Review: Sonic Rush DS

The Introduction

Sonic Rush for Nintendo’s DS platform is a fast-paced, action-packed platformer that will put the most hardened of gamer to the test, while still offering new players a challenging and exciting gameplay experience.

The Background Story
Anyone who has been interested in gaming in the past fifteen years will have heard of Sega’s chief protagonist, Sonic the Hedgehog; his first appearance in 1991 in the original game “Sonic the Hedgehog” on Sega’s Master System platform concreted his position as Sega’s mascot, rivalling Nintendo’s Mario for popularity. Sonic’s in-game appearances are numerous, though he is most famous for appearances in games titled in his namesake, which have been released on all of Sega’s hardware platforms, as well as PC, and since Sega’s exit from the console hardware market, Sonic has also appeared on Nintendo consoles, and will be released in the future on Sony’s PlayStation 3, Microsoft’s XBox360, and Nintendo’s Wii.

First and Foremost: The packaging, in-game menus, and out-of-the-box features

As you would expect, Sonic Rush comes in a small square-shaped case like most other Nintendo DS games. The box-art is typical of Sonic titles in that it displays Sonic and Blaze the Cat prominently, as well as the title of the game.

Out of the box, Sonic Rush supports 1-2 players with either one or two game carts; the gameplay style is versus, and each player must race against the other to reach the end of the chosen level. Each player can choose one of the two playable characters, but you have to be quick! Once one player has chosen, the other cannot choose the same character. Using Download Play to verse your opponent unfortunately limits the gameplay to the first level only; presumably if both players have the game cart, more levels are available in the multiplayer game mode.

The documentation accompanying the game is thorough and informing; it details each of the two character’s special moves and explains how to perform some of the more advanced in-game tricks, which I will cover later. The in-game menus are simple and intuitive, and allow for quick and easy gameplay.

The Gameplay

The most important part: how the game plays. My first impression, honestly: amazing. Simply mind-blowing. You know when you were a kid, and you played the original Sonic on the Master System or Megadrive, and you wondered at the possibility of what the game would be like if there were more crazy loops, and what would happen if the Super Sneakers made you even faster, and just how fast could you make Sonic spin in the Spin Dash if you could only mash the button that little bit faster?

Sonic Rush answers all of those questions. As the last Sonic game I played was Sonic 2 on Megadrive a few weeks ago, I suppose I am a little underexposed to the Sonic game repository. However, I have played all incarnations of Sonic on the Megadrive platform, as well as a 3D platformer Sonic game on PC some years ago. None of them come close to the experience that Sonic Rush offers, and I’m going to tell you why.

Sonic Rush extends upon the established Sonic platformer gameplay style by implementing several enhancements to the environment that Sonic interacts with as well as giving Sonic the ability to perform some new tricks. It is fast and furious; and is both unforgiving and sympathetic at the same time. How is this so? At the end of each Act (there are two Acts to a Zone), you are given a rundown of the points you earned in the level, and based on that, you are also given a grade, primary-school style, such that you can achieve yourself an A, B or C. The highest grade achievable is S, presumably that means you are Special.

The game can be played quickly (when you take full advantage of Sonic’s Quick Dash) which increases the difficulty, or you can play through the game slowly. Either way, you will still reach the end, and this lends itself to the duality of gameplay styles I mentioned earlier. Of course, if you want to get an S for each Act and boss level, you must of course complete the Acts as fast as possible with as many rings as possible.

The Music

Special mention goes to the excellent music backing each level in Sonic Rush. Although it’s heavily based on funk and hip-hop style, the music compliments the game perfectly and really sets the mood for each level. It’s comparable to the musical quality and suitability to that of the Red Alert and Command and Conquer series. You can read more about Sonic Rush’s sound track and its writer over at Wikipedia.

The Graphics

The graphics style in Sonic Rush is composed of a two-dimensional background and level with the player character (and certain elements of the level) (Sonic or Blaze) being polygonal and cell-shaded. This is essentially just like two-dimensional platformers of old, with the exception of a three-dimensional player character, which allows for some neat special effects and other nice graphical features, such as in Mirage Road where Sonic steps onto a three-dimensional platform that revolves around and ‘out’ of the level such that it is rendered in full three-dimensional space closer to the player.

Sonic Rush also makes extensive and intuitive use of the DSs dual screens; when the player character drops below a certain point in the level, they will fall into the lower screen of the console. Likewise, when the action moves to higher ground, the upper screen is used to display the action. This is sometimes a hinderence and takes a little getting used to, but it does make good use of the dual screen technology. During the special stages that are reminiscent of the half-pipe ring collection levels from the older Sonic titles, the player character is controlled using the touchscreen, as opposed to the D-pad.

Boss levels are rendered in a full three dimensions and played in three dimensions too. The graphics here are quite nice, with the only detraction being that the two-dimensional sprites used for explosions are apparent and obvious.

The Verdict

All things considered, Sonic Rush to me is what the Sonic games of old should have been: really fast, really bright, and really fun. With more loop-the-loops and fast-paced areas than any other two-dimensional Sonic platformer, I would say that Sonic Rush takes the cake as the best Sonic game available in two-dimensions.

If I were to give it a score out of ten, I’d give it a nine.

Further reviews:
Sonic Rush review @ Gamespot
Sonic Rush review @ IGN