SAGE 2024 - Complete Sonic Advance (Android) - MOST Mods

Back in 2021, Sonic Advance on Android had its mods to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the original game.

In 2024, Sonic Advance on Android gets new mods!


The MOST Mods are a collection of mods of the Sonic Advance's Android port that gives quality of life improvements to the game. These mods feature brand-new modifications and improvements alongside the previous ones from the Anniversary Mods Pack released back in 2021.


The MOST subtitle has different meanings:

1) The MOST Mods contain the most sophisticated modifications ever done to the Sonic Advance's Android port.

2) The MOST word is also an acronym of Multi-Original SoundTrack, as the Soundtrack Select menu is the biggest new feature of the mods.

Here are all the modifications and improvements that the mods provide:


Let's start with the coolest modification: The Soundtrack Select menu!

As every Android devices now feature volume buttons, there isn't much purpose to the original Sound Enable menu.
Therefore, I replaced it by something more useful!

The Soundtrack Select menu allows you to choose either the original MIDI soundtrack of the Android port or the GBA MIX soundtrack from the original Game Boy Advance version of the game. This modification allows you to not have to select another mod version if you want to listen to another soundtrack.

SIDENOTE:
The GBA MIX soundtrack does NOT contain the exact same soundtrack as the original Game Boy Advance version. Instead, they replicate the MIDI soundtrack (with the exception being the "invincibility" music). This means the music uses for the first and second boss music of X-zone are actually GBA remixes of the MIDI soundtrack ("E.G.G. STATION ZONE" and "BOSS THEME 2" from Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1).



The next interesting modification is the Tips Screen toggle option!

After a survey that a few members has voted, I finally took the decision to replace the Sound Volume option by a Tips Screen toggle option for the 3.1.0 version. Since every Android devices now feature volume buttons, there isn't much purpose to the Sound Volume option.

When this option is turned ON, the game displays the Tips Screen which makes the game to load.
However, when this option is turned OFF, the game lets you play the game as quickly as possible, saving you seconds of waiting!



The mods makes the game look better for Android devices with aspect ratios between 16:9 to 21:9. The mods were designed so the game looks graphically the same in 16:9 and lower.
SIDENOTES:
1) The opening and the special stages don't look perfect in higher aspect-ratios. And there is a fade transition after leaving the title screen for long enough.

2) The water animation in the first zone is slightly different to the original Android port. It actually resembles the animation from the original Game Boy Advance version.



The mods contain translated text inspired by its original Japanese version and the Game Boy Advance version's instruction manuals.
The languages are English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese.

Both the Japanese and Chinese version have their text unchanged from their original versions (except for the Tips Screen option).


Each mod (except the Japanese and Chinese version) have a modified MUI sprite sheet to improve the sprite text. This allows words in all languages to fit in text zones.

In the 3.0.0 version, the centred sprite text on the yellow board and option buttons are modified in order to fix "broken" sentences in various language versions.



Finally, since the mods are based on the Chinese version of the game published by a company named eGame, they now have a brand-new main menu. Additionally, the main menu now features a new option.

For the MOST Mods to be part of the SAGE 2024, there is an option in this menu to visit the SAGE EXPO website.

If you can't download these mods here, you can download them in my Game Jolt project page.
Link to Game Jolt project page: Sonic Advance (Android) - MOST Mods by Furikan - Game Jolt

Version: 3.2.5

LIST OF POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS :
- Fix the Sound Effects lag on most real hardware.
- Combine the Special Stages Controls and Gyroscope options into one option.
- Improve the fade animations of the game opening.

LIST OF PREVIOUS MODIFICATIONS/IMPROVEMENTS :

v3.2.4 :
- Add the SAGE EXPO website link in the Chinese version.

v3.2.3 :
- Increase the bars length in the Stage Select menu.
- Change the text style in the Record screen of the translated mod versions.

v3.2.2 :
- Change the character_select.dat values and character_select sprite sheet to fix the moving title in the character select menu.
- Change the value of the moving title sprite position in the character select menu to better showcase the bigger sprite.

v3.2.1 :
- Upscale the white background width in both Sonic and Amy's presentation during the opening.
- Add a condition to prevent the game to freeze when displaying the opening again after skipping the opening too quickly.
- Change the state value from 3 to 0 to add a fade transition to hide the title screen during the opening after title screen.

v3.2.0 :
- Upscale some sprite menus and menu canvas.
- Upscale the Touch Screen text sprite to make proper translation possible.

v3.1.0 :
- Make an algorithm to make the loading faster when the Tips Screen option is turned OFF.
- Make an option to toggle the Tips Screen ON and OFF.
- Prevent the game to set the volume to 9/15 when selecting a soundtrack or deleting the game data.
- Upscale the selection hit detection in the pause menu from 88 to 136 pixels wide.

v3.0.X:
- Change the mui.dat values and MUI sprite sheet to improve the sprite text.
- Replace the Sound Enable menu by a Soundtrack Select menu.
- Upscale the game canvas size from 284 to 374 pixels wide.

Earlier versions:
- Add extra graphics on certain backgrounds (some are ripped from the Gameloft version, others are either repeats or mirrored).
- Upscale certain zone backgrounds canvas.
- Make a GBA remix of "bgm_49_boss_f1" and "bgm_50_boss_f2".
- Change the "land on plane" sound effect timing of "bgm_38_ending_final" in the GBA mix soundtrack.
- Upscale the confirm character select hit detection from 80 to 112 pixels wide.
- Remove a sound effect in the "bgm_01_opening" in the GBA mix soundtrack to make the "op_patch" useful.
- Change the first zone's background water animation in order to work on different aspect ratios.
- Increase the background width of the Special Ending.
- Improve the game speed slightly by putting a Thread.sleep from 10 to 0.
- Make a Chinese version of the mods.