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I just spent the last few weeks 100%-ing this game. As someone who grew up with Sonic Advance 2, I am in love with this mod. In my childhood I was never able to collect more than a small handful of emeralds, and I definitely never stood a chance at beating Sky Canyon.

With Sonic Advance 2 SP, I'm finally able to enjoy this childhood gem to its fullest. Amazing work, Tracker_TD!

I've always said that Dimps was a master at designing mechanics, but horrible at designing levels, and in that regard, Sonic Advance 2 is the most Dimps-ish of their portfolio. None of their other games quite so deftly ruined excellent mechanics with awful levels.

Sonic Advance 2 is a masterful blend of old and new. It has the blistering speed of the modern sonic games, but still makes you earn that speed, all the while not abandoning exploration. And all with a fantastic presentation. It was so close to being an all-time favorite sonic game for me. If only the enemy/object placement and all those bottomless pits didn't sour the experience.

It is with great pleasure I can tell you that this hack completely remedies this problem. The levels flow so much better. You're still forced to contend with enemies and hazards, but they're no longer chucked at you with reckless abandon. I actually *want* to go back and learn their placements and get better at these levels, whereas before it seemed like an aggravating chore. The overhaul to Special Rings is also excellent. Their placements still reward skill and learning the levels, but the requirements are no longer so cumbersome that they annihilate the game's pace.

This hack is, quite simply, excellent, and achieves the high watermark for romhacks of fully salvaging its base game. I can safely say that Sonic Advance 2 is now "one of the good ones", a rare commodity in this series. I cannot recommend this experience enough.

I kinda hope this hacker also does Advance 1 and 3. They aren't hurting for improvements as much, but if they turn out as good as this, I'd say it'd be well worth it.

Prior to this hack, I never got all the emeralds as even one character just because of how tedious it was. Thanks to this hack, it only takes me maybe 2 or 3 times through a level to get to the special stage!

This may sound too much but i hope they keep making mods for the other 2 games that overhaul the overall experience. but to be honest i would have liked a new method of entering the special stages like, getting 50 or 100 rings. but overall, great mod!

I've played many Sonic games over the years, and the Advance series has always frustrated me. Not because I hate them, oh no, quite the opposite. The games look great, have a lot of interesting movement (I adore the trick system), and the general movement is just a treat.

Then I remember the level design.

These games love to take advantage of the small viewing space that you have and put enemies, spikes, and pits in places where you are extremely punished for even daring to go fast... in a game with a boost mechanic where you go into that state faster when you are holding more rings. The special stages in every single entry are extremely restrictive to enter, and trying to explore in this game feels like a punishment with all the one way paths, death pits, and layouts where you're dying to see more of the screen to parse it all.

So, what's with the huge preamble? It's so I can really stress this.

I actually explored the maps.

I don't know the maps in these games very well, but now I am actually encouraged to look around. Spikes at the ends of launch ramps? Enemies set up to make it impossible to avoid them and you just sit for two seconds as you take a hit you have no control over? Ten second waits as you hurtle to the bottom of the screen to your inevitable death?

All gone. Well, most of them. The latter happened once or twice, but I definitely deserved it.

Sonic Advance 2 (and the whole series really) has always felt like a game that I wanted to love, but kept trying to do everything it could to make me want to hate it.

Sonic Advance 2 SP is the first time I've ever seen any of the special stages in this game.

This hack makes a lot of subtle changes that work together to make Advance 2 an absolute joy to play. It's not an easy mode hack, it's a fair mode hack.

Please play it, I wholeheartedly recommend it.