Sonic Advance 3 - All Stages Category

Sonic Advance 3 - All Stages Category

I'd really like to do full-game runs of sonic advance 3, seeing as how much I love the game after completing all the IL tables for it on TSC. The current options are any% and 100%, which are both kinda similar, both real-time. However, there are some problems with any%/100%:

-Knuckles, Amy, and Cream are not unlocked at the start, and this requires using Sonic as the lead in zone 2/4/6 act 3 each to unlock them, respectively. This limits your options to sonic+tails and tails+sonic until you unlock any characters, and in order to unlock them, you're forced to use sonic+someone at a specific stage which discourages using a faster team for that stage.
-The amount of real time it takes to swap teams strongly discourages team variety (which is the main selling point of this game IMO). The only reasonable time to swap teams in any% is in between zones, which still costs a lot of real-time. So including the first point, the majority of the run will end up being sonic+tails or tails+sonic.
-Each attempt would require resetting the entire cartridge, meaning you'd either have to have two cartridges (assuming you have one to keep IL times) or reset your IL times. Both options are annoying.


To address these issues with any% and 100%, I'd like to make up a full-game-ish category called "All Stages", with the following rules:

Goal: Clear every stage and boss in Time Attack Mode once each. Altar Emerald and Nonaggression are to be done in the main game. All levels and bosses can be done in any order, including Altar Emerald and Nonaggression (though why would you not do them at the end?)

Timing Method: Add up the in-game times for every level and boss. If there are any deaths, add the time of the death directly (you don't spawn at checkpoints in time attack). "Try Again" in time attack is OK but the in-game time at the pause must be added, as if a death occurred at that time. Do not count any real-time, including menuing and overworld for the final bosses.


There are a lot of reasons for what I came up with the above.

-The IGT, on a per-level basis, is very accurate in the game, and this game being a level-based platformer, adding times for every level and boss makes sense
-Not counting RTA in menus makes it so teams aren't penalized for extra menuing; the point of this category is to allow the player to use whichever team they wish for each stage, to encourage team diversity throughout the run, rather than just using 2 teams that are well-rounded through the entire game. In other words, menuing and swapping should not be a factor in team selection.
-The category feels "incomplete" if it does not defeat the final bosses, so they're included despite not being in time attack mode. The only way to fight them is to play the main game.
-No real time for the overworld either. This is not necessarily a good thing, but this is in place to make the timing more consistent. It's rather iffy to mix both IGT and RTA, in my opinion, and overworld navigation isn't really the point of this category anyways. If one wanted to count that, then any% and 100% exist.



Obviously this isn't a perfect category and has its own set of issues. However, I do think the existence of both any% and all stages complement each other well

Pros of All Stages:
-Much more diversity in team selection
-Very accurate timing
-No need to deal with adding checkpoint times manually
-If the runner somehow IL PBs, it'll be saved
-Don't need to reset cartridge or any files for each attempt
-Because it goes by IGT, emulator can be allowed (not necessarily saying it should or shouldn't be, but it's an option)

Cons of All Stages:
-Pause Buffering sonic's tag action could be questionable for IGT
-Overworld navigation is completely ignored when going to Altar Emerald and Nonaggression. This is also awkward since those two bosses are not in time attack mode
-Deaths are more costly since checkpoints don't count in time attack mode
-Need to have a completed 100% file already for each attempt



Pros of Any%/100%:
-Real-time gets rid of pause-buffering and menuing controversy. No need to add up times manually.
-Overworld counts towards time, making it part of the category.

Cons of Any%/100%:
-Much less diversity in team selection, punishing the player for changing teams
-Have to reset cartridge for every attempt
-Emulator would have to be banned because GBA emulators have been known to run faster for basically every GBA game. This is even more annoying given that you have to reset the cartridge for each attempt, but that's trivial using emulator.


Obviously neither set of categories are perfect, but if one wanted to count overworld, then any%/100% exist for that. If one wanted to focus on clearing levels themselves quickly by taking advantage of the diverse team mechanic, then all stages fills that niche, and so on. It's unfortunate that we can't get the best of both worlds but at the same time, I do think having both any% and all-stages as separate full-game categories would make sense and appeal to as many goals as possible with only two categories, without category bloating.

TL;DR All Stages fills a niche that complements what any% misses out on, and vice-versa, but both sets of categories are also different enough to warrant having both of them in my opinion.