Post by BlazeHedgehod on Dec 21, 2006 4:38:31 GMT -5
Sonic the Hedgehog sure has had a sketchy history, hasn't he? Since his re-launch in 1999, our blue blur has been on shaky ground. Will his next game be good? Will it be bad? With each new title in the series, it feels more like a roll of the dice than it does any concrete barometer for the quality of the series. Fortunately, there has been one aspect of the franchise that wasn't a total failure: The side-scrolling games. Though not all stellar, the Sonic titles for the Gameboy Advance almost consistently exceeded the quality of their 3D big brothers. I've made it no secret that my favorite game of the Gameboy Sonics was Sonic Advance 2. It pleases me to say that Sonic Rush is, in terms of gameplay, pretty much a direct sequel to that game.
Storyline-wise, the game returns to Sonic's familiar, if ever-changing world, where two new mysterious characters have shown up: Blaze the Cat, and Eggman-Nega. Both are from an alternate dimension. Blaze's role fills that of Sonic; she's that realm's resident hero (or in this case, heroine). Blaze is cold and something of a loner, and as such, she eschews Sonic's aide for most of the game, instead attempting to stop Eggman-Nega (and the dimensional rift he's created) all on her own.
And thus, the game presents you with two playable characters: Sonic and Blaze. Both play roughly the same, though there are minor differences between the two. Blaze accelerates slower than Sonic, and her trick moves (more on those in a minute) are much more floaty than Sonic's. It's much easier to reach some of the higher ledges as Blaze than it is as Sonic.
Where the game really feels like an extension of Sonic Advance 2 is the trick system. In Sonic Advance 2, tapping the R button and a direction would net you a single, short lived little trick/dash in that general direction. Sonic Rush ups the ante by allowing you to do a constant stream of tricks, as well as special "finisher" tricks and "dash" tricks. Not only do these tricks give you a little jump in mid-air, but they also fill up your tension gauge.
Your tension gauge lets you do one thing: Dash. Dashing makes you invulnerable to most attacks and instantly accelerates you to full speed. Considering the size of Sonic Rush's levels, the more you dash, the bigger point bonus you get at the end of the level (for completing it quickly). You also build up your tension gauge picking up items (such as items that instantly fill your tension gauge to max), or destroying enemies. Similarly, your tension gauge goes down as you dash - or if you take damage. If you fill your tension gauge to maximum, you are granted infinite tension for a limited amount of time. This time limit can be extended by continuing to combo actions that fill your tension gauge - destroying enemies, pulling off tricks, finding items, etc.
And this is how you play. Tricking and dashing all over the place. The game is designed around these mechanics exclusively, and it becomes pretty apparent the few times the game actually stops and makes you go back and do some platformer-centric activities. When running and tricking, the game is fast and smooth, but once you slow down and start hopping across tiny platforms, the controls feel stiff and kind of unwieldy - they weren't really designed for this sort of thing, and getting used to moments like this can be tough. Especially because moments like this often come abruptly.
Most of the game you will spend your time blitzing along at top speed - carelessly miss a spot where you're supposed to slow down and do some platforming - and plummet off a cliff to your doom. There's very little indication when these sections turn up, and it's so easy to go so fast, you're going to be missing these sections a lot. Infact, most of the lives you lose in this game will be largely because of this problem. In the end, most of your success in a given level boils down to pure memorization. It's not horrible, but it would be nice if there were better visual cues to let you know you had to slow down (or if the levels were designed so they forced you to slow down at those points, like the old Genesis games did).
Thus, your first time through the game can be rough. Frustrating, even. Levels like Altitude Limit will make you weep on your first time through due to just how annoying they can be. But as they say, practice makes perfect - once you beat the game for the first time, things only get more fun from there. The better you memorize the levels and explore them, the higher your scores get and the closer you come to obtaining the elusive S Rank. Unfortunately, the S Ranks don't really do anything.
Visually, the game is a mixed bag. Both Sonic and Blaze are drawn using cel-shaded polygons, lending their animations a very smooth sense of movement. Everything else in the game looks more or less like it stepped out of a Gameboy Advance game. That's not bad, but for the DS, it's a little disappointing. Boss encounters are a little more impressive, being fully 3D (despite still controlling as if they were 2D). Because this is the DS, the game is played across two screens - as if they were one big vertical screen. At certain points, your character will transfer from one screen to the other. This sounds hard to follow in theory, but I rarely had trouble with it in practice. When my character went from one screen to the other, my eyes simply followed that character down (or up) to the other screen, naturally.
Musically, the game is amazing. Sonicteam made a bold decision to bring Hideki Naganuma on to do the game's soundtrack. You may recognize him as one of the artists who contributed to the funky soundtrack for both Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future. He does not disappoint, bringing a fresh, high-energy techno sound to the game's music; very fitting for the type of gameplay available. The end result is one of the best, most pleasing, original, and just down-right listenable soundtracks since the original Genesis games.
The game offers up some multiplayer, but it's pretty standard and featureless; and when running around levels with a friend during a race, you don't even get to see them - instead, you simply see a generic icon representing them. Also on offer is the standard time trial mode, with the ability to view your previous time trial's ghost (as if it were a racing game). This actually made a bit of unexpected fun for me because it was almost like playing against a friend - though I have to wonder why the real multiplayer mode shows a simple icon for Player 2, if player ghosts show up as a full-body character.
In the end, though, Sonic Rush is a pretty good game, though you're going to need patience (maybe a lot of patience) to get through the game's entry barrier (the need to memorize levels or die) to really discover the fun this game has on offer.
7.7/10
Storyline-wise, the game returns to Sonic's familiar, if ever-changing world, where two new mysterious characters have shown up: Blaze the Cat, and Eggman-Nega. Both are from an alternate dimension. Blaze's role fills that of Sonic; she's that realm's resident hero (or in this case, heroine). Blaze is cold and something of a loner, and as such, she eschews Sonic's aide for most of the game, instead attempting to stop Eggman-Nega (and the dimensional rift he's created) all on her own.
And thus, the game presents you with two playable characters: Sonic and Blaze. Both play roughly the same, though there are minor differences between the two. Blaze accelerates slower than Sonic, and her trick moves (more on those in a minute) are much more floaty than Sonic's. It's much easier to reach some of the higher ledges as Blaze than it is as Sonic.
Where the game really feels like an extension of Sonic Advance 2 is the trick system. In Sonic Advance 2, tapping the R button and a direction would net you a single, short lived little trick/dash in that general direction. Sonic Rush ups the ante by allowing you to do a constant stream of tricks, as well as special "finisher" tricks and "dash" tricks. Not only do these tricks give you a little jump in mid-air, but they also fill up your tension gauge.
Your tension gauge lets you do one thing: Dash. Dashing makes you invulnerable to most attacks and instantly accelerates you to full speed. Considering the size of Sonic Rush's levels, the more you dash, the bigger point bonus you get at the end of the level (for completing it quickly). You also build up your tension gauge picking up items (such as items that instantly fill your tension gauge to max), or destroying enemies. Similarly, your tension gauge goes down as you dash - or if you take damage. If you fill your tension gauge to maximum, you are granted infinite tension for a limited amount of time. This time limit can be extended by continuing to combo actions that fill your tension gauge - destroying enemies, pulling off tricks, finding items, etc.
And this is how you play. Tricking and dashing all over the place. The game is designed around these mechanics exclusively, and it becomes pretty apparent the few times the game actually stops and makes you go back and do some platformer-centric activities. When running and tricking, the game is fast and smooth, but once you slow down and start hopping across tiny platforms, the controls feel stiff and kind of unwieldy - they weren't really designed for this sort of thing, and getting used to moments like this can be tough. Especially because moments like this often come abruptly.
Most of the game you will spend your time blitzing along at top speed - carelessly miss a spot where you're supposed to slow down and do some platforming - and plummet off a cliff to your doom. There's very little indication when these sections turn up, and it's so easy to go so fast, you're going to be missing these sections a lot. Infact, most of the lives you lose in this game will be largely because of this problem. In the end, most of your success in a given level boils down to pure memorization. It's not horrible, but it would be nice if there were better visual cues to let you know you had to slow down (or if the levels were designed so they forced you to slow down at those points, like the old Genesis games did).
Thus, your first time through the game can be rough. Frustrating, even. Levels like Altitude Limit will make you weep on your first time through due to just how annoying they can be. But as they say, practice makes perfect - once you beat the game for the first time, things only get more fun from there. The better you memorize the levels and explore them, the higher your scores get and the closer you come to obtaining the elusive S Rank. Unfortunately, the S Ranks don't really do anything.
Visually, the game is a mixed bag. Both Sonic and Blaze are drawn using cel-shaded polygons, lending their animations a very smooth sense of movement. Everything else in the game looks more or less like it stepped out of a Gameboy Advance game. That's not bad, but for the DS, it's a little disappointing. Boss encounters are a little more impressive, being fully 3D (despite still controlling as if they were 2D). Because this is the DS, the game is played across two screens - as if they were one big vertical screen. At certain points, your character will transfer from one screen to the other. This sounds hard to follow in theory, but I rarely had trouble with it in practice. When my character went from one screen to the other, my eyes simply followed that character down (or up) to the other screen, naturally.
Musically, the game is amazing. Sonicteam made a bold decision to bring Hideki Naganuma on to do the game's soundtrack. You may recognize him as one of the artists who contributed to the funky soundtrack for both Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future. He does not disappoint, bringing a fresh, high-energy techno sound to the game's music; very fitting for the type of gameplay available. The end result is one of the best, most pleasing, original, and just down-right listenable soundtracks since the original Genesis games.
The game offers up some multiplayer, but it's pretty standard and featureless; and when running around levels with a friend during a race, you don't even get to see them - instead, you simply see a generic icon representing them. Also on offer is the standard time trial mode, with the ability to view your previous time trial's ghost (as if it were a racing game). This actually made a bit of unexpected fun for me because it was almost like playing against a friend - though I have to wonder why the real multiplayer mode shows a simple icon for Player 2, if player ghosts show up as a full-body character.
In the end, though, Sonic Rush is a pretty good game, though you're going to need patience (maybe a lot of patience) to get through the game's entry barrier (the need to memorize levels or die) to really discover the fun this game has on offer.
7.7/10