Sonic Rush Adventure

Sonic Rush Adventure
Cover art
Developer(s)	Sonic Team Dimps
Publisher(s)	INT Sega SK Nintendo[1]
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 SK September 17, 2009[1]
Genre(s)	Platformer, Action
Mode(s)	Two-player, multiplayer, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
Distribution	Nintendo DS Game Card

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.^[2]

Plot

Sonic and Tails are flying in their airplane, searching for a mysterious energy signal that appeared on Tails' radar. As they travel farther and farther across the ocean, a sudden storm approaches and a tornado appears. Sonic warns Tails of the danger, but he continues flying onwards and the plane is hit by a lightning bolt and falls into the tornado, leaving a green flash in the center of the vortex. Awhile later, 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 tests it. She explains to them about her dreams of building a ship to explore the world's oceans, as she wanted to do this 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 vehicle that Tails and Marine have made. While Marine, Sonic and Tails try out the vehicle, they soon encounter various islands and a band of pirates on their search for a treasure, led by the notorious Captain Whisker. These pirates have treasure and loot in their sights, and they won't let anyone - not even Sonic the Hedgehog - stop them or get in their way.

Unexpectedly, as Sonic races through this chaotic world, Blaze appears and reveals to them that they have accidentally traveled to her dimension during the storm. It turns out she is after Captain Whisker and decides to go along with Sonic, Tails and Marine, in order to get some clues to the captain's whereabouts. Throughout their adventure, they finally find and confront Captain Whisker and his right-hand man, Johnny. After they defeat the two robots, Marine is kidnapped. Sonic, Tails and Blaze pursue the kidnapper and defeat him, freeing Marine. After that, Sonic and the gang return to Marine's island. Suddenly, an earthquake occurs, making Sonic and company leave the workshop, to see what is happening. A robot appears, along with Dr. Eggman and his future doppelgänger, Eggman Nega, who are behind everything and head to the center of Blaze's home planet to receive the power of the stars, which Eggman Nega claims has more power than both the Sol and Chaos Emeralds combined. Sonic, Tails, Marine and Blaze try to stop the villains with a vehicle that Tails had built, but Sonic is too late, as the doctors use the power of the scepter to make their machine more powerful.

When Marine and Tails are separated from Sonic and Blaze, the hedgehog and cat confront Eggman and Eggman Nega. By using the Chaos and Sol Emeralds, they transform into Super Sonic and Burning Blaze respectively, to fight both Eggmans. Eggman Nega tries to destroy Blaze's planet, but with the help of Marine, Super Sonic and Burning Blaze defeat them. The story ends with Tails building a craft that uses the power of both the Chaos and the Sol Emeralds. Sonic and Blaze then shake hands in congratulations to each other. Before Sonic and Tails head on their way, Marine appears with her new vehicle, and tells Sonic and Tails that she will study to become a captain. Sonic and Tails wish her the best of luck, and that they will meet each other again some day.

Setting

The game is set in an archipelago in an alternate 'dimension' from the normal Sonic one.^[3] The main island in the archipelago, called Southern Island^[3] houses the village that serves as a headquarters for Sonic and the others, known as Windmill Village,^[4] where players save the game through the pause menu.

Gameplay

As Sonic, the player begins each adventure from Windmill Village on Southern Island. At the Sea Chart, players can plot their routes using the stylus. After plotting the desired route, the character begins to race to one of the seven main islands using one of the four ships, a waterbike named Wave Cyclone, a sailboat named Ocean Tornado, a hovercraft named Aqua Blast, and a submarine named Deep Typhoon. On the Wave Cyclone, Sonic can collect rings and perform tricks to fill up a Boost Gauge. When Sonic uses the boost, the waterbike speeds up and becomes temporarily invincible until the Boost Gauge runs out. While using the Ocean Tornado sailboat, you can shoot enemies and rings with either bullets, cannonballs, or a flamethrower. Each varies in strength and clip size before reloading. Sailing in the Aqua Blast is roughly similar to using the waterbike, however there are no ramps, and holding the stylus down charges up a laser which is fired by releasing it. Using the Deep Typhoon submarine involves tapping (sometimes sliding) rhythmically on enemies and powerups to fire missiles at them. 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. 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. There are two acts per level, and after completing them, a 3D boss battle is played.

After unlocking Blaze, the player is given a choice of what character to use. While neither character differs extensively from the other, there are several key differences. Blaze can hover, and her aerial tricks propel her higher. Also, when she encounters flames, they die down, allowing her to pass unharmed. However, Sonic is faster than Blaze. One of the main tasks within the game is to gather up materials so that Tails can build new ships and equipment to allow progress within the story. At Marine's house, the player can also engage in multiplayer battles using DS Download Play, as well as playing using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which allows people to race against each other online using Sonic or Blaze, or Ring Battles where the player has to collect as many rings as possible, spread throughout the map. Among other events, Sonic can find Johnny, Captain Whisker's second-in-command and race him for one of the Chaos Emeralds. Blaze has her own set of jewels to collect, the Sol Emeralds, and she can earn them by completing a series of special missions. Collecting all fourteen Emeralds will unlock the final stage.

Final Boss

After defeating Captain Whisker and Johnny, the player is faced with the Ghost Titan. This is the penultimate boss of the game. But after that, when the player has collected all the Chaos and Sol Emeralds, Eggman and Eggman Nega join the story in the Egg Wizard. Sonic and Blaze then transform into Super Sonic and Burning Blaze and face the Egg Wizard in a stage called Deep Core. Just like the original Sonic Rush, the ring meter will count down. If it gets to zero, the player loses one life and the boss battle restarts from the beginning.

Music

The music in the game keeps its overt funk and hip hop influences that first used in Sonic Rush. The music is atypical for the Sonic series, along with its many small phrases and words throughout the songs. Sega composer Teruhiko Nakagawa is the sound director and composer. The theme song of the game is "A New Venture", exclusive to Sonic Rush Adventure with female vocals by Tahirih Walker and lyrics by Sakae Osumi. The official soundtrack of the game, titled Sonic Rush Adventure Original Soundtrack was released on October 18, 2007 in Japan, along with 52 original tracks.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 80%[5] Metacritic 78%[6] Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com B[7] GamePro [8] GameSpot 8.0/10[9] GameSpy [10] IGN 8/10[11] Official Nintendo Magazine 92/100[12]

Like its predecessor, the game was critically well received, scoring 80% on Game Rankings based on 36 reviews,^[13] and 78% on Metacritic, based on 32 reviews.^[14] 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.^[15] GameSpy praised the games 3D sections and multiplayer battle mode.^[16] However, some reviewers criticized having to replay levels multiple times, and weakness in the story sections.^[17][18] 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."^[19] Marine, the new character, was called "non-mortifying" by GamesRadar.^[20]

Sonic Rush Adventure also won IGN's Best Platform Game of 2007 for the Nintendo DS^[21] and Official Nintendo Magazine's Gold Award.^[22] It got 5th place in Disney Adventures's "Top 5 Handheld Games" list in the November 2007 issue.

References

External links

• Official Website (Japanese)
• Official Website (English)