Sonic Battle

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Sonic Battle
Developer(s)	Sonic Team
Publisher(s)	THQ Sega (JPN)
Designer(s)	Yuji Naka (Producer) Tomoyuki Hayashi (Director & Battle Mode Planner & Battle Mode Programmer)
Artist(s)	Yuji Uekawa (Design Coordinator)
Composer(s)	Tatsuyuki Maeda Kenichi Tokoi Hideaki Kobayashi
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Release date(s)	JPN December 4, 2003 NA January 5, 2004 PAL February 27, 2004 [1]
Genre(s)	Fighting, Adventure, Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E) PEGI: 7+ CERO: A
Media	128-Megabit cartridge

Sonic Battle is a fighting game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Sonic Team and published either by Sega (in Japan) or THQ (outside of Japan)^[2] for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. This is the second Sonic fighting game, the first being the 3D arcade game Sonic the Fighters.

[edit] Storyline

About 4000 years ago, a sentient weapon called the Gizoid was created by an ancient civilization. After being lost for millennia, the Gizoid was unearthed and researched by Prof. Gerald Robotnik. It remained dormant for another half century before being discovered by Gerald's grandson, Dr. Eggman. Frustrated at his inability to get the dormant Gizoid to work properly, Eggman abandoned the Gizoid at Emerald Beach, where it was discovered by Sonic the Hedgehog. The Gizoid, which Sonic names Emerl, gets wrapped up in the affairs of Sonic's friends, allies and rivals. Through his encounters with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Rouge, and Shadow, Emerl grows and evolves from a soulless robot into a fun-loving mech with lots of personality. But while the gang is having fun raising their new mechanical friend, there are those who recognize Emerl's true power. Now that the Gizoid is working again, Eggman's got his eye on it, Rouge wants to turn it into a master thief, and Shadow senses that, despite their efforts to humanize him, Emerl is still designed and programmed to be a weapon of mass destruction (and he also believes the same for himself). This is proven in the last fight, where Emerl fights Eggman and reveals his dark side when Eggman overloads him with energy causing him to revert back to his old programming as well as releasing all restraints on his power. He is about to destroy the world when Sonic comes and destroys him. Emerl tells everyone that he was thankful for meeting them, and how such good friends they were. Emerl mechanically combusts, and leaves an Emerald Shard behind as his remains. However, Sonic tells everyone that they will see him again someday.

[edit] Gameplay

Battles are fought in 3D arenas with up to 4 players. Each character has a set of attacks and abilities. The majority of attacks are used with B, including the combo (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Attack), Air Attack, Upper Attack (used to knock opponents straight up), Heavy Attack (used to knock opponents away), and Aim Attack (used to pursue an opponent after the Heavy Attack). The A button is used to jump, and the L button lets the player block attacks, or heal damage if the button is held. The playable characters also have unique special moves, the three types being Shot, Power, and Set. Shot moves center around using a projectile to damage the opponent from a distance. Power moves focus on dealing damage quickly in a single move. Trap moves generally involve using a type of bomb to surprise-attack the enemy. However, only a limited number of special moves can be selected. Shot, Power, and Trap must be allocated to three slots: Ground, Air, and Defend. The special move you set to Ground will be used when you press R on the ground. The move you set to Air will be used when you press R in mid-air. The last slot, Defend, has a different function; When a player sets a certain type of special move to Defend, then every time an enemy uses the same type of special move set to Defend to attack, it will automatically be blocked.^[3]

Each player has two vital stats, a health bar and an Ichikoro Gauge. When health is completely depleted, the player is KO'd and loses one life (in a survival match) or the one who KO'd them gets a point (in a KO match). The Ground, Air, and Defend settings are chosen at the beginning of the match, and every time the player respawns. As a player takes damage, blocks attacks, or heals, the Ichikoro Gauge fills up. When it is full, the next special move the player does will instantly KO anyone it hits. However, if they chose to defend against that type of special, or successfully block, their Ichikoro Gauge will be filled instantly. Players healing damage will also slowly fill up their Ichikoro Gauge, but are still vulnerable to attacks.^[4]

[edit] Minigames

Sonic Battle has six minigames that can be played. The player starts off with one by default, then unlocks more as progress is made in the story mode.^[5]

• Soniclash - The only minigame available at the start. Players try to knock their opponents off the field to get points.
• Tails' Fly and Get - Players fly around and try to collect more rings than their opponents.
• Knuckles' Mine Hunt - Minesweeper, with a Sonic the Hedgehog twist, and the only single-player mini-game.
• Amy's Treasure Island - Players move around and try to find emeralds.
• Shadow's Speed Demon - A racing game to reach the goal first. This is based heavily off of Radical Highway from Sonic Adventure 2.

[edit] Characters

The main playable characters are Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Cream the Rabbit, E-102 Gamma and Chaos. The main character is Emerl, who is an original character in the game. He is a Gizoid, an ancient weapon powered by Chaos Emeralds. He establishes a link to anyone with great power, with those whose power is greater than his current master being favored, and remains loyal to that master until the link is broken. His greatest ability, Skill Copy, allows him to learn and mimic the personality traits, knowledge, and fighting abilities of others; he amplifies this copying ability by absorbing Chaos Emeralds. However, the Gizoid is prone to being overloaded by the power of the Emeralds or from absorbing too much data, in which case he goes on a mindless rampage. He is stoped and destroyed not by Sonic but by Cream and Cheese. At first Emerl has no personality, and he cannot speak, but he eventually learns and develops as he forms bonds with Sonic and his companions. They fight against Dr. Eggman, who fights them using Gamma (who later betrays him) and E-121 "Phi", grey robots, based upon Emerl's design, that run on shards of the Chaos Emeralds.

[edit] Reception

Reviews for Sonic Battle were mixed to positive.

• IGN - 8/10^[6]
• GameSpy - 3 out of 5^[7]
• GameSpot - 7.7/10^[8]
• Game Informer - 6/10
• Electronic Gaming Monthly - 5.5/10
• GameZone - 7.8/10
• GamePro - 3.5 out of 5
• X-Play - 3 out of 5
• Nintendo Power - 3.7 out of 5

Game Rankings current score for Sonic Battle is 69.3%.

[edit] References