Sonic Rush Adventure doesn't live up to the original, but is still a decent game within it's own right and worth trying.
The story goes that whilst flying the Tornado Plane Sonic and Tails get sucked into a vortex to find themselves on a beach island in an alternate dimension. In this world they run into a character called Marine and they set off on an Adventure to get home and figure up what a pirate known as Captain Whisker is up to.
There are seven uniqulay themed worlds which includes an under water coral cave, snowy mountain range and the standard grass / forest type level. You start off with Sonic, but do get to play as Blaze a bit later on. Their abilities are to run, leap, grind, boost and perform aerial tricks. The stages are very faced paced and are generally, pretty fun to play through. There are two acts and a boss per world. Flaws from the first game have been acknowledged and removied ie randomly placed enemies in your running path and too many botomless pits. However the overall level design isn't as good in my opinion. I can't putmy finger on it, the levels, whilst fun, feel lacking but I'm not sure why.
It's not just as simple as going from level to level. You actually have to set sail to get to the levels. There are four ways of transportation. A waterbike, gun ship, hover craft and submarine. These all use touch screen commands. The best to use is the Water Bike - infact this distraction can be more fun than the actual levels. These can all be upgraded. To get Tails to build a new ship or upgrade one, you'll need to bring him some "material" each level has a specific material and you will be awarded some for getting good grades in levels. Consequently, this will eventually lead to you having to replay the same levels over and over to complete the game.
You can also get the Chaos and Sol Emeralds in the game. To get Chaos Emeralds you have to set sail and search for Johnny in the ocean, when you find him, he'll challenge you to a race and if you win, the Chaos Emerald is yours! To get the Sol Emeralds, you need to sail and fins hidden islands (as a hint, look for dark spaces on the map - this is often where a secret island will be) There are sixteen secret islands in total. Some of the will have a Sol Emerald, but to actually obtain the emerald, you need to finish the stage and report to one of the Koalas on the home island and they will give you a mission and you'll need to replay the island as Blaze in mission mode to be awarded the Sol Emerald.
As for graphics there are some pretty cool 3D models presant in bosses and the backgrounds of the levels are nice too.
The music is double edged for me. There are some really great tunes such as Plant Kingdom, Deep Core and the Water bike theme, but in contrast there are some songs which I find really boring. But I'm the sort of person who will let the good songs overshadow the bad.
Sonic Rush Adventure is a pretty fun game while it lasts. It's not the sort of game which I can play over and over. The gameplay is good, something about the general level design isn't quite there - I can't put my finger on it. But overall, a good game which is worth playing.
Milesprower2K9 original reviews