The Classic Series vs. The Advance Series

[Rusty Spy]

Which is almost certainly the exact reason that Sonic Advance 2 didn't try to do it.

In it's defense, Advance 2's controls were leagues better than 3's.

[Rob K.]

The classic tittles had better level desine, controls and there where consistant in quality. Advance 1 lacked the speed of sonic 2 but had good level desine and decent controls. Advance 2 fet like Sonic Rush but without the boost power. Advance 3 was the best of the 3 with the good level desine of Advance 1 meets the speed and controls of Advance 2.

[Jar Jar Analysis 1138]

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After lurking on the Sega Forums for a few months, I've noticed that they treat the Adv. Series as if its God's gift to the series

Reminds me of how the Sonic fanbase in general is with their favorite games. Ain't any different from other places...

@Tornado

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I can't see how you don't. Just as an example, Neo Green Hill has wholesale copies of entire sections from Emerald Hill, and shares many little bits and pieces in addition. The boss for the level is even similar to the one from Emerald Hill.

Emerald Hill was Green Hill-Improved. Hydrocity is just Chemical Plant with more platforms. The fire Boss in Angel Island(both Eggmans and the mini boss) are mostly copied from Sonic 2.

Neo Green Hill follows the same formula of taking previous stages and improving on them. 

Early Sonic games are notorious for doing this because of how rushed they were(I'd have to find the excerpts again). 

[Sean]

On 5/7/2011 at 3:08 PM, Sean said:

Conversely, I enjoyed Sonic Rush Adventure despite not liking most of anything else Dimps put out beforehand. Or since.

lol ever since I made this post years ago I've warmed up to the first Rush game (still not as good as SRA) and Advance 2. I think Advance 1 certainly isn't bad either but not quite as good as most of the classics for its lame level and boss design. Maybe that fan remake will improve my opinion of it.

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They adamantly refuse to replicate such design however, and it's been nearly a decade since Sonic Advance came out. So Dimps is pretty much all but entirely impotent now. They're like the M. Night Shyamalan of games.

Wow a fucking M. Night reference/comparison! Go back to 2004, 2011 version of me

[RedFox99]

17 minutes ago, Sean said:

Conversely, I enjoyed Sonic Rush Adventure despite not liking most of anything else Dimps put out beforehand. Or since.

I got the impression that many people preferred Rush 1 over RA.

[Sean]

Most people prefer the first game's soundtrack for sure (and the lack of padding that SRA had in the form of replaying levels for materials), but as far as the games themselves go I haven't gathered a clear consensus as to which one most people like more.

[StaticMania]

It'd definitely be the padding more than anything, because Rush Adventure's level design and boss design certainly don't have any of the original's faults. No obnoxious obstacle placement, no pace breaking enemy rooms, and no waiting for the boss to be vulnerable.

[Salamander]

Pretty much the only area in which Rush Adventure wasn't a massive improvement was the boat gameplay, which to my mind has to be the thing which brought the title down.  I don't object to world map exploration by any means, it was right up my street - but it just didn't really have anything to do with the rest of the gameplay.  They should've just stuck with upgrading the jetski to go ever faster and maybe giving it some other neat gimmicks or fresh obstacles, as that felt the most like "Sonic going fast"; if the game didn't take place on the high seas, which I feel is essential to much of its character, I've said before that the jetski could just have been reskinned to Sonic running around on the world map instead, sort of by analogy to the CD Special Stages.

Oh, right, but this is the Classics versus Advance thread.  I'd definitely take the Classics; there's something about the Advance series which always felt just a little fangamey to me, a kind of lack of depth or fulness to the graphics...  With that said, I definitely had fun with the Advance games, which occasionally had comparatively fresh level ideas or neat spins on existing formulae; Sonic Advance 3 probably deservedly gets a lot of stick, but I think the partner system was a nice idea and I liked that the first zone wasn't grassy hills and the last zone wasn't a mechanical base.  Experimenting with all rolling bosses was worth trying, as Advance 2 did, too.  The games do have some features to recommend them.  (Even if I never got a single Chaos Emerald with any character in Advance 2.)

[Tornado]

17 hours ago, Jar Jar Analysis 1138 said:

@Tornado

 

Emerald Hill was Green Hill-Improved. Hydrocity is just Chemical Plant with more platforms. The fire Boss in Angel Island(both Eggmans and the mini boss) are mostly copied from Sonic 2.

Neo Green Hill follows the same formula of taking previous stages and improving on them. 

Early Sonic games are notorious for doing this because of how rushed they were(I'd have to find the excerpts again). 

Stop the presses.

[Jar Jar Analysis 1138]

 While the graphics, sound and music are hampered by the lower end of technology, I can't deny that Dimps created a fantastic interpretation of 2D sonic in their own way. I love both but I prefer the advance games due to the sheer amounts of depth they put into the series. The mechanics of Sonic Advance should have been a clear staple with the 2D games and same goes for how Sonic's friends are played(a balance of similar and unique play-styles).
 

I personally believe that the next 2D sonic game should take some of the inspirations from Dimp's games to improving Sonic's overall moveset. As it stands now; Advance Sonic is the definitive way in playing Sonic.

1 hour ago, Tornado said:

Stop the presses.

I agree

 

[Emerald Chaos]

Not gonna lie I feel a bit lost sometimes going back to the classics after playing the Advance games, since you can't air dash.

If we're counting Mania as a "classic" game, do people prefer the drop dash over the air dash? Could you see a game where Sonic has both options?

[Razule]

16 minutes ago, Emerald Chaos said:

Not gonna lie I feel a bit lost sometimes going back to the classics after playing the Advance games, since you can't air dash.

If we're counting Mania as a "classic" game, do people prefer the drop dash over the air dash? Could you see a game where Sonic has both options?

Ideally there could just be a move switching option.

[Jar Jar Analysis 1138]

18 minutes ago, Emerald Chaos said:

Not gonna lie I feel a bit lost sometimes going back to the classics after playing the Advance games, since you can't air dash.

If we're counting Mania as a "classic" game, do people prefer the drop dash over the air dash? Could you see a game where Sonic has both options?

Air Dash. Drop Dash was a great idea but Air dash allows you to control yourself better. When you Air dash(Advance 1 and 2) you lose all air traction and fall quicker to the ground. Unlike Drop dash, you can change your momentum on a dime.

Drop Dash is good. Air Dash gives better mobility and control.

Thankfully, Sonic 3-Mania does have the Fire Dash so that is a plus(which is far better than drop dash funnily enough).

 

[Sean]

Drop dash by miles. Accomplishes the same thing in bosses, except in Advance 2 it left you vulnerable if you did it too close to the boss. In Mania its usefulness is best on display during Studiopolis 1's boss.

[Zach8920]

Advance series for me, since my 2nd(or third) Sonic game was Advance 3. My first taste of the 2D variety of platforming was pretty enjoyable, but that whole screen crunch thing with the GBA annoyed me.

I'd KILL, i'd seriously throw some cash at a 3DS port of the Advance series entirely. Never played the first two.

[Emerald Chaos]

I'm personally pretty impartial, I feel like the pros between the two are fairly balanced:

Drop Dash:
Has a satisfying flow
Curls up into a ball, so it's very in line with Sonic's central concepts
Well balanced, only gives you the speed of a slightly charged spindash, and you need to do a full jump and landing, basically meaning it's not too spammable

Air Dash:
Also satisfying to use
Very high potential move, look at any speedrun or TAS video of the game to see how crazy the move can be
Allows for some correction in the air without being too strong ala Sonic 4's homing attack

The air dash inherently has much more utility, but that's not necessarily a good thing. You have to look at it in line of what it does to the overall gameplay. Look at Sonic 4, again, it's homing attack gives full acceleration AND an attack at the press of one button. I personally feel like the move requiring some level of execution, double tapping forward, and the move not being an attack means you need to have some awareness of your positioning and encourages utilisation of more of your moveset.