Sonic Rush Adventure



Sonic Rush Adventure is the second Sonic game for the 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.

Cast of Characters
Sonic the Hedgehog - One of the two playable characters, and the only one controllable from the beginning. He controls much the same as he has in the previous Sonic handheld titles.

Blaze the Cat- The other one of the two playable characters. Hailing from another dimension, she is a pyrokinetic princess, and the guardian of the Sol Emeralds. Sonic taught her the true value of friendship in the first Sonic Rush, and now she's friends with Sonic.

Miles "Tails" Prower- Sonic's best friend and sidekick. Tails is alongside Sonic from the beginning, despite being unplayable. He builds the different boats, waterskis, etc. that the player uses to traverse the sea.

Marine the Raccoon - A new character to the series, and the first character Sonic and Tails meet; she awakens them when they wash ashore her home island. Marine has an dreams of sailing the high seas, but gets ahead of herself and destroys her ship, the S.S. Marine, early on, thus requiring the help of Sonic and Tails. She speaks in an exaggerated, if not overtly stereotypical, Australian accent, often including Australian slang such as "streuth" and "fairdinkum?" in her sentences, and ending nearly every sentence with "mate."

Captain Whiskers - The main villain of the game, Captain Whiskers is a robot pirate captain that looks remarkably like Dr. Eggman, and who wishes to obtain the jeweled scepter. It is revealed that he is a joint creation between Dr. Eggman himself and Eggman Nega.

Johnny - Johnny is reportedly the fastest waterbiker ever, and feels the need to show his superiority to Sonic at waterbiking. His appearance is a mix between a torpedo or submarine and a shark. He is raced for Chaos Emeralds.

Story
Sonic and Tails were tracking a mysterious, unknown source of energy, when they were sucked into a tornado. Sonic and Tails 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.

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 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.



You draw a line on the sea map to your island destination, and then you play a little waterbiking minigame, where you can collect rings, dodge enemies and mines, and leap off of ramps. Afterwards, the game plays much like it has in previous Sonic handheld titles, and nearly identically to the original Sonic Rush.



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.

Secrets
This game has secrets.