imperfect Emerl duplicates under the name "E-121 Phi". Eventually, all the Chaos Emeralds are obtained and Emerl achieves full sapience. In a last attempt, Eggman decides to lure Emerl onto his new Death Egg to capture him. The two battle, and Emerl emerges victorious, but Eggman uses his new Final Egg Blaster to force Emerl to override his link with Sonic with Eggman's own. However, this overloads Emerl, deleting his personality and causing him to go haywire. The rogue Gizoid then turns the blaster towards the planet, and Sonic is sent to stop him before the world is destroyed. Sonic defeats Emerl, who briefly reverts to his previous personality and bids his friends farewell before overloading with energy and exploding, leaving the shards of the Chaos Emeralds he acquired behind. Sonic returns home to his friends, who are saddened by the loss of Emerl. When asked if he believes Emerl is truly gone, Sonic reassures everyone that they will see him again someday. Development and release The game was officially announced at the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and Tokyo Game Show, both of which featured playable demos. The game was released in late-2003 in Japan as part of the "Year of Sonic", and early-2004 by THQ in the United States following a deal between both companies. Internationally, the game was co-published by Sega Europe and THQ. Reception The game received generally mixed reviews from critics, according to review aggregator site Metacritic. While some critics praised the game's "surprisingly deep arena-fighting gameplay", graphics, and multiplayer mode, others dismissed it for its "limited moveset" and use of 2D sprites on a 3D fighting arena. IGN gave the game a positive review, saying "It does try hard to be what Smash Bros. is, and even though the game doesn't quite reach the same status Nintendo and HAL created for the Nintendo consoles, Sonic Battle has enough stuff to make it one of the top original fighters on the Game Boy Advance system." GameSpy also gave a positive review, saying "A solid and pleasantly deep arena beat-'em-up with lots of longevity, and though the presence of the Hedgehog and his posse adds absolutely nothing to the game, it's nice to see them getting work in these tough economic times." Nintendo Power gave a more mixed review, saying, "Moves are limited, but the overall experience is tons of fun." GamePro also gave a mixed