Sonic Advance

Sonic Advance is the first Sonic game released on a Nintendo console, notable given Sega and Nintendo’s rivalry throughout the 1990s. This 2D platformer features four playable characters and includes Amy Rose’s first playable appearance in a 2D title. It draws on classic Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay from the Sega Genesis era while using the post-Dreamcast character art style introduced in Sonic Adventure, and it also offers multiplayer modes and mini-games. The game was later ported to the Nokia N-Gage as "SonicN".

The game follows Sonic and his friends as they race through multiple zones to stop Dr. Eggman from taking over South Island. There are four playable characters—Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy—each built on the movesets from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, with the addition of a melee attack. Every character also has a unique ability: Sonic uses a splice shield, Tails can fly, and Knuckles can glide and climb. In her playable 2D debut, Amy stands apart—she cannot perform the Spin Dash or curl into a ball when jumping like the others, and instead relies on her Piko Piko Hammer for defense. Grind rails, first introduced in Sonic Adventure 2, make their first appearance in 2D here as well. Sonic and Tails can also be selected together in the story by entering a cheat code at the character selection screen. When playing as both, the experience mirrors Sonic the Hedgehog 2: you control Sonic, while a CPU-controlled Tails follows along.