All the S@nics - the end

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

A weird thing happened to me involving these crushers. I was playing as Tails, and at one point I flew up against the ceiling so I'd be in position to go as soon as the crusher in front of me moved out of the way. I was also moving into the side of the crusher, and this ended with me somehow getting crushed as it moved away from the ceiling. I'd probably be really surprised if it wasn't for the fact that this isn't the first time in a game that I've been crushed against the ceiling by something moving away from the ceiling (that honour goes to Mega Man X6).

[Feathermind]

Super excited to see this game once more; it's probably the primary culprit for wear and tear on my GBA's R button.

On a technical note, Sonic+Knuckles gives Sonic a couple easily missed B attacks in midair; Up+B and Down+B. Like the slide they're usually more useful for the way they reposition you and alter your momentum than as attacks. Sonic can't do R button tricks off springs and the like with Knuckles though, that's exclusively for the Tails pairing. This game has lots of little control changes like that for different pairings.

[Bean]

That's kind of one of those things that bums me out, too, because Advance 2 had all these moves you could use solo. Now you're locked into one set of moves for a character with certain pairings, and it's clear that some of them are way better than others. I think Knux and Tails are a pretty good one if I remember it right. It's basically like Sonic except you can still glide. But if you go Knux/Sonic, Knuckles can no longer glide. Not sure if he loses his climbing with that pairing, but whatever. You get the point.

One thing I'll give the game credit for is that you do get some neat new moves with pairings like that upwards air dash you're talking about. Feels like you need a manual to know how to pull some of these moves though!

[Bean]

Huh. Surprised the Egg Foot never closed its limbs together for the shockwave attack. Either way, it's miles less annoying than the previous boss since you don't have to worry about your partner hitting it right into you. And yes, collection in this game is much more aggravating than Sonic Advance 2 to me other than that you only need to collect the Chao once instead of all seven rings in one go. It's just that SA3's levels are massive, so finding them can be difficult.

[Heavy Sigh]

Fun Sonic Facts!

Sonic Advance 3 carries over an interesting mechanic from Sonic Advance 2, where the more rings you collect, the better your air acceleration and control. However, this feature is actually heavily tweaked between regions, with the North Amrican version of the mechanic being so downtuned it is practically nonexistent.

This has actually caused a split in the speedrunning community for the game, as while the japanese version's superior air control is preferred for regular game clears and full game clears, the North American version is actually preferred for Boss Attack speedruns, as control is returned to the player sooner after bosses are defeated.

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I was wondering if raocow was going to have trouble with this boss, but then it never used its attack where it curls its feet inwards. The way I remember this boss is that you had to not stand under Eggman until the last moment to avoid him curling his feet in, but that's clearly not the case judging from how raocow's fight with the boss went.

[TiKi]

Fun Sonic Facts!

Sonic Advance 3 carries over an interesting mechanic from Sonic Advance 2, where the more rings you collect, the better your air acceleration and control. However, this feature is actually heavily tweaked between regions, with the North Amrican version of the mechanic being so downtuned it is practically nonexistent.

This has actually caused a split in the speedrunning community for the game, as while the japanese version's superior air control is preferred for regular game clears and full game clears, the North American version is actually preferred for Boss Attack speedruns, as control is returned to the player sooner after bosses are defeated.

Purposefully gimping your air control in a DIMPS game?

[King of GETs]

I know raocow was mad at the end of act 3, but to be fair, the level goes out of its way to let you know a Jousun can hurt you in ball form when you're going up the waterfalls while also in ball form. Think of it like a needle popping a balloon: A Jousun's harpoon-like apparatus follows that same concept.

raocow had great RNG as he never saw the feet curl inwards during the boss which is where most of its difficulty lies.

I agree with what most others are saying: The Zone 5 Boss is most likely when raocow will have his first taste of real difficulty. Not to spoil it, you would think a boss formatted like that would be easy for raocow, but since he doesn't like the jump physics, I guess we'll see.

[Emral]

What a glorious pose to strike in midair

[Grounder]

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I was wondering what this boss fight would look like when played normally. When playing as Tails you can trivialize things by flying over the pit to the left, where none of the attacks can reach you. Although it looks like they aren't that hard to dodge without doing that. (The spike ball attack could be hard to dodge early on in the fight, but raocow got lucky and got the least threatening 'attack' several times in a row at the start.)

[Crow]

wow, did not expect two episodes of okami today! go amy go!

[Leet]

I like amy in theory but i'm not sure she's ever been written on-point after Adventure 1

[Crow]

she's barely even been written since 06 (which, admittedly, is true of most every character)

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I remember this being my favourite boss as a kid. I did have a bit of trouble with it playing it this time around, so kid me must have had a better grasp of the controls than present day me does, but I still had fun with it. I'm surprised how many people seem to think this boss is garbage, but perhaps I'm biased due to nostalgia.

[GenesisJames]

This boss is an iffy thing where I don't think it's BAD, but there's an OBVIOUS best character/combination to use here. You want to use slow characters, more specifically Tails, and make sure you're not in a speed formation so you have as much control as possible. The spike ball's annoying though, definitely. It would be better if it was like a ring-draining beam or something that kills you if you have 0 rings instead of something that forces knockback. Like you saw, the winning run ends up pretty fun because you don't really focus on the boss at all. It's really just doing platforming, which is cool! Glad you ended up liking it despite the trouble it gave you!

Cyber Track's a fun zone. I don't think it's nearly as bad on the eyes as Techno Base from Advance 2, and you can get some pretty fun momentum going here. I'm interested in seeing how you handle Act 3 specifically. If anything, the hub's gonna give you the most trouble here, I think lmao

[Bean]

One thing that makes the fight easier once you know, those platforms don't fall until you jump or get hit off them. So you don't have to keep jumping every time you land and can time things a little easier. Still doesn't help with the mace unless it hits you right up on to another platform.

[RiderChop]

The more I watch 3, the more I'm reminded how much I don't like the division of moves across teams. Some of the moves are way too fun to keep on specific teams, and some moves just suck because they had to make them all unique!! Who wants to play as missile knuckles!!

[thatguyif]

I want to be the missile

[10204307]

It's weird that Knuckles + Sonic isn't able to glide. Since Sonic is the game's default character, you'd think having him as a partner would let you use your default moveset without many extra frills. I do like the idea of the partner mechanic, and each combination of characters having different movesets, but the execution has some awkward oddities.

[Leet]

Man how are you even supposed to know what your character's "default" moveset is if it's always being modified like this. There is no actual way to play as purely that character

[thatguyif]

Man how are you even supposed to know what your character's "default" moveset is if it's always being modified like this. There is no actual way to play as purely that character

Reading the manual

[BobisOnlyBob]

Man how are you even supposed to know what your character's "default" moveset is if it's always being modified like this. There is no actual way to play as purely that character

That's an interesting point. Tails and Knuckles barely affect Sonic, but I think Amy has the most impact as a partner. Meanwhile Sonic basically just acts as an inertia modifier, making platforming worse but overall speed better... usually. Thanks Knux Missile. So you can definitely get an idea of the baseline, but it's really unclear if you start with Amy since she's such an overhaul every time... I feel like on some level they definitely expect you to have played previous Sonic games and have an idea of what each character's basic moveset/theme is.

[thatguyif]

But the manual provides you info on how the movesets work, and gives you an idea of which character partnership is most likely to render the "default" moveset for the character.

I feel like a big part of this issue is that we're playing games without manuals here at a time period when reading the manual was an expectation. Part of the reason "handholding" became such a problem was back then, manuals were still a thing, and people were just ignoring them mostly out of pure impatience yet screwed up on the most basic things. But then they didn't really know how to address that problem since it was a "new" issue. Thus the handholding.

Still, there is the problem that the game basically expects you to play the game as Sonic as the lead to get anything done...

[GenesisJames]

Haha, I knew Act 3 was gonna be a thing! Glad you figured it out, though And yeah, the boss is pretty much dealt with by jumping willdy. It seemed like Tails did some decent damage there!
Chaos Angel is probably one of my favorite stages in the Sonic series. Dimps is really keen on making the Chaos Emeralds and everything related to them feeling awe-inspiring and regal; this zone delivers. It's pretty tough, though. Hope you're used to the jumping physics by now, because if not, good luck lmao