So in our last post (after the COVID-19 rant) we mentioned that we’ll be revisiting one of our earlier posts about why Sonic Battle should get a remake. Out of all of the games we’ve played up to now, Sonic Battle in particular was a bit different – unique in its own way. Although it’s full potential was yet to be unleashed on the Game Boy Advance, it pushed the envelope (and GBA’s graphical limits) in terms of what the game’s identity wanted to be. It wasn’t trying to be like Smash Bros. nor could you call it a traditional fighting game, in fact players felt like they could actually feel the ‘impact’ of slamming their opponents into a wall (or vise versa) and following up with a finishing blow.

The story and dialogue was actually pretty decent and humorous, and the finale – wow! (The feels are real once you get there.) Since next year marks the 30th anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise as a whole, why don’t they remake this game instead of trying to do a sequel. If you remember games like Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, that game got a remake; graphical designs, music, the whole nine yards! Hopefully if SEGA decides to do this (and we hope they do) there are a few things they could change up for the remake of the game.

Improvement #1: Bigger Roster!

In the original 2003 game there were only 10 playable characters. There are so many new characters out here now, so why not triple the fighter roster to 30; adding new characters like Espio, E-123 Omega, Silver, Blaze, Metal Sonic, Shade the Echidna, The Deadly Six, Classic Sonic, Mighty the Armadillo, Dr. Eggman, Infinite, etc. More characters would really take the game to a whole new level, and even bring in the idea of more than one story arc – which is my next improvement.

Improvement #2: New Story Arc!

With the increase of the character roster, this means that they’ll have to add a new story arc to accommodate the new arrivals. I’d say do two different arcs; the Classic Arc which is basically the retelling of the original story arc of the 2003 game with the original 10 characters. (All battles and story dialogue intact.) The second could be like a Universal Crisis-type arc where Sonic and the rest of the characters (even the new ones) come together to fight an original final boss to save the world. (And we get a Super Sonic battle!) There’s a lot of potential that can be unleashed here, but it will be up to the developers if they want to make this happen.

Improvement #3: More Health (HP)!

I remember fighting as Knuckles during his campaign (which is one of the longest campaigns you’ll ever go through) and I had to fight the three guard robos at the hotel of Night Babylon. After six tries I finally beat them, which is why fighters need to have 2 bars of health instead of 1. They could have it where there’s a big number next to a smaller number; where the big number is your current number of health bars and the smaller number is your maximum. (Every fighter has 2/2 bars of health!) The color of the first bar is yellow while the second is a blood-orange color; meaning if you fall to 1/2 bars of health the second bar is blood-orange. Although it may slightly lengthen the duration of the battle, it’ll give players a little more enjoyment in slamming their foes around.

Improvement #4: Special Attack Upgrade System!

Since we can’t figure out how much damage character special attacks (like Shot, Power, and Set) do, why not have a system where once characters win their battles, they receive Ability Points based on their performance in battle. Yo get 10 for winning without getting hit, 5 for not getting KO’d, and 2 for not losing overall. During Story Mode all character’s special attacks are at LVL. 1, then when they ‘Max Out’ they’ll be at LVL. 5! In Battle Mode and other modes players should get to choose what level they want their character’s special attacks to be at, so they can max themselves out and give their foes a beatdown!

These are just some the the improvements that I recommend that the developers make if they want to make the Sonic Battle remake a real best-seller. Hopefully if it ever gets done, I’d make it for the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch. (The 3DS version would play like the 2003 original.) Oh yeah, one more improvement I’d make; High Resolution 2D sprites at 60 fps. If they wanna add cinematic cutscenes, be my guest.

That’s all I’ve got for this post, until next time, stay safe and stay nerdy! 😉