"Packing more speed than Pete Doherty's bloodstream"

Even Sega's most ardent fanboys have to admit it - it's not been looking good for the wee blue fella as of late. The Sonic Adventure games were competent enough, but just didn't manage that tricky change to 3D with the same ease as arch-rival Mario. The Sonic Advance series continued the 2D Sonic tradition well, until Sonic Advance 3 arrived, and underwhelmed pretty much everyone. Sonic Heroes - billed as the first game that would essentially take the old Sonic 2D experience and put it into full 3D - was, for want of a better word, crap, and gamers everywhere were left pining for the good old days when all the Sonic games were brilliant, the evil Dr. Robotnik still called himself Dr. Robotnik rather than the unbelievably weak 'Dr. Eggman', and Take That were still together. Then Take That got back together, and ended up looking like sad near-middle-aged men trying to make a living off of past glories, and Sonic Gems Collection showed that a fair few of the old Sonic games were rubbish, too. Sonic Team themselves even seemed to be losing faith, with the latest big screen Sonic game not actually starring Ol' Blue. Was it Game Over for good for the world's second favourite platform hero? Enter Sonic Rush on Nintendo's latest baby, the DS, and enter sweet, sweet redemption.

In keeping with the duality theme of the DS, this time round Sonic's world is facing the combined threat of not only Dr. Robotnik (or Eggman) but also the mysterious Eggman Nega, who both seem set on stealing precious gems to gain ultimate power. It's not the usual Chaos Emeralds that they're after this time though, but rather the Sol Emeralds. The Sol Emeralds, as it happens, come from a twin dimension to Sonic's - as does Eggman Nega. As the two terrible tubbies gain control of the crystals the boundaries between the two dimensions begin to break down. Help is at hand, however, when Blaze the Cat, Guardian of the Sol Emeralds (good job you're doing by the way, Blaze), travels through the rift in order to retrieve the sacred stones and put a stop to the Eggmen. The fate of two worlds now rests on Sonic and Blaze, but can they put aside their differences and work together, or will their mistrust of one another scupper any chance of defeating the forces of evil?

First thing's first - yes, Sonic being at odds with the guardian of the crystals, before joining forces to stop the Apocalyptic-Threat-of-the-Week is stolen straight from Sonic & Knuckles, but with a twin dimension idea thrown in because, well, all new DS games have to be about twinning up, don'tcha know (see also Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Another Code: Two Memories...and...well... possibly more...). But in all fairness, the plot seems fairly superfluous. It really comes in to play for the final Act, and there are a few brief cutscenes with cameos from characters such as Knuckles and Amy Rose -complete with embarrassingly stilted dialogue - but other than that the focus is solely on the platforming action.

Which is certainly a good thing, as Sonic Rush is without a doubt the finest two-dimensional platform game to reach a handheld in many, many years. When the Sonic Advance series first arrived, everybody excitedly made a noise about how it was almost like playing the Mega Drive games again. Well, this time not only is every ounce of the magic from the Mega Drive games present and correct, a few flaws aside Sonic Rush actually comes very close to topping the mighty Sonic 2 and Sonic & Knuckles.

For the most part it's Sonic as usual - you bez around various stages at stupid speeds, looping through 360s (as in a full circle, not the rarer-than-a-disease-free-hooker Microsoft uber-console), partaking in some very tight platforming action, and trying to destroy Robotnik's metal henchmen. However, this time round things are set to get even faster with the addition of a boost bar. Initially this seems to be nothing more than a way of picking up more speed so that you can get more height on your jumps, but the true beauty of the system comes when you learn that to fill your boost bar you need to pull off various tricks while grinding down the rails or in the middle of a jump. This may sound like an awkward turn towards extreme sports for the versatile hedgemonster, but it all feels very natural, and before too long you'll be somersaulting in mid air and performing a merry jig halfway through your grind like a true pro - which is handy, as you'll want as much speed as you can get to make the jumps in the later stages of the game. For a series that has in the past relied on swift reactions as much as anything as you are sent hurtling through the stages, it's nice to finally feel rewarded for playing with style.

This new system, while fluid and well-executed, is a bit of a slow-burner. You don't really need it in the early stages, so it takes a while to truly appreciate it. As such, the first new thing to strike you when you fire up Rush is the simplistic - yet fantastic - use of the two screens. Put simply, the two little screens combine to make one big screen, with the action spread across both. At first this provides a jaw-dropping sense of scale: the traditional Sonic loops can start at the bottom left corner of the lower screen, take you all the way to the very top of the upper screen, and back down again; the tension really goes up a notch or two when you are hurtling down a slope on the bottom screen, and see the fast-approaching boulder hot on your tail on the top screen; and frankly, you've never felt truly owned by one of Sonic's robotic foes until you see your rings scattered across two screens upon impact. There were concerns that repeated swapping between the two screens would be a touch confusing at first, but it all feels perfectly natural. The only problem is that the space between the two screens on your DS still has action going on, so that there is a small blindspot between the screens. Usually this doesn't matter, but on occasion (particularly when launching yourself off springs and such) there are enemies patrolling this space, which can lead to some unfair collisions.

Thankfully, this small gripe aside, the level design is incredible. The occasional leap of faith is still required, which can be frustrating, and there's a disappointing lack of hidden areas to discover (unless I'm just rubbish, and can't find them...) but, other than that, things are spot on. Leaf Storm Zone provides the necessary grass/jungle-based opener, which feels a bit predictable, and Water Palace Zone does entirely what you'd expect, but there are several surprises on offer, too. Mirage Road is a fast-paced race through the pyramids, which sees you being thrown into the screen and back at break-neck pace, as you hurl from platform to platform, and up and down the slopes like a hedgehog possessed, before changing the pace entirely by trapping you in a confined space with a set number of Badniks to defeat before the doors will open - there's even a Streets of Rage style 'moving-elevator-with-bad-guys-dropping-in' moment, complete with the sideways-into-the-screen style movement associated with that genre. It's the way that the game can change pace and style so suddenly, and yet still maintain a natural pace and flow, that makes it so remarkable. And the variety doesn't end there - Altitude Limit, for example, is, as you would expect, a sky based zone set almost entirely on thin rails hundreds of feet above the ground. This leads to some disturbingly fast movement, and the need for some pixel-perfect jumping skills, but the pace once again changes on a dime and you twice find the camera moving to position your view solely on Sonic's arse, as you hang-glide through the sky avoiding flocks of flying enemies. Again, the change is seamless and natural, and helps to make Rush feel like Sonic's most epic adventure yet.

Things don't flow quite so well when you choose to play as Blaze, though. While Sonic tracks down Eggman Nega, Blaze's quest takes her on the trail of 'our' Eggman, travelling the same Zones as Sonic, but in a different order. While the fact that the levels play exactly the same for both characters is disappointing enough (if the Zones had to be the same then Sonic Team could at least have come up with a different set of Acts for variety's sake), what really spoils the experience is the learning curve. The increasing difficulty in Sonic's quest is pitched so perfectly that the game gets extremely difficult without you even realising - you'll pick up the skills to zip between rails, platforms and loops like a pimp just in time for you to need to. When the Zones are being played in a different order as Blaze, though, it feels very disjointed and awkward. Blaze starts at the really quite tricky Night Carnival Zone, a neon nightmare which appears roughly halfway through Sonic's game. Going from this testing environment to the comparatively short and far less complex Leaf Storm Zone just doesn't feel right, and it puts a bit of a downer on the affair. Admittedly, though, things sort themselves out in the latter stages of the game, with Blaze and Sonic taking almost the same route, and when their two quests finally meet at the end it is a genuinely exciting moment.

The boss battles, too, are quite well thought out (though one does repeat itself almost exactly at a later stage in the game), taking place entirely on the top screen in an on-the-rails 3D arena. As with most Sonic games, the boss fights see you taking on Eggman (or Eggman Nega - not that it makes any difference to the gameplay) in his various different robotic guises, and the creative folks at Sonic Team really push the boat out this time with Eggman taking on a variety of outlandish forms: just wait until you come face to face with Eggman's robotic dung beetle (complete with spike-covered deadly dung!). At heart all the boss battles amount to simply learning to recognise the set pattern that the boss moves in, and learning their weak spots, but this simplicity adds to the old-school Sonic feel, and again you can almost taste the 16-Bit glory days, it plays that authentically.

The Special Stages, too, are fantastic. Accessed through hidden portals in each Zone, they take Sonic to a classic half-pipe and, with the camera planted just behind him, sees him moving left and right to grab as many rings as he can, while avoiding the spikes and the badniks. It's ever so simple in theory (and reminiscent of the sort of phone in game that they used to have on Saturday morning kids TV favourite Live & Kicking: 'Left... Left... GRAB!' etc.), but the fact that you play using the stylus makes it something really special. At first the control feels a bit sluggish as you drag the stylus from left to right to move Sonic, but very soon it becomes more than second nature, and you'll be breezing through the early levels, grabbing rings and dispatching your flying foes with a tap of the screen. It gets far more difficult as the game progresses, though, and the only way you're likely to beat the final special stage is if you memorise the location of every batch of rings, and every set of spikes, and then go without making a single mistake. Daunting at first, but ultimately one of the most rewarding Special Stage designs seen in a Sonic game.

Graphically the game is outstanding. Your DS practically screams with colour right from the opening stage, and throughout the presentation is bright and crisp. The addition of the second screen makes for some extremely impressive and detailed backgrounds (particularly the jungle in Leaf Storm Zone and the neon cityscape of Night Carnival Zone), and all the character sprites are impressively detailed - even the standard enemy drones show bags of character and charm. The 3D boss stages fare slightly less well, appearing slightly grainy and pixellated - which is a bit odd considering the near-seamless port of Mario 64 - but still stand head and shoulders above most other things seen so far on the DS. The most impressive thing about the visuals, though, is just how unbelievably smooth everything is. There is no slowdown or graphical break-up whatsoever, which is astonishing considering not only the level of detail in the game, and the speed at which it moves at times, but also the fact that it is happening on two screens at once. An utterly underwhelming map screen aside, this really is a visual treat.

The music, though, becomes very grating quite quickly. In a surprising move Sonic Team have opted for an electronic funk-style sound, not unlike that seen in the Jet Set Radio titles, and while it is undeniably well put together, it just doesn't seem to gel with the Sonic 'feel'. There's none of the majesty of the Starlight Zone music, none of the 'gonna-be-humming-this-for-days' catchiness of the Marble Zone, and none of the utter panic that was subtly conveyed through the tunes in the final stages of Sonic 2. And the voices that are employed in the game during the boss battles are largely terrible. Eggman's gruff burr is acceptable enough, but it's the 'mascot' shouting encouragement that really irritates - Sonic's battles feature Tails screaming encouragement in his bizarre ten-year-old-girl-with-a-twenty-a-day-habit vocals. It really undermines the tension, but it seems like heaven compared to the noises coming from Cream The Rabbit (surely the worst character in the entire series) during Blaze's fights: high-pitched to the point of abuse, and completely unintelligible, it's a full blown assault on the eardrums. That said, the sound-effects are as great as ever, and it's nigh impossible not to feel a sudden pang of nostalgia when you hear that the sound used when Sonic takes oxygen from an underwater air bubble hasn't changed one little bit since the old days.

Sonic Rush has it's flaws, there's no denying it, but at the end of the day, the good more than outweighs the bad. It manages to recreate every drop of that missing Sonic magic perfectly, and reminds you just why the series was great in the early nineties, and yet uses the power and innovative nature of the DS to feel remarkably fresh and new. It is this bold mix of old-school retro charm and modern day techno wizardry that makes it, without a doubt, the finest Sonic game in the last decade, and one of the finest titles to reach the DS so far. If Sonic Team can keep this up, there may just be hope for the blue bastard yet...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/06