It’s time to talk about the sequel to Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2. As I said in my review of Sonic Advance, the music, artwork and animation are all amazing.

Leaf Forest Zone might actually be my favourite first zone in any 2D Sonic game. It’s just so fucking fun! The music is joyful and energetic, the artwork is beautiful and colourful, and you can run even faster than you can in the first Advance game. What’s cool is that afterimages appear when your speed gets high, which shows just how fast you can really go. The somewhat empty level design allows you to reach unimaginably high speeds for a 2D Sonic game and I love it. The boss battle is very cool. Basically, while you’re chasing Eggman, you have to catch up to him and hit him while dodging his hammer. It’s a super neat fight.

Hot Crater Zone is even better than Leaf Forest Zone. It’s faster, the music is better and so is the artwork. This game is really off to a great start. As I said when talking about Leaf Forest Zone, the level design being relatively empty allows extremely fast running to take place. It’s actually so fun zooming through this zone. The boss battle is quite similar to the one in Leaf Forest Zone, except Eggman will shoot balls out of a cannon. After destroying the cannon, the balls will then be shot out of the hole where the cannon once was. It’s pretty cool if you ask me.

Music Plant Zone is just great. You zoom around this zone while occasionally encountering objects that actually make music when you touch them. It’s super neat. However, some of the enemies can be a bit annoying and there are a few death pits. Other than those two problems, though, this is yet another example of a really good 2D Sonic zone. The boss battle is quite cool. You have to jump on these spiky disks and hit Eggman while dodging some balls. I like it.

Ice Paradise Zone has the same issues as Music Plant Zone, but that doesn’t make it bad in the slightest. It’s still very fast and very fun. It’s just that the death pits and annoying enemies make both this zone and its predecessor slightly worse than the first two zones. The boss battle is super neat, albeit quite difficult.

Sky Canyon Zone is where things go slightly downhill. There are much more death pits in this zone than there are in its predecessors and there are quite a lot of slow segments. Also, there are multiple unforeseeable/unavoidable enemies/spikes, which I do not like at all. However, this zone is still fast and the music is fantastic, although those two aspects are a given. The boss battle is actually pretty good. You have to hit Knuckles’ container while avoiding both a giant hand and a laser shooter. It is a bit hard, but that’s fine.

Techno Base Zone does have a lot of the same problems as Sky Canyon Zone, such as there being multiple death pits and unforeseeable/unavoidable enemies/spikes. However, this zone is WAAAAAY faster than its predecessor. I think it might be the fastest zone in this entire game. The boss battle is fine. It’s repetitive, but the difficulty makes up for that repetition.

I couldn’t beat Sonic Advance 2. I didn’t have the strength to do it. You know why? Because of Egg Utopia Zone. This zone is actually garbage. Countless death pits, countless unforeseeable/unavoidable enemies/spikes and insanely complicated level design all come together to make this the worst post-90s 2D Sonic zone. I’m actually serious. I really do despise this stupid fucking zone. Sonic Advance 2 gets 3.5 stars just like its predecessor. See you when I review Sonic Advance 3.