Sonic Rivals 2

"Typical for this generation of Sonic titles"

I had no interest in the Sonic Rival series. The original got terrible reviews so I doubted a sequel would be good. However Mass Effect was rented out so this was the only thing in that I would even give a chance. Could be worse I guess...

Eggman is up to yet another evil scheme. He has kidnapped a Chao and... Well who cares. These plots are getting worse and worse.

Graphically the game looks pretty good. Some mild pixilation hampers the graphics but the character models look alright. Level design is a bit clichéd and a few of the different items look like blobs.

The sound in the game is a mixed bag. I kind of like the character themes but the music for each stage is kind of weak. Voice work is the same as always. It's decent with a few rough spots (Silver bites). Sound effects are your typical ring blings.

Control in the game is rather straight forward. D-pad or analog stick moves you around. Circle is your counter attack button. X is jump and square is your special. Easy to remember my only problem is that some trick sections work oddly and the aiming is a bit off.

I guess the original played differently than this game. There are 4 teams of two. You usually get to pick which character to use in a stage. There are 6 worlds with 3 stages plus a boss each.

You will either need to race to the end of a stage or have a one on one fight. Both are simple as long as a spot doesn't hang you up. The AI is on the whole catch up idea where if you're ahead it gets an auto boost and if it's ahead too far it slows down but oddly enough it rarely knows when it wants to use it.

The level design is straight forward. Very few enemies and almost no pitfalls to be seen. I actually found the levels kind of boring as it's just go forward without really having to do much.

The game is painfully short. It does offer some multiplayer and there are 150 cards to collect that do nothing. You can also free play a level so it isn't a race to the finish. Hell, even boss fights are who can land X amount of hits before the other.

Sonic Rivals isn't horrible. It's just not very entertaining. There are much better Sonic games out there and the PSP also has many other games that are worth playing than this. Desperate for a rental than this might do but I doubt it.

Story - 4/10
Graphics - 6/10
Sound - 7/10
Control - 8/10
Game Play - 5/10
Replay value - 4/10

Final Score - 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/04/08

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