In Brief

• The Sonic Advance 3 mini-game barely adheres to the seven principles.
  • As a result, it is not much fun to play.
  • After playing it for the first time, the player is unlikely to play it ever again.
• The game has nothing to do with Sonic.
• It is just a clone of an existing game that has Sonic characters.

Description of mini-game

A giant animal capsule is in the centre of the screen. There are several buttons on the capsule which light up at random. The player has to hit that buttons that light up. The sooner the button is hit, the more points are awarded. After the player has hit a certain number of buttons, the capsule will explode and the player’s points will be exchanged for lives. The player has to complete this task within a strict time limit or else the points will be lost.

The seven mini-game principles in action

Challenge

The player has to react quickly to the buttons to earn the maximum number of points.
As responding to the buttons is the only challenge, the game feels like a simple reaction test, which makes it less interesting.

Reward

The player can earn extra lives.
The player only receives this reward at the end, so unlike the Sonic 3 & Knuckles mini-games, there isn’t a reward to constantly motivate the player during the game itself.

Time limit

A ticking clock limits how long the player has to complete the task.
In the other two bonus stages (described above) the time limit was ‘invisible’, which added the suspense of not knowing when the game would end.
In this game, the time limit is more obvious so the suspense is lacking.

Gamble

None. This lowers the excitement of the stage.

Consistency

None. Although elements of the game do appear in the main Sonic levels, this is essentially generic reaction game with Sonic characters tacked on to it.

Imagination

None. As noted, this is a generic reaction game.

Integration

The game is only accessible from the hub levels.
This removes the motive for the player to explore the main levels to find the game.