwGvXTai7D4n_Uc1rF4oFY6AsPtcHy
Love how harsh some of these sound and they make great use of the GBA hardware.
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Some extra stuff you can unlock post-game is Gamma and Chaos as playable fighters, Green Hill Zone Arena and mini games you can play alone (Knuckles Mine-Sweeper) and with friends (the rest of them).
The mini games I never really used due to needing a friend to play with you but the Green Hill Stage rocks !
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Overall, this is one of my favorite handheld Sonic titles and it does a great job being a fighter. It brings the genre to the GBA in a great fashion and I love how Sonic Team made a great story here.
Love this game and highly recommend you all give it a look !