N-Philes

Sonic Rush Adventure

Posted September 28th 2007 by Stephanie DeSiena.

The blue dude with a 'tude and red shoes and forty supporting characters is back in yet another 2D trip. Mixing old school platforming with new school speed and extremity, the original Sonic Rush won over fans past and present while being a rare critically acclaimed modern Sonic title. Now with the second installment, Sonic Rush Adventure, Sega's out to catapult the speedy, spiny mammal right back where he belongs: a boat.

Sonic and Tails are flying around in the Tornado, a bi-plane that harnesses the power of a Chaos Emerald to stay afloat [citation: Sonic Adventure]. The two of them are flying over a vast ocean and taking in the sweet sea breeze, when suddenly, they crash into a tornado! How terrible. They're awakened on an island by Marine, an adventurous raccoon that speaks in Stereotypical Australian Tongue by peppering her lines with words like "mate" and "bugger". As an aside here: I've met many Australians in my lifetime, and not one of them called me their mate. Hell, I had to practically beg them to say "Throw another shrimp on the barbie" for me. Marine doesn't say that. Not even once.

Anyway, Sonic and Tails begin their plans on building a ship that will take them back home, when suddenly they run into Blaze, the exploding cat from the first Sonic Rush. It is here that Sonic and Tails learn that they're not in their own world, but in Blaze's. The three of them were brought together by fate, and now Sonic and crew must team up in order to stop the evil Captain Whiskers and his first-mate Johnny from stealing an evil magical scepter that will destroy/revive the something or other; I stopped caring at this point.

This story is told over roughly twenty trillion lines of dialog, only half of which are skipable. It seems the only thing Sonicteam learned from the last Sonic Rush is that the voice samples were out of control, and thankfully their usage is toned down here. Instead they're replaced with plenty of tedious lines such as "He'll steal the magical scepter! / Really? / Really! / ... / Sonic, what are we gonna do? / Really? / Really. / Scepter. / Sonic! / Yeah."

Luckily the in-between parts are so good that it doesn't matter. Sonic Rush Adventure sparkles and even outshines its predecessor with carefully crafted level design containing zero distractions and less unexpected deaths. This means that the game is significantly easier than the first Sonic Rush on the first play-through. No longer will the player have to memorize stages section-by-section in order to have any chance of completing the game. Altitude Limit, a stage that takes Sonic upwards thousands of miles above ground – the most fascist and unforgiving hellhole of a stage on Sonic history – is replaced with the colorful, streamlined Sky Babylon stage.

Also present are the new 3D action stages that put Sonic on top of a water vehicle so that he may cruise from island to island. The overworld map is explored by choosing a water craft and drawing a line on a map that represents the journey to your destination. There are four types of vehicles: jet ski, hovercraft, war ship, and submarine. Each has its own distinct mode of play; for instance, the submarine is a cheeky little Elite Beat Agents rip-off which has players tapping on enemies to the beat of the music. These water travel segments are at the very least as enjoyable as they are short, with the exception of the war ship stages, which are long and boring endeavors that have the player attacking enemies using and on-board arsenal by – you guessed it – tapping the ships you want to destroy.

Fans of the first Sonic Rush should be familiar by now with how the game works: Sonic and Blaze each control differently, but they both have the speed-boosting Rush attack, which is powered by rapidly tapping buttons in mid-air to perform tricks that fill the Rush meter. Stages can be skillfully cleared by utilizing each character's strengths and R-trigger abilities; for instance, Blaze runs slower than Sonic but her aerial R-trigger move can launch her high into the air, which makes her ideal for scaling sections of stages that are mostly vertical. The zones particularly lend themselves well to memorization and shortcut exploiting, and provide endless opportunity for enjoyable time attack excursions. There isn't a single bland or unforgivable act in the game.

The graphics and sound are both top-notch. The stages tend to have tropical themes, shoehorning themselves into a briny sea motif. It's a colorful game, with tons of blues and green contrasting with each other, and sunsets as opposed to dreary nighttime darkness. The 3D effects are nice to look at, especially some of the cutscenes, which look crisp and detailed rather than having that muddy, bland look many DS games suffer from. Perhaps most importantly, the wide playing field makes it possible to see the obstacles immediately in front of Sonic or Blaze before they run into them, so the player's reaction time can always be improved. However, the boring and forgettable enemy design seems to have taken a step backwards, yet the boss battles are leaps and miles over the redundant snorefests of the first game. For sound, the game sports a video game-y soundtrack with a typical Sonic flare: amplifying breakbeats, sampled guitar riffs, sharp bongos, lyrical samples, and sweeping melodies that often hearken back to the sounds of the early Genesis games. The sound effects work to excite the sense of speed present, without being too chaotic or obtrusive.

The single-player cart is once again unparalleled by many DS titles, as it's possible to race in every act with a friend who doesn't own the game. Also present are competitive online races which work flawlessly, and keep track of your record using both offline scoreboards and an online meta-score. As an added incentive to best your top scores in Time Attack, it's now possible to take stage clear times to online leader boards and size yourself up in a worldwide ranking. To further conventionally extend the gameplay (for those poor offline-only saps), Sonicteam has added one hundred missions that unlock various goodies throughout the game, such as the sound test, movies, and decorations for Marine's home island.

Heartstopper - Like chili on a hot dog.

It'd be a crime to consider Sonic Rush Adventure anything less than an above-average platformer, and for casual sessions it certainly outclasses its predecessor. The game is beautifully realized, quick, and accessible, even to those unfamiliar with the franchise. You can strip the game of its lighthearted story and blast through the stages over and over again, and for that it's the ultimate time attack handheld experience. Easily recommended for the speed freaks.

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