SONIC BATTLE

SONIC BATTLE is a super interesting left turn for the series, trading the usual high speed platfoming for straight up arena brawling. It's a fighting game at its core, but it's wrapped in this surprisingly deep RPG style story mode that's all about a mysterious robot named Emerl. The vibe is totally different but it's got a weird charm that makes it stick with you.

The gameplay is all about 3D arenas where you use 2D sprites to throw down. You've got a basic combo string, heavy attacks, and three types of special moves (Shot, Power and Set) which you assign to a ground slot, an air slot and a guard slot before each fight. The strategy comes from picking which special to block automatically, if you guess right, you can shut down an opponent's big move. There's also an Ichikoro Gauge that fills as you fight, and when it's maxed, your next special is a OHKO. It sounds simple but matching up against different characters and managing your gauge adds a real layer of thinking to the chaos.

Where the game really gets its heart tho is the story. You play through interconnected episodes from the perspective of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Rouge, Shadow, and finally Emerl himself. The plot follows Sonic finding this ancient Gizoid weapon, naming it Emerl, and watching it learn and grow by copying the moves and personalities of everyone it meets. It's a legitimately cool and kinda emotional tale about what it means to have a soul, which is wild for a SONIC, or even a fighting game. Emerl can be customized with all the skills he copies, letting you build your own ultimate fighter which is a grind but feels rewarding.

The character roster is a solid mix of the usual crew, plus Chaos and a rebuilt E-102 Gamma as unlockables. Each fighter feels distinct, with Shadow teleporting, Rouge using stealth, and Cream fighting alongside Cheese; but let's be real, Knuckles is kinda weak in this game. The Improved Knuckles mod is a straight up balance patch to make him a viable fighter. It tweaks a bunch of his numbers: his basic jabs don't push him awkwardly forward anymore and have better hitboxes, his special moves are faster or link together better, and he even gets a higher jump. Outside the story, there's a full Battle Mode, challenge modes and some quirky minigames based on each character, which add some silly fun.

Now, the official translations are kinda messy, with a lot of errors and weird changes that messed up the tone and the cool lore about Gerald Robotnik and the Gizoid. These retranslation patches replace everything with a brand new accurate translation from the original Japanese script. It covers all eight story episodes, skill names, Gerald's diary entries, the whole deal. The goal is to let you experience the actually compelling and emotional story about Emerl the way the original writer intended. Para nosotros los hispanoparlantes, acaba de salir una retraducción que hace algo similar, y encima traduce casi todos los gráficos y la interfaz de modo que parezca salida de un producto oficial.

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