Sonic Rivals Preview

November 2nd, 2006, 19:03 Posted By: wraggster

Via IGN

The fastest blue mammal in the history of entertainment wants to burrow in your pants. Sonic the Hedgehog is just intrusive that way. He takes his 90s "attitude" and red shoes and rockets just about anywhere he pleases. But that's a huge part of why the gaming public has stuck with him for so long. Now SEGA stands ready to preach the Sonic gospel to PSP owners everywhere with the upcoming Sonic Rivals.

The PSP title has more in common with the original 16-bit Sonic than the upcoming next-gen version. Players control Sonic as he dashes along a two dimensional track. Only it looks far better than before, since the developers made the game look three dimensional - a lot like Viewtiful Joe. The gameplay follows a strict 2D track but the environments and characters benefit from 3D modeling. The effect works well and makes the game look the part of a next-gen handheld game. But visuals will only take a game so far in this industry. If a title places style over substance - few will take the bait.

It looks like Rivals wants to sidestep this dangerous practice. SEGA representatives strolled into the IGN office the other day to show off the latest build of Rivals. It has undergone improvements across the board, most noticeably in the framerate, though. The early demo on display at E3 2006 did a good job of showing where the game would end up, but this latest version had all the pieces in place. One such piece, the actual story, shows up in full form. It still has everything to do with the maniacal tendencies of Dr. Eggman -- just as any Sonic fan would want. This time, he has blasted through the world capturing all of Sonic's fans and trapping them.

This sets Sonic, along with cohorts Knuckles, Shadow and Silver, on the road to sweet justice. As fate would have it, this road has a lot of racing in it. Even though developers are quick to note that Rivals is not a racer, that's practically what you spend most of your time doing. Having said that, there's a lot more to Rivals than slamming on the accelerator and hoping for the best. Each course in the game has a different theme and accompanying obstacles. Sonic and crew need to bounce on platforms and blast through barriers, not to mention deal with twists, turns and the ever-present spikes. It's a lot for a posse of heroic mammals to handle. Especially since, they need to fight each other along the way. Hey, it's not called Sonic Rivals for nothing.

The game splits into two main modes, the biggest of which is single-player. Here, you choose a character and jet through stages in linear fashion. The game has you go through themed zones, each of which breaks into three acts. And it's not just racing and obstacle avoidance, either - you need to contend with a string of nasty boss fights. Apparently, you fight these with full control of you character, not at all like the on-rails races that comprise most of the game. The look of the bosses is reminiscent of the old-school ones - something fans will certainly appreciate.

One of the strongest elements of Rivals, apart from the single-player element, is multiplayer. You can join or host races, as well as choose your character and the track you want to play. To make things more interesting, you can choose to wager certain cards (found during the game) in every multiplayer encounter. You can also opt to trade them, too, if gambling violates your principles - or if you just don't want your friends to gank your hard-earned cards. Multiplayer sounds fairly straightforward, but it offers a deal of fun..

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