SONIC BATTLE
Original Release: Sega, 2003, Game Boy Advance
It's ... Xenogears Arena? An odd mascot fighter that kinda leans more toward King of the Monsters than Smash Bros
Sonic Battle (GBA, Sega, 2003)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
Sonic's first fighting game was the arcade release Sonic Championship, an AM2-helmed reworking of the Virtua Fighter Kids engine that really wasn't half bad. This second stab, unfortunately, is nothing like it. It's an attempt by Sega to basically do a more simplistic "3D plane" version of Smash Brothers, but like most of the Sonic titles since the early 00's, it was seemingly churned out quickly and thoughtlessly.
Up to four players run around in arenas that vary graphically, but not really in any other way - they're just collections of obstacles of various heights for you to jump over and stand on. You've got all of one attack button, and jumps are sort of a weird automatic attack-jump combo that is really imprecise. As the game's "story mode" wears on you unlock new moves for characters (given to you in a random draw at the end of certain fights), but all they ever really seem to do is make the game cheaper.
Aside from boring lifeless terrain and Sonic Team's usual Derp level of writing of the period, the main thing that drags this one down is imprecise hit detection. Rather, it's way too finicky and precise for normal attacks to be reliable, meaning battles usually degenerate into spamming area-damage moves repeatedly with a few select characters. Graphics are also bland at best and the music is terrible.
There are a few little mini-games to play off the main menu, but you only have access to one at first and have to work through the atrocious Story Mode to unlock the rest. And if you want to do multiplayer, it's gonna require a copy of the game for each person along with link cables and the whole shebang.
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