The player controls Sonic the Hedgehog, who can unlock three other playable characters: Cream the Rabbit and her Chao named Cheese, Tails, and Knuckles the Echidna after defeating Doctor Eggman in specific boss battles.

Sonic can perform an "insta-shield" that protects him for a brief moment; Cream and Tails can fly; Knuckles can glide and climb; and Amy can destroy enemies using a hammer.

Levels in the game are divided into seven "zones",[2] each consisting of two acts of normal gameplay then a boss battle, where the player fights Doctor Eggman[3] in order to stop him from taking over the world.

Each character starts the game with three lives, and will lose one if they are hit without carrying any rings, fall into a bottomless pit, crushed, drown, or fail to finish the act within 10 minutes.

Special stages are on a 3D plane,[3] where the character tries to obtain a set number of rings before time runs out in order to collect a Chaos Emerald.

The design team decided to increase the speed of the original greatly; thus, the levels were made six times larger.

The main development period lasted eight months; it was programmed using an updated version of the original Sonic Advance engine.

[11] Sega announced Sonic Advance 2 on July 1, 2002,[12] and showcased it at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2002.

[14] The game was published by Sega in Japan and Europe (with Infogrames as distributor for the latter) and co-published by THQ in North America.

[5] IGN offered similar praise, calling its visuals more vibrant, bright, and vivid, and also spoke positively of its "peppy" soundtrack.

[3] Nintendo World Report called the music catchy and enjoyable, though they criticized the re-use of certain themes from the original Sonic Advance.

[3][2] Nintendo World Report began their review by warning players of the difficulty, and felt it spoiled an otherwise-good game.