Sonic Advance 2 does not make me want to advance to the third... (I'll still do it anyway)
Again just like the first game, this had a horrendous spike in difficulty beyond Ice Paradise. But there is 1 thing I appreciate about this title over the first game: each level's aesthetic is very appealing with the soundtrack also lifting these themes up, and I genuinely enjoyed that.
But why do I dislike this game? Well, it narrows itself down to the very uninteresting boss fights that become an incredible hassle if you reach near the end of the game where you have to do a boss rush (although each phase has much less health) and then just the overall level design philosophy of this game is just a joke. There are so many moments throughout these levels where it honestly just screams "trial and error" where you will most likely make a mistake or miss a jump you did not expect and have to go back to a save state. Now bare in mind this wouldn't typically be that much of a problem, but if you lose your lives you're going to have to start from ground zero just like other classic sonic games, it just makes this questionable design philosophy not a joy at all. An example of this is a certain section that involves you moving at high speed and boosting upward and then using the new mechanic in this game, the mid-air tricks, to gain extra height to make it up areas. The problem is this is something you aren't gonna be accustomed to from the get-go cause it doesn't teach you this mechanic and you will most certainly die to a pitfall
Overall: while aesthetically I enjoy this game more than the first, the actual game itself I can not tolerate and by the time I made it to the X zone I just wanted to stop playing.
Again just like the first game, this had a horrendous spike in difficulty beyond Ice Paradise. But there is 1 thing I appreciate about this title over the first game: each level's aesthetic is very appealing with the soundtrack also lifting these themes up, and I genuinely enjoyed that.
But why do I dislike this game? Well, it narrows itself down to the very uninteresting boss fights that become an incredible hassle if you reach near the end of the game where you have to do a boss rush (although each phase has much less health) and then just the overall level design philosophy of this game is just a joke. There are so many moments throughout these levels where it honestly just screams "trial and error" where you will most likely make a mistake or miss a jump you did not expect and have to go back to a save state. Now bare in mind this wouldn't typically be that much of a problem, but if you lose your lives you're going to have to start from ground zero just like other classic sonic games, it just makes this questionable design philosophy not a joy at all. An example of this is a certain section that involves you moving at high speed and boosting upward and then using the new mechanic in this game, the mid-air tricks, to gain extra height to make it up areas. The problem is this is something you aren't gonna be accustomed to from the get-go cause it doesn't teach you this mechanic and you will most certainly die to a pitfall
Overall: while aesthetically I enjoy this game more than the first, the actual game itself I can not tolerate and by the time I made it to the X zone I just wanted to stop playing.