Oh Ye of Little Faith?
Quick on the heels of ChuChu Rocket!’s release to Android systems domestically last week, word broke over the weekend that Sega of Japan re-released Sonic Advance to several Android OS powered mobile phones, but only in the land of the rising sun.
Website Siliconera says it happened Friday in Japan, at a cost of ¥415, or about $5.31. The setup is similar to what one would see with iOS enabled Sega games, with a touchscreen enabled control mechanic.
There’s no indication the game will come over to domestic Android marketplaces, or if we may see a port to iOS enabled devices. But the good news here is Sega’s continual willingness to re-release at least some of its catalog to Android users, users who have long been starved in the face of Sega re-releases to iOS. We will keep track of any further developments on this front. Thanks to VizardJeffhog for tipping us. If you have news to share, be sure to share it with us by clicking Send News Tips at the top of every page.
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I had a GBA emulator on my Android phone, and one of the first games I put on it was Sonic Advance. So yeah, I’ll probably just stick with my rom version…
What’s weird is that US visitors can see the Sonic Advance Market page and it says it’s free…. Odd. But that doesn’t matter, because we can’t install it. The game the region locked and won’t even let you download it.
If you really want to try this out, you can scour the web and find a patched version. It only runs well enough to play on newer Androids and the only benefit to using this version is the music being played differently and the game being reformatted to fit and run nicely on an Android device. (Different resolution, Loading screen, Buttons laid out specifically for this game, Touch-based menus, etc.) You’ll do miss out on the Chao garden in this version.
NO R BUTTON!!! No grinding. *sob*
Oh well. Another day, another thing that I can’t have.
Well this is interesting. I could try this out, now that I have an HTC Inspire 4G. (By the way, loving it :3) If it ever arrives, I might try it out. Then again, there’s emulation for that. But usually, the official ports and remakes on smartphones and stuff control better than emulated games.
Eh, I got a GBA emulator, it’ll do.
@KillerBunny!! Lol, this.
What Knuckles Chaotix and Killer Bunny! said. There might as well be a poll asking if you think the Americas are getting anything exclusive for the Anniversary. (I wonder if I’ve answered this one…)
Though to be fair, a lot of us already have Sonic Advance 1 and something to play it on, and at least they didn’t withhold the new Sonic CD thing.
I used to have an iPod, and installed the GBA emulator on it, but now I have a GBA emulator on my Wii and it works perfectly! ^__^
@RaymanFan1: D8 …DAMN.
@VizardJeffhog
Uhh… I remember grinding about twice.
@A: Eh, still a fun feature.
Though I fear for a Sonic Advance 3 rerelease under such conditions…
Something else this port does differently than the GBA version – the special stages. You control Sonic by tilting the device. A and B are reserved to the left and right side of the screen.
It also has a rumble feature for when you get hit. It’s normally turned off, but if you can navigate through the Japanese menus you can get it on.
@C4Squared: The tilt controls for the Special Stages… Is it forced or can you switch to the touchscreen D-pad?
@VizardJeffhog: I think it’s forced. It might be possible to change it via the menus, but I can’t make a lick of sense out of the menus, so I’d have no clue.
RaymanFan1 is right: As far as I can tell, there’s no way to grind on the rails, because there are no R and L buttons.
So here’s what I understand so far of the menus:
Not sure what the difference is in the pop-up text when you fist run the game…
When you select “Start Game” The top option is continue, and the bottom is New Game.
Pressing the pause button near the lives counter has these options:
- Resume
- Quit
- Options
If you select Quit, the left side is Yes and the left side is No.
In options, the top one is sound, the next one is Rumble (Select the top text to turn it on), and the bottom option is instructions. Not sure what the other two are, but If you select the other option on the one that starts with “SP” than the other one grays out.
In Time Attack, the top option is to make new times and the bottom is to see your old ones.
Options on the title screen is a lot like the one in-game, except there are a few more. Whatever you do, DON’T CLICK THE LEFT BUTTON ON THE BOTTOM OPTION. I’m pretty darn sure that is a data wipe.
Anyway, that’s all I have figured out. It’s enough to play the game, and that’s all that matters.