digibutter.nerr

[Light Prognosticus]

For my second review, I decided to review 2 games at the same time, to see if the sequel is as good as the original. Let's start with...

Sonic Rush
Was the original game as good as people say? Let's check it out!

Story
Not that bad. Sonic's facing Eggman and he lets a Sol Emerald behind. Sonic wonders what Emerald is that, when he finds Blaze. Later he founds out about Eggman Nega. The story has its funny moments but the lack of plot twists doesn't make it much appealing and if we mix Sonic and Blaze's stories they don't make much sense. But a videogame story doesn't have to make sense and it shows SEGA wasn't completely lazy. Too bad you can't see the cutscenes again... that's very sad...

Gameplay
WAYS TO PLAY
The basic "Move Sonic/Blaze from the left to the right and touch the Goal Ring". More of the same, but with tricks added to the twist. (OK, not really added, but this time they give you points, unlike the Advance series) You can also try to get a rank. They are, from worst to best, C, B, A and S. There are also Special Stages. Boost on a generator, then you go to a half-pipe and control Sonic with the Stylus. Get enought rings and you get a Chaos Emerald.
This gets a 7/10, mainly because it doesn't offer many things new to the Sonic series, the Special Stages are a rip-off from Sonic 2 and we have to play all the levels twice, once with each character.

CONTROLS
Gameplay is smooth, controls are easy to learn and there are not many buttons to make someone confused. This game doesn't use the stylus much, which is a tad bad, but I'm not going to steal points from this because of that, since gameplay is not bad.
This gets a 10/10.

PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
They are Sonic (available from start) and Blaze (available after beating Leaf Storm (1st level) boss with Sonic). After the recent games that had lots of characters, it's nice to see a change of pace. Both have the same abilities, but in a different way. Blaze's abilities, for example, make her go higher than Sonic, giving her more shortcuts that Sonic can't reach.
This gets a 10/10.

GAME SPEED
There's one thing I hate: slowdown! Although there's not many in single-player, the 2-player mode was full of it. That is very annoying!
Slowdown = bad. Game Speed = 7/10.

GAME LENGHT
If you're not used to this game it may take a while for you to beat it. Get used to it and you'll only need an afternoon to beat it. Not much else.
And this deserves a 5/10.

Graphics
Everyone knows graphics don't make a game, but it's nice to see a game with appealing graphics. Graphics aren't the best, but they're pretty nice, but it would be good to have more 3-D cutscenes.

Sound
Music is pretty catchy and I like it. It keeps in my head and I always remember it. Voice acting is not bad but it's almost inexistant, but I know the DS can't handle it, and I prefer reading the text than hearing it, so that's not bad.

Replayability
After beating the game, the only thing that you can do is getting all S-Ranks and beating your times in Time Attack. That means: ALMOST NO REPLAYABILITY. You may get bored after a while.

Final Score
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Replayability: 2/10
OVERALL: 72/100

After the orignal, let's see it sequel. We'll analyse...

Sonic Rush Adventure
Does the sequel live to its prequel? Let's check it out!

Story
Sonic and Tails are flying in the Tornado and they get sucked into a tornado (how original) while checking out for a strange electromagnetic signal. Later they find Marine the Racoon, a little rascal and Captain Whisker, the new villain. This time around, Sonic and Blaze have the same story and you can see cutscenes again after seeing them in the story! YAY! Er... Ahem! And you'll see some familiar faces in the end...

Gameplay
WAYS TO PLAY
Same as Sonic Rush, but with something new. Boat travel! That's right! Tails will build you vessels for you to sail. Collect Materials by getting a good rank on levels. A C-Rank gives you 1 material, B-Rank gives you 2 Materials, A-Rank=3 Materials and an S-Rank gives you 4 Materials. Special Stages are new and fresh, not rip-offs. Sonic races Johnny (Whisker's right hand man) in his water bike. Do tricks and boost to reach the Emerald before Johnny. Blaze needs to beat a level or a powered-up boss.
This gets a 10/10, due to this game having new things, mixed with the classic stuff that made Sonic good.

CONTROLS
Simple controls make gameplay smooth and this game uses the stylus more than the previous, even though it's still optional sometimes. Sometimes the stylus is unresponsible but only in the hovercraft, when I try to make it spin, but it's optional.
This gets a 9.5/10.

PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
They are Sonic (available from start) and Blaze (available after beating Ghost Kraken (3rd boss) with Sonic). Again the same characters, same abilities, same stuff as the previous game. Not that I complain because that's something good!
This gets a 10/10.

GAME SPEED
There is no slowdown... except in Ghost Pirate (the 4th boss). That's all the slowdown you'll ever get. Speaking of slowdown, I think I'm getting lazy...
Game speed is good and so is a 9.5/10.

GAME LENGHT
Got Sonic Rush? This game will last a few hours, since you know the tricks and stuff... but there's much more that make the game a bit longer.
This gets an 8/10.

Graphics
This game's got the previous one's graphics, but it has some more cutscenes in 3-D. They're pretty good.

Sound
Music is pretty catchy like in the first game. Voice clips are good too, but many are recycled from the first game. What's the problem with Sonic and Blaze saying new stuff? Oh, and there's little voice acting, but I think it's more funny to just read the text than hearing it.

Replayability
This game's got much more stuff than just the story: getting all S-Ranks, completing the Sea Chart, maxing out Materials, completing the 100 missions, etc... That's a lot of stuff, but most of it can be done within few time. SEGA made an effort though, so this deserves a respectable score.

Final Score
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 9/10
Replayability: 7/10
OVERALL: 86/100

I think Sonic Rush Adventure was better than the first one, but both deserve to be played. So, see you again in other review!

[PhunkyGameFanMan]

I agree, I thought Adventure was better then Rush. BTW, is there anywhere here to trade FC's for that game? The FC thingy in our profiles dosen't list the game

[Francis]

[Popple]

Did you just say that a Sonic game had a strong story...

[PhunkyGameFanMan]

[Light Prognosticus]