It feels good to play a 2D Sonic game. There was just so much magic to be found within the classic 2D Sonic titles, and the Advance series attempt to bring that magic back and do quite a good job at doing so. What more can I say?

The first Sonic Advance game came out several years ago, and when my brother and I got our Game Boy Advances for Christmas several years ago, one of the first games we got for it was Sonic Advance. Needless to say, this game seemed to maintain a lot of the classic gameplay that made me love the original Sonic games so much, yet still have that little new touch which makes it different at the same time.

There is no heavy storyline involved here, which is a nice change from the serious stories that the Sonic series has adopted as of lately in games such as Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06. It's nice to go back to some Sonic games that don't have that serious story, and just focuses on something simple. The story basically sees Eggman attempting to take over the world with robots – nothing complex about that, and I like it more because of that.

The gameplay is the simple, side-scrolling platforming stuff that was loved in the old Sonic games back in the Mega Drive days. There are four characters you can choose from, all of which are very recognizable – Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles generally play the same, as they jump into balls and speed through levels, though there are minor differences. Tails can fly using his two tails for a brief period of time and Knuckles can glide and climb walls like he used to in the old days. Amy, however, plays completely differently, and her gameplay is a lot more annoying than the other three characters, because she cannot spin-dash, or jump in a ball and relies purely on her hammer to attack enemies. Her gameplay is the most difficult because of this.

Another gripe I have with the gameplay is the fact that each of the characters play through the exact same levels in the exact same order, but thankfully their slightly unique gameplay styles do make the levels seem different, which isn't too much of a bad thing.

If you get bored of the single-player main game, there are other options available. You can visit the time attack to try and beat your record time on any of the levels. You can hook up with some friends to compete with each other, or you can use the Tiny Chao Garden, where you can raise a cute little creature and play a couple of mini-games. There's also the ability to link to the Gamecube so you can download or upload Chao onto Sonic Adventure DX.

The levels are all designed very well, and seem to capture that Sonic feel to them which makes them all the more appealing, and are very colourful as well. The Sonic characters use their designs from the Sonic Adventure games, so they look very different to their classic designs, but who cares when the game plays so well? I certainly don't. The game looks good. The character sprites look good. The levels look good. Enough said.

The music is also pretty good – it's catchy and memorable, each piece of music fitting the levels very well.

What else can be said? Sonic Advance is a solid game and a lot better than some of the recent Sonic games out there. It's not my favourite out of the three Advance games, but it's still pretty good and well worth a look if you're a lover of platforming games.