Sonic Battle

Fast-paced Smash Bros.?style melee with all your fave Sonic characters!

That Dr. Eggman is at it again with more plots to overthrow the world. Meanwhile, Sonic is wasting away a boring afternoon at the beach and finds a top-secret super robot that can learn its enemy?s moves. Is it the perfect weapon to foil Dr. Eggman or a ticking timebomb that will destroy the world?

Hot Buttered Battle Action
Of course, if you don?t want all that plot getting in the way of your good time, you and three friends can choose from eight well-known franchise characters (or select your customized robot from Story mode) and duke it out over link cables in true Smash Bros. style. The characters? unique fighting techniques enhance the enjoyable fast-paced action in Sonic Battle?s pseudo-3D arenas. While it?s definitely one of the best implementations of the z-axis yet to appear on the GBA, the camera doesn?t always rotate when it should. A big part of strategy unintentionally becomes staying out of blind spots.

Give Them a Boot to the Head!
The game?s strongest point is its graphics, which look great on the GBA and scale up beautifully when played through the Game Boy Player for the GameCube. Music and sound effects are whimsical and provide appropriate accompaniment to the action. The controls are intuitive and well executed, except for the blocking command. It?s annoyingly difficult to time blocks correctly, but as Mel (the cook on Alice) says, ?The best defense is a good offense.?

The biggest problem with Sonic Battle is the poor game design in Story mode. Earning Skill Points, and thereby new abilities for Emerl the Robot, is a grueling ordeal. Most battles reward Emerl with a single Skill Point. All the cool abilities cost upwards of 20 Skill Points, leading to a detrimental imbalance in the effort/reward system. A good game will make players work for their upgrades, but Sonic Battle asks too much. Still, the game can be enjoyed in multiplayer mode with the eight preexisting characters until you put in the long hours to build up Emerl

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