"Good grief!"

I was getting sick of it- Sonic games were plainly starting to suck after Sonic Adventure 2. While Sonic Advance was a decent game, Sonic Advance 2 and 3 left a lot to be desired. Whether it was the sheer impossibility of actually getting all the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Advance 2, the boring zones of Sonic Advance 3 (seriously, there was no variety at all in the game), the crappy boss battles in Sonic Advance 2, or just the fact that I didn't enjoy the games that much, I had come to expect little from the Sonic series.

Sure, there were some great Sonic games in that time, like Sonic Battle and...well, Sonic Battle was the only great Sonic game I can remember right now. Most of the other Sonic games released from about 2003 on were pretty mediocre. I wasn't expecting much out of Sonic Rush when it came out.

Well, it turned out to be the best game for the Nintendo DS. To date.

Sonic Rush is a traditional 2D Sonic game. The object is, like in the other Sonic games, to run from start to finish at breakneck speed, while avoiding and killing bad guys. Along the way, you will need to pick up golden rings. If you have one or more (most likely more) rings and you get hit by an enemy, you'll survive the hit, but all your rings will fly out of your character. If you have no rings, then your character will die. So it's in your best interest to collect all the rings. Also, there are a few new mechanics introduced in the game, like the Tension Gauge. The Tension Gauge allows you to activate an instant burst of speed by pressing the X or Y button. The closest thing I can think of that mirrors this in the Sonic games is the Strike Dash from the Game Gear Sonic games. It's pretty useful, because it immediately boosts you to top speed, and it can kill enemies on contact.

You can pick from two characters. Sonic the Hedgehog, and Blaze the Cat. Sonic is the same as ever- an impertinent, annoying hedgehog who also has a strong sense of justice and benevolence as redeeming factors. Sonic is, as per usual, trying to get the Chaos Emeralds back from...the equivalent of Dr. Eggman from a parallel dimension, Eggman Nega. Blaze, however, is a completely new character to the Sonic series. She apparently is a princess of a dimension that is in flux with Sonic's. Like Knuckles of Sonic's own dimension, she guards a set of emeralds...however, the emeralds Blaze guards are called the Sol Emeralds, and she's trying to get them back from Dr. Eggman. Blaze is also shy and impatient at the beginning of the game, but by the time the game concludes, she has developed considerably, finally realizing the value of friendship.

The music is very different from most other Sonic games, but...it is the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a Sonic game. It puts a hip hop/funk spin on the music. Usually, hip hop and funk aren't my favorite genres of music (they're not bad, but not my favorite), but this is really good. The songs are really catchy- I even find myself singing the song from Dead Line Zone randomly. "You don't stop, you proceed, 'cuz this is what you need." The sound is good as well. While most of it is synthesized, it gets the job done. There's not much I can say about this...

The voice acting is clearly inferior to previous Sonic games, but if you were to ask me, Sonic's voice is less annoying now with Jason Griffith than it was with Ryan Drummond. That's about the only good thing about the voice acting...well, maybe not. Blaze has a good voice...ah, who am I kidding? On the whole, it's bad.

The graphics, though, are another story. While the backgrounds and enemies are standard 2D graphics, the characters are in full 3D. They are VERY well animated, and the game runs at a very smooth framerate. The 2D objects are very well done, as well. But the best graphics in the game are the boss battles, which are in full 3D, even though you run on a 2D track.

The best part of Sonic Rush, however, is its gameplay. Sonic Rush takes the Sonic series back to its roots- back to the days of simple running to the finish without a bazillion characters to choose from. Sonic Rush just plays better than the previous Sonic Advance titles, for whatever reason. The worst part of the game, however, are the boss battles. While they look good, the bosses tend to have pretty cheap attacks. I mean, the first boss of the game for Sonic can kill you no matter how many rings you have, and it's hard to avoid the attack. It's not the kind of stuff that breaks the game, though, so it's not that bad...

Overall, Sonic Rush is not one to be missed. After so many mediocre Sonic games, this finally gets it right. I'd be willing to say that it's the best 2D Sonic game out there, even better than Sonic 2. I'd reccomend it to anyone.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/05/06