Sonic Rivals – Sony PSP

Sonic Rivals pits Sonic the Hedgehog against some of his buddies that appeared late in the series. Knuckles, Silver, Black etc. I think about the time Sonic started having buddies was when the franchise became less fun. You rocket around 3d tracks with no time to react to what you encounter which means if you play online, someone will have cold memorized the track and will kick you silly. If you play in story mode, its very little fun unless you have the reflexes of a chipmunk on crack.

Gone are the days of using your intellect and mastery of the controls to get through the map. Now, you hang on and I guess if its summertime and you are 10, you play over and over to learn the map thoroughly. The best thing about the original Sonic on Genesis was the imagination inventing puzzles and bosses. Now, the levels are stunningly pretty, and you go fast, and the bosses suck and the control is not trustworthy. I won’t play anything where I can’t control the character because the system is too busy doing something else, which begs the question : It’s 2d, why is it so hard to

make a game that plays as well as the Genesis (I guess the PSP is 100X faster)?

Pick it up if you want to play with friends. The story mode is useless.

I have recently been considering getting myself a PSP. My friend came over today and apparently brought his along, so I decided to play it. More specifically, I played this game. Being a fan of Sonic’s handheld escapades, I was hoping this would be an at least decent play. OH DEAR GOD WAS I WRONG!

The plot revolves around Dr. Eggman having built a device that turns things into….cards. Of all the things you can of, they went with cards. Even more nonsensically, Sonic’s friends (and the Master Emerald…?) have been turned into cards and were kidnapped by Eggman. Then we have Shadow, Knuckles, and a hedgehog from the future named Silver (Sonic 2006 IS erased from being canon after all) join in on all this. It’s all silly in a dumb way, really.

The gameplay is played on a 2D plane and focuses on having to race against the aforementioned characters to reach the finish line at the end of each level. There are 6 Zones, with 2 Acts and a boss in each. It’s kinda like the Vs Mode in some of the portable Sonic games on the Nintendo DS (and Sonic Generations 3DS). However, there are multiple powers/traps you can use against your opponent and vice versa. There’s also a special power the character can use on himself. For example, Sonic can Boost for a moment.

While it would sound kinda neat, the levels are structured horribly. I feel sorry for Dimps, because the company’s usually been criticized for putting in Dash Pads and springs in their Sonic games. Well, this game’s not by Dimps, and these levels contain more Dash Pads and springs I’ve seen in any other Sonic game! Even when there are no springs or pads in sight, although there are a few multiple routes to take, the structure of these levels is SUPER LINEAR, and you get absolutely no time to explore because you have to race against completely stubborn AI! One level (Crystal Mountain Act 2) left me with frustration to no end, and part of why is because of freaking Silver, who seems to CONSTANTLY gather traps to use on me! On the contrary, the last zone, Meteor Base, left me with total relief, because I do not race anyone, but rather a time limit that gives me enough time to finish the Acts.

The bosses are nothing special. They are more-or-less played in a similar manner to the bosses in the Nintendo DS Sonics. The catch here, however, is that you, for some reason, have to race against an opponent to see who can beat the boss faster. Fortunately, unlike the actual levels, the AI here is pathetic, so you do not have to worry about not beating the boss fast enough that much. Meanwhile, the final boss feels more like a massively uninspired level instead of a boss.

Overall, this is just a miserable excuse for a Sonic game, let alone a portable one, considering how the handheld series has always had great offerings. The tragically simplified and linear 2D racing can only be fun for so long, and the game as a whole is just plain underwhelming.

Sonic Rivals was one of the first games I got for my PSP. It’s fun when you start, and it’s pretty cool collecting cards, but then it gets really boring and repetitive. I always try to collect new cards, but I always get the same cards. And the roster is also sort of boring. Silver, Sonic, and Shadow are fast (obviously) and Knuckles is the slowest, that’s all there is to know. The only character I like is Metal Sonic. The storyline is also very boring, just people chasing Eggman Nega and Eggman. That’s not a big deal, though, because I don’t buy video games to read them. I would recommend this game to (maybe) have on the go, but not to play at home or something. Just something to do when you’re bored.