“Faster, Faster, until the thrill of velocity overcomes the fearfulness of death.”

-Hunter S. Thompson

In overmuch the aforesaid mode that past peoples looked up astatine the nighttime entity and imagined different worlds, the archetypal video crippled developers looked astatine a thingy connected a surface and imagined it moving truly fast.

Who could blasted them? Computers, since their inception, person been iterated upon with velocity arsenic a cardinal driving factor. Scour immoderate humanities rundown of the earliest computational devices and you’ll invariably observe immoderate factoid astir however a five-dollar Staples calculator tin execute operations respective orders of magnitude much efficiently (and it’s not adjacent the size of a house!). Charles Babbage’s nonaccomplishment to implicit the Analytical Engine was an implicit committedness to his aboriginal understudies: immoderate day, idiosyncratic would implicit it, and they’d marque it better. Faster.

A period and a fractional later, they mightiness adjacent springiness it blast processing.

The aboriginal nineties marked a large inflection constituent for video games. 8 bits changeable up to 16; colour palettes entered the triple digits; Konami made a Simpsons beat-em-up. Once the 4th console procreation was good underway, developers gradually shifted from gyration to refinement, trimming the abdominous from established plan philosophies portion doubling down connected what already worked. Of course, accrued processing powerfulness meant accrued speed, and respective of the era’s astir acclaimed titles pointedly cranked up the velocity connected their respective genres. Doom was a faster Wolfenstein 3D, Daytona USA was a faster OutRun, Chrono Trigger was a faster Dragon Quest, and—leading the vanguard successful 1991—Sonic the Hedgehog was a faster Super Mario Bros.

Sonic—as a character, arsenic a franchise—is a crystallization of video crippled hardware’s perpetual guardant momentum. Here was a crippled created for the explicit intent of virtually outpacing the competition, a elephantine flashing “PICK ME” motion pointed astatine the Sega Genesis. It wasn’t marketed for its level design, and it didn’t request to be. Sonic was fast. He was named aft fast. Level plan doesn’t substance erstwhile you’re moving excessively rapidly to spot it. The novelty didn’t prevarication successful the power itself, but successful the conception that thing truthful accelerated could beryllium controlled astatine all.

At least, that’s what the commercials would person you believe. The archetypal 3 mainline Sonic games (four, if you number Sonic & Knuckles arsenic its ain entry) drew audiences successful with the committedness of high-speed thrills, and then, with a wink, gave them physics homework. They were fast, but velocity was a reward, not a guarantee. It could lone beryllium achieved via a operation of crisp reflexes and a thorough knowing of however Sonic responded to subtle changes successful level geometry. Slopes, springs, and circular loops each affected his momentum successful chiseled ways, and oftentimes the quickest beeline done a level progressive the astir measured information of however to interact with it.

Nevertheless, the thought that Sonic was velocity incarnate persisted. Maybe the selling worked excessively well, oregon possibly radical sensed, buried wrong this design, the anticipation for thing adjacent faster. Why dilatory down astatine all? This is what computers are for. Hell, this is what life is for. Constant acceleration, upwind whipping done your hair, pavement screaming past your feet. It’s wherefore radical go F1 drivers, and it’s wherefore they play Sonic the Hedgehog. So let’s chopped the crap. We’re each adrenaline junkies here. Juice that velocity dial until it bursts into flames.

Over the people of the pursuing 2 decades, this enactment of reasoning metastasized into Sonic’s existent plan ethos: playable taxable parkland rides that fto players instantly spell afloat throttle astatine immoderate clip with a property of the “boost button.” Boosting—which besides turns Sonic into a moving hitbox, automatically razing astir obstacles successful his path—tickles the aforesaid portion of the encephalon that likes watching sped-up GoPro videos, and not for nothing. It’s a visceral, inborn thrill, 1 that the champion modern Sonic levels marque compelling usage of. Yet determination on the way, the friction vanished. Geometry stopped resisting subordinate input successful ways that encouraged originative play. Speed was nary longer thing to enactment towards, but thing fixed freely. If Sonic the Hedgehog was astir trick-or-treating, Sonic Unleashed and its progeny are astir buying a discounted container of mixed candy connected November 1st.

But determination exists betwixt these 2 approaches an nonstop midpoint. A crippled that made bully connected the franchise’s dual promises of precocious velocity and heavy skill, blending the 2 truthful seamlessly and emphasizing them truthful severely that its innovation is overshadowed by its lucidity. Of people Sonic should beryllium similar this. Why was it ever not? Why isn’t it now?

Sonic Advance 2 was archetypal released successful Japan connected December 19, 2002, for the Game Boy Advance. It’s the cleanable Sonic game, and maybe, by extension, the cleanable video game. It refined each of its predecessors and influenced each of its successors, yet it remains the lone installment of its nonstop kind, a 2D side-scroller released successful the midst of Sonic’s uneven modulation to 3D and met mostly with subdued praise. In hindsight, we should person been louder. This was arsenic bully arsenic it would ever get.

Developed arsenic a collaboration betwixt Sonic Team and then-nascent workplace Dimps, Advance 2 followed up 2001’s much traditionally-designed Sonic Advance; successful 2004, it would person a sequel successful Sonic Advance 3, which capped disconnected the sub-series. As with astir of the classical Genesis games, Advance 2 features 7 zones, each with 2 “acts” and a brag battle. There are 5 playable characters, a gracious but altogether bare gesture. Always prime Sonic. He’s the fastest one.

This is the archetypal Sonic crippled that I’d consciousness comfy describing arsenic “being astir speed” (though I wouldn’t spell truthful acold arsenic to accidental it’s all astir speed, due to the fact that if it was each astir speed, it wouldn’t beryllium astir thing else). Characters are exponentially faster than they’ve ever been. The quality betwixt however they power successful Advance 2 versus Advance, fto unsocial the archetypal trilogy, is staggering, arsenic though the improvement squad was deed with a sudden, explosive realization that they had the tools astatine their disposal to yet marque the crippled radical had been expecting (consciously oregon otherwise) for implicit a decade. And past they took it a measurement further. They wondered what would hap if, aft speeding up, you ne'er had to dilatory backmost down.

Enter “boost mode,” Advance 2’s load-bearing mechanic. It works similar this. First, commencement running. Then, support moving until you deed apical speed. (Rings, the series’ longstanding collectible currency, present enactment arsenic much than conscionable a harm buffer–the much you have, the faster you accelerate.) Finally, support apical velocity for agelong capable and the hostility volition snap: you’ll participate a unsocial state, visually indicated by what appears to beryllium the dependable obstruction shattering, successful which your velocity headdress is raised adjacent further, allowing you to airily zip done stages astir excessively rapidly for the surface to support up. As agelong arsenic guardant momentum is sustained, truthful is boost mode; halt excessively abruptly oregon instrumentality harm and you’ll request to enactment your mode backmost up. The travel of this design—wherein a benignant of zen-like mastery implicit one’s situation is achieved done aggravated focus—is not dissimilar meditation. Advance 2 understands that boost mode can’t beryllium free, due to the fact that meditation isn’t easy. If everyone could meditate, cipher would reason astir video games anymore, and I’d beryllium retired of a job.

The game’s stages, which person been expanded successful size by a origin of six to accommodate higher speeds, fluctuate accordingly. Levels volition diagnostic long, comparatively uncluttered stretches of level oregon sloping terrain that mightiness barely springiness players capable country to activate boost mode, followed by much precise platforming segments that situation them to support it. The bulk of these segments are meticulously designed to let momentum to transportation implicit betwixt jumps, truthful agelong arsenic one’s knowing of Advance 2’s question is sufficiently honed. And that movement, adjacent disregarding boost mode, is astonishingly complex.

It’s worthy noting that Dimps was founded by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, 2 warring crippled alums whose top assertion to fame was their co-creation of Street Fighter; they were besides progressive successful varying capacities with Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and SNK vs. Capcom, among others. It’s a God-given occurrence that these guys—who whitethorn recognize video crippled question amended than anyone other connected Earth—not lone decided to instrumentality a ace astatine Sonic, but much oregon little perfected it connected their 2nd try.

Advance 2, enactment simply, has options. Each quality comes equipped with aggregate unsocial grounded moves, aerial moves, boost mode-exclusive moves (useful for clearing distant enemies that would different sound your velocity (and rings) backmost down to zero), and, astir ingeniously, aerial “tricks” that propel them on acceptable trajectories erstwhile utilized successful definite contexts. Mastering Advance 2 means intuiting precisely which tricks volition onslaught the champion equilibrium betwixt progression, momentum, and evasion, the extremity being to bypass arsenic overmuch of the signifier arsenic imaginable without ever slowing down.

And past there’s Sonic, the sole quality with an aerial dash, which tin beryllium executed by double-tapping guardant successful midair (an input instantly recognizable to anyone with adjacent cursory cognition of warring games). To me, this move—the lone 1 not mentioned successful the game’s acquisition manual—is impervious affirmative that Advance 2’s designers thought of speedrunning arsenic a feature, not a bug. Its execution is conscionable hard capable to entreaty to higher levels of play, but not truthful hard arsenic to consciousness unreasonable. The result, erstwhile each of these options are successfully melded, is poesy successful motion, a hypnotic drawstring of lightning-fast jumps, flips, dashes, spins, and sprints. Advance 2 speedruns are each the convincing I request that Sonic ne'er had to participate the 3rd dimension: everything the bid ever needed is close here, successful this tiny, unassuming, 4.3 megabyte GBA cartridge.

In fact, if the crippled has immoderate glaring flaws, it’s that its ideas are rather virtually excessively large for the strategy it’s confined to. The Game Boy Advance’s surface clocked successful astatine 240 x 160 pixels, oregon 5.7 x 3.2 inches–considerably little existent property than the Genesis, which displayed astatine a solution of 320 x 224 pixels. Take into relationship Advance 2’s breakneck pace, and the criticisms initially leveled astatine it—too hard, excessively unpredictable, excessively cheap—start making sense. Even with the game’s economical ocular presumption (rendered, I mightiness add, with perfectly stunning sprite work), the surface size is limiting. There are respective instances wherever an force mightiness travel astatine you conscionable somewhat excessively fast, oregon you whitethorn not beryllium capable to marque a leap without a spot of guesswork.

I admit these shortcomings, but I besides can’t assistance but respect the ambition that spawned them. The designers could person easy made the crippled slower. They could person eliminated boost mode altogether; the crippled plays good without it. But they indispensable person known, heavy down, that the integrity of their ideas was acold much important than a dinky portion of plastic. Advance 2 was the tinderbox for thing new. Sonic Adventure reinvented Sonic successful 3D, and this would reinvent it successful 2D. Two parallel plan paths, budding successful tandem, each continuously fulfilling the medium’s astir primeval purpose—to spell fast—in caller and breathtaking ways. God, ideate it. Wouldn’t it beryllium great?

Frustratingly, this really did happen, conscionable not successful immoderate of the ways it should have. The pursuing 2D and 3D Sonic titles—Sonic Advance 3 and Sonic Heroes, respectively—bore respective hallmarks of their contiguous predecessors, but were excessively encumbered with superfluous ideas to meaningfully physique upon them. Going forward, things were mostly messier connected the 3D broadside of things, and inactive are. Sonic’s astir caller 3D outing, the open-world Sonic Frontiers, is an admirably large swing, but it yet does small to warrant itself.

The 2D entries were much promising, but inactive trended downward. SEGA’s handheld follow-up to Advance was Sonic Rush, besides co-developed by Dimps. As overmuch arsenic I bask Rush, it was the decease knell: the crippled was the archetypal to instrumentality a boost button, intelligibly aiming for the highs of Advance 2 but vitally misunderstanding what made that game’s boost strategy truthful appealing. Nearly each 2D (and aboriginal 3D) Sonic crippled since has featured this mechanic, and nary person afloat nailed it. Maybe it’s a dead-end design, oregon possibly Advance 2 conscionable casts excessively agelong a shadow.

A spot of trivia, and past an anecdote. Advance 2 was the archetypal side-scrolling Sonic crippled without a azygous h2o level. This is great, due to the fact that h2o levels successful Sonic games are terrible, molasses-slow misery gauntlets that grind similar sandpaper against everything that makes the bid fun. But there’s an further wrinkle. The archetypal signifier of Advance 2, Leaf Forest Zone: Act 1, does really incorporate 2 abstracted pools of water, some of which are afloat explorable. Characters determination much sluggishly underwater, and if they enactment submerged for excessively long, they’ll drown—two mechanics dating backmost to the archetypal Sonic the Hedgehog. These mechanics ne'er erstwhile substance here, due to the fact that h2o doesn’t amusement up anyplace other successful the game, and the pools successful Leaf Forest are tiny capable that players tin exit them with easiness (or adjacent debar them altogether). They are, perhaps, the astir idiosyncratic flourish successful Advance 2. Vestiges of its aboriginal development, apt implemented earlier its creators had afloat cracked the codification connected what a perfect Sonic crippled should look like. A reminder, nevertheless small, of their growth.

I’ve been playing Advance 2 since I was seven. I cognize I was seven, due to the fact that the crippled launched successful North America connected my seventh birthday. I’d ne'er played a Sonic crippled before, and astatine the time, it seemed endless. The stages were colossal, their mystique bolstered by the information that 7 “special rings”—which unlocked bonus content—were hidden wrong each one. I played Advance 2 until I bushed it, past I bushed it with each character, past I combed done each level until I’d discovered each the secrets, past I did that with each character, and past I conscionable kept playing it, repeatedly, with nary peculiar extremity successful mind. (It’s a pristinely replayable game, little than 45 minutes if you’re hurrying, which you evidently should be.) Over time, mostly done sheer practice, I learned everything astir it: the layouts of its levels, the movesets of its characters, the intricacies of its movement. It became akin to a fidget toy, thing I’d prime up whenever I wanted to inhabit my hands. Eventually, I felt similar I’d deed a plateau. The archetypal crippled I’d ever loved had yet tally retired of things to amusement me.

Several years later, I recovered retired astir Sonic’s aerial dash.