Review: Sonic Rush Adventure
Game Created by:
SEGA
Sonic Team
Dimps
Review by:
Dan Hojnacki
About SRA
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Platform
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Nintendo DS
Optional Peripherals
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Wireless router (for online play and ranking)
Nintendo USB Wi-Fi Connector (for online play
and ranking without a wireless network)
Another DS system, with or without a Sonic
Rush Adventure game card (for DS wireless
battle play)
About SRA
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Genre
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Price: US$29.99 (at Best Buy)
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Action/Adventure/Platform
DS Lite: $129.99
USB Wi-Fi Connector: ~$40
Special Features
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Online time attack rankings through Nintendo
Wi-Fi Connection
Background
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I've played the Sonic series for about 15-16
years
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First game owned was Sonic the Hedgehog for
the Sega Genesis
I own every Sonic game on every system I own
(Genesis, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2,
GameCube, DS)
Summary
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Roles
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Primary: Sonic the Hedgehog
Secondary: Blaze the Cat
Background Story
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Sonic and Tails are flying over the ocean when
suddenly a storm hits. Their bi-plane is struck by
lightning and spirals out of control into a
mysterious cyclone. They wake up on the beach
of Southern Island, meeting Marine the Raccoon,
who desparately wants to build a ship to get off
of her island.
...
Summary
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Story (cont.)
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Tails then constructs a waterbike with some
materials found in the tutorial level, and the
waterbike is used to travel to the various islands
throughout the game. Eventually, Sonic, Tails,
and Marine find Blaze, who is chasing after the
robotic-looking pirate Captain Whisker, who has
stolen the Jeweled Scepter, an important relic in
the area. Sonic and Blaze team up again, this
time against the nefarious Captain Whisker to
stop his dastardly plans.
Interface
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Menus
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Y button brings up a traditional menu with
options to visit already-played levels and bosses,
visit already discovered islands, view discovered
items, and to save the game.
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Other game modes (time attack, missions, battle,
wi-fi) accessible from Marine's house
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Sonic must walk to these locations manually
Interface
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Levels
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Traditional handheld Sonic interface
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Timer and ring count at the top of the screen you're
currently playing on
Tension gauge and lives on left side of the same
screen.
Bosses
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Same as levels with the boss's health gauge at
the bottom of the screen you're playing on
Screenshots
Courtesy of The Sonic Stadium and Gamespot
Scoring
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Points are scored in individual levels only
Determined by number of rings held upon
finishing a level, the amount of trick moves
performed during a level, and how fast the
level was completed
Ranks used to determine materials earned at
the end of an Act
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S: 100,000 pts, 4 materials; A: 80,000 pts, 3
materials; B: 60,000 pts, 2 materials; C: less
than 60,000 pts, 1 material
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Materials are used to construct more ships
Artwork, Sound, Music
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Graphics similar to its predecessor, Sonic
Rush
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2D gameplay with 3D polygon-rendered artwork
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Music excellent
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Standard-fare for DS games
Matches level visual themes very well
Very catchy soundtrack
Sound decent
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Recycles many Sonic sounds, as is rampant
throughout the series
Manual, Bugs
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Manual
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Mostly does a decent job at explaining the game
Problem: Does not list defaults for options
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Boss Difficulty defaults to easy (not normal)
Time Limit is off by default
Bugs
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Jumping while in a loop (typically a method used
to increase speed by competitive players) will
sometimes force you to restart the loop
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Especially if the loop is small or leads downward
Gameplay
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Sailing Levels
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Stylus is used to control ships
Some ships fun to use, others aren't.
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Standard Levels
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Waterbike: Action-oriented, emphasis on tricks, fun
“Sailboat”: Slow, sometimes difficult to aim
Hovercraft: Dodging difficult, but good feel
Submarine: Difficult to grasp at first, but decently
done.
Typical of the Sonic series – fast, with lots of
route variation, decent difficulty.
Bosses
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Some look like rehashes of bosses from Sonic
Rush
Evolve into unique and challenging foes
Gameplay Issues
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Boost Move
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Sonic Rush: Activated with X or Y buttons
Sonic Rush Adventure: Activated with Y button
ONLY
Saving
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Unlike all other modern Sonic games, there is no
Autosave feature
Must save manually through the menu
Review
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What's fun?
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Great gameplay continued from Sonic Rush
Waterbike
Later bosses are very unique
What's not?
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Lack of an autosave feature
Mission mode is very basic
Sailboat
Comparison
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Very similar to its prequel, Sonic Rush
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Gameplay for levels almost identical
Bosses use the same concept, but with different
numbers of hits required
Would consider Sonic Rush Adventure slightly
better
Fast 2D Sonic feel
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Faster than most platformers such as Mario
Design, Audience
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Design Mistakes
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Removing Autosave
To some extent, the plotting system
Audience
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Sonic the Hedgehog fans
Platformer fans
Younger teens or children
ESRB: E (Everyone)
Summary
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Strengths
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Good gameplay
Characters separated on ingame time attack
rankings
Sailing mode done well
Weaknesses
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No Autosave
Summary
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To Buy or not to Buy?
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Sonic fan? BUY
Liked Sonic Rush? BUY
Like Pirates? Maybe.
Like Platformers? Likely BUY
Like Attitude? BUY
Improvements
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Implement autosave