Sonic Rivals

Aaron Gray

Mention Sonic and Sega in the same breath and all gamers active since the late 80’s would immediately think a flurry blue blur of fur speeding at an insanely breakneck speed. That, folks, pretty much sums up the ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ games.

Sega’s mascot had enjoyed fame and glory during the peak of 16-bit gaming. So it has been most unfortunate to see the Blue Blur losing acceleration on new generation consoles, especially since the premature demise of the doomed Dreamcast console (Sega’s final hardware masterpiece).

However, things took a different turn when Sonic Rivals was recently made available on the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP).

Sonic Rivals is not your conventional side-scrolling 2D action game; it is in fact a racing game leaning more towards the Sonic R, Sega Saturn’s version in actual (albeit choppy) 32-bit 3D. Although Sonic Rivals doesn’t feature the limited ‘free-roaming’ mode like its predecessor did, the in-game graphics are breathtakingly designed in 3D while you control your character in a ‘sort of’ 2D fashion. For some (read: yours truly), this isn’t a bad thing at all considering that you need to maintain/increase your pace while avoiding obstacles, other rivals and stay on track.
The appeal of crazy levels coupled with breakneck speed is back in Sonic Rivals, which has lamentably been missing from recent ‘Sonic’ titles. As I’ve mentioned earlier, the game may be graphically enticing in 3D, but gameplay itself is a linear 2D track. Your goal is to finish at first place, a task which sounds easy but can be quite tough when you’re actually playing.

It has nothing to do with the almost flawless controls; your biggest worry is the AI as well as the occasional obstacles popping up at ‘unpleasant’ places when you’d least expect it. The latter is a real problem for someone like me whose memorisation skills are as good as a cow’s.

The good news is; there’s a boss fight at the end of each act. The better news is, the fight is more traditional – you need to attack the boss’s weak spots while avoiding attacks being thrown at them. The best news is; most of these fights will be happening in enclosed arenas. Thrillville, here I come!

While it takes good skills to manoeuvre your character around each level, what is needed more is memorization of the obstacles’ placements. Of course, remembering where to avoid spikes won’t save you if your timing isn’t right – and your rivals might use some special items to slow you down (ala Mario Kart). Each character comes with its own special abilities. For instance, Sonic has a speed boost skill, but utilising the ability would require players to pick up a certain special item to activate it.

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Story wise, you would kind of expect the one found in Sonic Rivals to be nonsensical to the point of being utterly silly, but that’s okay if you’re not into knowing what drives these fast furballs to get into the race with Dr Eggman in the first place.

The icing on the cake is definitely having the option of going head-to-head with another friend over WiFi. There’s fun in numbers, but if you don’t have many Sonic fans as friends, no worries. Another option you can opt for is the Rivals mode which offers you a quick race on your choice of race track (stage) without the story bits.

Sonic Rivals may not be the typical action game that you longed for, but at least you get the thrills and spills of adrenaline rush when you take the Blue Blur out for a quick spin while commuting in our local public transport or over a steaming cup of coffee in a nice cosy retreat in the middle of the bustling town. 

Aaron knows too well the smell of burning rubber on asphalt, especially when left in the dust by his skilled younger sister. Send him your cheer/leer to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it