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Sonic Advance 3

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Title Screen

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: 2004


DevTextIcon.png This game has hidden development-related text.
GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.
MusicIcon.png This game has unused music.
SoundIcon.png This game has unused sounds.
DebugIcon.png This game has debugging material.
RegionIcon.png This game has regional differences.


ProtoIcon.png This game has a prototype article

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.

Sub-Pages

Read about prototype versions of this game that have been released or dumped.
Prototype Info

Unused Graphics

SonicAdvance3-AltarEmerald.png

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.

SA3-numbers.png

Numbers ADV3 dimps numbers2.gif


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

(Source: Original TCRF research)

By messing around with the games internal data, There exists graphics for act 4 suggesting that this game was going to have 4 acts instead of the usual 3 however, this never was the case for unknown reasons.[1]

ACT04 Text

Unused Music

The two songs listed here 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 a Unused voice line of Knuckles saying "Cool!", which would've been used 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 making this completely unused. It is listed in the sound test as #108.

Here's the Japanese version of the same soundclip:

Unused Metatiles

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

Hmmm...
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.

Metatile #14 Metatile #20 Metatile #25 Metatile #26 Metatile #27 Metatile #28 Metatile #29 Metatile #30 Metatile #31 Metatile #52 Metatile #59 Metatile #60 Metatile #61 Metatile #62 Metatile #63 Metatile #87 Metatile #91 Metatile #95 Metatile #98 Metatile #99 Metatile #100 Metatile #113 Metatile #119 Metatile #121 Metatile #123 Metatile #129 Metatile #144 Metatile #145 Metatile #146 Metatile #165 Metatile #170 Metatile #176 Metatile #179 Metatile #194 Metatile #195 Metatile #196 Metatile #205 Metatile #208 Metatile #209 Metatile #224 Metatile #229 Metatile #230 Metatile #235 Metatile #236 Metatile #239 Metatile #240 Metatile #243 Metatile #244 Metatile #245 Metatile #246 Metatile #248 Metatile #251 Metatile #252 Metatile #260 Metatile #261 Metatile #272 Metatile #281 Metatile #285 Metatile #289 Metatile #299 Metatile #302 Metatile #304 Metatile #305 Metatile #306 Metatile #308 Metatile #339 Metatile #340 Metatile #342 Metatile #347 Metatile #350

(Source: Techokami)

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.

US Version
Wed Apr 14 20:24:28  2004
JP Version
Sun Apr 18 21:26:47  2004
EU Version
Sun Apr 18 21:37:53  2004
EU Prototype
Mon Mar  1 18:35:08  2004
JP Demo
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

Hmmm...
To do:
More comparisons, specifically audio comparisons.

Gameplay

  • Collecting more rings gives the player more air control and acceleration, but the strength of the effect varies by version. 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
Park security isn't as tight. Park security must be tighter.
  • 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
Who needs Knuckles? Oh, wait. US version players do.
  • 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. Western versions have English-language voices while the Japanese version contains Japanese-language voices of the main cast. The in-game text is entirely multi-lingual and is manually selectable in all versions.
  • Two sound effects are different between the Japanese and western versions of the game. The sound effects in question being the pulley sound in Route 99, and the sound of a rocket exploding in Toy Kingdom.
(Source: kirbymastah)