Sonic Rivals

Review from Matt - Monday, 26 February 2007 @ 12:00am

I've had a gay crush on Sonic the Hedgehog for some time now. It started when I was about 10 years old. My mum bought me a Sega Master System 2, and I got Sonic 1 and 2 on it. Back then I was naïve and thought that I just liked the game. But there must be more to it. There must be more to it for a passion that has now spanned 20 years, over 4 different consoles?

Now it's 2007 and I get to see Sonic all over again.

We've had good times and bad, Sonic and I. The relationship has been a little strained on occasions. Things were good in the early days. Then he left me for a while. It's probably just as well. While he was off doing Mega-CD, Sonic 3D, 32x things, I was pretty much out of the scene. I didn't get my heart broken. Things have been tough recently. The recent Sonic games, particularly on the Xbox 360 have suffered from insanely long loading and poor design, as well as shoddy cameras and lacklustre control.

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But in 2001 there was Sonic Adventures. If you are really a gamer you have a soft spot for the Dreamcast, and if you had a Dreamcast and didn't play Sonic Adventures you basically robbed yourself of a great gaming experience.

There were good and bad things about Sonic Adventures. The Chao system was one of the best "subgames" ever in a game, and was quite a remarkable feat, well and truly eating more of my time than the game itself.

The other impressive thing was semi-scripted running sequences. At certain points in the game, the camera was taken over, and control became limited to jumping and "run or don't run". Running was advised. These sequences slid you through the jungle on vines, or catapulted you through the level up to a ledge, or most memorably had you run along a dock while the level was destroyed behind you by a giant killer whale.

Welcome to Sonic Rivals.

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More than anything Sonic Rivals is a return to these scenes. In fact, it's pretty much JUST these scenes, with a little bit of tweaking. For a start, you have slightly more control in Rivals than you did in Adventures.

Secondly, and most importantly, you're racing against someone. The "rivals" part of the name suggests that you're (almost) always up against another character to race through the level. This is both the game's strong point and weak. For a start, why do Sonic/Knuckles/Shadow keep fighting?! Didn't they sort this crap out in 1994/2001?! It's just silly, this continual "battling followed by acceptance and then coming together to help out" thing they constantly do.

The story is kind of arbitrary and stretched. Dr Eggman (remember when he was Robotnik?) has made some sort of magical camera that can turn people into cards. Most of your friends (Tails, Amy, etc) have been transformed, and you have to race your "rivals" to get to Eggman and retrieve a card at the end of each level. Honestly, the old stand-by of Dr Eggman repeated making large and "unbeatable" robots with a weak spot that you have to hit is getting very over-used. It's been 20 years now. It has started to wear pretty thin.

Where Sonic Rivals really stands out is speed and general flashy shininess. Like all Sonic games it's bright and colourful, and like all Sonic games SHOULD be it's fast and frantic. The hurtling nature of it, jumping on platforms, over obstacles, and onto enemies, and careening through a variety of scenery, all add to the fun.

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Sonic Rivals is a 3D game, but much like Ultimate Ghosts n Goblins, the 3D is just a fake for a 2D world. It works better in Sonic Rivals, though, making it feel like a real place you're just running through a part of, rather than an oddly thin environment.

If anything it's a game that's about level design. Branching paths to a common goal, short cuts, elaborate setpiece shots, impressive distance shots and dramatic camera angles.

But it's not perfect. Nothing is. The contrived plot and story just get in the way, which is pretty standard for Sonic games. They're pretty much just excuses to run through pretty levels. The problem is the levels themselves. While they're impressive and fun they're the same levels and styles we see in every Sonic game. There's the sky level, the Green Hill level, the suspiciously technologically advanced ancient ruins, the irritating mechanical level with a lot of conveyor belts, and the outer space level that inexplicably has both gravity and breathable air.

There are a few new things, such as a funfair style level whose roller coaster feel suits the racing theme pretty well. But in general it's the same old, same old. It's hard to tell the difference between pleasant familiarity and just plain unoriginality sometimes. Again, I'm starting to think that they're leaning towards the latter.

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The main problem with the levels, though, is that there aren't really that many of them.

The point of Sonic Rivals is not to race and win but to collect cards. That means winning as Sonic. Then winning as Knuckles. Then winning as Shadow. Then winning as Silver. There really isn't very much difference between their "handling" and the levels are identical between the characters. Apart from just getting the cards there is pretty much no incentive to play it through more than once, and the cards really aren't that good.

Certain cards DO allow more than just collection, though. Certain cards actually unlock features of the game. Completing the game as a character, for example, allows you to unlock that character's colours for the menus. Whoop de doo. Other cards let you customise the character with a few new outfits, but they're pretty uninspired, and too small to even see properly on the character. Getting all four of a particular card type allows you to unlock Metal Sonic as a playable character.

What I'm probably failing to get across here is that for all its issues and limitations, Sonic Rivals is an absolute hoot to play. While the levels are too few they are very very well designed, and the sense of speed and fun is excellent. The races are actually not easy, and so there is a fair bit of satisfaction in beating your rival, not to mention punching, kicking, or electrocuting them.

That being said the combat system is a little strange. All of the playable characters have their own "signature move". Sonic's is probably the best. He goes Super Sonic, launching through the air and then running for a few seconds at a very high speed arcing lightning. It looks awesome. On the other hand, Knuckles' attack is annoying if you're an opponent. It stuns you. No matter where you are. How is that fair?! This includes if you're on a conveyor belt, etc, meaning you can be stunned for a few seconds, watching helplessly while you drop off the bottom to oblivion. And yes, for some reason he DOES almost always do it at times like that.

Unfortunately the other characters signatures are nowhere near as impressive or useful, being merely delaying actions.

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It's hard to really say if I recommend a purchase of Sonic Rivals or not. While it's a lot of fun, is it THAT much fun? My opinion would be no. Sonic Rivals joins such games as LocoRoco in being great fun for a run through but just not long enough or big enough to justify much replay value for their RRP. One thing that I should say. While the "race" aspects of the game are occasionally dubious, the 2D/3D format that it's made in would make an exceptional standard Sonic game, returning to the old-school 2D platforming we love with the scope of 3D graphics. Cross your fingers.

Pros

Fast, furious, fun, and it's SONIC. Some very impressive graphics, nice scripted scenes, and fantastic "track" design.

Cons

Uninspired enemies. Repetitive and limited gameplay. Surprisingly trite and clichéd storyline, even for a Sonic game.

Summary

While Sonic Rivals is intense and impressive it's just not big enough to justify its purchase price. Forced repeats of the same level do not count as replayability to me, and there's little incentive to play as the other characters. If you can pick it up cheap or borrow it off a mate, you'll love it.