On my birthday, in the year nineteen hundred ninety-nine, a hero was born into the gaming world. It was an interesting time in the world of gaming, Nintendo faced serious competition for the first time against Sega's 16-bit Genesis. Sega was gaining a little ground on Nintendo due to the delay of their "Super Nintendo" system, but they knew they needed more to actually give Nintendo a fight once they turned up the heat. Sales records were consistently being broken by one series over and over again: Mario. Sega knew that they needed a mascot of their own, and thus, Sonic the Hedgehog was born. Sonic had a few things Mario didn't. He had blistering speed, attitude to burn and impatient waiting animation.

Over the years we have played and enjoyed many incarnations of Sonic. Much like Mario, Sonic has branched out to racing games, adventure games, and other sorts of playable fare, but the best of Sonic was always a good old 2-D platformer on speed. Seeing Sonic on a Nintendo system definitely signaled the end of an era. Sure, it wasn't the first game to be released on another platform, but this is obviously the one that hit home. Sonic luckily found a home on the last bastion of 2-D gaming, the Gameboy Advance.

The aptly named Sonic Advance, is not a port of any existing Sonic game on the market. Sonic Team built a whole new game for the Nintendo hand held and the results are very pleasing to long time fans of the speedy blue hedgehog. The game is somewhat of a hybrid, featuring classic 2-D gameplay yet also hosting more characters than just Sonic to play. For the most part, this is a good thing, as people generally enjoy taking the reigns of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, however I really disagree with throwing Amy into the mix. She just doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the crew, but, of course, this is only my humble two cents.

The gameplay of Sonic Advance is pure to the series' roots on the Genesis, with crisp control over the characters and their special abilities. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all feature the classic rolling attacks as well as the spin dash attacks which everyone knows and loves. Sonic is the fastest, of course, and can also grind a few rails that are scattered around the levels, as well as performing a little flash kick type attack while jumping. The rail grinding, while seeming like a cool idea, isn't really used all that much, a lot less that you would have thought from the previews before the game was released.

Tails can attack with a swoosh of his double tail and can fly, just as he always has. Knuckles can perform a series of punches, climb walls and even glide after a jump or fall. Amy, while not having a roll attack or spin dash, can defend herself with her mighty 'love hammer?' (I don't know, she swings a giant hammer around and hearts fly out!) Even though I feel that Amy doesn't completely fit in, I don't mean to make it seem like she is unplayable. She actually does play well, even though the lack of some of the basic 'Sonic' moves causes a couple problems in the game if you try and play her as if she were a standard character.

The game includes 13 basic levels which need to be played by all four characters. Some people might scoff at the 'forced' replayability of the levels, since you basically play each level four times, but each character is different enough to play the levels differently. As a matter of fact, the levels are constructed in such as way that many areas are only accessible by certain characters. This isn't just for the sake of a little diversity, it is also necessary to completely explore the levels in your forever hunt for bonus stages where you can attempt to earn the all powerful Chaos Emeralds. The exploration of levels is a little more important in this game than in previous Sonic games, since the bonus level entrances are particularly well hidden.

What is the one thing that a Sonic game must have? That's right: SPEED! Can the Gameboy Advance handle a Sonic game without having the patented "Blast Processing (tm)" hardware found in the Genesis? Surprisingly, (just kidding,) the game handles the speed like a dream. The mighty mite portable Nintendo hardware loves a nice, fast 2-D challenge and is certainly up for the job. The game performs without a hitch and really doesn't experience any real slowdown or hiccups that would ruin the gameplay experience for anyone. Sonic is fast as ever as he blasts through loops and corkscrews in a blue blur. Maybe they included an extra "Blast Processing (tm)" chip in the cart?

The graphics in Sonic Advance are simply delicious. The character models where completely re-created for this game and feature a lot of detail and animation. Some gamers may not care for the changes, but they certainly were made in the spirit of progress. The levels in Sonic Advance feature design elements that are both familiar and foreign to the series. The first level is a classic throwback called the Neo Green Hill Zone, a lushly fauna filled zone featuring plenty wide open straightaways just made for burning out a new pair of sonic sneakers. The Casino Paradise Zone features the popular pinball-type elements as well as gaudy design to make it look like the level in living in the excess to the extreme. Zones run the gambit from icy mountain tops to the a low orbit in outer space.

Due to the diverse nature of the levels, the game gets a chance to show off levels with completely different color scheme and design elements. This has always been a staple of the Sonic series and the Gameboy Advance hardware is no slouch when it comes to pushing out the parallax and colors. The backgrounds are full of vibrance and life from the snow and shimmering ice of the Ice Mountain Zone to the steam and industrial look of the Secret Base Zone. This little cart will simply not disappoint anyone looking for a good looking game. The GBA hardware is used quite well for Sonic Advance with no real complaints from me.

The music and sound are pulled decently enough on the GBA. The sound effects are all perfect and very recognizable to fans of the series (although I was disappointed to not hear at least the "Say-gah" jingle when the Sega logo appeared). All of the classic sounds are present from the spin dash to the rings and springs, it's all in there. The music fits the classic tone of the Genesis games, however it doesn't seem to really pull off what you know the system is capable of. This part is a little tough to grasp, however, since it doesn't seem like they were going for new music, but rather classic sounding music. Either way, the tunes are pleasant and not grating on your nerves. You'll even hear a couple classic songs if you go into the sound test mode.

Some of the nicer touches to the game feature a nice classic throwback, like how you face Eggman (or the "Bad guy formerly known as Dr. Robotnik") in his first two boss forms from the original Genesis classic before you face the final incarnation of Eggman in the X-Zone. The bonus levels make use of the GBA's mode-7 style scaling, in a pseudo 3-D sky boarding free fall where you need to collect a certain number of coins to get the Chaos Emerald. I did find myself wishing for an easier way to practice the bonus levels since it took quite a few tries to really get the hang of them, and even then it's not that easy.

Sonic Advance is also the first game to take advantage of the GBA to GameCube connection cable. Oddly enough, a third party, Sega, utilized the cable well before Nintendo even planned to. Included in Sonic Advance is a mode called the "Tiny Chao Garden." Die hard fans of the Sonic series will instantly recognize what a Chao is. For those who didn't own a Dreamcast, (I know there just may be a couple out there), the Chao are little creatures who live in the world of Sonic and have been thrown into the Sonic Adventure series of games as a sort of bonus I would say. Think of them as super tomagotchis. Chao are hatched from eggs, and require attention and food to stay happy and healthy. Chao raised in the Tiny Chao garden may be transferred to the GameCube version of Sonic Adventure 2 to compete in Chao races and kick the living hell out of other cute little chao, in Sega's homage to underground illegal cock fighting called Chao Karate. (More on that in my Sonic Adventure 2 review for the Nintendo GameCube.)

Powering up Chao in the GBA isn't all that hard, yet is oddly addicting. I tend to get attached to the little critters. You can name them, feed them various odd fruits and veggies to boost their levels as well as playing a couple simple mini-games: a variation of Rock, Paper, Scissors and Memory for more coins to buy food and toys for your Chao. Ultimately, you're just working towards building the ultimate cute killing machine for the GameCube Chao competitions. Coins earned in the normal levels of Sonic Advance are used for items you give to your Chao, and can also be transferred to the GameCube version of Sonic Adventure 2.

Basically, what we have on our hands is a classic style 2-D platformer in the vein of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It's a quality game that shouldn't be missed if you own a GBA and especially if you are a fan of Sonic games, or platformers in general. The Chao raising aspects and connectivity to the GameCube are a nice little bonus to the GBA title, and should provide a decent amount of entertainment value to your gaming collection. It's a must have Gameboy Advance title, even without the "Blast Processing (tm)."