• Publisher: Sega
  • Release Date: Sep 18, 2007
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 30 Ratings

  • Summary: Sonic returns to the DS with all the classic 2D dual screen action of "Sonic Rush," as well as a new high-seas adventure where he clashes with ruthless pirates. As Sonic, set off from Windmill Village to explore seven islands for action-packed adventures spread across a large map. As you venture, you'll uncover valuable items and materials that will help Tails build new ships so that Sonic can track down the villainous pirates in a variety of ways. With a fleet of up to five ships, including a submarine, water bike, and hovercraft, you will use the touch screen technology in exciting new ways to control your ships as you race across the ocean gathering rings, busting tricks, and torching pirate ships in fierce ship-to-ship battles. At the end of each level, test your skills in epic 3D boss battles that span both screens, including the ultimate showdown with the evil pirate, Captain Whisker. A high-speed ocean adventure: Battle with wicked pirates both on land and at sea throughout 14 action stages on seven different islands. Navigate the oceans and perform aerial tricks to avoid treacherous water mines and aim your cannons during ship-to-ship battles by using the stylus and touch screen on the Nintendo DS. Compete with friends via Wireless DS Single-Card Download Play in two battle modes. Two players will face-off in intense dual screen races or collect the most items spread throughout the map in exciting mission battles. [Sega] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 32
  2. Negative: 1 out of 32
  1. New and old interwoven, Sonic Rush Adventure is a shining example of what a sequel can and should be.
  2. Overall, I thought this game was an excellent representation of a series that has a sacred place in the heart of many a gamer.
  3. Multiplayer now includes online play, but most people will probably focus on bettering their online time trial rankings.
  4. A Sonic game struggling for its own identity. [Nov 2007, p.108]

See all 32 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 12
  2. Negative: 1 out of 12
  1. MarkK.
    9
    An improvment over Sonic's previous DS outing, and just the type of gameplay that fans demand of rather then the trash offered by Shadow's guns. It makes more use of the touch screen and sailing across the ocean world certainly works well. It's still as fast and frantic as ever, but my only complaint is that you still only play as Sonic and Blaze. Prehaps if you got to play as Tails, Knuckels or even the new Marine it would offer a bit more. Expand
  2. DackC.
    8
    The hype and spree of critical praise that briefly enshrouded Sonic Rush seemed not so much to do with its gameplay than with its breaking the chain of stale mediocrity that had bogged down the series for about the past half-decade. This feat, in retrospect, was far more impressive (Let's face facts; Shadow had a gun, for Christ's sake), but the truth is the game was simply decent to the Advance series' tepid. Its flaws were still there; in its buzzkill enemy placement, lackluster bosses, and of course, the abundance of bottomless pits. But some more-inspired level design, Hideki Naganuma-penned music, and higher bracket of half-baked plot helped the game feel a whole lot fresher than the shallow GBA trilogy. Well, Sonic Rush Adventure capitalizes on that freshness. In fact, it smacks the nail so square on the head that it really feels like the kind of game that should be made on the DS, instead of a lazy Genesis-glory-day-chase. Someone at either Sega or Dimps did their homework on those 90's titles and came out merely with enough inspiration to patch up the leaky spots of Rush. The result is an honest-to-God sequel. Anything and everything you liked about Rush's gameplay is in here, only difference is whatever rubbed you the wrong way is probably gone as well. Each and every one of the bosses (barring the first) is a delicious challenge because of the strategy required, (instead of the maddening necessity to avoid cheap auto-kill hits); the badniks are in the right spots (and much more interesting-looking than all that Egg Pawn inanity); and somehow surviving the plothole nexus of Sonic 360, Blaze reprises her role as the lone playable alternative, but save for some Sol Emerald boss-replay challenges, she's purely optional this time out. Meaning you only have to play the same game once this time. Sure, it's probably beginning to sound like a showcase of improvement, but if Rush Adventure has one fault, it's a refusal to say when. To pad out the skimpy seven-zone playtime, you have to access these levels by setting sail and steering some kind of vessel to each one. You'll start with a fun (but short-range) jet-ski and expand to a set of larger-range ships that seem to exist only to make you miss the jet-ski enough to not mind it's also the meat and potatoes of the special stages. It can be tedious Expand
  3. It's a geniunely good game. Good, not great, like every Sonic game. The controls are a little sloppy, the level design is also. The story is confusing, and unnessesary. Collapse
  4. Sonic Rush Adventure has a lot going for it; bright and vibrant graphics, a goofy plot-line with fun dialogue, fantastic boss battles... Heck, even the sections where you travel between the islands on a boat are well designed and fun to play. Unfortunately, the action stages (which should be the meat of the game) are simply bland and uninspired. You spend all your time zipping around through loops and tubes, never stopping to indulge in such fanciful things as, say, actual platforming. Of course, this approach isn't always wrong, as aptly proved by the excellent Sonic Advance series, but in this game it just feels... Tedious. This is doubly compounded by the structure of the game, which FORCES you to repeatedly play levels in order to gain the materials to build new items and boats. It's usually a pleasure to re-play stages in Sonic, but here they turn it into a chore that hampers progression. There are a ton of great Sonic games. This isn't one of them. Expand

See all 12 User Reviews