cap-dude

Feb 24 2008, 02:43 AM

Theres somthing I just didn't like about the knockout rounds. They got annoying somehow.

The free run where you have to find chao is awsome to. I still prefer the levels from Rivals, but the cayon level was a really cool addition.
Though next time all the storylines should be separate. Not joint teams

Metallix

Feb 24 2008, 05:12 PM

Yeah I agree, even though they are slightly different the same team members are 95% the same. Although the the stories were actually better than the first Rivals. I like Sonic's story and had a strange twist at the end.

What would have made this game perfect is special stages and needing to collect the emeralds while you go through them.

Quote:

 

Like the first Sonic Rivals, this game focuses on what made the original Sonic games so much fun.The thrill of zooming around zones, defying the laws of gravity and physics. There are rings to collect, spikes to avoid and enemies to bop. There are corkscrews and loop-the-loops, jump pads and cannons, vines to climb and gliders to fly. And although the gameplay feels 2D, the environments look 3D. The camera does a great job of capturing this, always tracking the action but occasionally zooming out or twisting to the front.

The levels are now less about trial and error and more about skill. Unlike the first game you will not always be going to the right. The levels also are much nicer than the 1st game's levels with classic themes such as a forest zone, casino zone, etc. My personal favorite is the Mystic Haunt Zone, that is similar to Sandopolis on Sonic & Knuckles, in which you have to hit switches to turn on the lights and kill the ghosts that follow you. There is also a desert south west themed zone which is new to the Sonic franchise.

The gameplay, as owners of the first Sonic Rivals game will know, concentrates on beating your opponent to the finish line of levels that play out much like the classics we know and love from the original Sonic games. The races emphasize on speed over exploration. You battle through three acts and a boss and the difficulty is about medium. Sometimes a tiny error, such as taking a single enemy hit, will knock you back into 2nd place and your opponents almost never make mistakes making it hard to catch up to them. The difficulty adds fun to the game. Unlike the first game where I only lost a race 3-4 times out of 100s of times, you are not always guaranteed to win and if you are ahead by a lot your opponent can catch up rather quickly instead of always lagging behind. This is called the rubberband effect and is featured in quite a few games. It makes it so things are not always one sided if someone gets a huge lead.

You can disrupt each other's progress with power ups you collect, like ice that freezes your opponent solid or a ball of fire that hurts them. While they control the same, there's a decent variation between the characters too. There are 8 different characters and each character has their own special ability which you can use once you've collected enough rings to fill up the meter. These vary in degrees of usefulness. Sonic's speed burst comes in extremely handy and is great fun to use, while Tails just flies which is slow and not very helpful, but can be handy depending what part of the level you are in.

The story, really only filler content, plays out like an episode of the cartoon series, with cringe-worthy voice acting. However not all of them are bad. I personally think they are all decent except the terrible ones like: Tails, Sonic, and Silver. The Chao have gone missing and Sonic and Tails investigate. It's up to you to sort the mess out. The story mode itself will keep you entertained for about five hours or so depending on skill level, with a character of your choice, each with their own storyline, which adds replayability. The sad part is characters in the same team such as Sonic and Tails have pretty much the same story. 90% of it is the same thing... So you really have to do the same story twice with each character.

Other main gameplay tweaks include time attacks, hidden Chao collecting, acquiring a certain amount of rings, and other such things that attempt to keep the racing aspect fresh. For instance the Knockout battles which are in similar fashion to Sonic Battle happen on Act 2 of the Zone. Here you face an opponent in an arena full of platforms. The objective is to attack your opponent so they lose their rings. If you attack them while they're completely ringless you knock them out and win one round. It's best-of-three and opponents tend to be quite skilled. The skill of your opponent adds to the fun of these segments. At first I expected it to be super easy just homing into them, but it is not as easy as you would think and I lost a few times. These change up the gameplay nicely.

The Boss battles are designed well. You and the rival compete to see who can kill the boss first. This means you have three things to worry about - being attacked by your rival, preventing them from attacking the boss, and attacking the boss yourself. Not very hard, but does provide a nice challenge. The bosses are all different and have different styles of gameplay. For instance the first boss you have to chase and attack when he is vulnerable, but another boss has you running in a circle and waiting till you can hit him instead of chasing him.

As for the music, it is lackluster. No real classic tunes, but they aren't horrible and the first one is pretty good. You won't be whistling the tunes while driving to work like you did with the music from Green Hill Zone though.

Card collection is a returning aspect from the original game, but this time the cards are handled in an Achievement-like manner. Cards are awarded for things like completing a race with lots of rings, attacking opponents multiple times, and even running a certain cumulative distance. You've then got the option of going old school with the free play mode, which allows you to explore the level however you want, and speed through the game on your own in classic Sonic fashion. Add to this the unlockables, including art from the old Sonic games, character costumes, and you've got a very enjoyable game.

Note: I did not review the multiplayer, as I have not tried that out yet.

SONICRIVALSMASTER

Jun 9 2012, 01:03 AM

One of my favourite Sonic games of all time. I have spent hours and hours playing this game and still enjoy playing. GET THIS GAME!