When Sonic Advance 2 was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003, it received a fairly positive response from the gaming press, with most critics taking the time to praise its incredible sprite work and improvements over its predecessor. But that's not to say that it wasn't without its flaws.
The game was much faster than the first Sonic Advance yet seemed to punish players for getting creative and throwing caution to the wind, with bottomless pits and difficult-to-spot enemies always being positioned in exactly the correct place to discourage players from deviating from the ideal route. Now, though, a hacker named Tracker_TD has taken the time to address many of these issues, releasing Sonic Advance 2 SP — a new ROM hack of the game that aims to rebalance and improve the overall experience to remove these frustrations.
Sonic Advance 2 SP tweaks the placement of several enemies, replaces many of the bottomless pits with alternative routes, and adjusts the amount of Special Rings to allow "for a more freeform approach". Players also now only have to collect five Special Rings to enter the special levels as opposed to the original seven.
Want to give the hack a try yourself? You can grab it here.