Sonic Rush Adventure

Sonic Rush Adventure

Cover art
Developer(s) Sonic Team
Dimps
Publisher(s)
Director(s) Sakae Osumi
Yukihiro Higashi
Producer(s) Akinori Nishiyama
Kouichi Sakita
Artist(s) Yuji Uekawa
Kazuhiko Yamamoto
Composer(s) Tomoya Ohtani
Seirou Okamoto
Mariko Nanba
Series Sonic the Hedgehog
Platform(s) Nintendo DS
Release date(s)
  • EU September 14, 2007
  • NA September 18, 2007
  • AUS September 27, 2007
  • JP October 18, 2007
Genre(s) Platformer, Action
Mode(s) Two-player, multiplayer, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

Sonic Rush Adventure (ソニック ラッシュアドベンチャー Sonikku Rasshu Adobenchā) is a 2007 Sonic the Hedgehog platform game for the Nintendo DS videogame handheld, developed by Sonic Team and Dimps and published by Sega. Sonic the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat return as playable characters, alongside a new, slightly hotheaded female character, Marine the Raccoon. The game is a direct sequel to Sonic Rush, and the first game in the Sonic series to allow online head-to-head play, via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Plot

Sonic and Tails are flying in their airplane, searching for a mysterious energy signal that appeared on Tails' radar. As they travel across the ocean, a sudden storm approaches and the plane is hit by a lightning bolt and falls into the tornado. They are awakened by a young, energetic raccoon named Marine, who tells them that they have landed on Southern Island. They find her in the middle of testing a ship she has made, which blows up not long after she activates it. She explains to them about her desire to building a ship to explore the world's oceans, a dream she has held ever since she was shipwrecked on Southern Island. Tails offers to help rebuild her ship, hoping that she could also help him and Sonic find their way home.

Sonic sets off to explore the island for shipbuilding materials, as Tails starts to work on Marine's ship. Sonic returns and discovers the smaller, faster waterbike that Tails and Marine have made. While exploring the surrounding islands to test the waterbike, they soon encounter a band of pirates led by the robotic Captain Whisker, who are after an ancient artifact known as the Jeweled Scepter. As Sonic attempts to stop Whisker from retrieving the Scepter, Blaze suddenly appears; she reveals to them that they have accidentally traveled to her dimension during the storm, and that she has been attempting to stop the pirates for some time. Whisker manages to escape with the Scepter, so Blaze and Sonic agree to work together and retrieve it.

After much searching, the group locates the pirates' hidden fortress and confront Captain Whisker and his first mate, Johnny. As the two are defeated, they attempt to escape to return the scepter to their "boss", while Marine goes after them on her own. However, the pirates overpower her and take her hostage on their ship. Giving chase, Sonic and Blaze attack and defeat Whisker's strongest robot, the Ghost Titan, causing an explosion that sinks the ship. In the aftermath, Marine reveals she took back the Jeweled Scepter in the confusion, and Blaze returns the relic to its proper resting place.

Tails reveals his plan to use the power of the Chaos Emeralds and Sol Emeralds to send him and Sonic back home. However, after collecting all the Emeralds, Southern Island is struck by an earthquake. The group leave the workshop to investigate and encounter a robot piloted by Dr. Eggman and his alternate-dimensional doppelgänger, Eggman Nega. The two reveal they were the pirates' true leaders, having built Whisker to do their work for them, and have once again stolen the Jeweled Scepter, planning to use it to unlock the "Power of the Stars" housed beneath the island, which Eggman Nega claims has more power than both the Sol and Chaos Emeralds combined. Tails builds a digging machine to chase them underground, but it arrives too late, as the doctors use the power of the Scepter to become nearly invincible. Using the Chaos and Sol Emeralds, Sonic and Blaze transform into Super Sonic and Burning Blaze respectively, and battle the doctors' Egg Wizard mech. Over the protests of Eggman, Eggman Nega tries to destroy Blaze's planet as a last resort, but he is distracted by Marine, giving Sonic and Blaze an opening to defeat them, destroying the mech.

The story ends with Tails building a craft that uses the power of both sets of Emeralds, as Sonic and Blaze promise to one day meet again. As Sonic and Tails set sail, Marine appears on her new boat, thanking Sonic and Tails and promising she will study to become a captain. The three say their final goodbyes as Sonic and Tails fly off for home.

Gameplay

The game is set in an archipelago of an alternate 'dimension' from that of Sonic's.[2] The main island in the archipelago, called Southern Island,[2] houses the village that serves as a headquarters for Sonic and the others, known as Windmill Village.[3] As Sonic, the player begins each adventure from Windmill Village on Southern Island. Players can plot their routes using the stylus and race to one of the seven islands using one of the four ships, each of which utilizes a different minigame during travel. When the player arrives at one of the seven main islands, his objective is to get to the goal at the end of the level. Each island features two acts, followed by a boss battle against one of Captain Whisker's robots. The game uses the trick system, first introduced in Sonic Advance 2. By doing tricks or defeating enemies, the Tension Gauge will fill up, allowing the character to perform a Super Boost until it runs out. The Tension Gauge decreases over time and whenever the character takes damage. Partway through the game, Blaze will become accessible as a playable character. Blaze can hover, is unaffected by flames, and can leap higher using aerial tricks, but is not as fast as Sonic.

On different areas of Southern Island, players can talk to members of Marine's Coconut Crew, who will offer Sonic tips and additional missions as the story progresses. The game features 100 of these missions, with objectives such as completing a stage within a time limit or defeating a boss with only one ring. Certain missions must be finished to progress through the story, while others offer bonus rewards upon completion, such as songs in the Sound Test mode or visual upgrades to Southern Island. At Marine's house, players can talk to Marine to initiate missions, have Tails build new ships and equipment using materials gathered from stages to advance the story, or engage in multiplayer battles using DS Download Play or Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Multiplayer modes include Race, which allows people to race against each other using Sonic or Blaze, or Ring Battles where the player has to collect as many rings as possible, spread throughout the map.

By deviating from the recommended objective on the Sea Chart, players can potentially find hidden islands to explore and earn additional materials, as well as run into Johnny, Captain Whisker's second-in-command. Finding Johnny will trigger a waterbike race between him and Sonic, with the player receiving one of the seven Chaos Emeralds if they are victorious. Blaze can earn her own set of seven jewels, the Sol Emeralds, by completing a series of special missions. If the player has defeated the final boss and collected all the Chaos and Sol Emeralds, an extra boss, the Egg Wizard, will be unlocked, which Sonic and Blaze battle in their Super Sonic and Burning Blaze forms. As in other Sonic titles, the player's rings will slowly decrease during the battle, causing the player to lose if they run out of rings, requiring Super Sonic and Burning Blaze to continually resupply as the battle continues. Defeating the Egg Wizard will unlock the game's true ending.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings80%[4]
Metacritic78%[5]
Review scores
PublicationScore
1UP.comB[6]
GamePro[7]
GameSpot8.0/10[8]
GameSpy[9]
IGN8/10[10]
ONM92/100[11]

Like its predecessor, the game was critically well received, scoring 80% on Game Rankings based on 36 reviews,[12] and 78% on Metacritic, based on 32 reviews.[13] The game was praised for its noticeable improvements over Sonic Rush. GamePro praised the game for its length and graphics, but criticized some of the voice sound effects during races.[14] GameSpy praised the games 3D sections and multiplayer battle mode.[15] However, some reviewers criticized having to replay levels multiple times, and weakness in the story sections.[16][17] British film magazine Empire awarded Rush Adventure 4/5 stars, praising the "ever more intricate and beautifully-designed bosses," "the perfectly-pitched difficulty" which "breaks you slowly into the action, before ramping-up the challenges to near-impossible levels," the "extra dynamism" added by the dual screens, and "the dramatic flips to 3D when Sonic slides down a rail or swings from a crane."[18] Marine, the new character, was called "non-mortifying" by GamesRadar.[19]

Sonic Rush Adventure also won IGN's Best Platform Game of 2007 for the Nintendo DS[20] and Official Nintendo Magazine's Gold Award.[21] It got 5th place in Disney Adventures's "Top 5 Handheld Games" list in the November 2007 issue.

References

  1. 1 2 Spencer (August 24, 2009). "Nintendo Publishing A Sonic Game". Siliconera.com. Retrieved 2009-08-24.
  2. 1 2 AUTHORNAME. Sonic Rush Adventure. Sonic Retro. 2011-06-07. URL:http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Rush_Adventure. Accessed: 2011-06-07. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5zGTqmQYg)
  3. ↑ AUTHORNAME. SEGA :: GAMES :: Sonic Rush Adventure. SEGA. 2011-06-07. URL:http://www.sega.com/games/sonic-rush-adventure/. Accessed: 2011-06-07. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5zGTuNAs8)
  4. ↑ "Sonic Rush Adventure Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Sonic Rush Adventure(ds: 2007): Reviews:". Metacritic. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Sonic Rush Adventure Nintendo DS Review Index, Sonic Rush Adventure Reviews". 1UP.com. September 18, 2007. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Review : Sonic Rush Adventure(DS) - from GamePro.com". October 1, 2007. Archived from the original on 2010-08-08. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  8. ↑ Davis, Ryan (Sep 20, 2007). "Sonic Rush Adventure for DS Review - DS Sonic Rush Adventure Review". GameSpot. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  9. ↑ Chapman, David (Sep 19, 2007). "GameSpy: Sonic Rush Adventure Review". GameSpy. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  10. ↑ Harris, Craig (September 17, 2007). "IGN: Sonic Rush Adventure Review". IGN.com. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  11. ↑ East, Tom (January 4, 2008). "ONM: Sonic Rush Adventure Review". ONM. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  12. ↑ 1 http://www.gamerankings.com/ds/939095-sonic-rush-adventure/index.html
  13. ↑ 2 http://www.metacritic.com/game/ds/sonic-rush-adventure
  14. ↑ 3 http://web.archive.org/web/20101113221214/http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/137248/sonic-rush-adventure/
  15. ↑ 4 http://uk.ds.gamespy.com/nintendo-ds/sonic-rush-adventure-/837653p1.html
  16. ↑ 5 http://uk.gamespot.com/ds/action/sonicrushadventure/review.html
  17. ↑ 6 http://uk.ds.ign.com/articles/820/820408p1.html
  18. ↑ McComb, David, "Sonic Rush Adventure review", Empire.
  19. ↑ GamesRadar Staff (October 30, 2013). "Best Sonic Games". GamesRadar. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  20. ↑ 7 http://bestof.ign.com/2007/ds/6.html
  21. ↑ 8 http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/2206/reviews/sonic-rush-adventure-review/

External links

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