Sonic Rivals

"Rivalry at its fastest"

- Tagline

Sonic Rivals (ソニック ライバルズ) is a game created by Monster Lab and developed by Backbone Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation Portable. This is the first Sonic game to be developed by a Canadian company. The sequel of this game is Sonic Rivals 2.

It features 2.5D gameplay, as players scramble to reach the end of a level before the other players do (whether they are computer-controlled or live opponents). It otherwise plays very much like the older titles in the series.

Sonic Rivals starts as a competition between Sonic and Knuckles, but expands as further rivals get added to the mix.

Plot

 * For the scripts of each individual storyline, see Category:Sonic Rivals scripts.

Prologue
Sonic the Hedgehog and his best buddy Miles "Tails" Prower investigate a mysterious land mass named "Onyx Island" which has suddenly appeared as if out of nowhere. The heroic duo spot Dr. Eggman who is already waiting for them and confronts him, suspecting that Eggman is plotting an evil scheme. Eggman reveals a card containing Amy Rose he took with a special camera which shocked Sonic and Tails. Sonic did not believe in this but Tails examined that it was scientifically possible for Amy to end up in her current state.

While Tails is conserving to Sonic about this, there is a sudden flash of light and Tails is gone, appearing as a card in Eggman's hand. Sonic panicked in disbelief upon this sight and at that moment, Knuckles the Echidna appeared and yelled at Eggman for causing the Master Emerald to disappear. Eggman responded by showing him a card of the Master Emerald and announces to achieve world domination by snapping everything with his camera so that the world is "nothing more than his lovely card collection" and issues Sonic and Knuckles a challenge to stop him and reclaim their desired cards before making his escape.

Sonic's Story
After accepting Eggman's challenge, Sonic raced against Knuckles throughout Forest Falls Zone to reach Eggman first. After reaching Eggman, Sonic demanded Tails and Amy's cards from the doctor who responded that if Sonic could defeat his Egg Turtle, he may allow the hedgehog a card of his choosing. Knuckles intervened that was not part of Eggman's deal, but Sonic was confident and accepted the challenge.

After defeating the Egg Turtle, Eggman turned to leave afterwards with Sonic at his tail but Silver appeared and told Sonic not to interfere as he had business with Eggman as well. Sonic did not appreciate the hedgehog's attitude and asked for his name. After having introduced himself, Silver disclosed was that he simply wanted to get to Eggman before Sonic. Being not the one to turn down a challenge, Sonic happily accepted to race against his new rival. After a race against Silver through Colosseum Highway Zone, Sonic reached Eggman and once again demanded the cards from him but Silver's not through with Sonic and they both confronted Eggman's Egg Falcon against each other.

As the fight continued, Silver deemed it too dangerous to get close to Sonic and teleported him to Sky Park Zone. While there, Sonic encountered Shadow and thought he was looking for Eggman as well, leading to a race between the arch-rivals. After that, Sonic came out on top, feeling proud of himself for doing so. Eggman appeared and complimented on his victory and issued Metal Sonic to race against his organic doppelgänger, seeing whether Sonic is really the fastest thing in the world. Sonic outraced Metal Sonic but Eggman, before making his getaway, mentioned something about the strongest and fastest to which Sonic becomes suspicious about. He then met Silver again and claims he figured out the doctor's motives, causing Silver to race against him once again. After a race through Crystal Mountain Zone, Sonic caught up to Eggman, proving to him that he is the fastest and the strongest and demands Tails' card. Eggman muttered to himself that he had enough data for an unknown purpose and intends to defeat Sonic so no one could interfere with him in the past or the future with the Egg Lynx. When that failed, Sonic finally retrieved Tails' card, restoring him to normal. Knuckles appeared and was shocked to see Tails restored. Sonic mocked that Knuckles will have to be quicker to stay on Eggman's heels, with the latter retaliating by challenging Sonic to a race once again.

Racing through Death Yard Zone, Sonic beat Knuckles and caught up with Eggman. The doctor sends an upgraded Metal Sonic to race against Sonic but the robot doppelganger lost again. Frustrated with this result, Dr. Eggman decided to team up with Metal Sonic against Sonic with the Egg Kong. Sonic still defeated the Egg Kong which resulted in Eggman losing it and departs for outer space to use his special camera to turn the entire planet into a card. Knuckles arrived, noting he was too late. Tails arrived with a new Tornado plane so the trio could catch up to Eggman.

Riding to Eggman's Meteor Base Zone in outer-space, Sonic set his differences with his rivals aside as they aided him to navigate through the base to find Eggman. Soon, Sonic and Tails spotted Eggman trying to escape into a giant rocket with the special camera attached. Dr. Eggman claimed that he had enough energy to take a picture of the planet after he places one final card into his energy transfer device. Sonic remembered it to be Amy's card which he has forgotten about. Not intending to let Eggman succeed, Sonic confronted the doctor on his rocket and defeated Eggman before restoring Amy. Amy was happy of Sonic's heroism and suggested they could live together forever but Sonic came up with an excuse to rescue other victims trapped in Eggman's cards.

Knuckles' Story
Knuckles arrived at Onyx Island in order to discover the disappearance of the Master Emerald, noting that the island had a similar presence. He spots Dr. Eggman and suspected at him for the disappearance of the Master Emerald. The doctor admits this and issues him a challenge if he wished to reclaim it back. Knuckles had to race against Sonic who also needed to reach Eggman through Forest Falls Zone. After reaching Eggman, Knuckles asked Eggman to maintain his promise to give him the Master Emerald card but the doctor would only consider giving it if he beats the Egg Turtle, much to Knuckles' disgrace who resolves to take it back with force.

After defeating the Egg Turtle, Eggman escaped and then Shadow appeared who mocked at Knuckles for allowing the doctor to escape. Not appreciating Shadow's insult, Knuckles is nearly about to retaliate until Shadow wanted business with the doctor, tempting Knuckles to race him throughout Colosseum Highway Zone. The duo encountered Eggman and demanded their business with him but Eggman uncooperatively refuses to do so and attacked them with his Egg Falcon.

After it is destroyed, Eggman seemingly wanted to give the Master Emerald card to Knuckles only to trick him and make his escape again. Knuckles is then transported to Sky Park Zone where he encountered Silver who mumbled to him about what Eggman is carrying. Knuckles explains the camera's function which triggered Silver to ask how the doctor obtained it in a rude manner before leaving with Knuckles on his trail. Knuckles caught up to Eggman and wanted to know how he managed to make the Master Emerald disappear from Angel Island in the first place before the doctor gave a response that the land mass he is at currently is actually Angel Island, leaving Knuckles confused. Eggman then issued Metal Sonic to race against Knuckles.

Shadow's Story
Shadow is summoned to a strange island by Dr. Eggman via a cryptic transmission asking for his aid, Shadow is able to successfully locate Eggman, but once he mentions the cryptic message to the doctor, Eggman denies it. The mystery continues to unfold itself as Rouge warns him of an impending danger and upon stumbling across a secret about Eggman, her transmission is cut short. Shadow continues his quest to uncover the truth about Dr. Eggman.

Upon encountering him several times, Eggman admits that he is Doctor Eggman Nega who plans to take a picture of the entire world (and trapping it in a card) within his camera. The real Doctor Eggman is eventually rescued who escorts him to Nega's space station to stop Nega's ultimatum. Along the way, he is assisted by Silver and Sonic. After defeating Eggman Nega, Rouge is finally rescued.

Silver's Story
Hailing from the future, Silver was responding to a distress signal, of an unknown source. He later discovered that Dr. Eggman Nega is linked to this distress signal and was using a strange camera to turn people and/or objects into cards. Silver states that he will bring Eggman Nega back to the future where he belongs.

Supporting Characters

 * Miles "Tails" Prower: Upon journeying to Onyx Island with Sonic, Tails is turned into a card by Dr. Eggman's camera as proof to Sonic that he indeed has the power to do so. It's now up to Sonic to save both him and Amy, who has also been turned into a card. He is later rescued by Sonic.
 * Amy Rose: The first to be turned into a card by Dr. Eggman's camera; Sonic and Tails journey to Onyx Island to discover this shocking truth. After Tails himself gets turned into a card, Sonic sets out to save them both. She is later rescued by Sonic.
 * Rouge the Bat: After discovering the truth about "Dr. Eggman", Rouge suddenly disappears which is later revealed that she was turned into a card. Shadow sets out to save Rouge whilst trying to figure out what she had discovered.
 * Dr. Eggman: Eggman, in fact, isn't the troublemaker in this story. He is actually the victim. Eggman NEGA turns Eggman into a card before the main storyline actually occurs. Shadow retrieves a distress signal from Eggman when the game first starts, but Shadow then states it was sent 6 hours earlier. After Eggman is saved by Silver and Shadow, he helps them get into outer space to stop Eggman Nega's evil plans.

Villains

 * Doctor Eggman Nega: As it turns out, Eggman Nega is the main antagonist of the game who hails from the future. Masquerading as Dr. Eggman in the past, he uses a special camera to turn everyone into cards on Onyx Island, an island he brought along with him from the future. His master plan is to change his destiny by turning the whole planet into a card that he can control. It is revealed that he was never an alter ego, but a descendant of Eggman.

Features
This game features:


 * Five playable characters, including: Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Shadow the Hedgehog, Silver the Hedgehog, and Metal Sonic.
 * Sonic Rivals' gameplay is similar to classic Sonic games, but now, keeping with the Rivalry Theme, players can jostle, trip and shove opponents around.
 * There are eight types of Power-Ups: Fire, Ice, Mine, Illusion, Wind, Ring Magnet, Lightning and Star. The effects of each one are different for each character, though generally have similar outcomes. For example : the Fire Power-Up gives the character a fire attack, the Ice Power-Up gives the character an ice attack and the Star Power-Up gives the character a special attack specific to that character (called the "Signature Move").
 * Single player consists of a Story Mode, in which each of the five playable characters have separate story lines, and must race each other to the finish line in each stage in order to thwart Dr. Eggman's various schemes.
 * Multiplayer mode is played Adhoc, and players can customize their racers using collectible cards won in Single player, trade cards with friends, and wager cards on races.
 * Boss battles at the end of levels require you to, not only defeat the boss, but also prevent your opponents from defeating it before you.
 * Badniks are featured as enemies, but many are similar to those of Sonic Heroes.
 * Customizable costumes for the characters to wear like in Sonic Adventure 2.

Gameplay
Sonic Rivals consists of many different modes: Single Player Mode consists of Story Mode, Challenge Mode, and Cup Circuit. Wireless Play Mode will have you participating in Multiplayer games and races whereby players can wager cards or just race for fun. The game's loading screens will give you tips on using each character to your advantage when racing. Although it was assumed that a Boss Attack mode will be featured in the game, these challenges have been implemented into Challenge Mode.

Performing objectives throughout the game will give you collectible cards. Such tasks include getting a certain number of rings, hitting your rival a certain number of times and getting to the goal within a certain amount of time.

Zones
The game contains six Zones (five of which are in Onyx Island) each with three respective acts, the third being a boss battle (except for Sky Park, which only has two acts), totaling 17 acts per character. The Zone names are as follows:


 * Forest Falls Zone: A strange forest with terrain resembling Green Hill Zone. This forest contains many waterfalls, and rivers that flow through it. This is the first level. The boss is the Egg Turtle, a large robot turtle.
 * Colosseum Highway Zone: A desert ruin based on Ancient Roman architecture. The boss is the Egg Falcon, a large robotic bird that resembles the Egg Hawk.
 * Sky Park Zone: A carnival level. Carnival-like attractions appear throughout the stage to help you reach the goal. As mentioned earlier, this Zone only has two Acts and no Boss.
 * Crystal Mountain Zone: An icy mountain level with many traps. The boss is the Egg Lynx, a large robotic lynx.
 * Death Yard Zone: A level filled with machinery, fans and other forms of metallic scraps. As in Sky Park, you have to win a race against Metal Sonic in the second Act. The boss is the Egg Kong, a King Kong-like robot.
 * Meteor Base Zone: Eggman Nega's base hidden within an asteroid belt. In this final level of the story modes, the player will be assisted through both levels by two characters. Sonic is assisted by Knuckles and Shadow; Knuckles by Sonic and Silver; Shadow by Sonic and Silver; and Silver by Knuckles and Shadow. The Boss is Egg Destroyer, a spaceship flied by Eggman Nega.

Bosses

 * Egg Turtle - The boss of Forest Falls Zone. Seen in screenshots of the boss battle, featuring both Sonic and Shadow. It attacks with its head and tail.
 * Egg Falcon - The boss of Colosseum Highway Zone. Set in a circular arena, this boss flies overhead and drops fire and ice bombs. It bears a heavy resemblance to the "Egg Hawk" boss from Sonic Heroes.
 * Egg Lynx - The boss of Crystal Mountain Zone. This boss fires crystal missiles at the players.
 * Egg Kong - The boss of Death Yard Zone. It appears to be based on a gorilla's head, and fights by firing missiles then releasing its Brain Capsule. Metal Sonic helps attack your character in this confrontation.
 * Egg Destroyer - The boss of Meteor Base Zone. The final battle of the game takes place on board a large rocket, which you will have to fight your way through Metal Sonic and various other obstacles to get to Eggman Nega's capsule.

Enemies

 * Venoom - Spider-like creatures that appear in Forest Falls. Official concept art of the game confirms the name.
 * Vultur - Vulture-like bird robots that attack you throughout Colosseum Highway.
 * Mono Clown - Jester robot that rolls on one large wheel and punches players in Sky Park.
 * Yetee - Giant mechanized ice bots that can be seen hunched over in Crystal Mountain. In-game loading screens confirms name.
 * Metal Hound - Dog robots that attack you throughout Death Yard.
 * Drill Worm - Worm robots that can use their mouths to drill holes in the ground. Found in Meteor Base. Official concept art of the game confirms the name.
 * Egg Pawn - Another one of Eggman's robots, first seen in Sonic Heroes, often appears throughout the various stages.
 * Flapper - The cannon shooting robot as seen in Sonic Heroes is seen throughout the stages once again, now equipped with homing missiles.

Unlockable Costumes
Collecting all of a character's cards will unlock outfits related to that character. For example, collecting all of Amy's cards unlocks a pink track suit that can be equipped into one of the rivals (although this appears to be missing in the final version of the game for some reason).

Each character has a total of 3 unlockable costumes:
 * Sonic: Leather, Ice, Black Tie
 * Knuckles: Leather, Armor, Eggman
 * Shadow: Leather, Flame, 80's
 * Silver: Leather, Lightning, Christmas
 * Metal Sonic: Leather, Circuits, Jester

Music
Chris Renzanson is the main composer of Sonic Rivals and its soundtrack. A track entitled "Quick Trip To Paradise" was composed by Lee Brotherton and used as the music for the Forest Falls Zone and the title screen of the game.

Cards
Sonic Rivals features an extensive collectible card system that spans a total of 150 cards, featuring cameo appearances of robots, major characters, minor characters, boxarts, and items from past Sonic games such as Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure, Shadow the Hedgehog, and even dating back to Sonic the Hedgehog. The cards themselves are used to unlock secret costumes for the characters among other things.

Reception
The game received mixed to positive reviews upon release. IGN rated the game a 7.4 out of 10, highlighting its replay value, its graphics, as well as its entertaining stages. GameSpot, which rated the game 6.9/10 said there was a good sense of speed and colorful graphics but that the level design was frustrating and tedious to get through. On average, this game has received a 69.3% through 12 reviews, according to Game Rankings' official score.

Trivia

 * This is the first Sonic game for the PSP.
 * There are three types of clothing for each character, the first is leather, which comes in different colors. The second is misc, which is a different style of clothing for each character, Sonic's is called Black Tie, Knuckles' is called Eggman, Shadow's is called 80's and Silver's is called Christmas. And the last is elemental, which represents different elements for each character, Sonic's is Ice, Knuckles' is Metal, Shadow's is Fire, and Silver's is Lightning.
 * This is Silver's first handheld appearance and (canonically) the first time Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles meet him (due the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) being erased from history).
 * If one were to count Metal Sonic as a hedgehog, then that would make Knuckles the only playable character who isn't a hedgehog.
 * Inversely, this makes Amy the only hedgehog not playable in the game.
 * Metal Sonic is the only playable character who is not on the boxart.
 * In the unlockable card for Coconuts, it is misspelled as "Coconut".
 * Shadow's artwork in this game is similar to his running artwork in Sonic Adventure 2.
 * Also, if you look closely, Shadow on the boxart has his eyes towards Knuckles. In the game, it's the same artwork, but his eyes are back to facing the front.
 * There is a hidden test room labeled "Test Room 2" in the coding. It can be loaded using a codebreaker, but it is just an empty room and you can't move.
 * The game will be available for download for the PS Vita along with Sonic Rivals 2.
 * Silver's outfit for the Secret Freedom Fighters in the Archie Comics is the same as his race outfit.
 * The Secret Freedom Fighters cover is also based off of the Sonic Rivals cover.
 * Some voice clips of Sonic were ripped from Sonic Rush.