Sonic Rush Review

[Zera]

Gotta Go Fast.

Intro: Greetings folks. This is my review of Sonic Rush, a DS game released in November of 2005. It was developed by Sonic Team and Dimps, and published by Sega. Sonic Rush, like most other Sonic games, is essentially a racing game built with the mechanics of a platformer. Sonic has always been able to do things you'd never find in a normal platformer - run really fast, go through loops, and the signature spindash, a rolling charge that instantly accelerates Sonic and acts as an attack at the same time. While Sonic Rush does keep the spin dash, it's worthless thanks to the boost mechanic introduced by the game. In fact, the only reason it exists at all is so you can play the game as if it were a classic Sonic title, which actually works quite well despite the looser level design made for boosting.

Presentation: Despite being an early DS game, Sonic Rush has a fantastic presentation. The stages are made of detailed sprites, while the player and certain stage objects are rendered in 3D. The connection between them is seamless, and the smooth framerate accentuates the high speed action. The soundtrack was composed by Hideki Naganuma, best known for composing the music in Jet Set Radio. It's so catchy that he was nominated to receive the Golden Joystick Award for Soundtrack of the Year. Here's are a couple tracks from my favorite zones -

Carnival Night - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc8E-Dek3yw

Huge Crisis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sfPxVp_wMg

Levels: Actually, I should mention how varied the zones are. Leaf Storm and Mirage Road introduce mechanics and have lots of paths and shortcuts. Water Palace has underwater sections. Carnival Night is colorful and has switches that activate platforms and rails made of light. Huge Crisis has moving platforms and unique combat scenarios. Altitude Limit has tons of rails and vertical movement via rocket platforms and parachutes. Dead Line takes place in space and has flipping gravity. Sonic Rush also takes advantage of both DS screens, having Sonic flying between them seamlessly and using them to increase the vertical view of a stage. In some levels, Sonic will travel vertically as much as horizontally. Each of the game's 7 zones contains 2 acts and a boss fight. The acts contain different paths and shortcuts, with the highest paths usually being the fastest. (I always take the bottom paths first since I'll likely skip them on future playthroughs.)

Sonic's Mechanics: Sonic can jump with the B/A buttons and boost with the Y/X buttons. Boosting instantly accelerates Sonic to top speed (you can go a bit faster if you boost continuously) and makes him invincible to everything except bottomless pits and getting crushed. Boosting drains the tension gauge, which consists of three bars - blue, yellow, and red. To gain tension and fill the gauge (up to 300%), you must perform tricks, destroy enemies, or collect a power-up that gives you tension.

To perform tricks, press the B button repeatedly after being launched into the air by a spring or object (i.e. by means other than jumping). Each trick is worth 25%. After performing at least two tricks, you can perform a finisher trick with the A button for 40%. You can also perform up to three consecutive rail tricks (worth 10%, 10%, and 20%) while grinding on a rail by pressing the R button.

The R button performs many other actions. After jumping, press the R button to do a homing attack. It acts like it does in the 3D Sonic games but isn't very useful outside of canceling your vertical momentum. Hold up and press the R button after being launched to do a double jump. Not only does it let you reach higher platforms (i.e. shortcuts), but it also extends your trick combo, so you can perform any number of extra tricks and a second finisher. Press R without holding up to do a sideways dive kick attack instead.

If you max out the tension gauge at 300%, it will start flashing. Boosting during this time initiates Infinite Boost Mode, allowing you to boost without draining the gauge. This only lasts 5 seconds, but if you gain tension the timer will reset. If you don't gain tension every 5 seconds, Infinite Boost Mode will end and you will lose 100% tension.

The goal is to fill the tension gauge quickly with tricks, perhaps enter Infinite Boost Mode, and boost as much as you can to blast through the act at hyper speed. Even pressing down to roll like classic Sonic is only useful because it accelerates you down slopes, saving tension. Some negative critics call this "boost to win" or "hold right to win", and while this is definitely true to an extent, getting S ranks in the acts is challenging, and the levels have a surprising amount of depth. Much like Kirby's Epic Yarn, the challenge is not to clear levels, but to get the highest rank possible. Sonic Rush is only as easy as you make it.

Just because I haven't mentioned it yet, there are special stages like the ones in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 where you go through a 3D half pipe and collect rings while avoiding obstacles. Sonic is controlled with the touchscreen, and it's very fluid and responsive. The last special stage is annoyingly hard, but you'll need to clear it if you want to unlock the true ending.

Bosses: In fully 3D boss battles, Eggman will use a variety of large robots, and you must hit his cockpit. You can usually only hit him after avoiding his attacks, so you'll spend significant time simply waiting for his next attack. The pacing is a bit slow, but these battles are enjoyable for the most part. There's a pointless difficulty select in the options menu that gives bosses 6 hit points instead of 8 if you set it to Easy instead of Normal. The only reason to bother with it is that you can beat the bosses more quickly on Easy mode - which means easier S ranks.

Story: The story of Sonic Rush involves two new characters - Blaze the cat, and a doppelganger of Eggman called Eggman Nega. Oh, and there's a rip in the space-time continuum. So basically, a regular day for Sonic. It's definitely more interesting than "Mario, our princess in in another castle!" Oh, but you better be ready to learn the power of friendship! Yeah, it's an alright story. It's nice to have an entire second Eggman.

Blaze's Mechanics: Blaze is a playable character with her own story mode mirroring Sonic's. Although the levels are the same, Blaze has unique abilities that differentiate her from Sonic. This is very similar to playing as Isa and Kachi in Sin and Punishment 2. With characters that are similar-yet-different, you can find new experiences in levels even though they are unchanged. Blaze runs and boosts slower than Sonic, but she has several tricks up her sleeve that let her play around levels rather than through them -

- Her double jump goes 5 times as high as Sonic's, allowing her to jump very high and very far (Hold diagonal instead of up to keep horizontal momentum when double jumping).

- Instead of a homing attack, she has a 2 second hover that can be used continuously or in spurts. If you want to make a really big jump, here's what you do:

1. Press and hold the Y button.

2. Press and hold the B button upon reaching the edge.

3. Just as you start descending, press the R button rhythmically. Every time you start a new hover, your vertical momentum is canceled.

4. Congratulations. You have just learned how to cross the Grand Canyon.

- Instead of a dive kick, she gets an extremely fast sideways teleport. If you teleport into a rail, zip line, or upward slope, Blaze will continue moving at super speed. This temporarily makes her as fast as Sonic, and I call it "teleport canceling". You can even do it on a horizontal platform, but this requires high precision. The only other way to make Blaze go above top speed is to fall into a half pipe at high speed or jump during the second half of a loop.

Time Trial: In Time Trial, the game records and ranks your best times with both characters. You can also fight bosses here, but this is pointless since their attack patterns - and therefore the times required to beat them - are random. If you play an act more than once, you'll race a temporary ghost of your previous run. Having tested my fastest routes for Sonic and Blaze, my best times for them are very close for most acts. There are 4 special acts that are only available in this mode - they're short stages that loop like a traditional race track and require 5 laps to clear.

Multiplayer: In multiplayer, you and a friend play as Sonic and Blaze and race to the end of an act. It's bare bones, but it's still fun and exciting. The best part is that it only requires one cartridge through download play. You'll save a bit of time if you use multiple cartridges, but the fact that you can play the entire game with a friend on one cartridge is something that can't be said for most DS games.

Flaws: I wish the 3D character models were converted to pre-rendered sprites for multiplayer, because there is significant slowdown when there are many 3D objects onscreen. It's not game breaking, but as a racing game it should have a consistent framerate. The breakneck speed of Sonic Rush comes at a price - you have to memorize the stages if you want to ace them. Memorization is a given for the racing genre, and with repeat plays it becomes less and less of an issue. This does not excuse the occasional trial and error moment though. For example, one moment in Huge Crisis has you running until you hit a piston. If you approach it at the wrong time, however, you may end up underneath it as it's coming down, and with a wall on the right side, you're completely screwed. If that wall were just a little to the right, the possibility of an unavoidable death could've been avoided. There are a few moments like this that may frustrate you on your first playthrough. Also, for some reason both players can't be the same character in multiplayer, which makes no sense.

Conclusion: There are many ways to play Sonic Rush. You can take your time and explore the lower paths, or speedrun through the higher paths. You can boost to win, or only use the spindash like classic Sonic. You can play for score, for time, or for victory against a friend. The number of ways you choose will determine how much replay value you get out of Sonic Rush, and you'll want that because the basic game is not very long. Ultimately, it's a trade of length for quality. In 2003-2007, the bigger home console Sonic games were average, mediocre, or just plain bad. Sonic Rush, however, is a polished game that evolves classic Sonic gameplay and is simply fun to play.

8/10 (Great!)

Gameplay Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzaZz3Wd3xw

I'll gladly accept any Time Trial competition, so post your best times if you have any.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Zera

[Rxmonste]

Ha! That soundtrack sounds great. I'll put Sonic Rush on my list of games I should play eventually.

While the Sonic series died out for me, this looks like it's gonna be pretty fun.

Edited November 17, 2015 by Rxmonste