Sonic Advance 2 - Ice Paradise Zone

Описание: Previous Zone: Music Plant Zone
Next Zone: Sky Canyon Zone

Recommended SP Rings: Act 2

Wow, I've been getting a bunch of comments about tiny details about this game! I have never used anywhere near all the mechanics of this game, apparently. Heck, I know a lot of people don't even know of the mid-air dashes, even though it makes finishing the next Zone much easier...but more on that when I get there.

After Music Plant Zone is Ice Paradise Zone, which has always confused me as the background has nothing to do with anything else. The stage's look, gimmicks, and enemies suggest some cold wasteland (note the lack of trees, for instance, normally denoting a winter theme, like with Sonic 4's White Park Zone), but the background depicts a large city with cheerful spotlights. Act 1's music sounds jolly and festive, but Act 2's is some weird rockabilly thing...not that it's a bad thing, of course. It's possibly the highlight song of the game to many.

All the stuff here should be obvious, at least except for those hollow spherical things with the holes on the top and bottom. If you're going at full speed or afterimage speed, you will travel up. If not, you'll travel down. As this was before the convention that the topmost route is the fastest one, heading up is not necessarily the fastest option.

I'm taking Amy out for the brisk walk here. Unique to this game, Amy can do the Spin Attack, making her very much like Sonic. Her mid-air dashes are also quite similar to Sonic's, though instead of a Homing Attack, she has the Piko Piko Hammer, which is surprisingly useful against some enemies, particularly armored ones. Pressing B when in midair causes her to fly, somewhat uncontrollably, for a second by spinning the hammer around. I don't really use that much. I prefer the one from Sonic Advance 1. Amy seems to have more of a thing for pulling her skirt down here (just wait until XX).

To unlock Amy, get all of the Chaos Emeralds using Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Cream. She's pretty much your 100% completion reward, though she can collect the Chaos Emeralds too, of course. (Each character has his or her own game progress. The Chaos Emeralds are not communal like in most other Sonic games.)

You have to do some well-timed leaps off the spinny grabby things for Act 1's SP Rings. Act 2's set is much more straightforward--you automatically get the last one, at that. You can see how I cleared the stage so quickly and still got them all.

The boss here is the Aero Egg. I've never found this one to be that hard, but it does give people problems, apparently. Dr. Eggman flies just out of reach with a flipping platform trailing behind him. To damage the machine, you must jump on the platform and use the extra from the bounce to get to Eggman, though this disables the platform momentarily. Meanwhile, he drops bombs at regular intervals. Jump over the explosions, and if you can get the pattern right, you'll catch up to the platform. Of course, the platform will sometimes be disabled on its own, so you need to catch up to it while it's parallel with the ground. After 4 hits, Eggman will drop bombs twice as frequently. Like some other bosses, the Aero Egg can't hit on the far left of the screen, so if you're on the ropes, you can hang out there and collect a few Rings. Just remember that after about 6 or 7 minutes, the Rings run out.

The next Zone is Sky Canyon Zone. As it's up in the clouds, this should be Tails's element.