Sonic Rush Adventure

Sonic Rush Adventure is the second Sonic game for the Nintendo DS, and the sequel to the best-selling Sonic Rush. Sonic Rush Adventure sees Sonic on the high seas in Blaze's dimension. It was released on September 14, 2007 in Europe, arriving in the US on the 18th, and Australia on the 27th. The Japanese version was released October 18.

Story
Sonic and Tails were tracking a mysterious, unknown source of energy, when they were sucked into a tornado. The two find themselves on an island, where a raccoon girl named Marine wakes them up and takes care of them. Marine tells our dynamic duo that she wants to go adventuring. So Sonic and Tails set off for different islands and the adventure begins.

Along the way, Sonic will run into Blaze the Cat, who's trying to save the Jeweled Scepter from a band of pirates led by Captain Whiskers. It's later shown that Eggman & Nega worked together to unleash the Jeweled Scepter, and Sonic ends up beating them, able to return home.

At the end Sonic & Blaze found out that the emeralds brought them together once again. Tails made himself a ship to bring Sonic and Tails home and Sonic & Blaze once again promised to meet again one day.

Gameplay
As soon as you take control of Sonic, Tails gives you a tutorial on how to play the game, which is largely unnecessary for a straightforward title as this. As such, the player has the option of skipping the tutorial. As soon as you're finished learning how to do things such as move left or right, run through loops, and jump on robots, Tails will build you a waterbike.

To navigate the world map, you draw a line on the sea map to your island destination, and then you play a minigame to reach your destination, where you can collect rings and earn points. You start with the waterbike and earn a hovercraft, cruise ship and submarine afterwards, each with their own distinct style of play on the water. The waterbike focuses on dodging and mid-air stunts. The hovercraft has a chargeable blaster and can shoot down enemies. The cruise ship and submarine focus on blasting enemies and obstacles, the difference being the ship is more about choosing the right weapon and the sub is about fast blasting.

As Sonic (and later, Blaze), the player begins each adventure from Windmill Village on Southern Island. Bring up the Sea Chart, you have to plot your route using the stylus. After plotting the desired route, the character begins to race to one of the seven main islands using one of the four ships, a waterbike named Wave Cyclone, a sailboat named Ocean Tornado, a hovercraft named Aqua Blast, and a submarine named Deep Typhoon. On the Wave Cyclone, Sonic can collect rings and perform tricks to fill up a Boost Gauge. When Sonic uses the boost, the waterbike speeds up and becomes temporarily invincible until the Boost Gauge runs out. While using the Ocean Tornado sailboat, you can shoot enemies and rings with either bullets, cannonballs, or a flamethrower. Each varies in strength and clip size before reloading. Sailing in the Aqua Blast is roughly similar to using the waterbike, however there are no ramps, and holding the stylus down charges up a laser which is fired by releasing it. Using the Deep Typhoon submarine involves tapping (sometimes sliding) rhythmically on enemies and powerups to fire missiles at them.

When you arrive at one of the seven main islands, your objective is to get to the goal at the end of the level. Sonic Rush Adventure uses the trick system, first introduced in Sonic Advance 2, in which you can perform aerial tricks by pressing the A, B and R-button in mid-air. By doing tricks or defeating enemies, your Tension Gauge will fill up, allowing you to perform a Super Boost until it runs out. The Tension Gauge decreases over time and whenever you take damage. There are two acts per every level, and after completing them, a 3D boss battle is played.

After unlocking Blaze, the player is given a choice of what character to use. While neither character differs extensively from the other, there are several key differences. Blaze can hover, and her aerial tricks propel her higher. Also, when she encounters flames, they die down, allowing her to pass unharmed. As for Sonic However, Sonic is considerably faster than Blaze in comparison and he can perform a Homing Attack when he's close to an enemy. Blaze could as such be considered the 'easy' mode- her hovering allowing for the player to avoid pitfall deaths, and her tricks let her rescue herself from the same fate. Sonic is the more time-attack based character and is primarily used for gaining a higher score.

Another change is the inclusion of materials. These are used by Tails to build new vehicles for the player. Received at the end of each stage, the number gained is determined by rank, with S earning four and C earning just one. The materials earned depend on the stage. Bonus islands give a preset number of materials upon completion. When the game has been beaten once, materials are used to power-up the current vehicles to let them travel further and sustain more damage.

At Marine's house, you can also engage multiplayer battles using DS Download Play, as well as playing using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which allows you to race against other people online using Sonic or Blaze, or Ring Battles where the player has to collect as many rings as possible, spread throughout the map. In Time Attack, you can either race on the main stage or play a 5-lap race on hidden islands (this feature was originally introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 3). Saving is no longer automatic after completion of a level, and is done via the menu while on the island.

Among other events, Sonic can find Johnny and end up racing for one of the Chaos Emeralds. Blaze has her own set of jewels to collect, the Sol Emeralds, and she can earn them by completing a series of special missions. Collecting all fourteen Emeralds will unlock the final stage.

In the field, the game plays much like it has in previous Sonic handheld titles, and nearly identically to the original Sonic Rush. Since Sonic and Blaze work together in this title, the player may choose between them before each stage. Cutscenes remain the same regardless of player choice.

Bosses

 * Rex: A massive robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex. Damaged by jumping on its head. It attacks by biting, and later by trying to crush you under its neck.


 * Pendulum: An odd cylindrical robot that floats on the top screen, out of reach. It starts with one pendulum, but the number goes up to three as the battle progresses. Damaged by hitting it with its own pendulums. It attacks by sending out robots, making its pendulums grow spikes, or sending out waves of energy.


 * Kraken: A robot that resembles a gigantic octopus. As you hit it, it begins changing colors, making its attacks more vicious. You damage it by jumping on the tentacle with a crystal on the end. It attacks by smashing you with its tentacles.


 * Ghost Pirate: A giant humanoid robot that wears a cliched pirate hat, hence the name. It attacks by stomping you, charging you, breathing fire, or slashing you with its sword. You damage it by attacking the 'brain' at its core. After attacking it a few times, the core floats away, meaning you can no longer inflict damage unless you pursue. Attacking the core-less robot is useless, but it can cause it to fall apart and buy you some time to attack.


 * Whale: A huge whale robot that is easily the largest boss in the game. It attacks by biting the arena. You must go inside of it and traverse a small maze to get to its core, then attacking, which does damage. Inside, it attacks by firing missiles, dropping icicles, freezing you solid, and using fish robots. Easily one of the hardest bosses in the game.


 * Condor: A robot that slightly resembles a Chinese dragon, yet looks nothing like a condor. Its 'wings' are two platforms that you must land on to attack the condor. The condor fires spike balls from its tail, and occasionally green statues. By attacking these statues, you are launched up to the platforms.


 * Captain Whisker & Johnny: Captain Whisker and his first mate Johnny team up to attack you. Johnny attacks by charging. Whisker attacks by using shockwaves, saws, breathing fire, and firing his arms. Occasionally he will use Johnny as a missile. These two are actually fairly easy bosses.


 * Titan: The final boss. It is a large, humanoid robot without legs. It attacks with lasers, turrets, its own fists, and missiles. To damage it, you must defeat a turret and then enter it and fire yourself at the titan. Once you deliver the final blow, the Titan lands and uses a final attack; a massive laser that slowly consumes the whole battlefield. You must hit the Titans head before the laser hits you, or its an instant kill.


 * Egg Wizard: The extra boss. It wields the Jeweled Scepter, and resembles a large purple golem mixed with a snake. It is also the only boss to not have Ghost in its name, because it is piloted by Eggman and Eggman Nega. You play as Burning Blaze and Super Sonic while fighting it.

Critical Reception
Critical reaction to Sonic Rush Adventure was very positive. Noticeable improvements over the first Sonic Rush were fewer bottomless pits, better enemy placement, and no more use of supporting characters to occupy the lower screen during boss battles. However, many reviewers commented on having to replay levels multiple times, and weakness in the story sections. Game Rankings currently scores it 80% based on 33 reviews, compared to Sonic Rush ' s score of 83% based on 57 reviews.

Trivia

 * This game is being published by Nintendo in South Korea even though there is a Sega division there.
 * This is one of the few main Sonic games after Sonic 3 where Knuckles is completely absent and also one of the few games after Sonic CD where Amy is completely absent (mainly because both are back in Sonic's world).
 * The layout of Hidden Island #16 is exactly like Leaf Storm Act 1 from the last game.
 * The sky color of Blaze's world was originally yellow, as seen in the ending cutscene where Blaze returns to her dimension in Sonic Rush, but in this game, its color is sky blue (although it could be that she was at a high altitude or it was either sunrise or sunset).