Version Differences
Guides
/
Version Differences
Updated 5 years ago by kirbymastah

Sonic Advance 3 Version Differences

North American (NA)

  • English voice acting
  • More rings give you more air control and acceleration. But it's much less significant than the JP/EU versions and in Sonic Advance 2.
  • Bosses for Route 99, Sunset Hill, Ocean Base, Toy Kingdom, Chaos Angel: After defeating eggman, you gain control of your character immediately when he's off screen.
  • Toy Kingdom 3: Near the beginning there are two power barriers.
  • Cyber Track 1: Both barriers around the last chao are power barriers (i.e. need knuckles to break it).

JP and EU

  • More rings give you more air control and acceleration. The effect is very similar to the mechanic in Advance 2, and much stronger than in the NA version.
  • Bosses for Route 99, Sunset Hill, Ocean Base, Toy Kingdom, Chaos Angel: After eggman flies off screen, it usually takes about an extra 1-2 seconds to regain control of the character.
  • Toy Kingdom 3: Near the beginning only the far right power barrier exists, the left one is gone.
  • Cyber Track 1: the barrier to the right of the last chao is NOT a power barrier (i.e. anyone can break it). The left barrier is still a power barrier.

JP but not EU

  • Japanese voice acting
  • Route 99 pulley sound effect is different from NA/EU
  • Toy Kingdom rocket explosion sound effect is different from NA/EU

EU but not JP

  • English voice acting
  • Route 99 pulley sound effect is the same as NA
  • Toy Kingdom rocket explosion sound effect is the same as NA version

Overall

  • JP and EU are exactly the same for gameplay
  • NA and EU are exactly the same for sound effects and voice acting
  • JP and EU should be barely faster for basically every non-boss level due to more air acceleration from rings. Thus doing time attack runs on non-boss levels is better on JP/EU version. This also makes some jumps more consistent in JP/EU than US because of more air control, but there are situations where jumps can be less consistent because there's more variability with air control.
  • Toy Kingdom 3 is a few seconds faster for power teams in JP/EU than NA.
  • NA version saves time on many bosses due to regaining control. Doing boss attack runs is faster on NA version, with the exception of Twinkle Snow, Cyber Track, and Altar Emerald.

Beat the Game Category

  • NA saves about 2 seconds each for 5 bosses with offscreen kills if done properly. JP/EU cannot regain control instantly. Ideally it's about a total 10 second timesave.
  • JP/EU saves a little bit of time for every level due to more air acceleration, but it doesn't really add up to enough time to compensate for slower bosses.
  • If the player is decent at off-screen eggman kills, the NA version is faster, but if not, the JP/EU version is theoretically barely faster.
  • Note that japanese text saves time in beat the game because of the intro cutscene. It saves time for chao text, though an ideal run should never get any chao, so japanese text mitigates the time loss.

Best Ending Category

  • Cyber Track 1's chao requires Knuckles in NA version, whereas JP/EU version can stay with Amy+Sonic, cutting out a team swap. This saves about 10 seconds for JP/EU over NA version.
  • NA saves about 2 seconds each for 5 bosses with offscreen kills if done properly. JP/EU cannot regain control instantly. Ideally it's about a total 10 second timesave.
  • As the two changes above basically balance each other out, but JP/EU saves a tiny bit of time on every level, so ultimately JP/EU should be barely faster than NA version for the Best Ending category. It's not worth worrying about too much, as the time difference isn't significant.
  • Note that japanese text saves time in best ending because of the intro cutscene and chao text.