Nintendo DS Review: Sonic Rush Adventure

Review by: Drizzt

A few years ago, in 2005, Sonic Rush came into existence. Developed by Dimps, it proved that Sonic was faster than ever and had some new tricks up his sleeve. Two years later, Sega and Dimps release Sonic Rush Adventure. Of course, it was the "Adventure" part that most fans and gamers were hesitant about. Their fears were proven empty and the adventure portion provides good pacing and a nice amount of 3D fun.

The presentation of the game is very well done. It starts you off watching a high quality cut-scene where Sonic and Tails, in a plane, are getting swept away by a large storm over the sea. They wind up waking up on a beach where a character named Marine shows up and helps them (sort of). A rather different character, Marine speaks with an Australian style dialect, which is also rather stereotypical. She's also the most annoying character in the game. Obviously, her intended role was for comedy relief but unfortunately, it clearly didn't work as she turns out to be mostly a nuisance. Dialogue and character speech is handled through text and 2D art animations. It's not anything really special, but it gets the job done and progresses the story nicely. Occasionally, when something exciting is happening in the story, instead of the text boxes, stylish 3D cut-scenes are used and are very well done. Although there isn't any voice acting during these parts, text serves well enough. Unfortunately, there are very few of these cut-scenes. Overall, the presentation is very stylish and well made by Dimp and Sega.


It's even got a stylish menu!

The meat of the game is in the action stages. The gameplay here is high octane speed with some platforming mixed in. Although the platforming isn't quite prominent until the later levels, the Sonic Rush series, as can be derived from the name, focuses more on speed. This is not a bad thing, however. It's a lot more stylish this way and if your platforming needs aren't satisfied, play the missions! The second part of the game is the sea travel stages. These are surprisingly well done and a lot of fun to play. The first sea vehicle you get is the water bike. This is built for speed but it can't travel very far. You also later get a ship, hovercraft, and submarine. Each of these play rather differently. These sea travel levels are controlled by the stylus. For example, the water bike must be maneuvered by the stylus. The ship and submarine move for you while you shoot enemies and coins and the hovercraft is similar to the water bike, except you can shoot. These levels really nicely pace the game so that you don't get tired of the actions stages. Plus, by creating these sea travel levels, you can travel to different islands to progress the story. Since there is a fair sized map, there are also several hidden islands which you can find. This increases the replayability of the game overall. Along the story, you face different bosses. These boss battles are all epic and completely 3D. They are very well done and the difficulty for them feels just right. The game overall, though, has a great learning curve that starts off as it should: with a tutorial. As you progress, the levels increase in difficulty and so do the bosses.

There are additional modes that you should want in a Sonic game. These modes include time trail mode, mission mode, online racing and battling, as well as local wireless multiplayer. These modes can be a lot of fun and they're all done very well. The time trail mode has it's own online leaderboards so you can compare yourself to players all around the world. Online mode has a nice ranking and points system as well. Local wireless is both single card and multicard play so even if your friend doesn't have a copy of the game, you can still enjoy the full multiplayer experience. There are also 100 extra missions you can do to unlock many new things that not only increase the replayability, but can further expand on the story. These missions can range from passing through flags in the proper order on a snowboard, collecting 100 rings in the time limit, or doing a certain amount of tricks in the time limit. These missions can unlock several extras such as music in sound test or give you medals.


Sea levels provide great pacing to the game

The graphics are also very well done. The 3D models look clean and polished and the environments blend in with everything without a hitch in the frame rate. Everything goes together smoothly and it just feels right. The backgrounds consist in creating a nice environmental theme for each level and each level contains different hazards that suit them rather nicely. The audio is great too. Although there are some songs you can question in their quality, others are great and the game has a great original soundtrack. Some songs that stand out are the Blizzard Peaks songs and the interesting boss battle theme. Sound effects are also exceptional. Voice acting for both Sonic and Blaze is well done and their sound effects for running and jumping are reminiscent of their Sega Genesis predecessors.


Sonic and Blaze both play fairly differently

Overall, Sonic Rush Adventure proves to be a reminder as to how great Sonic can be and how fast he can go. Action stages are well done in providing a great sensation of speed while the sea travel stages provide good pacing to the game and are a lot of fun to play. The graphics and sounds are all great and make proper use of the DS's capabilities. Multiplayer and time trail modes also make full use of the DS's capabilities with leaderboards and rankings. In the end, Sonic Rush Adventure is one of the best platformers for the DS and a fine game overall.