Okay, It's passable
STORY:
Okay, Eggman gets a camera, and it turns whatever is photographed into a card. Okay, pretty stupid so far, and the story is has never been good since Sonic X as a whole, and Sonic Heroes gamewise, but gamewise, Sonic Heroes was excusable in that area. This not so much, And Shadow still choosing sides on good or bad, this time bad at first it seems, even after Shadow, I still have no idea which side he is truely on. But I have to admit, that is one of the things that makes Shadow cool. And this added a little more stuff for Silver as well. Originally I hated Silver, but his personallity was something new to the series so that changed for me, now I like him. Though seeing that the camera is from the future makes it even more stupid, why would the future have that stupid idea of a device? Then again, Sonic's future has been crap, so if that can happen, I guess so can that crappy camera.
GAMEPLAY:
Well the goal is to run as much as you can and don't stop, definetly keeps you on your toes. At first it's going to be a huge pain, but if you play it again, it's actually a little better. Though there are times when the controls will not respond, and I think there is a glitch in some loops that can slow you down unfairly, and those glitches take away points as they destroy a piece of the gameplay. The level design is at times frusterating, and unforgiving the first time around, I understand challenging, but in some areas, it seems unfairly like that, but only some so I won't let that damage points too much. You can play as 4 different characters who have one of their own moves when you get the star icon, and you get 4 sides to a repetitive story, however sadly, unlike Heroes were it was difficulty ranging on the characters, and the Adventure games where you did different things at different times and ways when you played as a different character, you just play through the exact same stages again in the exact same ways, no difference at all, so that takes away some points for bad replay value. The fact that the name of the game is called Sonic Rivals makes it have a good reason to have more then Sonic as main playables, it's it's title does justice while Sonic Next Gen which was titled after the Genesis game that started everything did not. This game also has a good sence of speed so it captures that as well. Though I feel this game is awesome as a Multiplayer that anyone can enjoy so good points for that.
GRAPHICS:
Well they are nice and colorful, better then the Sonic Rush game, but that does not make Sonic Rush inferior. The 3D visuals also help add to the feel of the game. But sometimes there are things you can not see as well that can cause problems, but for the most part, it's pretty good.
SOUND:
Well I need to say one thing before I say anything else, sometimes the sound quality changes on the game, so this game has some sound problems sadly.
MUSIC WISE:
Well the music is nice, adds to the feel of speed and action, it's pretty good, not the best in resent Sonic games after the Adventure games, but still pretty good. It has the classic victory theme from Sonic 3 & Knuckles up to Sonic Heroes, but I don't think this game was good enough for that, but even so, it's nice to know that was not forgotten at least.
EFFECT WISE:
Well we have classic sound effects, in the menu there are sound effects from Sonic Heroes, and the classic Ring sounds as well and a few others. but at times they are hard to hear, but you can adjust the sound too so I don't know much either.
VOICE WISE:
Why won't the anime dub voices go away already? They're horrible with the exception of Mike Pollock as Eggman and Pete Capella as Silver. In Sonic Battle and Advance 3, Sonic voice provided by Ryan Drummond gave Sonic the personallity, voice and attitude I knew him for, one that was done right in cartoon style as well in the DIC Cartoons by Jaleel White. Junichi Kanemaru, the Japanese voice also fits it as well, but now 4Kids Entertainment decides to ruin all that by hiring the worst actor Sonic could ever have, Jason Anthony Griffith, and he sucked in this game, oh boy he sucked, so wimpy, dweeby, mellow, out of character in everyway possible, it makes me want to mute the game and I do. Knuckles sounds not too good either, not horrible, but not as cool as his last voice actor was, but it's tolerable in this game. Jason Griffith also voices Shadow, however he's not as bad as Shadow, but he's still Out of character, Shadow has this cool guy personallity with attitude, but now he's all emo, and I hate that, and he sounds like Knuckles when he dies, it's so off. Infact none of the characters sound good or right at all when they die with the exception of Silver. What sucks even more is that there is no Japanese version of the game to import, so if you want the Japanese voices, you will never get them, and you can't turn down the volume for the voices, Sega choose to shove them down your thoat as I think they know most people hate them, and they want to force it upon us. Seriously, Sega does not care for the fans, I have seen it for myself sorry to say. Here's what am going to say, do voices right or remove them, and personally, portable Sonic games should be voiceless.
OVERALL:
While near every Sonic game in 2006 sucked, starting with Riders, and then Next Gen and Genesis, this one stands out, it's not a great game, but it's passible, so if you have a PSP and want to buy a 2006 released Sonic game, I recommend this one, it's the best choice you will get for Sonic in that timeline of his games.