Please be aware that I started this game in 2023, so my memories of most of the zones are a bit muddy (I was trying to get all the chaos emeralds). Warning for spoilers!

Story

The story isn't much. Sonic and all his friends must stop Eggman, but he has a trick up his sleeve: a robot named Gemerl. Gemerl is similar to Emerl in Sonic Battle (gee, I wonder), but without all that childlike innocence that Emerl had. Honestly, the only written parts I can remember are when a character wants to join Sonic and Tails, where they exchange dialogue. Aside from that, all the story is told via "cutscenes" akin to those in the classic Sonic games. (i.e. "Tom and Jerry" style, with everything told through actions and not words.) So, it's not noticeable, but it isn't bad either. Phew.

The ending (both of them) is cute, though.

Gameplay

The main gimmick of Sonic Advance 3 is the team mechanic. You choose the character you play as, and then your partner. Different player characters and different partners affect the abilities of both characters. I liked this mechanic a lot... of course, some teams are better than others (looking at you, Tails / Cream), so some of them will go unused. It does make it easier to freshen up your playstyle and prepare for certain levels. I found that my favorite teams were Amy / Tails, Tails / Amy, Cream / Tails, and Cream / Sonic. (Can you see who I like to play as the most?) A small gripe I have with the teams is that if you're trying to get all the Chao in a zone, you may need a specific team to get to them. This means that if you chose the wrong team, you're going to have to exit, swap teams, and go back to the point you were at.  Just pray you chose the right team. Thankfully, I  didn't have much issue with this--Tails' flight is useful to get most of the Chao--but that one chao/level in Ocean Base was especially brutal with that.

Each zone introduces new gimmicks, which is standard [for classic Sonic]. 

Zones

-Route 99

Kind of confusing to navigate, but you can get a lot of speed here. Due to how similar everything looked, I had some difficulty tracking down the Chao. Not a bad first zone.

-Sunset Hill

Green Hill, is that you?? 

Another Green Hill look-a-like. It even remixes Green Hill's theme (but it *is* a good remix). Not bad either, but I'm exhausted of Green Hill. (Obviously, at the time Sonic Advance 3 was released, Green Hill wasn't as overused as it is now. Sure, it's an iconic level, but come on.)

-Ocean Base

Oh, man. The song for this one is amazing. But the zone itself, on the other hand...

It had a nice aesthetic. I remember it being confusing to navigate at times, though. I don't hate it, but the oil falls could be annoying to deal with. (Or maybe I'm just impatient, haha)

-Toy Kingdom

I love bouncing and sliding around in this stage! It's a happy little place. The swinging balls would irritate me at times, but again, it's probably my impatience. The slides are kind of slippery to deal with. (Pun entirely intended)

-Twinkle Snow

Too much water. 7.8

Okay, seriously, I detest water levels. They just stress me out, and not in a good way. Thankfully, I don't remember Twinkle Snow having a lot of water, but oh my god.

-Cyber Track

Be veryyy careful traversing this zone. It was both fun and yet... annoying at the same time? The zone is fast-paced [at times], but watch out! If you're too fast and make a wrong move, you'll fall to your death... which takes a little bit of enjoyment out of it.

-Chaos Angel

This zone is beautiful. Unfortunately, tons of empty pits and falling platforms await you here, so going fast is incredibly risky. 

Psst--If you're trying to get the last emerald, keep redoing Act 3 [after getting all the Chao, of course]. The key respawns every time you die, and act 3 is the shortest and easiest to navigate of them all [in Chaos Angel].

-Emerald Altar

I... guess it counts as a zone? Even though it's a boss?

Nice song. (Of course.)

Having to fight Gemerl before then fighting Eggman was the cause of a lot of my deaths here. However, if you use Tails / Amy, the fight is significantly easier. Cute ending. (Note: I haven't gotten all the chaos emeralds yet, so I'll make a follow-up post after I do that. That post will include the bosses as well.)

Special Stages

I HATE the special stages in this game. The requirements to be able to even access them are ridiculous! You have to hunt down 7 hidden chao in each zone, then find a key (and keep it) in an act. Get this: you only get ONE key for ONE attempt. If you die whilst carrying the key, you have to find it again. And if you do manage to successfully find the key and hold on to it until the act is completed, it's good for one try. So if you fail that special stage, you have to find the key again. This gets especially annoying in later special stages, where they're much harder. Don't get me wrong, difficulty increasing as you progress further in the game is a good thing, but when you have such a time-consuming process to get one attempt, it's just plain annoying.

A Few Minor Gripes

1. Why did they detail Tails'... rear end on the title screen??

2. The length of the title screen. I hate getting a game over and having to spam "Start". Sonic Battle lets you right into the menu when you press "Start" on the title screen, but Sonic Advance 3 requires you to wait through a few seconds of a cutscene. I mean, it's only a few seconds, but it's just irritating when you get so many game-overs because of how hard it is to find lives. 

3. THE LIVES SYSTEM. Yes, I know it's an old game; yes, I know why old games have "live systems". But it's still frustrating getting constant game-overs because lives are so hard to find. I don't know if I just suck at the game or what.

4. The Minigames. In each zone, there are two minigames you can play to get lives: one where you hit buttons on a capsule, and another where you kill enemies. Both of these have time limits, and you only get lives if you succeed. Depending on how quickly you beat them, you would get a different amount of lives. Now, in the early zones, these minigames aren't a problem and are fairly easy. Nice little way to get more lives. However, later on, they become a lot harder. I think the thing that makes these so annoying in the later zones is the fact that the amount of time you get to beat them stays the same as in the early zones... which makes them horrendously hard by the time you reach Chaos Angel. I've gotten close to beating them so many times, but, well...

Overall verdict: 8/10

Enjoyable experience! Of course, it has some flaws, but it's my favorite of the Sonic Advance Games [so far].