Sonic Rush

"Word! I be Sonic! I'm go bust yo cap! Check it."

I would expect that the people who develop the Sonic games must be under a lot of pressure right now. On one hand, the only thing that has really worked for the series is the classic gameplay that put it on the map to begin with. Sonic games are known for their speed, their twists and turns, their tenacious desire to satisfy your urge for mindless thrills. But it's hard to deny that, while this strategy worked in the Genesis era, such shallow gameplay has become more and more mundane as the years go by. But on the other hand, whenever Sega has tried to mix up the formula and give us a new way to play our Sonic games, what have we gotten? The Sonic Adventure games, Sonic Battle, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic Riders. And what do those games have in common? None of them are any good. (No, not even THAT one.)

So what do you do? Do you stick with tradition and hope that people will be able to ignore the dated gameplay in place of some good ol' nostalgia? Or do you attempt something new, at the (rather high) risk that your game is going to suck? Decisions, decisions.

Sonic Rush, the spiky blue hedgehog's first DS title, seems to make a case for the former. There is no shooting, no fishing, no board-riding, and no raising of miniature blue creatures to be found in Rush. It's a simple, pure Sonic experience. And what a shock it is that the game is mindlessly, shallowly entertaining, but ultimately an unsatisfying and unfulfilling experience. It's almost as if… Why, as if the developers desperately need to bring an aging series up to date!

This is the first 2D Sonic game I've played in a while, and I can credit it for at least FEELING like a 2D Sonic game. This means that the levels are multi-tiered and feature all manner of slopes, loops, corkscrews, rails, springs, boost pads and other assorted whatnot. The best moments of Rush are highlighted when Sonic is flying at crazy speeds and it's the job of the gamer to simply sit back and hold right on the d-pad. It works, but it's shallow. Excuse me for using the word “shallow” so much, but that's the word that fits best. Look all you want, but as much fun as you may have playing Rush, you'll never find any depth, any breadth, any substance to the game. There's just not much to it.

And aside from shallowness, the series has a number of outright flaws that haven't been addressed very well over the years. The fact that Sonic is racing through levels at such high speeds, and with such limited camera perspective for the player, means that things will happen before you have time to react. Enemies come out of nowhere, for one thing, and it's often difficult to jump or attack in time to avoid receiving a cheap shot. What's more, you'll often be required to change directions or interact with levels in ways with which the game's hyper pace just doesn't gel very well. High speed has its disadvantages.

Thankfully, Sega has partially rectified one of these issues in Rush. Sonic now has a boost attack, which can be used not only to gain speed but to crash through enemies without having to stop. Sonic can charge up a meter which allows him to use this attack all he wants, and it functions in a way that those out-of-nowhere enemies aren't so much of a pain anymore. Granted, it still takes a pretty good attention span to be able to hit the button in time to prevent yourself from blindly slamming into enemies, but it's a step in the right direction.

On the flipside, the health system is just as horrible as it ever was. It works the same as it always has – you collect rings throughout levels, and when you take a hit from an enemy, you lose all of the rings you currently have. To stretch this a little bit, NO ONE finds that intuitive anymore. If I were to lose a few of my rings when I get hit, or if the number of rings I lost would be proportional to the power of the hit, fine. But losing ALL of the rings I've collected thus far? Sure, you can usually get a few of them back, but most are gone instantly. The new boost attack would be more effective if a single screw-up didn't deliver such devastating results.

(By the way, about that boost meter. You build it up by performing “tricks,” which really just narrows down to hitting the B button repeatedly while you're airborne. I'm already against this relentless “punking up” of the Sonic franchise, but this is too much.)

Oh, and the boss battles? Excruciating. Granted, this has never been a high point of the series, but Rush's bosses are so miserable, I think a new low has been set.

I'll give Rush one thing – I dig the music, and that's not something I ever expected to say about a twenty-first century Sonic title. (Indeed, memories of those unbelievably bad Sonic Adventure songs are still branded to my brain.) The music in Rush has a hook to it that is very reminiscent of Jet Grind Radio, and that's a compliment.

Pros

+ It's Sonic, and it's still good for mindless thrills.
+ Control is fairly tight.
+ No ridiculous attempts at innovation this time around.
+ The new boost attack is a welcome addition.
+ The graphics are great, and the music is catchy.

Cons

- Not a major leap forward, still the same dated gameplay.
- There's just not much to it.
- The same flaws are still here.
- The boss battles are the stuff of nightmares.

Overall: 6/10

Sonic Rush is certainly good for nostalgia, as it does, in many ways, play much like the Genesis titles that inspired it. But forgive me for actually wanting games to evolve as time progresses. (And no, snazzy new graphics don't count.) It's frustrating when the games that I once so dearly loved become fossils in the wake of newer, more impressive titles. Sonic needs an update, and until it gets one, we'll have to deal with dated, almost half-assed productions like this.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/09/07