Sonic Rivals 2

"Improves itself from the first, but carries collateral in the process"

Handhelds. They are the last bastion for those of us who enjoy Sonic as he was in the 16-bit era. While even these titles don't retain most aspects that made Sonic the gaming icon he was, they still offer superior gameplay and a higher fun factor than their console counterparts. Sonic Rivals thankfully didn't disappoint in this aspect, and neither does its mostly improved sequel.

For anyone who didn't play the first, the "rivals" portion of the title is what makes up the core gameplay In Sonic Rivals, the game pits you and one rival together in a stage wherein your ultimate goal is to beat the other person in whatever competition is being held. In the previous game this simply meant winning a race or beating a boss first. This time, however, Backbone has gone back to the drawing board and offered up a decent amount of variety by adding new game modes and enhancing the racing portions of the game.

Starting off, the Story mode from the original game makes its return here. Unlike before where you chose from a pool of five individual racers, Rivals 2 has four teams to pick from with a set of two characters each. Once you've picked your team and character, it's off into another horribly written and pointless Sonic story. It's nice to know that gameplay took a central focus here over the plot though. Stages this time encompass three acts and a boss, giving the game bit of a longer play time. Not all levels are races this time either, and a variety of goals must be accomplished to win a level. These can include things like Ring collection or beating a time trial alone. Races have also been improved and no longer require you to just hold right on the D-pad. Special little action events have been added to stages, bottomless pits are less frequent, and levels require more hands-on navigation and thought. Signature power-ups return, but are now based on ring collection. Once the power meter fills up you can unleash a special attack that is unique to your racer. You can also collect weapons to hinder your foes racing ability, most of which have undergone redesigns.

While story mode is actually pretty fun, and the improved level designs make it more enjoyable than last years title, some hindrances remain unfixed or even added. The AI still works on a very irregular rubber band based AI. The better you do, the better your rival does, and vice versa. Boss fights are a mixed bag. Some of the designs are very original and a lot of fun, while others are horribly frustrating, and made even more so by the awkward AI of the opponent. This mainly happens because the bosses in this title require more unique means of defeat than previously, such as exploiting parts of the fight arena to hurt the boss. The power-ups have also been changed for the worse, which is a bummer. Weapons now track and bomb your opponent with a variety of effects from above. During races they are horribly sluggish in movement and are practically useless if your opponent is ahead of you. While the weapons work horribly in the races they work just fine in another mode, which was the obvious focus for the weapon change...

Something new to Rivals 2 story is the Knockout Mode. Every second act of a stage will pit you against a rival in a full arena where your only objective is to kick the crap out of each other. Fighting basically works the same as it does in a race. You can attack your rival by jumping into him, dash attacking him, using collected weapons, or activating special traps in the arena. Players now have the ability to counter their rivals dash attacks as well, giving the fights a wee bit of trigger finger strategy. The winner is usually decided by three rounds of knock outs, but it can be set to one or five. Knockout mode is fun, but again made awkward by the opponents AI. While I had a blast playing this mode with my brother, I had trouble getting back into it once I had to face the computer again. It doesn't help that some signature moves are far more useful than others, making certain characters largely unbalanced. For example, why anyone thought it would be a good idea to give Tails his natural flight ability as a special power is beyond me. Especially when it is given no decent combat OR race use.

So, after all this you've completed the story mode. Now what? Enjoy the levels without the hassle of racing in the new Free Play mode. Also, with every character you finish the game with you unlock a special cup circuit for that character. You can also go back and collect hidden Chao in each stage to unlock new costumes for your racers. Card collecting makes a second appearance here (Get ready to Du-du-du- Duel!), but the cards are no longer randomized and have specific goals attached in order to gain them. Overall its a way better collection system, and the artwork is snazzier. Cards also have their own set of extra unlockables attached to them. Ad-Hoc multi-player makes its return as well, only now with a larger variety of game modes to pick from. Overall this game makes a significant improvement over the last one in terms of replay value. Not only do you now have 8 characters to complete the game with, but you also have all the extra modes and unlockables to work your way through as well.

No matter what anyone thinks of Sonic Rivals core gameplay or replay value though, I think most people will find it hard to deny this games presentation is absolutely brilliant. The level designs are once again beautifully classic looking and vibrant. Everything looks crisp and sharp and the camera pans perfectly around the stage to give you the best view of the action. The badniks even have a real "robotnik" feel to them and aren't just generic Eggbots or something. This time the story is fully voiced and once again, thankfully, completely skipable. What shocked me, oddly, were the menus. They had a ridiculously cool retro Sonic theme going on. Oh, and for anyone who enjoyed the last game's soundtrack you shouldn't be disappointed. Remix Factory make their presence known once more with a fresh set of beats and some cool remixes to keep your ears entertained. More importantly than everything else though? Loading times have been vastly improved, and the game no longer needs to reload entire levels should you wish to restart an act. For those of us as impatient as Sonic, this is incredibly welcome.

So is Sonic Rivals 2 a vast improvement over its predecessor? Maybe not, but it does manage to improve almost every single aspect of the original. It's too bad Backbone tried to fix some aspects of the original and broke them in the process. The boss battles are either a lot better or a lot worse, and the AI still suffers from the same annoying hiccups as before. I also noticed, more so in this game, there are certain points of levels where if you're not in the lead it is almost impossible to catch-up. Signature moves are now more unbalanced than before and sadly may affect peoples choice of rival during play. Power-ups have also been changed to work efficiently in Knockout mode, but are broken during races. Thankfully the improvements far outweigh the negatives and the additions of things like Free Play Mode are a godsend. Knockout mode may be more filler in-game than anything, but it certainly makes the multiplayer side of the title more enjoyable. It's nice to see the post-game additions feel a lot less fake this time, improving the replay value by a decent margin.

In the end, if you enjoyed the original you will enjoy Sonic Rivals 2 more. It's a larger improvement than I expected it would be and it thankfully reaffirms the fact that the hand-held systems really are where Sonic's legacy remains strong and largely untarnished. For anyone who didn't enjoy the original or greatly prefers the DS Rush series, this title is unlikely to change your mind. And that's a shame, because aside from the Rush series this is one of the most classically oriented and enjoyable, if somewhat flawed, Sonic titles to have arrived in a long, long time...

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/19/07, Updated 11/17/08

Game Release: Sonic Rivals 2 (US, 11/13/07)