Sonic Advance 3

Sonic Advance 3
Developers: Sonic Team, Dimps Publishers: Sega (JP/EU/AU), THQ (US) Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: June 17, 2004 Released in US: June 7, 2004 Released in EU: June 18, 2004 Released in AU: December 9, 2005 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article

Sonic Advance 3 is the third game in the Sonic Advance series, known for putting two characters together as a team akin to Knuckles' Chaotix and Sonic Heroes. It's also the most polarizing game of the trilogy due to its level design. Notably, this is the last Sonic game to feature the English voice cast that was used from Sonic Adventure onward.

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Prototype Info

Unused Graphics

A level select preview graphic for Altar Emerald. This zone cannot be accessed via the Sonic Factory, Time Attack and VS Race, so this graphic goes unused.

Some small numbers which can be found at 0xD9AAA0 in the ROM, right before the character selection graphics.

By digging around in the game's internal data, there are graphics for Act 4, that suggest that this game was going to have 4 acts instead of the usual 3. However, this was never implemented for unknown reasons.^[1]

Unused Music

The two songs listed below can be heard in the Sound Test.

Intact Music 1

This track is found at entry #17. This could have been intended to play in a hub area given its close proximity to tracks for other hub areas.

Intact Music 2

An extended version of the Final Clear jingle heard after beating the final boss. It is found at entry #47.

Truncated Music

These two songs are used in the cutscene that happens after beating Altar Emerald as Sonic with all the Chaos Emeralds, but due to the nature of the cutscene, large portions of them cannot be heard in normal play. You can listen to the entirety of these songs in the Sound Test.

EX Demo 1

Only the first 18 seconds are played before it's interrupted by the next song, cutting out 58 seconds from normal play. It also loops.

EX Demo 2

The cutscene ends after the first 22 seconds have been played, making the remaining 43 seconds go unused. It also loops.

Unused Sounds

This is an unused voice line of Knuckles saying "Cool!", which would've played if he were to do a trick. However, for unknown reasons, he is incapable of doing tricks with any character that's paired with him, therefore, this voice clip goes unused. It is listed in the sound test as #108.

Here's the Japanese version of the same sound clip:

Unused Metatiles

A good number of 96x96 metatiles are unused during the game.

To do: There's bound to be more in other zones. The metatiles for the hubs/minigames were gotten out of the way because they're all much smaller than the actual levels and thus easy to search around in.

Zone Maps and Minigames

The address for the hub/minigame metatile data is at 0x3B4640. Some of these unused metatiles indicate that the hubs/minigames would have had loop-de-loops.

Build Dates

There is a build date at E7E700 in the US ROM, E758D4 in the Japanese ROM, E7EA90 in the European ROM, E87FC4 in the European Prototype, and CAEB70 in the Japanese demo.

Wed Apr 14 20:24:28  2004

Sun Apr 18 21:26:47  2004

Sun Apr 18 21:37:53  2004

Mon Mar  1 18:35:08  2004

Wed Apr 28 16:01:34  2004

Debug Save

Not having an SRAM chip on the cartridge will unlock everything in the game. This is also the case for the other Sonic Advance games.

Regional Differences

To do: More comparisons, specifically audio comparisons.

Gameplay

• Collecting more rings gives the player more air control and acceleration, but in the US version, this effect is far less significant compared to the Japanese/European versions and Sonic Advance 2.
• Control is locked from the player after defeating a boss. For the Egg Hammer 3, Egg Ball No.2, Egg Foot, Egg Cube and Egg Gravity, the player regains control about 1 or 2 seconds after Dr. Eggman has left the screen in the Japanese and European versions, while in the US version the player regains control immediately when he's off the screen.

Japan/Europe	US

• This corridor, found near the beginning of Toy Kingdom Act 3, has two power barriers in the US version. The leftmost barrier was removed in the Japanese and European versions.

Japan/Europe	US

• The last Chao in Cyber Track Act 1 is surrounded by two barriers. In the Japanese and European versions, the barrier to the right is not a power barrier, meaning the Chao can be collected with any team. In the US version, both barriers are power barriers, thus Knuckles is required.

Audio

• Due to size constraints, the game features only one voice track on the cartridge, depending on the region. The US and European versions have English-language voices while the Japanese version contains Japanese-language voices. However, the language options for the in-game text remain the same throughout all versions.
• Two sound effects were changed between the Japanese and localized versions of the game. The first is the pulley sound in Route 99, and the second is the sound of a rocket exploding in Toy Kingdom.

References