Sonic Rush Adventure

Sonic Rush Adventure is a Sonic the Hedgehog game for the Nintendo DS videogame handheld, developed by Dimps and Sonic Team, published by Sega. Sonic the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat return as playable characters, alongside a new female raccoon named Marine the Raccoon. Sonic Rush Adventure is a direct sequel to Sonic Rush, and the first game in the Sonic series to allow online head-to-head play, via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Story
Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails are flying in Tails' airplane, searching for a mysterious energy signal that has appeared on Tails' radar. As they travel farther and farther across the ocean, a sudden storm approaches and a tornado appears. Sonic warns Tails of the danger. Tails not hearing him continues flying onwards all of a sudden the plane is hit by a lightning bolt and falls into the tornado leaving a green flash in the centre of the tornado. They wake up after a racoon pokes them and she tells them that she is an energetic raccoon named Marine, and tells them that they have landed on Southern Island. They find her in the middle of testing a ship she has made- which then blows up. She explains to them about her dreams of building a ship to explore the world's oceans, as she wanted to do this ever since she was shipwrecked on Southern Island. Tails offers to help rebuild her ship, hoping that she could also help him and Sonic find their way home.

Sonic sets off to explore the island for materials to build a ship, and Tails starts to work on Marine's ship. Sonic returns, and discovers the smaller, faster vehicle that Tails and Marine have made. Marine, Sonic, and Tails try out the vehicle. They soon encounter various islands and a band of pirates on their search for a treasure, lead by the notorious Captain Whisker. These pirates have treasure and loot in their sights, and they won't let anyone - not even Sonic the Hedgehog - stop them or get in their way. The blue hedgehog may be fast, and the pirates haven't slowed him down yet, they aim to knock Sonic out of their race for jewels and treasure.

Unexpectedly, as Sonic races through this chaotic world, Blaze appears. Blaze reveals to them that they've accidentally traveled to her dimension during the storm. It turns out she is after Whisker and decides to go along with Sonic, Tails, and Marine in order to find answers. Throughout their adventure, they finally find and confront Captain Whisker and his right hand man, Johnny. After they defeat them Marine is kidnapped, and Sonic, Tails, and Blaze rescue Marine and defeat her kidnapper. After that, Sonic and gang return to Marine's island. Suddenly, an earthquake occurs and Sonic and gang go out side to look. A robot appears, along with Dr. Eggman. It seems Dr. Eggman and Eggman Nega were behind everything. The evil geniuses head to the center of Blaze's home planet to destroy it. Sonic, Tails, Marine, and Blaze go to stop him with a vehicle Tails built. Sonic and gang are too late as Dr. Eggman and Eggman Nega use the power of the scepter to make their machine more powerful.

When Marine and Tails are separated, Sonic and Blaze confront Dr. Eggman and Eggman Nega. By using the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds, they transform in to Super Sonic and Burning Blaze to fight Dr. Eggman and Eggman Nega. Eggman Nega tries to desroy Blaze's planet, but with the help of Marine, Super Sonic and Burning Blaze defeat them. The story ends with Tails building a craft that uses the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds. Sonic and Blaze shake hands before Sonic and Tails leave. As Sonic and Tails head home, Marine appears with her new vehicle and tells Sonic and Tails that she will study to become a captain. Sonic and Tails wish her the best of luck and the say that they will meet again. After Sonic and Tails leave, Marine and Blaze know that they will see each other again.

Gameplay
As Sonic (and later, Blaze), you will begin each adventure from Windmill Village on Southern Island. Bring up the Sea Chart to plot your route using the stylus. After plotting the desired route, you'll begin to race to one of the seven main islands using one of the four ships, a waterbike named Wave Cyclone, a sailboat named Ocean Tornado, a hovercraft named Aqua Blast, and a submarine named Deep Typhoon. On the Wave Cyclone, Sonic can collect rings and perform tricks to fill up a Boost Gauge. When you use your boost, your waterbike speeds up and becomes temporarily invincible until the Boost Gauge runs out. While using the Ocean Tornado sailboat, you shoot enemies and rings with either bullets, cannonballs, or a flamethrower. Each varies in strength and clip size before reloading. Sailing in the Aqua Blast is roughly similar to using the waterbike, however there are no ramps, and holding the stylus down charges up a laser which is fired by releasing the stylus. Using the Deep Typhoon submarine involves tapping (sometimes sliding) rhythmically on enemies and powerups to fire missiles at them.

When you arrive at one of the seven main islands, your objective is to get to the goal at the end of the level. Sonic Rush Adventure uses the trick system, first introduced in Sonic Advance 2, in which you can perform aerial tricks by pressing the A, B and R-button in mid-air. By doing tricks or defeating enemies, your Tension Gauge will fill up, allowing you to perform a Super Boost until it runs out. The Tension Gauge will decrease over time or whenever you take damage. There are two acts per every level, and after completing them, a 3D boss battle is played.

After unlocking Blaze, the player is given a choice of what character to use. While neither character differs extensively from the other, there are several key differences. Blaze can hover, and her aerial tricks propel her higher. Also, when she encounters flames, they die down, allowing her to pass unharmed. However, Sonic is considerably faster than Blaze in comparison. Blaze could as such be considered the 'easy' mode- her hovering can avoid a player falling to their death, and her tricks mean that it is easier to rescue yourself when playing, whereas Sonic could be seen as the more time-attack based mode used for highscores.

One of your main tasks within the game is to gather up Materials so that Tails can build new ships and equipment to allow progress within the story. You can visit Tails at Marine's house in the center of Southern Island and ask him what Materials you need, as well as requesting their completion. At Marine's house, you can also play multiplayer battles using DS Download Play, as well as playing using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, where you can race against other people online using Sonic or Blaze, or Ring Battles where the you collect as many as you can spread throughout the map. In Time Attack, not only can you play on the main levels, but you can also play a 5-lap race on hidden island. This feature was originally introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Saving is no longer automatic after completion of a level, and is done via the menu while on the island.

By collecting Materials, you can get Tails to make one of the four ships, the Wave Cyclone (waterbike), Ocean Tornado (sailboat), Aqua Blast (hovercraft) and the Deep Typhoon (submarine). Each of these ships play differently- the waterbike is controlled by dragging it left and right to collect things, the hovercraft in a similar way with an added weapon and focus on destroying enemies. Tails will accompany you throughout submarine and sailboat ventures, manning the ship so you can destroy underwater enemies, with three weapons on the sailboat and one rhythm based weapon (similar to Elite Beat Agents) on the submarine.

There are many small islands called Hidden Islands in addition to the main levels, that either contribute to the storyline, or simply serve as a method to collect extra material. Unlike the main levels these hidden islands only consist of one act and no boss. Among other events, Sonic can find Johnny and end up racing for one of the Chaos Emeralds. Blaze has her own set of jewels to collect, the Sol Emeralds, and she can earn them by completing a series of special missions. Collecting all fourteen Emeralds will unlock the final stage.

Music
The music in the game keeps its overt funk and hip hop influences that first used in Sonic Rush. The music is atypical for the Sonic series, along with its many small phrases and words throughout the songs. Sega composer Teruhiko Nakagawa is the sound director and composer of Sonic Rush Adventure.

The official soundtrack of the game, titled Sonic Rush Adventure Original Soundtrack was released on October 18, 2007 in Japan, along with 52 original tracks. The theme song of the game is "A New Venture", exclusive to Sonic Rush Adventure with female vocals by Tahirih Walker and lyrics by Sakae Osumi.

Marine the Raccoon
Marine the Raccoon (マリン ・ザ ・ラクーン Marin za Rakūn) lives in Blaze's dimension, on Southern Island where her house is located. She speaks with an exaggerated Australian accent, using Australian slang words such as 'strewth' and 'bonza' and adding the word 'mate' to the end of sentences. Marine dreams of becoming a captain one day, so she can sail around the world, but wrecked her ship, the S.S. Marine, by forgetting to install the brakes. Tails decides to help her repair her ship, and Sonic goes to find parts to repair Marine's vessel. Unfortunately, Marine and her new-found friends find themselves confronted by a dangerous menace: the pirate Captain Whisker. When Whister appears, she never says his name and always calls him a "fuzzy-faced bloke."

In terms of personality, she is rather scatterbrained and so often acts before she thinks. She is relatively bossy and attention-seeking, but has many koala friends who are pleased to help Sonic and his companions. Marine is afraid of ghosts and is over-protective by them. She also runs off multiple times, causing trouble almost every time she does. Despite having been able to build an (incomplete) sailing ship, before the game's events she appears to have no idea what a submarine or a hovercraft are, or how to read her book on shipbuilding. She also offers to read ancient text in Sky Babylon, but actually cannot. She is extremely embarrassed of her flaws and tries to hide them, although she does this very poorly.

Marine also appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic adaptation of Sonic Rush Adventure.

The Coconut Crew
The Coconut Crew is a crew of seven koalas and one Viking polar bear who live on Southern Island, the main hub of the game. Most are hiding on various islands around the ocean and must be found in-game before their services can be accessed. The various members of the crew provide different activities for Sonic or Blaze:


 * Deikun constructs buildings to house the various vehicles as they are made available in the game.
 * Colonel puts up decorations around the island after Sonic or Blaze completes certain missions for him.
 * Muzy is never without his guitar, Muzy plays music for Sonic and later allows him to access the Sound Test.
 * Kylok allows the player to view FMVs of the game.
 * Tabby places animals and items around the island after certain missions are completed. These are only for decoration.
 * Gardon provides missions for Blaze to gather the Sol Emeralds. He wears a hat similar to that of Napoleon.
 * Setter allows Sonic to access the Options menu, where the player can change Wi-Fi settings, among other things.
 * Norman provides Time Attack races on the sea.

Captain Whisker
A robot pirate who was created by Dr. Eggman and Eggman Nega, Captain Whisker resembles them heavily. He and his band of Ghost Pirate robots (Johnny, Mini, Mum, and a slew of others.) are out to cause havoc on the seas, and intend to use an ancient artifact called The Jeweled Scepter to awaken an unnamed entity, and use its power to conquer. However, despite their claims, the pirates are not very intimidating, and are generally clownish and bumbling; he also always forgets about Sonic and others as well as what he has recently done like freezing a bunch of vikings. Whisker can also be easily tricked and can fail to notice when someone is insulting him. Despite this, Whisker can avoid being captured and is an incredible force in battle: he can breathe fire, manifest saws and use shockwave-inducing ground pounds. He takes a special dislike of any characters who have pulled on his 'whiskers', at least when either Mini or Mum remind him. He was supposedly destroyed when the Ghost Titan was blown up, or fell into the sea. He was voiced by Lonnie Hirsch, though the boss duel against both himself and Johnny was the only time Whisker's voice was heard.(excluding a cut-scene in Coral Cave where he is heard laughing)

Johnny
Johnny is the right-hand man of Captain Whisker in Sonic Rush Adventure. His face resembles a mix of that of a shark, a submarine, and a torpedo and was designed to resemble an anthropomorphic shark (incidentally, he bears an uncanny resemblance to Metal Sonic). He immediately forged a bitter rivalry with Sonic, believing that the hedgehog is unworthy of being "the fastest thing alive". Thus, if Sonic should encounter him on the seas, he will challenge Sonic to a race on the water. If Sonic wins, he is rewarded with a Chaos Emerald. Johnny is later fought alongside Whisker in a boss battle, but he escapes after their defeat, so it is unknown what happened to him. He was voiced by Christopher Pelegrinni.

Mini & Mum
Mini & Mum are 2 ghost pirate birds who sit on Captain Whisker's shoulders, and act as his pet parakeets. Mini is blue, while Mum is green. Surprisingly, they weren't seen during the fight against Whisker, and Johnny. It is unknown what happened to the two after their master, Captain Whisker was presumebly killed.

Cast
(Note: With the exception of. Captain Whisker and Johnny, all other voices in the game are archival recordings taken from Sonic Rush. Marine the Raccoon also does not have any voice actor, as she isn't voiced in the game.)

Reception
Critical reaction to Sonic Rush Adventure was positive. Noticeable improvements over Sonic Rush were fewer bottomless pits, better enemy placement, and no more use of supporting characters to occupy the lower screen during boss battles. However, many reviewers commented on having to replay levels multiple times, and weakness in the story sections. Game Rankings currently scores it 80% based on 33 reviews, compared to Sonic Rush's score of 83% based on 57 reviews.

Sonic Rush Adventure also won IGN's Best Platform Game of 2007 for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Official Magazine's Gold Award, which was featured in the European cover.