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[Dash Kappei]

Blaze is kewl!

First time there is another character as cool as Sonic to play with.
I just wish that using her was a little bit more different than Sonic; in the end all the abilities and trick system are just copy/pasted from Sonic: differences are just visually so.

 

[djtiesto]

Most likely the last good Sonic game.

Agreed... The bottomless pits were only a problem in stages 4 and 6 (especially 6), but I think they're overhyped as a major, game breaking problem by gaffers. You take your time just a BIT and do a bit of memorization and you'll be good to go. Not the most fitting design for a 2D Sonic game, but easy enough to adapt to. I didn't care much for the boss fights (especially since it seemed with some of the later bosses, you had a split-second window to score a hit, towards the end of the battle... and the battles would take forever), and I thought the graphics lacked the charm and the nice parallax of the prior 2D versions. Music was pretty catchy, I'd argue not as good as the golden age Sonic games, but I'd take it over the shitty surfer rock in the 3D ones any day of the week.

 

[A Link to the Past]

Most likely the last good Sonic game.

What'd I JUST say?

Touch screen stuff will almost definitely be side stuff, and in regard to Sonic Team USA, Artoon! STUSA is using the quality engine of Sonic Rush, and SEGA is most likely supervising.

 

[USD]

So I picked this one up at the sale going on at GameStop. There are a lot more blind jumps than Sonic Advance 2 (the last Sonic game I played), but from what I've played so far Rush is just as good, if not better than Advance 2. Thank god they ditched the SP ring system, getting to the special stages are a lot easier. And the music is awesome. I spent the first five minutes just listening to the menu music.

 

[Amir0x]

What'd I JUST say?

Touch screen stuff will almost definitely be side stuff, and in regard to Sonic Team USA, Artoon! STUSA is using the quality engine of Sonic Rush, and SEGA is most likely supervising.

you're not really making a good argument for it :lol

I'll keep an eye open for it, of course, but after the horrible Sonic 360/PS3 and Sonic Wii, I think the series finally coughed up all the blood I ever need to experience.

We'll see, though.

 

[Tiduz]

I want Sonic 2 HD Remake on PSN, best sonic ever.

 

[CurseoftheGods]

What'd I JUST say?

Touch screen stuff will almost definitely be side stuff, and in regard to Sonic Team USA, Artoon! STUSA is using the quality engine of Sonic Rush, and SEGA is most likely supervising.

Has it been confirmed that Artoon is developing?

 

[jman2050]

Seeing demi's topic a while ago declaring Sonic Rush to be crap with scores of people agreeing with him is basically what drove me to entirely dismiss almost every game opinion on GAF, whether good or bad, unless it contains a reasonable analysis of the game's contents.

That said, I'll join this circle jerk just because Sonic is awesome and Rush was able to restore whatever little faith I had in the franchise I had left after the putrid dog feces stuffed into my mouth in the form of Sonic Heroes.

I WOULD ask Sega to remake Sonic 2 in 2.5D and get it over with, but after Sonic Genesis I'm confident they will find a way to screw that up as well.

 

[goldenticket]

i still have to pick this up. too many good ds games

 

[Tailzo]

The name "Sonic Rush Adventure" seemed somewhat familiar. So I looked it up.

Does anyone remember Sonic Pocket Adventure? It was a handheld Neo Geo color Pocket Sonic game, inspired by Sonic 1 / 2 with a new look that got a 10 /10 review from IGN. I read some of the review, and that game had a "Sonic Rush" mode.

Like most NeoGeo Pocket Color titles, Sonic Pocket Adventure even supports the link cable, adding two player modes as long as you've got two systems and two copies of the game. These two modes are excellent – one player plays as Sonic, the other Tails the Fox (the one who started the link mode always plays as Sonic). In "Sonic Rush", you'll have to race your opponent from the beginning to the end of a game's level – here, you'll see a fuzzy silhouette of the other player, but you cannot interact with him. If he gets off-screen, an arrow points to where he is in relation to where you are. The first person to the end of the level wins. The other mode, "Get the Rings", puts you both on different versions of the same level – at the beginning of the game, a random counter tells you how many rings you must get to win the game. You can't see the other person in "Get the Rings", which is handy since you're both working on independent levels and you're not stealing rings from each other.

And this was written in a review the 7th december 1999. Funny stuff.

 

[Odrion]

Loved the game, hated the boss battles though.

 

[dark10x]

Does anyone remember Sonic Pocket Adventure? It was a handheld Neo Geo color Pocket Sonic game, inspired by Sonic 1 / 2 with a new look that got a 10 /10 review from IGN. I read some of the review, and that game had a "Sonic Rush" mode.

Yep. In fact, I just replayed it recently.

It's a very enjoyable game, but it has aged somewhat poorly. The visuals and audio are nowhere near Genesis level (no parallax scrolling and a 30 fps framerate along with low quality audio) and the gameplay feels a bit off. Still, I'd say that its physics are more enjoyable than the GBA and Game Gear titles (which isn't saying much, I suppose).

 

[Instigator]

Why the backgrounds suck so much in the Rush series? Drab and no depth.

 

[dark10x]

Why the backgrounds suck so much in the Rush series? Drab and no depth.

I've always wondered this myself. Same deal with the Advance titles. The backgrounds are TERRIBLE next to any of the Genesis games. There is no reason why Rush should be stuck with such simplistic, ugly backgrounds.

I mean, look at this...

Right there you have multiple layers of trees/bushes along with the mountains. Above that, you have 3 layers of clouds moving across the sky and below that you have scaling water (the backgrounds in Sonic CD are VERY tall, so you would not be able to see all of that in one shot).

Sonic Rush has like one layer per level...and it's ugly.

 

[Magicpaint]

Didn't bother me much, since in Rush the speed is consistently high that there's not much time to look at the environments, though it definitely lacked the depth of the Genesis games.

 

[dark10x]

Didn't bother me much, since in Rush the speed is consistently high that there's not much time to look at the environments, though it definitely lacked the depth of the Genesis games.

That's WHY it should have depth. You move so quickly and the backgrounds are so visible that it ends up ruining the overall appearance. It would look so much nicer with multple layers of parallax.

 

[Magicpaint]

That's WHY it should have depth. You move so quickly and the backgrounds are so visible that it ends up ruining the overall appearance. It would look so much nicer with multple layers of parallax.

I really can't follow that logic. In Sonic Rush, the only background relevant to me when I'm playing is the one I can readily interact with.

 

[castle007]

what is the deal with Sonic Rush 2?? Any new info about it. I think it is supposed to be released this year. Hopefully that 3d ship stuff will be limited

 

[farnham]

Blaze is awesome indeed

 

[dark10x]

I really can't follow that logic. In Sonic Rush, the only background relevant to me when I'm playing is the one I can readily interact with.

Parallax becomes more obvious when the player is moving faster. Look at Thunder Force IV. The game has so many layers and the speed of the game really lends itself to highlighting this aspect of the visuals. It adds quite a bit of depth to everything.

Sonic Rush simply feels flat. The background fills so much of the screens at any one time and a little depth would go a long way.

 

[Instigator]

I hear you, Dark10x. But Sonic 2 and 3 are better examples of parallax scrolling than Sonic CD!

 

[Seraph830]

Finally got to play this game. It was really cool, and felt like the old sonic games. I'm going to buy this as soon as I can find it at a best buy agian ($15). SEGA needs to make way more games like this, its the kind of stuff that could bring sonic back.

oh but i do have to add

Great game, Hate the music though. I almost ignored it completely when I heard the BS they pass for music. Still I just mute it and enjoy it

I really agree. I really love game soundtracks and after all the praise i saw in this thread I was really excited. I even got the offical soundtrack to make sure I wasnt crazy.

All the stages sound really bad, no melody of any kind present and it rather seems like a technical showcase of how they can remix a voice clip over and over. First stage is very evident of that. It starts off really well, but where the melody should be all they do is loop "ride on! right there, ride on! right there," over and over. Actually most of the games music is just a constant annoying loop like that. The song "Back 2 Back" started off good as well, but then went into a constant loop of a Louie Louie rip off.

Wrapped in Black is probably the diamond in the rough of this soundtrack. It sounds like one of the good tracks from Sonic Adventure.

 

[Magicpaint]

Parallax becomes more obvious when the player is moving faster. Look at Thunder Force IV. The game has so many layers and the speed of the game really lends itself to highlighting this aspect of the visuals. It adds quite a bit of depth to everything.

Sonic Rush simply feels flat. The background fills so much of the screens at any one time and a little depth would go a long way.

I see what you're saying and you're probably right, I wouldn't know since I haven't played the game you mentioned, however my original point still stands, Sonic Rush's speed made its 'flat' look largely irrelevant to me because there's not much time to notice it when you're actually playing because the gameplay is blistering fast. Even then I don't think it's THAT flat.

 

[Seraph830]

in retrospect, maybe i was a bit too hard on the soundtrack. It does have some good songs the more i listen to it.

 

[turkification]

sonic rush has best soundtrack on DS

 

[dark10x]

I hear you, Dark10x. But Sonic 2 and 3 are better examples of parallax scrolling than Sonic CD!

Yeah, but I was just playing Sonic CD yesterday. Sonic 2 is the best example of this, but Sonic CD is no slouch. Sonic 2 and CD are my favorite LOOKING Sonic games (if only they had used the Sonic 2 sprite for CD as the original Sonic 1 sprite is a bit dull in comparison). The backgrounds are significantly more complex in Sonic CD, though. They use some crazy tiles in there.

 

[Seraph830]

sonic rush has best soundtrack on DS

I wouldnt go nearly that far.

 

[dark10x]

I wouldnt go nearly that far.

So what would you place ahead of it?

The DS hasn't exactly been home to a wealth of great soundtracks, you know.

 

[Magicpaint]

I wouldnt go nearly that far.

I would.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Shame we'll never get a 2D Sonic game that looks as good as Sonic 1-3K+CD.
Sega certainly has the hardware for it but their artists are so lacking it's insulting.

Never got into Sonic Rush's soundtrack either. I remember downloading one good track long before I actually got a DS & and the game and it was awesome(forgot what it was called).

Course when I get the game I end up hating every other song I heard(along with the game itself but nevermind). I don't even think I played it that long to reach the stage with song I liked. =/

 

[Seraph830]

So what would you place ahead of it?

Final Fantasy 3 comes to mind. So does Pokemon Pearl.

Sonic Rush has some good tracks, but too many yuck ones where all they do is loop a 5 second clip over and over. Definately not the DS's best.

EDIT: Dont get sound quality confused with composition. Sonic Rush is a shining example of what DS hardware is capable of.

 

[dark10x]

Final Fantasy 3 comes to mind. So does Pokemon Pearl.

Sonic Rush has some good tracks, but too many yuck ones where all they do is loop a 5 second clip over and over. Definately not the DS's best.

EDIT: Dont get sound quality confused with composition. Sonic Rush is a shining example of what DS hardware is capable of.

I'm not confusing sound quality (which is poor across the board, really) with composition here.

FF3 was solid enough, but I still prefer Rush. Luminous Arc has a few outstanding Mitsuda tracks, but most of the soundtrack is a bit ho-hum.

The actual soundtrack released for Sonic Rush is worth listening to for those who enjoyed the game music as it includes all of the tracks in their original high quality format (rather than the ultra compressed, low bit-rate DS versions).

 

[Instigator]

Yeah, but I was just playing Sonic CD yesterday. Sonic 2 is the best example of this, but Sonic CD is no slouch. Sonic 2 and CD are my favorite LOOKING Sonic games (if only they had used the Sonic 2 sprite for CD as the original Sonic 1 sprite is a bit dull in comparison). The backgrounds are significantly more complex in Sonic CD, though. They use some crazy tiles in there.

Sonic 2 is king, but Sonic 3 has a neat parallax effect with the surface of the water in Hydro City. The parallax not work horizontally but vertically too. There's also warping effects with the icebergs in Ice Cap zone.

 

[ZealousD]

I still think it's sad that the portable versions of Sonic outsourced to another team are so much better than the main games.

The problem is that the potential for greatness in 3D Sonics is there. Sonic Adventure 2 as a whole is crap but 4 levels (City Escape, Radical Highway, and the two jungle levels) keep me from selling it.

 

[dark10x]

Sonic 2 is king, but Sonic 3 has a neat parallax effect with the surface of the water in Hydro City. The parallax not work horizontally but vertically too. There's also warping effects with the icebergs in Ice Cap zone.

Yeah, that is very cool.

Did you know that additional parallax was added to the Japanese version of Sonic 1? It's a nice improvement.

 

[Instigator]

Yeah, that is very cool.

Did you know that additional parallax was added to the Japanese version of Sonic 1? It's a nice improvement.

Yeah and don't forget the extra warping in the Labyrinth zone!

 

[v1cious]

is it just me? or is every Sonic game starting to look exactly the same.