is a 2001 platform game developed by Sonic Team and Dimps and published by Sega for the Game Boy Advance. It was one of the first Sonic the Hedgehog games to be released on a Nintendo console along 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.
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 was ported to Nokia's N-Gage in 2003 as SonicN, with ports to J2ME devices by Gameloft and Android by Sega releasing in 2011. The GBA version was re-released on the Wii U's Virtual Console in Japan.
Sonic Advance received positive reviews for its graphics, character animations, and faithfulness to the original Genesis games, but also received criticism for its short length and special stages. It was a 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).
Gameplay
thumb|left|alt=Screenshot showing Sonic running around a loop in Angel Island zone, the game's fifth level. The HUD on the upper left-hand corner shows the timer, score, and amount of rings the player has.|Sonic running through a loop in [[Angel Island Zone]]
Sonic Advance is a side-scrolling platform game reminiscent of the original Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Sega Genesis.
The game takes place over six levels called zones. Each zone is split into two acts, where the player must guide their selected character past enemies and obstacles such as spikes and bottomless pits to reach the end in under ten minutes. Scattered around acts are springboards, boost pads, and golden rings, which serve as a form of health; players survive hits as long as they have at least one ring, but their rings will scatter and disappear after a short period. with Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance (GBA) being primary focuses. A team of developers was formed to begin development on Sonic the Hedgehog Advance (later renamed Sonic Advance), a Sonic game for the GBA to commemorate the series' 10th anniversary. Dimps, a studio formed by several former Neo Geo Pocket Color developers and funded by Sega, Sony, and Bandai, developed the game with assistance from Sonic Team. Several Dimps members worked on the critically acclaimed Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (1999) for the Neo Geo Pocket Color.
The developers decided to return to a gameplay style similar to the original Genesis Sonic games, which Naka felt was refreshing. Despite this, they also incorporated concepts from Sonic Adventure (1998) and Sonic Adventure 2 (2001), such as the ability to grind on rails and the modernized character designs by Yuji Uekawa. As the Sonic games released for the Dreamcast allowed players to download minigames onto the Visual Memory Unit (VMU), the development team decided to expand upon this by using a similar concept with the GameCube's GBA link cable, making Sonic Advance one of the first games to use the cable.
Sega announced Sonic Advance alongside two other GBA games on January 30, 2001. A video containing footage of the game's first level was featured at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May 2001, and demo versions were showcased at Nintendo Space World and the Tokyo Game Show later that year. Sega released Sonic Advance in Japan on December 20, 2001, while THQ co-published it in North America on February 4, 2002. The game was released in Europe on March 8, 2002, where Infogrames handled marketing and distribution. A port for Nokia's N-Gage, SonicN, was released worldwide on October 7, 2003. In 2005, it was compiled with ChuChu Rocket!, Sonic Pinball Party, and Sonic Battle in separate bundle packs for the GBA. The game was released on Android on November 25, 2011, and on the Wii U's Virtual Console on February 18, 2015. Both of these rereleases are exclusive to Japan. A J2ME mobile port version of the game was developed and released worldwide by Gameloft in 2011, which contains only four Zones: Neo Green Hill Zone, Secret Base Zone, Angel Island Zone and Casino Paradise.