Sonic Rush Adventure

"A high-speed, high-seas adventure!"

- Tagline

Sonic Rush Adventure (ソニック ラッシュ アドベンチャー) is the second Sonic the Hedgehog 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 14 September 2007 in Europe, arriving in the US on 18 September and Australia on 27 September. The Japanese version was released on 18 October 2007.

Story
Sonic and Tails are tracking a mysterious, unknown source of energy in the Tornado, when they are sucked into a hurricane. The two then 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.

Using materials of different jewels and metals, Tails builds a waterbike called Wave Cyclone, which they use to sail to a jungle island and a machine island, collecting more materials as they go along to build a sailboat. While there, they encounter two evil robots (Ghost Rex and Ghost Pendulum), whom Sonic destroys in battle.

After Tails builds the sailboat, Ocean Tornado, they set sail for a small island. They run into a robot named Johnny, who believes he is the fastest, and races against Sonic. Sonic races Johnny a total of seven times in the course of the game, and Sonic receives a Chaos Emerald for winning each race.

When they arrive at an altar on the small island, an underwater cave called Coral Cave rises out of the water. Inside Coral Cave, they encounter a robotic pirate, Captain Whisker, and his minions Mini & Mum, as they steal the Jeweled Scepter. Suddenly, much to Sonic's surprise, Blaze the Cat arrives in an attempt to stop Whisker from taking the scepter. Both Sonic and Blaze are shocked to see each other, but Whisker sends a robot named Ghost Kraken after them. Although the robot is destroyed, Whisker escapes with the scepter.

When asking Blaze what she's doing here, she tells Sonic that she was gonna ask the same thing. Sonic and Tails then have a shocking realization, the tornado sent them to Blaze's world. Sonic and Blaze agree to work together and get the Jeweled Scepter back from Whisker. Tails builds a radar, which detects electromagnetic activity coming from an area where ghost ships are rumored to be. They go to the Haunted Ship and collect Silver Material, while fighting off Whisker's robot, Ghost Pirate. Whisker escapes again.

Tails then builds a hovercraft out of Blue, Iron, Green, Bronze, Red and Silver Materials, so they can go past obstacles to new areas, first going to Blizzard Peaks to ask the Vikings about the pirates. However, Whisker and his Ghost Whale have frozen the Vikings. Sonic and Blaze destroy Ghost Whale, and Blaze unfreezes the Vikings, who say that the pirates might be using an ancient ruin, which was once a city in the sky, as their hideout.

Heading east to an island where earthquakes are coming from, Sonic, Tails, Blaze, and Marine are blasted up to a floating island in the sky called Sky Babylon, where they confront Whisker and destroy his Ghost Condor. Whisker escapes, and Blaze reads an ancient monument which Whisker had intended to destroy, as it details the location to the pirates' hideout. As its entrance is underwater, Tails builds a submarine.

In the meantime, Blaze collects Sol Emeralds.

They find the underwater cave, but can't get through a gold door into the pirates' hideout. However, Whisker, being extremely dimwitted, inadvertently tells them that they must align the symbols on the door and that there are three markers on separate islands giving clues as to do this. After finding the three markers on hidden islands, Sonic, Tails, and Blaze tell Marine to stay at Southern Island, as the upcoming battle with the pirates will be more dangerous than any challenge they've faced so far. Marine insists that she go with them, and Blaze yells at her, and calls her a nuisance.

Sonic, Tails, and Blaze return to the gold door and enter Pirates' Island, where they confront Whisker and Johnny, who is revealed to be Whisker's first mate. Sonic and Blaze defeat Whisker and Johnny, who escape to the ocean through a hole in the ground, mentioning working for a boss. Marine, hoping to prove her value as a captain, chases the pirates to their ship, the Big Swell, but is captured by Whisker. Tails tricks Whisker into thinking the scepter is somewhere else on the ship, distracting him and allowing Sonic and Blaze to rescue Marine from Whisker's ultimate robot, Ghost Titan. In an intense battle, Sonic and Blaze destroy Ghost Titan, and the resulting explosion engulfs the entire ship and the pirates, sinking them while Sonic, Blaze, Tails, and Marine escape.

Marine revealed that she took the Jeweled Scepter from Whisker while on the ship, and gives it to Blaze, who returns it to Coral Cave. Afterward, Tails plans to use the Chaos and Sol Emeralds' power to build a device to return to their dimension. However, the Jeweled Scepter is stolen again, and when everyone rushes outside, they see that the thieves are Dr. Eggman and Eggman Nega, who are working together to unleash the power of the Jeweled Scepter with something called the "Power of the Stars", which they recently discovered is located below Southern Island. They created Whisker to do most of the work for them, but as Whisker is gone, they stole the scepter themselves.

Tails builds a machine called the Magma Hurricane, which digs below underground. Piloting a mech called the Egg Wizard, Eggman and Eggman Nega unleash the power of the Jeweled Scepter and become nearly unstoppable. Sonic and Blaze use the Chaos and Sol Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and Burning Blaze, and they fight Eggman and Eggman Nega. Much to Eggman's horror, Eggman Nega tries to blow up the world, but Marine stops him by shooting the Egg Wizard with a green energy ball. Blaze knocks the Egg Wizard into the air and Sonic slams through Eggman Nega's cockpit, blowing up the Egg Wizard.

At the end Sonic & Blaze found out that the emeralds brought them together once again, and didn't threaten to destroy both worlds this time because they were stable (and not abused by Eggman and Eggman Nega as they were before) and always seem to want Sonic and Blaze to win. Tails makes a ship to bring Sonic and Tails home (called the SS Tornado EX) and Sonic & Blaze once again promised to meet again one day.

Gameplay
As soon as the player take control of Sonic, the player is given a tutorial from Tails. As such, the player has the option of skipping the tutorial. Tails gives the player a water bike upon completion of the tutorial.

As Sonic (and later, Blaze), the player begins each adventure from Windmill Village on Southern Island. Bringing up the Sea Chart, the player has to plot their 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 water bike speeds up and becomes temporarily invincible until the Boost Gauge runs out. While using the Ocean Tornado sailboat, the player 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 the player arrives at one of the seven main islands, the gameplay here is just traditional 2D side-scrolling stages: get to the goal at the end of the level, which is identical to that of Sonic Rush. Sonic Rush Adventure uses the trick system, first introduced in Sonic Advance 2, in which the character can perform aerial tricks by pressing the A, B and R-button in mid-air. By doing tricks or defeating enemies, the Tension Gauge will fill up, allowing the character to perform a Super Boost/Fire Boost until it runs out. The Tension Gauge decreases over time and whenever the character takes damage. There are two acts per every level, and after completing them, a 2.5D 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 in Sky Babylon, 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, as such, can 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/faster times.

Another new gameplay feature is the inclusion of Materials. These are used by Tails to build new vessels for the player. Received at the end of each stage, the number earned is determined by rank, with S earning four and C earning just one. The Materials earned depend on the stage. When the game has been beaten once, Materials are used to power-up the current vessels to let them travel further and sustain more damage.

At Marine's house, the player can also engage multiplayer battles using DS Download Play, as well as playing using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which allows the player 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, the player can either race on the main stages 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 against him for one of the Chaos Emeralds. Blaze has her own set of seven 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.

Locations

 * Plant Kingdom
 * Machine Labyrinth
 * Coral Cave
 * Haunted Ship
 * Sky Babylon
 * Blizzard Peaks
 * Pirates' Island
 * Hidden Islands

Bosses

 * Ghost Rex: A massive robotic tyrannosaurus rex. Damaged by jumping on its head. It attacks by biting, and later by trying to crush Sonic under its neck and ramming into him.
 * Ghost 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. It is damaged by hitting it with its own pendulums. It attacks by sending out robots, making its pendulums grow spikes occasionally, or sending out waves of energy.
 * Ghost Kraken: A robot that resembles a gigantic octopus. As Sonic hit it, it begins changing colors, making its attacks more vicious. Sonic damages it by jumping on the tentacle with a crystal on the end. It attacks by smashing him with its tentacles and squirting ink on the screen.
 * Ghost Pirate: A giant humanoid robot that wears a pirate hat, hence the name. It attacks by stomping, charging, breathing fire, or slashing Sonic with its sword. You damage it by attacking the 'heart' at its core. Before the final blow, the core floats away around the arena, meaning Sonic/Blaze can no longer inflict damage unless he/she pursue for it. Attacking the core-less robot is useless, but it can cause it to fall apart and buy Sonic/Blaze some time to attack.
 * Ghost Whale: A huge whale robot that is easily the largest boss in the game. It attacks by biting the arena. Sonic/Blaze must go inside of it and traverse a small platforming stage to get to its core, then attacking, which does damage. Inside, it attacks by firing missiles, dropping icicles, freezing the player's character solid, and using fish robots If Sonic/Blaze is inside the Ghost Whale for too long he/she will burst out of it.
 * Ghost Condor: A robot that slightly resembles a Chinese dragon, yet looks nothing like a condor. Its 'wings' are two platforms that Sonic/Blaze must land on to attack the condor. The condor fires spike balls from its tail, and occasionally green statues. By attacking these statues, Sonic/Blaze are launched up to the platforms.
 * Captain Whisker & Johnny: Captain Whisker and his first mate Johnny team up to attack Sonic/Blaze. Johnny attacks by charging. Whisker attacks by using shock-waves, saws, breathing fire, and firing his arms. Occasionally he will use Johnny as a missile. These two are actually fairly easy bosses.
 * Ghost 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, Sonic must defeat a turret, enter in it and launch himself at the robot. Once Sonic/Blaze deliver the final blow, the Titan lands and uses a final attack; a massive laser that slowly consumes the whole battlefield. Sonic/Blaze must hit the Titan's head before the laser hits him/her, or it will instantly kill the player's character.
 * 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-aside from Captain Whisker and Johnny-to not have Ghost in its name, because it is piloted by Doctor Eggman and Eggman Nega. The player plays as Burning Blaze and Super Sonic while fighting it.

Vessels

 * Wave Cyclone: The Wave Cyclone is the first boat the player can control in the game. It requires one Blue Material, and one Iron Material to build. It is a 1-man water bike that is controlled via the stylus. It has the shortest distance of all water craft, and the lowest health as well. It has no weapons to boot. Sonic can instead perform stunts and speed boosts that plow through enemy robots along the way. The Wave Cyclone can also be launched from the larger boats to race against Johnny. Though how it is launched from the Deep Typhoon is unknown.
 * Ocean Tornado: The Ocean Tornado was built by Tails after Sonic clears the Machine Labyrinth zone. It required 5 Green materials, and 5 Bronze materials. The Ocean Tornado has the longest range of all sea craft, as well as the largest array of weapons. Sonic does not control the vessel directly, instead, he fires its guns. The three weapons onboard the vessel include a standard set of guns, bombs, and flame throwers. The guns worked best on most enemies, but were too weak to damage larger foes. The bombs, though slow, worked well on larger enemies. The flamethrower was used to collect rings. Due to its large size, the Ocean Tornado could not be used in seas too shallow, or too icy or rocky. This limited its mobility quite a bit.


 * Aqua Blast: Built soon after Sonic clears the Haunted Ship Zone, the Aqua Blast allowed Sonic to get past areas impeded by ice and rocks. It required 1 Iron Material, 1 Blue Material, 2 Green Materials, 2 Bronze Materials, 5 Red Materials, and 5 Silver Materials. The Aqua Blast had further range then the Wave Cyclone, but shorter (range) then the Ocean Tornado. The Aqua Blast was armed with a single laser gun that could be charged. The Aqua Blast could also spin and ram into foes. Sonic directly controlled this ship.
 * Deep Typhoon: Built after clearing the Sky Babylon zone, the Deep Typhoon is a sub-marine. Once again, Sonic fires the weapons and Tails controls the ship. It required 1 Green Material, 1 Bronze Material, 2 Red Materials, 2 Silver Materials, 5 Aqua Materials, and 5 Gold Materials. The Deep Typhoon can discover areas under water, and can move through rough waters (However, just like the Ocean Tornado, it cannot enter shallows). It fired torpedoes as its weapons. How it could locate Johnny on his waterbike (though it may have sonar to detect) and launch the Wave Cyclone under water is unknown.
 * Magma Hurricane: Built before entering the Deep Core zone, the Magma Hurricane is a drill that can be used to tunnel underground. Tails built it so Sonic and the others could try to stop Eggman and Eggman Nega from unleashing the Power of the Stars. This vessel cannot be controlled by the player, nor does it have any weapons. It only appears operational in a cutscene. The only interaction the player has with the Magma Hurricane is entering the gate, which leads to the extra zone.

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 was 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 the Hedgehog 3 where Knuckles is completely absent and also one of the few games after Sonic Adventure where Amy is completely absent (mainly because both are back in Sonic's world).
 * This is Marine's only appearance in a Sonic game so far as a supporting character.
 * The layout of Hidden Island #16 is exactly like Leaf Storm Act 1 from the last game.
 * Hidden Island #16's Invincibility theme is the percussion of its main music, similar to Sonic Rush's Invincibility themes.
 * The color of the skies in Blaze's world was originally green, as seen in the ending cutscene where Blaze returns to her dimension in Sonic Rush. However, in Sonic Rush Adventure, its color is sky blue. However, in the Sky Babylon zone, which is at high altitude, the sky is again green.
 * Almost all of the voice clips are recycled ones from Sonic Rush.
 * One of Sonic's poses in his artwork is similar to his artwork in the first Sonic the Hedgehog game.
 * Throughout the story after Blaze called Marine a 'nuisance and Marine sadly runs away, the player will not be able to do the missions he/she obtains (as she is not in her house) until the player clears Big Swell.
 * This game is similar to Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, in that both take place on an ocean with several islands in another dimension.
 * Blaze is shown to have acrophobia (first seen in the previous game, Sonic Rush) while on Sky Babylon when she eagerly tries to move everyone away from the edge.
 * This is the second game where Sonic can make a combo finisher, the first one is Sonic Rush. However, the combo finisher adds more power to the tension gauge depending on how many stars he got with his tricks, unlike in Sonic Rush.
 * Oddly enough when on the sub the game uses the same line as on other ships when encountering Johnny, even though the characters are underwater and there's no way Tails could have seen him (though the sub may have sonar to detect this but this has not been proved). And a similar problem occurs when Sonic travels to the first few zones on the 1-man wave cyclone, since Tails and Marine both appear in these areas.
 * Each normal level starts out with a small plank in a 3D view. At the end of this plank is a spring which launches the player into the level and also switches the camera back into 2D. If the player immediately presses R-left right after being launched off of this spring, the character will be back on the plank, only in a 2D view. The plank is a 3D model which can act glitchy; if the player looks up or down, it may disappear from the other screen.
 * The spring on the plank will launch the player forward, even if the character simply jumps on it.
 * If the player starts the level normally and later comes back to the start, the plank is completely gone.