1. Review: Sonic Rush Adventure Game Created by: SEGA Sonic Team Dimps Review by: Dan Hojnacki

2. About SRA ● Platform – Nintendo DS ● Optional Peripherals – Wireless router (for online play and ranking) – Nintendo USB Wi-Fi Connector (for online play and ranking without a wireless network) – Another DS system, with or without a Sonic Rush Adventure game card (for DS wireless battle play)

3. About SRA ● Genre – Action/Adventure/Platform ● Price: US$29.99 (at Best Buy) – DS Lite: $129.99 – USB Wi-Fi Connector: ~$40 ● Special Features – Online time attack rankings through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

4. Background ● I've played the Sonic series for about 15-16 years – First game owned was Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis – I own every Sonic game on every system I own (Genesis, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, GameCube, DS)

5. Summary ● Roles – Primary: Sonic the Hedgehog – Secondary: Blaze the Cat ● Background Story – Sonic and Tails are flying over the ocean when suddenly a storm hits. Their bi-plane is struck by lightning and spirals out of control into a mysterious cyclone. They wake up on the beach of Southern Island, meeting Marine the Raccoon, who desparately wants to build a ship to get off of her island....

6. Summary ● Story (cont.) – Tails then constructs a waterbike with some materials found in the tutorial level, and the waterbike is used to travel to the various islands throughout the game. Eventually, Sonic, Tails, and Marine find Blaze, who is chasing after the robotic-looking pirate Captain Whisker, who has stolen the Jeweled Scepter, an important relic in the area. Sonic and Blaze team up again, this time against the nefarious Captain Whisker to stop his dastardly plans.

7. Interface ● Menus – Y button brings up a traditional menu with options to visit already-played levels and bosses, visit already discovered islands, view discovered items, and to save the game. – Other game modes (time attack, missions, battle, wi-fi) accessible from Marine's house ● Sonic must walk to these locations manually

8. Interface ● Levels – Traditional handheld Sonic interface ● Timer and ring count at the top of the screen you're currently playing on ● Tension gauge and lives on left side of the same screen. ● Bosses – Same as levels with the boss's health gauge at the bottom of the screen you're playing on

9. Screenshots Courtesy of The Sonic Stadium and Gamespot

10. Scoring ● Points are scored in individual levels only ● Determined by number of rings held upon finishing a level, the amount of trick moves performed during a level, and how fast the level was completed ● Ranks used to determine materials earned at the end of an Act – S: 100,000 pts, 4 materials; A: 80,000 pts, 3 materials; B: 60,000 pts, 2 materials; C: less than 60,000 pts, 1 material ● Materials are used to construct more ships

11. Artwork, Sound, Music ● Graphics similar to its predecessor, Sonic Rush – 2D gameplay with 3D polygon-rendered artwork ● Standard-fare for DS games ● Music excellent – Matches level visual themes very well – Very catchy soundtrack ● Sound decent – Recycles many Sonic sounds, as is rampant throughout the series

12. Manual, Bugs ● Manual – Mostly does a decent job at explaining the game – Problem: Does not list defaults for options ● Boss Difficulty defaults to easy (not normal) ● Time Limit is off by default ● Bugs – Jumping while in a loop (typically a method used to increase speed by competitive players) will sometimes force you to restart the loop ● Especially if the loop is small or leads downward

13. Gameplay ● Sailing Levels – Stylus is used to control ships – Some ships fun to use, others aren't. ● Waterbike: Action-oriented, emphasis on tricks, fun ● “Sailboat”: Slow, sometimes difficult to aim ● Hovercraft: Dodging difficult, but good feel ● Submarine: Difficult to grasp at first, but decently done. ● Standard Levels – Typical of the Sonic series – fast, with lots of route variation, decent difficulty. ● Bosses – Some look like rehashes of bosses from Sonic Rush – Evolve into unique and challenging foes

14. Gameplay Issues ● Boost Move – Sonic Rush: Activated with X or Y buttons – Sonic Rush Adventure: Activated with Y button ONLY ● Saving – Unlike all other modern Sonic games, there is no Autosave feature – Must save manually through the menu

15. Review ● What's fun? – Great gameplay continued from Sonic Rush – Waterbike – Later bosses are very unique ● What's not? – Lack of an autosave feature – Mission mode is very basic – Sailboat

16. Comparison ● Very similar to its prequel, Sonic Rush – Gameplay for levels almost identical – Bosses use the same concept, but with different numbers of hits required – Would consider Sonic Rush Adventure slightly better ● Fast 2D Sonic feel – Faster than most platformers such as Mario

17. Design, Audience ● Design Mistakes – Removing Autosave – To some extent, the plotting system ● Audience – Sonic the Hedgehog fans – Platformer fans – Younger teens or children – ESRB: E (Everyone)

18. Summary ● Strengths – Good gameplay – Characters separated on ingame time attack rankings – Sailing mode done well ● Weaknesses – No Autosave

19. Summary ● To Buy or not to Buy? – Sonic fan? BUY – Liked Sonic Rush? BUY – Like Pirates? Maybe. – Like Platformers? Likely BUY – Like Attitude? BUY ● Improvements – Implement autosave