Sonic Rush Adventure

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

- Tagline

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 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. Blaze the Cat arrives in an attempt to stop Whisker from taking the scepter, but he sends a robot named Ghost Kraken after them. Although the robot is destroyed, Whisker escapes with the scepter.

It is revealed that when they were sucked into the tornado, Sonic and Tails were transported to the Sol Dimension. 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 you 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.

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 water bike and earn a hovercraft, cruise ship and submarine afterward, each with their own distinct style of play on the water. The water bike 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 water bike 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

 * Ghost 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 and ramming you
 * 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. 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.
 * Ghost 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 and squirting ink on the screen.
 * 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.
 * Ghost 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 If you are inside it too long you will burst out of it. Easily one of the hardest bosses in the game.there's also a glitch to speed up your movement by performing the spin dash and jumping.
 * Ghost 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 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, 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 Doctor Eggman and Eggman Nega. You play as Burning Blaze and Super Sonic while fighting it.

Vehicles

 * Wave Cyclone: The Wave Cyclone is the first boat you 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 thWaveCyclone.png 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 where too weak to damage larger foes. The bombs, though slow, worked well on larger enemies. And the Flame thrower 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 AquaBlast.png 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 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 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 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 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 his first game.
 * The scene in which Sonic and Tails are caught in a cyclone at a storm in the ocean and turn up unconscious on a beach and are discovered by Marine is similar to a scene in Episode 10 of Dragonball Z (Episode 16 in the uncut).
 * This game is similar to Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, in that both take place on an ocean with several islands in another dimension.
 * 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 boost 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. 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.