Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / Sonic Battle

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sonic_Battle_Coverart_8453.png

"Unknown item identified. This weapon was discovered in the ancient ruins. Identified as "Gizoid". Techniques to acquire all forms of weaponry is based on super-science technology. This process has no apparent limitations and will continue to loop indefinitely. However, in repeated experiments, the continual feed of data has caused an overload, resulting in the subject going out of control."
—The Central Lab's main computer, about Gizoid, more commonly known as "Emerl"

Sonic Battle is a 2003 Fighting Game spinoff of the Sonic the Hedgehog series for the Game Boy Advance. It's connected to the Sonic Advance trilogy, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Chronicles, through the story of a certain robot and its makers. Unlike most Sonic spinoff games, the focus is more on the story than gameplay.

In the beach of peaceful Emerald Town, Sonic the Hedgehog finds a worn-out robot, which talks strangely and only addresses and obeys him. Upon investigation, Sonic and company find out that this robot comes from a great civilization from the past, and that he can absorb and learn the powers and moves of the people who battle him. He feeds on Chaos Emeralds, and for each one he gets, he gets smarter and has a more defined personality, so Sonic & company Gotta Catch Them All and give them to "Emerl", as Sonic names the robot. But Dr. Eggman has plans of his own for the robot...

The gameplay is simple, yet open to wide variation. There is roaming on small, multi-tiered maps, similar to Power Stone. Each character has a basic combo, advanced directional moves, midair motion and attacks, and special moves of the Shot (projectile), Power (direct physical attack), and Set (land-mine type) classes, for both land and air. Before each respawn, you choose your land and air specials, leaving the last one to be auto-blocked if your opponent tries to hit you with that special type. While specials cost no "meter" of their own, you can charge a gauge that guarantees a One-Hit Kill for any special if it connects.

Another special part of the game is the extensive customization of Emerl. Each Skill (which is every single attack in the game, including individual parts of a combo) is represented by a Skill Card, which Emerl copies after he's witnessed it in a fight. You have to budget it, however, since each skill costs points, and you have to earn points in battle, and there is a limit to how many points there are.

Game modes include an extensive Story mode, a Challenge Mode, Vs, and several minigames themed for five of the characters.


This game contains examples of:

  • 11th-Hour Superpower: Inverted painfully. Emerl's the one who gets the superpower, but it drives him insane in the process. Sonic's efforts to neutralize it are also in vain, leaving him no choice but to fight a highly irritable, supercharged Emerl with no assistance whatsoever.
  • Abusive Precursors: The Fourth Great Civilization were the ones who angered Chaos and got themselves destroyed.
  • A.I. Breaker:
    • In general, killing an opponent with one special will have them put that special type on guard. This predictability can have you stick with two reliable specials without any worry of them guarding one.
    • Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles can set their Air Special to Set and, by jumping above an enemy, throwing it down and doing it again before they land, lock an opponent in such a way that they're an easy KO.
    • Sonic's Ground Power special. He throws a ring and spin dashes towards it, even in mid-air. If you throw it over an opponent and then instantly use it, you recover from the attack faster than the opponent, and can use the time to throw a ring back the other way, and hit them again when they're in position.
    • Rouge's Ground Power. When used on an opponent that won't absorb it, and near a wall, you can just use it once, and then use it again when they bounce off the wall and before the hit again until they're KO'd. They won't even be bothered to catch the wall and try to counter you.
    • Despite her flying capabilities, Rouge is pitifully easy to disrupt. Hit her just once in mid-air, and she will proceed to do nothing until she lands. Keep her in the air, and she's yours for the KO. This is true of almost all AI opponents, but Rouge doing this stands out as particularly broken because she's ostensibly built around mid-air combat and the span of time it takes for her to land is much longer than any other character.
    • Shadow's air attack sends him down through the air diagonally and can knock an opponent upwards slightly, then quickly get him back on the ground on the other side of them. Using it repeatedly on an airborne opponent by immediately turning around to face said opponent every time he lands can keep them stunned and helpless above the ground until they're knocked out. If the opponent in question isn't jumping/flying, leading them over a raised platform and waiting until they start coming down the other side lets you do this. Combined with the above, a fight between Rouge and either Shadow or Emerl with Shadow's air attack and jump skill can turn into nothing but waiting for her to get back within reach, then kicking her again.
      • Tails' air attack is also a variation of this, only unlike Shadow's air attack, it can rack even more hits in one go; combine that on an AI opponent if you're quick enough in-between execution, and boom.
  • The All-Seeing A.I.: The AI opponents know where you are even when they shouldn't, like when you're using Knuckles' Air Power or Shadow's Ground Power to hide and move around. They can also see the spot you're picking to respawn at.
  • All There in the Manual: A lot of the story of the Sonic games of the 2000s, especially Sonic Adventure 2, were revealed in this game. On the whole, it was second to Sonic Chronicles in this regard.
  • All Your Powers Combined:
    • Emerl has the ability to copy attacks from whoever he fights. By the end of the last chapter, he has abilities from every other playable character in the game.
    • Emerl's ultimate skills are the same moves he originally copied from Sonic, elaborated on with effects duplicated from the other characters' attacks. The more ultimate skills Emerl installs, the more of the others' powers he uses.
  • Anachronic Order: Sonic Battle takes place after Sonic Heroes, which was in development at the same time as Battle—Rouge notes that Chaos Gamma resembles Omega, and Shadow has a Flashback to the formation of Team Dark—but was released anywhere from two days to a whole month before Heroes depending on the country.
    • ‘’Shadow the Hedgehog’’ becomes a Mind Screw Driver for this game’s place in continuity, revealing the order of events to be Sonic Heroes -> Shadow the Hedgehog -> Sonic Battle -> Sonic Advance 3.
  • Animated Adaptation: Episodes 42-45 of Sonic X loosely adapts the game's story.
  • Anti Anti Christ: Emerl is a Gizoid, a robot designed to mimic any combat technique he sees, and is able to do so with terrifying efficiency. Upon obtaining all seven Chaos Emeralds he's supposed to pretty much annihilate civilization. He's also raised by the good guys and slowly mimics bits of each of their personalities as well — the result is a lovable Nice Guy who calls Amy "Mom", helps out around Tails's lab, ribs Knuckles for being dense, and is fiercely protective of his friends, most notably Cream.
  • Apocalyptic Log: The excerpts from Professor Gerald's journals, detailing how he found Emerl and the ensuing consequences, which can be read by re-beating previous story episodes.
  • Arc Villain: Chaos Gamma is the main antagonist in Cream's chapter.
  • Arm Cannon: Tails and Chaos Gamma. For Tails, it materializes when used and disappears after firing a ball of electrical energy.
  • Artificial Brilliance: The AI will often change its moveset to effectively counter the one you're using, and is fairly good at blocking.
  • Artificial Stupidity: The AI also rarely ever heals itself and, if tag team and friendly fire are on, will often attack its teammates when trying to attack you. It also doesn't know how to efficiently use Sonic's Ground Power nor Knuckles' Air Power, and will never run away from E-102 and the Guard Robos' Recovery Mode. In fact, a lot of the early-game and end-game battles are only winnable because the opponents are AI-controlled.
  • Ass Kicks You: Amy has a dash attack, which Emerl can later learn, where she flings herself rear-first at opponents.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Knuckles' Ground Shot, the Rockfree Fall, is one of the most powerful Shots in the game. However, it is hard to aim and very slow.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: With the character combos, ultimate skills and ??? skills, Emerl learns how to be better than the other fighters at being themselves.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": Eggman during Knuckles' Story.
  • Background Music Override: During the endurance mode in Emerl's Story, if Chaos Zero makes an appearance, his theme song will override whatever the stage's main song is.
  • Batman Gambit: Although it doesn't start off that way, when Eggman realises Sonic has no idea of what Emerl really is, he comes up with one. If Sonic and his pals don't get killed fighting his robots, then they've collected the scattered Chaos Emeralds and turned Emerl into a killing machine that can take over the world for him. It's actually one of Eggman's better plans.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Cream and Emerl. The former will never fight, no matter what the situation. Of course when the need arises, she will step in to help, but will let Cheese perform all her aggressive attacks.
  • Big "SHUT UP!": Knuckles says this a couple of times.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The "Ichikoro" gauge is left untranslated. Ichi-koro? To "trounce" or via the kanji it's derived off of: One (hit) K.O.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The game ends with Eggman's plans stopped, but Emerl sacrifices himself in the process.
  • Blatant Lies: If you hear Chaos Gamma or a Guard Robo announce "Initiating Recovery Mode", run. It's about to blow up.
  • Both Sides Have a Point: A good chunk of Cream's chapter centers around her views on violence clashing heavily with Emerl's.
    • On one hand, Cream is right to say that it's a bad idea to constantly go looking for fights. Also worthnoting, Cream’s reluctance to fight might be in part because her constant boxercising with Amy. Amy was pushing herself to the limit, doing boxercising everyday, as well as pushing others around her. As shown in Amy's chapter, she forced Cream and Emerl to spar with her round after round, wearing enormous weights on her ankles and refusing to let Cream rest. And due to her constant working out, she's constantly wearing herself out to the point (where in the same chapter by the way) she was trembling and even collapsed after one of their sessions!! So it's understandable for Cream to have the thought process was kind of like, “Amy hurts herself while fighting, therefore fighting hurts people”.
    • On the other hand, Emerl's also right to point out that refusing to fight when a situation deems it necessary can be just as dangerous. While being against violence is fine, you have to at least be able to fight if a situation because not everyone's going to be there to protect you and not being able to fend for yourself is a death wish.
  • Butt-Monkey: Knuckles is pretty much the source of jokes for Sonic, Rouge, and Emerl.
  • Came Back Wrong: E-102 Gamma. Not only does he sport a new name (Chaos Gamma), he also has no recollection of his past, and is completely subservient to Eggman. Actually subverted, as it turns out, but not how one might think (or hope): Chaos Gamma is actually a different robot entirely, cobbled together with spare E-series parts, and therefore the E-102 Gamma from Sonic Adventure never "came back" to begin with.
  • Casino Park: Night Babylon, as well as Club "Rouge".
  • Character Customization: Emerl can learn moves from the other characters and take on their battle stances, which can be mixed and matched to give him a custom moveset. His coloration can also be customized.
  • Character Development: Emerl. He starts as a nigh-voiceless generic killbot whose only notable detail is his ability to copy other characters' abilities. His interactions with the cast cause him to copy aspects of their personalities as well, and eventually blends them into a complete emergent personality.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Final Egg Blaster, which is hinted at in such a throw-away manner that even the cast forgets about it.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Tails says Emerl is Sonic's baby in a figurative sense, but Amy takes it literally.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
    • The Final Boss fight against the fully awakened Emerl has access to every Gizoid attack, even though the customization system lets you only equip a couple due to their high point cost.
    • The AI Training simulations, which are intended to be Nintendo Hard, have the AI capable of frame-perfectly blocking pretty much anything except special moves. Combos, Dash attacks and air attacks are completely useless past the first couple of rounds.
  • Continuity Snarl: Sonic Battle was released in December 2003, the same month as Sonic Heroes, but has a small nod to Omega and a Flashback to the formation of Team Dark indicating Battle takes place after Heroes. However, Battle appears to have been written completely in ignorance of the details of the Team Dark story, where Shadow has Trauma-Induced Amnesia (Shadow knows who Rouge is in the Battle flashback, but not in Heroes itself). Battle also declares Shadow is a Living Weapon created for the military, which would be contradicted by the backstory given to him by Shadow the Hedgehog in 2005.
  • Continuity Porn: A lot of past events are referenced through the story, as well as obscure items like Amy's tarot cards, which she only used in the Sonic the Hedgehog CD instruction manual.
  • Covers Always Lie: See Shadow on the box art? You don't play as him until the penultimate chapter, and you meet him the least often of all characters. Emerl is the one who should really be on the cover. Even Sonic himself largely takes a backseat to him in the actual story.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Eggman sells his designs for lesser robots to finance his evil schemes.
  • Dance Battler: Sonic's melee moves are based on breakdancing.
  • Darker and Edgier: Almost the entire game is actually lighter than the usual Sonic fare thanks to being more Slice of Life, with goofy antics around Emerl's growth and Eggman being up to his usual bad guy acts on the side. Then comes the final chapter, Eggman being a Not-So-Harmless Villain, and the most tragic ending in the main franchise that took another game to resolve.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Sonic and Rouge are this as always. Emerl also grows into one as the story progresses.
  • Determinator:
    • Shadow. Even when weakened, he still tries to destroy Emerl.
    • Amy, when it comes to Emerl and her boxercise training. Rouge even lampshades her persistence in her story.
    • Chaos Gamma becomes increasingly desperate and vengeful every time Emerl defeats him, to the point of turning up the damage he inflicts in the 2nd round of each encounter.
  • Ditto Fighter: Emerl's moves are largely taken from the other playable characters, with his default set making him a weaker version of Sonic. There's also the Phi series of robots, which are always seen using the full moveset of a random character.
  • Do Androids Dream?: Emerl grows to become sentient, and it's heavily implied he has a soul.
  • Early-Bird Boss: Knuckles is fought with Emerl when he has only a handful of moves and abilities.
  • Early Game Hell: Emerl is supposed to be getting stronger over time as he obtains new skills, but that also means he starts off with nothing in the way of usable attacks. As the character you play as rotates frequently, you are often required to use him unassisted (e.g. the Knuckles fight in Sonic's chapter), which can lead to some incredibly lopsided battles until you get a decent amount of skills.
  • The Echoer: Emerl starts out completely silent. After absorbing a Chaos Emerald, he becomes capable of repeating short snippets of things he has just heard. He is eventually able to speak freely as he absorbs more Emeralds, but still mimics the speech patterns of his friends.
  • Escort Mission: In the first parts of Cream's chapter, she refuses to fight, so Emerl must protect her. Later it's reversed, with Emerl refusing to fight because he doesn't want to make her sad, and she must save him from Eggman's robots.
  • Excuse Plot: The early parts of the game can be summarized as "You found a mysterious robot in the beach. Teach it some fighting moves along with the rest of your buddies!" Subverted in the later parts of the game, ESPECIALLY the tear jerking ending and the backstory-revealing secret reports.
  • Fake Longevity
    • The storyline has a very common tendency to follow up a fight with a rematch immediately after, the only difference being the lives count of the combatants being doubled.
    • Shadow's challenge at the end of his chapter, forcing Emerl to track down every other allied fighter at that point and defeat them again before facing Shadow in a rematch.
  • Financial Abuse: Rouge plans to use Emerl to help her steal jewels.
  • Fixed-Floor Fighting: There are 3D levels where you can jump from one height to the next, but the stages themselves are static.
  • Flanderization:
    • Amy's Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies are exaggerated significantly, to the point where the penultimate fight in Rouge's chapter is her and a hallucination of Sonic she conjured up.
    • Knuckles has become noticeably sulky and a lot more hot-tempered than his past portrayals, and the fact that characters like Sonic and Rouge tease him constantly doesn't help matters. The game also reinforces his gullibility by ensuring Stupidity Is the Only Option when Eggman lays an Obvious Trap for him.
  • Foreshadowing: Emerl's first statement he made to Sonic. "Show me your power. Or I sh all not ob ey. I represent all things, and sha ll become Gizoid, the conquerer of all..."
  • Full-Name Basis: Shadow refers to Sonic as "Sonic the Hedgehog" a couple of times.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation:
    • Zigzagged by the Final Boss. On the one hand, Emerl is using all of his ultimate skills, the combined cost of which exceeds the maximum Cap of 500 skill points that the player can unlock. On the other, this is subtly justified by the story, where Eggman forced Emerl into a Deadly Upgrade—in other words, it's not that The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard but that The Computer was hacked and forced to start Explosive Overclocking.
    • When Chaos finally appears in the story, his attack and defense are much higher than the game would otherwise allow for, and none of these benefits are available to the player when he is unlocked. Despite some of his attacks ordinarily being the weakest in the game, story mode Chaos can KO with basic combos easily. Certain moves of his are turned into One-Hit Kills, as can be seen when they knock out the player even with an infinite health cheat enabled. The game has Combo Cards, which are combos guaranteed to end in a KO if most hits connect, but they merely do significant damage to Chaos, and aren't in themselves sufficient to KO him.
    • You can also do this yourself for a Self-Imposed Challenge if you so wish. Thanks to the skills you've equipped, Emerl should already be the strongest character in the game by the time you get to the 4th episode or so- and the dialogue reflects that. So, go ahead and set his abilities back to their starting point and struggle to win even as the characters comment on how strong you've gotten.
  • Glass Cannon: Shadow mostly. However, since his Strength Support skill is the highest in the game, while his Attack Support is ranked 3rd along with all his other attacks alone having strong power ratings, Shadow is more of a tank with solid moves than anything. He only lacks the natural attack boost to make his moves stronger than they should be.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: Most of the game involves collecting the Chaos Emeralds (and their shards) to power up Emerl.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Imperator Ix, the Big Bad of Sonic Chronicles, is revealed in that game to have been Emerl's creator.
  • Green Hill Zone: The Nostalgia Level itself can be unlocked through a certain citeria.
  • Hero Antagonist: While Shadow is a major antagonist of the first half of the game, his motivations are not revealed until near the end. In short, he was right about Emeril being a threat to LOTS of innocent people and wanted to nip the problem in the bud early.
  • Homing Projectile: Tails and Rogue's Set attacks will track opponents. Tails's Chu2 will follow from the ground (and thus cannot go over obstacles) while Rogue's Bat Cracker will float above targets to hit them when they go airborne. Shadow also has one, Roaming Chaos, but it uniquely follows him instead of opponents.
  • I Am Not a Gun: Emerl was created to be a weapon of war, but for the most part, Sonic and friends put it out of their minds. He's more than a weapon; he's their friend, and like Shadow, he has heart and couldn't willingly kill anyone. When it is acknowledged, Rouge finds codewords that will supposedly free Emerl's mind, disengaging the destructive programming. Then Dr. Eggman unleashes a weapon to overload Emerl with power, making him go crazy and attempt to destroy the Earth. Sonic is able to stop him, but it's too late for Emerl... his final programming was set so if the weapon ever went out of control, it would terminate itself. Tails hammers the point home:
    "Someday... If this world finally knows true peace... If this world no longer needs weapons or wars... If we can make this world a truly peaceful place when we're older... If we can make a world where there's only laughter... Do you think we'll be able to play with Emerl again?"
  • I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Invoked near the end of Knuckles' story by Eggman to lure the former and Emerl to Gimme Shelter. See Bad "Bad Acting".
  • In Medias Res: Sonic's story is the first chapter, but Rogue's story (the third chapter) and Shadow's story (the seventh and penultimate chapter) each detail events that happen before Sonic finds Emerl.
  • Jack of All Stats: Rouge, Amy and Tails. Sonic too is also considered this since he has fairly well-rounded moves. And of course, you can also make Emerl this with a certain balance of moves.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Shadow ends up in being correct ultimately; Emerl was too dangerous and ultimately there was no option but to destroy him.
  • Launcher Move: The Upper Attacks, Heavy Attacks when the opponent is wall bounced, all Set specials (which blinds the target upon it connecting), and some other moves send the opponent into the air for a potential combo.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: The main point of the game and how Emerl learns his moves.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Chaos Gamma in Drive Mode and, eventually, Emerl.
    • Shadow combines this with Glass Cannon, since he has the highest Strength Support in the game and his weak Attack Support only goes to show he doesn't have enough natural attack power to boost his stronger attacks higher than they already are.
  • Lost Superweapon: Emerl is an ancient robot designed by the Fourth Great Civilization as a Power Copying superweapon. He was eventually found in an ancient ruin over 50 years ago, ended up with Gerald Robotnik, and traded hands a few more times before Eggman eventually got ahold of him just before the start of the game.
  • Magikarp Power: Until he can pick up better moves over the course of the game, Emerl is stuck with his barely functional default moves and abilites, which are all lifted from Sonic albeit tremendously nerfed.
  • Magnetic Hero: Emerl. Almost everyone takes a shining to him, leading to a few Enemy Mine fights.
  • Main Character Final Boss: While each chapter of Story Mode gives major focus on a specific character, Emerl is the main protagonist of this game specifically due to being the main focus of the story and whose colours and moveset can be customized to the player's liking. Come his chapter, which serves as the final chapter, Eggman causes him to malfunction from the power of the emeralds, resulting in him serving as the final boss of the story.
  • Mama Bear: Amy convinces herself that she's Emerl's mother figure and gets extremely protective of him, to the point of engaging in fights.
  • Mecha-Mooks: Chaos Gamma, the E-121 Phis and the Guard Robos.
  • Megaton Punch: Knuckles' Ground Power special and Heavy Attack.
  • Meteor Move: If you launch an opponent with a Heavy move, you can pursue them as they go flying (and potentially bounce off a wall). You can then use a Pursuit Attack, which slams them into the ground for more damage.
  • Mighty Glacier: Knuckles, Gamma, and Chaos have some of the most powerful attacks in the game, but they all have low slow movement speed (with the exception of dashing as Knuckles and Gamma) and the majority of the attacks of the latter two are some of the slowest in the game.
  • Mix-and-Match Man: Emerl's skills and personality are made up of the people he's around. When the first two people he meets are Sonic and Tails, it's commented, "Hmph, I can't tell if he is being polite or rude."
  • Mood Whiplash: The last chapter, in comparison with the lighter tone of the previous chapters.
  • Mourning a Dead Robot: Emerl the robot, who has learned about true feelings, goes on a rampage after a Chaos Emerald overrides his mind. Sonic has no choice but to personally fight him, and later destroys him. Just before Emerl explodes, however, he goes back to normal and bids Sonic farewell. Sonic and his friends are devastated, especially Cream, who even sobs.
  • Mundane Utility: Eggman uses Chaos Emerald shards to power his Phi robots. They're not even especially dangerous as a result of being powered by the Emeralds, with the first few models being notably pathetic since they're just experiments by Eggman.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: In the last chapter, as Emerl remembers everyone and the good times he shared with them, it's pretty noticeable that he neglects to mention Rouge.
  • Never My Fault: When Rouge points out that Emerl is a bit mouthy, Knuckles pins the blame on Sonic. Rouge then lampshades that he's quick to blame others as usual.
  • New Game Plus: You can replay chapters you've beaten as many times as you want, with any customization done to Emerl intact. This allows you to more efficiently obtain new skills and grind skill points, as the final chapter only allows for one-on-ones and you're rewarded for playing well when more participants are involved. Replaying old chapters also unlocks journal entries from Gerald Robotnik, further elaborating on Emerl's backstory.
  • No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: Emerl is always the same color in cutscenes despite that being customizable.
  • Nostalgia Level: Green Hill Zone, unlocked upon finishing the game.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Shadow acknowledges that both he and Emerl are weapons, and spends much of the story trying to destroy the Gizoid. However, Sonic rebuffs this by saying he and Emerl are alike in a different way—both Emerl and Shadow have hearts, and couldn't willingly kill anyone.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Dr. Eggman. He spends much of the game planning something but not really accomplishing anything, until the last chapter, where he drives Emerl insane with power.
  • One-Hit Kill: You can guarantee kills by using any Super Attack fully charged through the Ichikoro Gauge or a character combo card.
  • One-Steve Limit: "Chaos" is used everywhere in this game—the Chaos emeralds are a recurring plot element, many of Shadow's techniques use Chaos in the name to expand on the Theme Naming from Chaos Control, Chaos (Zero) adds his name to just about all of his attacks, and E-102 Gamma's replacement is named Chaos Gamma.
  • Only Sane Man: Tails and Shadow.
  • Optional Boss: Chaos Zero is a boss battle faced in the optional last story and endurance mode.
  • Palette Swap: Guard Robos and Phis are gray knockoffs of Chaos Gamma and Emerl, respectively. It's explained that the coloration is due to them being mass-produced models.
  • Pet the Dog: Rouge is the one who discovers how to free Emerl from his destructive programming, and she immediately relays the information to everyone else.
  • Point Build System: Emerl's moveset customization is tied to a skill point budget. Each Skill Card has a point value between 5 and 30 based on their intended power level, with stronger ones costing more than weaker ones, and you can only equip so many within the allotted budget. Emerl gains more skill points to use as the game progresses by participating in combat or obtaining Chaos Emeralds, eventually capping out at 500.
  • Power Copying: Emerl copies the battle techniques of others, usually by winning fights.
  • The Power of Friendship: When Shadow realizes that he needs to relinquish his Chaos Emerald to Emerl in order to complete his evolution, willingly handing over his conduit for his Chaos-based arsenal, Shadow is perfectly fine with such an action.
    Shadow: "It's okay. I have Maria in my heart."
  • The Power of Love: Spoofed by Amy and her Mad Love for Sonic, which powers all of her techniques and causes her to do things like hallucinate Sonic assisting her in battle.
  • Power of the Void: Shadow's Chaos-based abilities are described as him attacking opponents with distorted space using Chaos Control.
    C. Nightmare: Shadow's heavy attack. Using Chaos Control, he grinds his fists to distort space, to attack and knock opponents away.
  • Prepare to Die: This is what Eggman says at the beginning of his fight against Emerl in the Death Egg.
  • Precision F-Strike: Rouge actually calls Eggman a "bastard" in the Japanese version of the game.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Inverted. When he's about to lose a life, Chaos Gamma says "Initiating Recovery Mode." Potentially zig-zagged however if Gamma takes out an opponent with it.
  • Punny Name: Emerl is named by Sonic after the Chaos Emeralds that power him.
  • Randomly Drops: Except for the first few battles, new moves are learned randomly.
  • Recurring Boss: Chaos Gamma, who is fought in every episode avaliable.
    • Amy in Rouge's story. Rouge eventally lampshades her status as such.
  • Ruins for Ruins' Sake: Holy Summit and Chao Ruins.
  • Running Gag:
    • Chaos Gamma's appearances, to the point of being once or twice per episode except for Emerl's.
    • People telling Amy, "I don't think that's the case," regarding her delusions of a relationship with Sonic. By the end of her chapter, even Emerl pitches in.
    • Amy's "Boxercising" sessions. She repeatedly gets owned by Emerl and draws Cream into it. Cream starts to get worried. Amy even reveals she was wearing weights and takes them off for the last fight but every single battle is just as easy.
  • Secondary Character Title: It's called Sonic Battle, but the story focuses on Emerl more than him.
  • Ship Tease: Some scenes with Shadow and Rouge, and a brief moment with Amy getting concerned for Shadow can be seen as this.
  • Shoot the Dog: Shadow thinks Emerl should be destroyed for everyone's sake. Also, when Eggman drives Emerl insane, Sonic has to destroy Emerl himself.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Tails uses Chu bombs as his trap. These are modeled after the ChuChu mice from another Sonic Team game, ChuChu Rocket!. For an added bonus, there are official 2-in-1 cartridges that contain both ChuChu Rocket and Sonic Battle.
    • One of the locations is named Gimme Shelter.
  • Signature Move: Downplayed. Certain Special Attacks of each character are highlighted by being featured in some of Emerl's ultimate attacks.
    • Each character has a dedicated combo card that gives Emerl a lightning-fast chain of their basic attacks that ends with either a Heavy Attack, Upper Attack, or Special Attack that serves as that character-combo's Finishing Move.
    • The rare ??? attack cards that Emerl can gain are enhanced versions one of each of the other characters' Special Attacks.
  • Slice of Life: Several chapters focus not on any overarching plot but on Emerl spending time with the other characters in their personal lives, like Rouge stealing gems or Amy doing boxercise or Cream avoiding violence, and developing a life philosophy from what he learns from them. Subverted in Emerl's story, especially in the final boss fight with Emerl.
  • SNK Boss:
    • The final boss, Emerl awakened as the Gizoid, who has access to all of the Ultimate Skills, something impossible in normal gameplay.
    • Eggman. He fights in his Egg Mobile, and constantly shoots missiles and projectiles at you, even when you're dead and picking a place to respawn. It's very, very hard to get close to him, and even harder to combo him without getting hit with a stray projectile. He can easily guard Shot moves if you use too much of them too, forcing you to get close, and when you KO him, he does a souped up version of Gamma's Recovery Mode that comes out instantly as soon as your attack connects, meaning you probably will get hit, and if you're too close (which you probably are), you'll take the full brunt of the blast and die.
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix: The battle stages and a few varieties of wall are made out of polygons, but everything else is in sprites.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Amy, to the point that she considers Emerl to be a child Sonic wanted her to raise.
  • Sudden Downer Ending: After spending the entire game learning, forming strong friendships, and growing more powerful, with the player essentially watching Emerl grow from babyhood to a mature young robot, Eggman overloads him with power and makes him go crazy. You play as Sonic to kill him with Emerl being the final boss. Afterwards both Sonic and Shadow lampshade this trope and lament Emerl’s demise whilst Tails comforts a crying Cream. Cue credits.
  • Supporting Protagonist: Each episode, the character of focus is mostly reying to help Emerl get stronger. Ultimately though Emerl is the main protagonist of every chapter.
  • Taking You with Me: Chaos Gamma has a special property called, quite ironically, Initiating Recovery Mode. Whenever he's KOed, he explodes, dealing heavy damage to enemy combatants who are in range of the explosion. Emerl can gain this property himself by equipping the E-102 Style fighting pose skill.
  • The Tease: Rouge, particularly towards Tails in this game. Losing a fight against her in Tails' story result in her kissing him.
  • Technical Pacifist: Cream uses her Chao, Cheese, for melee and super attacks. This is enfornced to maintain an "innocent image" for someone her age.
  • Theme Table: Every character has an attack or power Emerl can download for each category of ability (e.g., Upper Attack, Heavy Attack, Air Attack, etc.), though they differ from each other in power, speed, and range.
  • Thinking Out Loud: Eggman does this quite a bit. He actually uses this to cause other characters to go along with his plan, though he does it in a rather obvious, near Large Ham like performance.
  • Tilesweeper: Knuckles' Mine Hunt, a minigame that can be unlocked after beating Knuckles' story mode.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • Sonic and friends, upon finding out that the quiet little robot they found is a super-dangerous weapon with the ability to copy any move perfectly and the potential to destroy the world, decide to spend their entire time teaching it combat techniques and inserting the super-powerful Chaos Emeralds into it. Shadow is the only one who speaks out about this, albeit by constantly trying to kill Emerl.
    • There's also an inversion - while some consider Eggman an idiot for simply throwing Emerl out, it turns out that there's no way Emerl could ever have become so powerful if he hadn't, and when he realizes what's happened, the lesser Emerl-based robots provide an excellent way for Sonic and his pals to inadvertently 'train' Emerl.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Knuckles, though this is mainly due to flanderization. In the games, he is usually humble and easy-going, even if he is slightly blunt and hot-headed, but in here, he's more hot-headed and a bit hostile towards others compared to his usual self.
  • Unexplained Recovery: Shadow is back, none the worse for wear after his orbital re-entry at the conclusion of Sonic Adventure 2. It would be a couple of real-life weeks before Sonic Heroes came out and bring up how he survived, with Shadow the Hedgehog concluding that story arc about two years later.
  • The Unfought: Only a few characters fight Shadow and Rouge in the story. Sonic and Knuckles, despite being friendly rivals, don't fight in an official battle, though both are seen fighting each other along with Emerl offscreen in the end of Tails' story.
  • Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Emerl learns skills from defeating other characters.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: The first fight against Knuckles as Emerl is tougher than normal since at this point in the game you'll have very few skill points for Emerl to use for attacks, jumping power, or movement. Knuckles is reasonably fast, has a good heal skill, and has powerful moves, making the early fight much harder than later fights against him when you have more powers.
  • Warrior Therapist: Emerl in the later chapters, as the result of the rest of the cast teaching him different ways to respond to adversity.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: The Death Egg's Final Egg Blaster, armed with enough power to destroy stars.
  • Wham Episode: Basically the entirety of the final chapter and what happens to Emerl.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Shadow sees Emerl as a weapon, just like him, but Sonic counters this by saying they both have free will and hearts.
  • White Mage: Cream. Although all characters can heal themselves, Cream's healing power is without a doubt the best in the game. Her health bar regeneration is second only to Gamma's, and her Ichikoro regeneration is joint top with Knuckles'.
  • Worf Had the Flu: Shadow loses his fight against Sonic in the beginning of the game, and barely holds his own against Tails and an incomplete Emerl later on due to previous injuries from a sneak attack by one of Eggman's guard robots.
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: When playing as Rouge, while fighting Amy, Amy gets knocked silly and hallucinates Sonic is there to save her... However, rather than this making it real to Amy, Rouge then has to fight Amy and her hallucination of Sonic at the same time.


Top