Sonic Advance
Sonic Advance, known as SonicN on the N-Gage, is a 2001 platform game developed by Dimps and published by Sega for the Game Boy Advance. It was the first Sonic the Hedgehog game released on a Nintendo console with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on the GameCube, and was produced in commemoration of the series' tenth anniversary. The story follows Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy as they journey to stop Doctor Eggman from taking over the world. Controlling a character, players are tasked with completing each level, defeating Eggman and his robot army, and collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds.
| Sonic Advance | |
|---|---|
North American GBA box art | |
| Developer(s) | Dimps Sonic Team |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Director(s) | Akinori Nishiyama |
| Producer(s) | Yuji Naka Hiroshi Matsumoto |
| Designer(s) | Yukihiro Higashi Masaaki Yamagiwa |
| Programmer(s) | Yoshihisa Hashimoto Takaaki Saito |
| Artist(s) | Yuji Uekawa |
| Composer(s) | Tatsuyuki Maeda Yutaka Minobe |
| Series | Sonic the Hedgehog |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance, N-Gage, Android, mobile phone |
| Release | Game Boy AdvanceN-Gage
|
| Genre(s) | Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Development began after Sega shifted its focus to third-party software development, due to the poor performance of the Dreamcast console. Sega recruited Dimps to lead development, making the game the first in the franchise developed by the studio. While Sonic Advance follows a similar style of gameplay to the Sega Genesis Sonic games, certain concepts and designs were reused from newer games such as Sonic Adventure (1998). The game has been ported to Nokia's N-Gage and Android devices, and is available on the Wii U via the Virtual Console in Japan.
Sonic Advance received positive reviews for its graphics, character animations, and faithfulness to the original Genesis games, but was criticized for its short length and special stages. It was a major commercial success, selling 1.21 million copies in the United States and is among the GBA's bestselling games. The game was followed by two sequels also on the Game Boy Advance; Sonic Advance 2 (2002) and Sonic Advance 3 (2004).