Sonic Rush Adventure (Not Sonic Rush Adventures nor Sonic Adventure Rush) is the sequel to the very well received Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS. As we all know generally speaking sequels are often considered inferior to the originals but Sonic Rush Adventure represents one of times where the sequel is actually better if only slightly and it’s a prime example of if it isn’t broke don’t fix.

That’s not to say this sequel isn’t without its unique features, some of the new stuff includes Wi-Fi races both online & local, online leader boards & an adventure style single player.
The adventure part in the game’s title pretty much says it all, imagine the original Sonic Rush but with an adventure style to it where instead of jumping from an area to another you actually have to find your way to the next area.

The game starts off with Sonic & Tails flying in their small plane known as the “Tornado” because they are looking for some energy reaction. Anyway the Tornado gets hit by lightning & wouldn’t you believe it flies right into a tornado. (The Tornado flies into a tornado, get it?)
You end up washed up on the seashore Zelda: Link's Awakening style and from there you meet one of the new characters (As if Sonic games needed more) to the series, Marine The Racoon.

The whole thing scene is displayed in full 3D with subtitles but soon once you start talking to Marine the game goes into static pictures & text mode. This is where we run (no pun intended) into the main problem with Sonic Rush Adventure, this is the way pretty much how all of the storyline will be told be told from here on.

I don’t mind the static picture & text method of story telling (It works wonderfully for Phoenix Wright) but this feels out of place for a Sonic game not to mention it feels like it goes on longer than it should. Thankfully there is an option to skip these entire scenes though, trust me you’re not missing out on anything special.



The game has a hub so to speak, this is a small island and the area you’ll always end up returning to. Bear with me as this is where it gets silly.

- To get to new areas in the game you need to find islands.

- To get to those islands you need to travel there by sea.

- To get to travel the seas you need one of four machines that Tails builds.

- In order to get Tails to build what you need materials.

- In order to get the materials Tails needs you need to play & often replay areas.

Basically it’s a pain in the ass when you consider most Sonic games just chuck you into the next area after you defeat the boss of the area you were in previously.
It helps break up the action but in a Sonic game that’s a bad idea but at least the travelling part by sea isn’t as bad. I won’t tell you what the other 3 machines are but the one you start off with is a small Jet-Ski which you can use anytime from a certain spot in the game’s hub.
You hop on to your Jet-Ski, then you’re greeted with a map and using the stylus you draw a route.

The game now goes all 3D on you as you travel the sea via the route you just drew; you basically keep your stylus on the jet-ski itself and drag it left or right. You’ll hit ramps & while airborne you asked to draw simple directions on the screen, doing so means you do flashy tricks that build your boost meter which you can enable by holding down L or R until it drains.
This part of the game, the actual sea travelling is pretty fun and before you know it you’ve hopefully reached a new island.

That’s the adventure part of the game summed up, it’s easily the game’s biggest issue but it’s not too bad if you decide to skip the story bits. Let’s get down to what makes this game slightly better than the original Sonic Rush.
While the adventure part of the game is average at best the visuals, sound and gameplay are all just as great as you’d expect.



The graphics in Sonic Rush Adventure look more or less the same as Sonic Rush; you have your colourful 2D backgrounds with your 3D Sonic/Blaze model running around at amazing speeds. The areas are well designed from an artistic sense & appear to be slightly more detailed than the ones features in Sonic Rush.
The framerate in the game is remains smooth throughout the areas though it suffers slightly during the boss battles in the game, the boss battles unlike the first game make use of both screens in 3D so I guess you can excuse it. It’s never enough to affect gameplay so it’s hardly worth mentioning.

Sound in this game is something you are either going to love or hate, personally I think it’s probably the best thing about the game. In particular I’m talking about the music which oddly enough sounds like the work of Hideki Naganuma (Of Jet Set Radio/Future/Sonic Rush fame) yet it’s not.

Don’t worry Hideki Naganuma fans, this soundtrack featured in Sonic Rush Adventure is every bit as good as the original, in fact I think it’s even better.
The music consists of very catchy & upbeat tunes that blend in nicely to a fast paced game like the Sonic series. I’ve embedded a small YouTube link to my favourite tune from the game, after a few times it will start to grow on you.



Unless you played the original Sonic Rush you don’t really have an idea how this game plays, trust me it’s certainly not your typical 2D Sonic game. Remember how useful the spin dash was in the original 2D Sonic games? Well you might as well forget that move ever existed because even though you can still do it in this game, it’s the most useless thing you can do in this game.

In its place comes what the game called the Super Boost, basically just tap Y & Sonic or Blaze will experience a sudden burst of speed. You can hold down the button instead to maintain that burst of speed though it drains your tension gauge located on the left of the screen. To keep it from draining just perform tricks by pressing B while airborne and R while grinding repeatedly, destroy an enemy or reach checkpoints.
The game areas in the game are extremely well designed in this in mind, once you know what you are doing you can Blaze (No pun intended again) right through the areas at amazing speeds without ever really draining that tension gauge.

Think about the old Sonic games but imagine them much faster, not just faster but constantly faster. This is in my opinion the fastest Sonic game ever made which is really saying something.
As I mentioned the areas in the game are very well designed, there are numerous different routes you can take to reach the end of an area and it’s loads of fun trying to figure out what the shortest route it.

Boss battles are some of the best Sonic has ever seen it’s certainly a step above the original Sonic Rush. First the boss battles take on the dual screen just like the rest of the game itself and second they are just simply much more fun to play.
The bosses themselves are a decent challenge, the first are rather easy but as you get further in the game they become harder and will probably take you a few tries to beat them.



One thing I felt the original Sonic Rush lacked was overall lifespan, I loved the game and I wanted to play more but the game just didn’t give me much reason to do so.
Sonic Rush Adventure is a strong improvement thanks to the mission mode & Wi-Fi multi-player. Wi-Fi multi-player is what you expect in terms of it’s you vs another playing racing to the end of the area but this time it’s online too. You can also play collect the rings but it’s rubbish and no one really cares.
I’m happy to report that online play runs smoothly & is pretty much lag free considering you play against someone with a good connection.

The mission mode is great, you talk to the villagers in the game’s hub who give you missions to tackle which can consist of

- Reach the goal of X stage
- Reach the goal of X stage in X amount of time
- Collect X amount of rings
- Perform X amount of trick combos
- Collect all the flags

You get the idea, upon completion your awarded pointless decoration for the hub of the game such as a Sonic statue or the new sounds for the sound test option. As I’ve already said I love the soundtrack to this game so I certainly felt an incentive to complete missions to collect all the sounds in the game.
You can also upload your best times from time trial mode in a leader board, all in all there is more to do in Sonic Rush Adventure than in the original game.

CONCLUSION
The adventure aspect of the game is weak but if you can get over that then you’ll find a superb Sonic game within.

FINAL SCORE: 8:0

P.S. Sonic Rush Adventure kicks the shit out of New Super Mario Bros, in fact this game makes that game look extremely lazy.



Thanks for reading considering you actually bothered to read it all, long story short, buy the game.