Now this is Sonic Speed!

Now this is the power of boosting!

I have fond memories of Sonic Rush, it was one of the first games I ever got for my DS, and I remember playing it all the time, trying to get all the S ranks and do everything I can in this bite sized Sonic adventure. It was a game I could easily replay growing up when I needed something to kill the time, and the soundtrack is still something I find myself listening to frequently. Randomly, I got hit with the urge to try it out again, curious on if the game holds up as fondly as I remember it, so I booted up my DS and popped it back in, and while my memories definitely make it greater than the game actually is, I still had a pretty great time here!

Sonic Rush has us following the perspectives of two heroes this time, Sonic the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat. Both are setting off to gather the Chaos Emeralds/Sol Gems from the hands of Eggman/Eggman Nega, who want to harness the power of both in order to take over the world. Blaze is our newcomer here, hailing from the Sol Dimension who accidently ends up transported to Sonic’s world, same with her nemesis Eggman Nega. Each journey will follow our heroes gathering their respective gems and fighting one of the Eggmen along the way, before finally putting a stop to them once and for all and saving both dimensions. It’s a pretty standard Sonic plot, but I do like the characterization done here a lot, and Blaze’s journey and friendship with Cream the Rabbit is a dynamic that I’m a pretty big fan of. You get to see her go from this rather aloof, isolated woman, to someone who can trust in her friends and knows not to face everything alone. It’s simple but for Sonic it works, and the cutscenes are enjoyable enough whenever they appear. Really, my only issue with this game presentation wise is that I’m not the biggest fan of the models used in this game. I get that it’s the DS, but the 3D models here haven’t aged the best, and when in levels, they look really off, taking me off guard a lot of times. It’s a shame too because the stages themselves look great here, it’s just the character models themselves that don’t look well. The credits have cool sprites,why can’t we just use those ya know?

Sonic Rush follows the formula of the other classic 2D games, having you go through 7 zones of two acts each, collecting Chaos Emeralds from special stages along the way, and ending in a boss fight at the end of each zone. Level design is pretty great here, though this game does suffer from having some sudden slow parts that don’t feel great in Sonic, like some combat arenas, and autoscrollers. It’s not enough to ruin the game, but it is something that I noticed, especially in certain zones like Mirage Road and Huge Crisis. Boss fights also suffer from this as well, taking forever to defeat as most fights are just waiting for them to show off their weak point to get a single hit in. It just makes each one drag on forever, and it’s easily some of the worst fights in the series. The base final fight is especially egregious, taking ages to kill while also just being way too hard for a Sonic game. In terms of the special stages, it’s the half pipe again, but it’s at least some of the easiest versions of it, as you control Sonic via the touch screen in them which allows an insane level of precision compared to the other half pipes. I was able to easily first try each one, so I didn’t really mind the inclusion of them this time around. In terms of the stages themselves, they follow the basic Sonic formula, but introduce two new systems to spice up the gameplay here. The first is the trick system, which lets you spam a button while going up a spring or down a rail in order to gain more points for your score, letting you more easily obtain those S ranks (even if the S ranks are some of the easiest in the series.) Points aren’t the only thing tricks get you though, you also gain boost for your boost meter, which is the main new mechanic here. Now, most people know the boost from the 3D games, but it started in Rush, and it functions about the same here, just in 2D. You simply press a button and gain an insane amount of speed that destroys everything in its path. Now you could argue this makes a lot of the level design feel way too straight forward, but thankfully Sonic Rush has a lot more careful platforming this time around to where this never really feels like an issue. You can’t just boost through everything and win like Forces, you have to actually put some skill into it, so I don’t really mind the boost here, it works really well for what the game wants to do!

Sonic Rush was a pretty comfortable time returning to it, and while I didn’t find it as amazing as I did growing up, it still was a really fun time, and a great break from the hell I’ve been going through with Bubsy. The stages are a blast to go through, the soundtrack is incredible (thank you Hideki Naganumra) and it introduced Blaze the Cat, one of my favorite new additions to the cast. It was even good enough to get two sequels, which I’m pretty excited to delve back into again! If you’re looking for a good, bite sized Sonic adventure to go through, you can’t go wrong with Sonic Rush!