Sonic Rush returns with more speed, more thrills and overall, more fun
The story starts out with Sonic and Tails flying in Sonic's plane, 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. All of a sudden, the plane is hit by a lightning bolt, and falls into the tornado. Later, they are awakened by a young, energetic raccoon named Marine, who tells them that they have landed on Southern Island. Now, with the help of their new friend and an old friend, Blaze, Sonic and Tails need to relocate the chaos emeralds as they are their ticket home, but not before new enemies Captain Whiskers and a robot named Johnny get in their way. The story is "meh" and it's pretty disappointing when compared to the first Rush. One thing to note is this game actually has cinematic cut scenes, but there aren't too many of them so you'll mostly be reading your way through the game again. It's also interesting that we get to play in Blaze's world this time.
If you've played the original Sonic Rush, you should be familiar with the gameplay here too. The game, like the first, emphasizes Sonic's speed while still adding obstacles and platforms to overcome. Your main move is your boost which speeds you up and crushes almost any enemy that gets in your way. The boost meter can be powered up by killing enemies or doing tricks (when bouncing off a spring or launching off a ramp). The only main difference now is that you can perform "combos" which gives you extra boost energy. Other than that, boosting pretty much works the same, only it seems to run out much faster this time.
Like the first game, you are only given the choice between two playable characters; Sonic and Blaze. The difference between the two are very little but Sonic seems to run faster while Blaze can jump much higher, both having their own advantages. The level design is much better this time around; it may not be as challenging as the first game, but at least it doesn't rely on bottomless pits to increase the difficulty. The level themes are much more interesting, from a haunted ship to snowboarding down a snowy mountain, and there are plenty of quirks and elements that makes playing, and replaying, these levels a blast. If 7 zones aren't enough for you, there are also 16 hidden islands that are practically mini acts.
Every stage has its own boss, of course, but these are some of the most innovative boss fights in the whole series. Most of them fit the pace of the game and the ideas behind some of their attack patterns are certainly something we haven't seen in the series before. On top of that, the 3D effects are very impressive for DS standards and make these already unique fights even better.
To get to these levels, you have to travel there first but not by simply walking there, but by sea. The game has a hub world that let's you walk around the island and either talk to other characters (who either have nothing interesting to say except giving you missions, which are challenges added to other stages) or, more importantly, let's you take a vehicle to your next destination. Entering a vehicle will take you to the map screen where you take your stylus and draw a line from one spot (starting point) to the other (destination). Once you have everything in order, one of 4 sea stages begins.
The first you'll get is the water bike, and it is by far the most fun of the 4. You start the bike by touching the screen, letting go makes you stop, and move the stylus left and right to dodge enemies and collect rings which gives you boost (which kills enemies too). The second is the sailboat, in which you control from the side and must shoot the enemies with either a machine gun, flamethrower or canon balls before they shoot you back. Next is the hover craft which controls similar to the water bike. Touch the screen to charge your shot and release to devastate the badniks in front. Lastly, there's the submarine which moves automatically and you just have to touch the enemies (and follow their patterns) to destroy them. These stages are a good addition but they may feel like a chore to some people. The water bike is the most enjoyable due to its fast pace and fun use of the touch screen. The only downside is to build these vehicles (which are all needed to advance), you'll need materials which are obtained at the end of every level, which means you may be forced to replay certain levels eventually.
Besides stages and hidden islands, you may also run into Johnny when exploring your sea map. Running into the Johnny icon will unlock this game's special stage which is a water bike race against Johnny himself. As you can imagine, the goal is to beat him to the chaos emerald while avoiding mines and enemies. They may seem interesting at first but they are the hardest part of the game, namely the last two. It's incredibly difficult to catch up to him in the first place and I swear he doesn't play fairly. Other than that, they're ok, but not nearly as good as the first game's.
Other than the special stages and the story, Sonic Rush Adventure takes everything that made Rush so great and improved it in almost every aspect. The levels are funner, the speed is faster and the bosses are some of the best we've seen. Any Sonic fan new and old should get a kick out of this, especially if you loved the first as this one is good enough to rival the classic Sonic games. The good heavily outweighs the bad and the fast paced sidescrolling gameplay continues to show why we love this series so much.