History YMMV / SonicAdvance3

* [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels Best Level Ever]]: The third game has Chaos Angel, which is very memorable for being one of few final levels in a ''Sonic'' game to not be in a factory or space area, instead being floating ruins that are on Angel Island. It is incredibly challenging, has great music, and looks stunning, and it's even less cheap than levels preceding it, (save for [[ThatOneLevel Act 3]]), making it feel like a worthy effort to reach.

* ContestedSequel: The third game is especially criticized for issues like its obstacle and enemy placement bordering on FakeDifficulty and the {{Hub Level}}s being [[FakeLongevity labyrinthe and unnecessary]].

* GameBreaker: Some of the character combinations in the third game can be this.

* GoodBadBugs: Sonic's aerial Tag Action is nothing special on its own (putting your character into boost mode, which is neat but there's nowhere it's ''required'' to get through), but the way it works internally (putting your character on a ''grounded'' booster for one frame) is heavily abused by TASers to do another jump in midair. This is usually combined with another bug found with Tails + Sonic, where Tails keeps his horizontal momentum when he flies, to do huge leaps across horizontal-focused stages and clear them even faster than Sonic can.

* {{Padding}}: The third game requires finding ten Chao in a Zone so the game will generate a special key to take a try, though thankfully you can replay stages to build up the collection rather than having to do it in one run. Only mostly dedicated fans and completionists have usually seen the true endings as a result of the excessive method of forcing play time out of a few handheld titles.
* ScrappyMechanic: Getting the Chaos Emeralds is a large pain. In the third game, it's having to scour levels for Chao. On paper, it encourages exploration and finding every route on a level; in practice, it encourages [[GuideDangIt whipping out the old guidebook,]] because the levels in this game are so huge and labyrinthine that it would take ages to find them normally. The only thing you get in the way of help is a "map" in the Sonic Factory that tells you what Chao you've already collected and how many Chao are in each Act...and nothing else.

** The boss of Twinkle Snow in the third game, where you have to ascend platforms that fall when you touch them and get them to hit Eggman. He also has a mace which knocks you into the BottomlessPit below if it gets you. Also, the mace can knock down platforms too, which screws you over if that was the one you were about to jump to. Basically, this boss functionally has ''only'' OHKO attacks, can't be hit directly or by Cheese, and it doesn't matter if you can fly or not. This is one of the bosses where Amy shines at because of her awesome high jump ability.
** The boss of Toy Kingdom in the third game can be somewhat irritating, as the boss [[MookMaker spawns enemies]] that can be annoying to defeat if Amy is involved, and the Gemerl bomb can be hard to dodge and can easily knock you into the inescapable pit. It generally becomes easier as the fight continues, though, as the arena space increases.
** Egg Pinball, the boss of Cyber Track can be an utter nightmare for Cream & Amy in the third game. Neither character can spin jump in this formation, with Amy only being able to perform a brief hammer spin, making the task of hitting the colored orbs the boss fires a challenge in patience and precise attacks. Worse, Cream's signature ability has no use here, as the boss cannot be attacked directly, nor can Cheese target the orbs.
* ThatOneLevel: The later Zones in the third game, particularly Cyber Track and Chaos Angel, can be pretty damn evil with bottomless pits that are as frequent as the above examples and the level design. In fact, 90% of Chaos Angel Act 3 is a moving platform ride across a colossal pit with a lot of enemies, spikes and other things that will knock you off!

* LowTierLetdown: In ''3,'' Cream + Tails is arguably the worst team-up, as this combo inexplicably replaces Cream's useful flight for a far less useful umbrella hover and offers no real benefit to make up for it. Tails' tag actions are also rather redundant on her, since if you wanted to gain extra height with Cream, you'd just pair her with someone else and use her regular flight ability while also gaining tangible buffs from her partner.

* ScrappyMechanic: Getting the Chaos Emeralds is a large pain. In the third game it's having to scour levels for Chao.

** It's worth noting that Amy and Sonic (specifically in that order) essentially turns her into a MasterOfAll, combining his speed with her air options and hammer offense. There's a reason speedruns use this pair almost exclusively once she joins.

* TearJerker:
** Gemerl, [[AmbiguousSituation if you subscribe to the theory]] that he's actually Emerl [[ReforgedIntoAMinion rebuilt and reprogrammed by Dr. Eggman]]. Now with no memories of the events of ''Sonic Battle'', he's forced to fight against his former friends until HistoryRepeats and he's exposed to too much of the Master Emerald's energy. This time, however, he transforms into a horrible mechanical monstrosity that goes berserk and flies into space, forcing both Sonic and Eggman to have to put him down once again. Fortunately, this time he ends up surviving and is found washed ashore on a beach by Tails, who restores his original programming and turns him into Emerl again.

** The third game's ending is a meta example, since within the franchise it marks the EndOfAnAge. It (along with ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'') was the last game to star the ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' voice cast before 4Kids Entertainment took over dubbing[[note]]although Creator/RyanDrummond has since returned to voice Sonic in the ''AudioPlay/SonicAndTailsR'' radio drama[[/note]], and also one of the last few games released before the series' "Dark Age" in the late 2000s. As if to acknowledge this, ''Advance 3'''s credits theme has a "goodbye" sort of feel to it.

** Amy as a partner in general is very broken. At the price of no longer spinning when they jump (Which has to be done manually with the attack button), every character's ground attack is switched out for Amy's piko-piko hammer attack, granting them access to Amy's double-power spring technique using said hammer. [[NotQuiteFlight Not being able to spin-jump becomes trivial when you're soaring across the skies above the screen.]] Sonic and Amy also mutually gain a lot of speed and athletic options along with access to R-Trigger techniques. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Sonic grinds rails on his snowboard from the first game!]]

* [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels Best Level Ever]]: The third game has Chaos Angel, which is very memorable for being one of few final levels in a ''Sonic'' game to not be in a factory or space area, instead being floating ruins that are on Angel Island. It is incredibly challenging, has great music, and looks stunning, and it's even less cheap than levels preceding it, (save for [[ThatOneLevel Act 3]], making it feel like a worthy effort to reach.