Nintendo DS #1: Sonic Rush Adventure

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher: Sega

Release Date: 9-18-07

For a change Sonic battles a robot with a moustache instead of a guy with a moustache who makes robots

 There are few games that highlight the most fatal flaw in 21^st century Sonic games than Sonic Rush Adventure. In an age where games need to be long, Sonic games only work when they are short. The classic Genesis games were meant to be quick bursts, so the levels went racing by for one or two hours. This was alright in the 16-bit era where permadeath was the norm and games would have to be played many times before they were beaten. By the time the 21^st century rolled around permadeath was no longer acceptable in action games and Sonic suffered a major identity crisis that he never really recovered from. Sonic Rush Adventure might be a good game if it was only two hours long. It would also be hard to recommend for purchase. Unfortunately they didn’t think of a good way to extend the game and so its overall quality really suffers.

Joel and the Bots would say this game is a lot of fun...at first

 The levels themselves are set up like a classic sonic game and they are admittedly fun. They go by quickly and offer a decent level of challenge. The problem all boils down to execution. Each level gives you items, and Tails uses these items to build machines to progress through the game. So the only way to progress through the game is to play through the same levels over and over. Even a fun level gets old if played multiple times in a row. There is an overworld, but it’s mostly for show. There are a few NPCs to talk to, but they just give you quests, and these quests just give you more opportunities to play the same levels again. And there are a hundred of these quests. I couldn’t imagine feeling motivated enough to not only earn the highest rating on the levels but also complete all the side quests. I can’t think of a game I have ever played where I wanted to play side quests less. I just wanted to hurry up and get to the end. At least it had some fun bosses.

 

I did enjoy the water sections

I wish I had more to say about this one. It’s just one of those games where one element of it dominates the whole discussion. I just can’t get past the repeating levels. It’s the same problem I’ve had with almost every other modern Sonic game. They just don’t know how to expand the gameplay. Because of this I can’t rank this game very high. Remember Beethoven? I seem to be coming back to that game a lot these days. I am going to rank this one #51 right behind Beethoven. It’s better than Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000 which suffers from the same problem except even worse. It’s a game I thought I would like and certainly did until I played it for a while. The fun levels keep it out of the red, but it’s still not a very fun experience. 

1.  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

2. Super Mario Odyssey

3. The Legend of Zelda

4. Galaga

5. Donkey Kong

6. Super Mario Bros. 2

7. Exodus: Ultima III

8. Pac-Mania

9. Wrecking Crew

10. Super Pac-Man

11. Pac-Man

12. Viva Pinata

13. Dragon View

14. Excitebike

15. Drakkhen

16. Todd’s Adventures in Slime World

17. Arc the Lad

18. Clu Clu Land

19. Tails’ Adventures

20. Scrapyard Dog (Lynx)

21. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX

22. Mickey’s Racing Adventure

23. Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars

24. Metro-Cross

25. After Burner

26. Double Dragon

27. Alex Kidd in Miracle World

28. Panic Restaurant

29. Felix the Cat

30. Adventure

31. Ice Climber

32. Gaplus

33. Dragon Spirit

34. Pinball (NES)

35. Ninja Golf

36. Splatterhouse 2

37. Fast Eddie

38. Super Soccer

39. Gopher

40. Dracula: Crazy Vampire

41. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)

42. Entombed

43. Red Sea Crossing

44. Baraduke

45. Demon’s Crest

46. Brave Battle Saga

47. Evoland

48. Tennis

49. Renegade

50. Beethoven

51. Sonic Rush Adventure

52. Jeremy McGrath’s Supercross 2000

53. Hogan’s Alley

54. Gamma-Attack

55. The Legend of “Valkyrie”

56. Galaxian

57. Action Fighter

58. Dragon Crystal

59. Cosmic Commuter

60. Hot Pixel

61. PocketBike Racer

62. Wild Gunman

63. Defunct

64. Gyruss (2600)

65. Looney Tunes Racing

66. Squidlit

67. Gordo 106

68. Baseball

69. Space Jockey

70. Home Alone

71. Birthday Mania

72. Bad Street Brawler

73. Burly Men at Sea

74. Wayne’s World

75. WeakWood Throne

76. X-Men (HyperScan)

77. My Name is Mayo

78. Marvel Heroes

79. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends

80. Ben 10