E3 '07: Sonic Rush Adventure Hands-On

There's simply no two ways about it--over the past few years, we've seem the quality of Sonic the Hedgehog games ebb pretty significantly. One of the rare exceptions to that unfortunate trend was the 2005 release of Sonic Rush for the DS, which had all the qualities of a classic Sonic game, but still managed to feel fresh and vital. Sega is now following up that class act with Sonic Rush Adventure, of which we got to see the first few levels.

The core action is still looking like what you'd expect from the best 2D Sonic the Hedgehog games, with a real twisty, rollycoaster feel as you watch Sonic or Blaze speed and bounce through the levels. The action still dips and dives between the top and bottom screen, and both characters seem to have much of the same dash and aerial trick moves that they had in the original Sonic Rush. Despite the speed at which the island and steampunk levels we saw passed by, we still noticed a terrific amount of detail.

While most of the action is presented from a traditional 2D side-scrolling perspective, it's interesting to note that the characters appear to be rendered in 3D, which means that the game can switch to a behind-the-back perspective in an instant at specific points, such as a sequence where Sonic slid down a series of rails, hopping back and forth between them. The polygonal nature of the visuals will also afford some depth-of-field effects, which we saw in action when Sonic went across what appeared to be a series of drums, zooming towards and from the screen.

Another 3D sequence we saw concerned sea travel, which will be a major factor in how you progress through the game. Each individual level of the game takes place on a different island, and you'll have to travel by a variety of ships to get from one to another. In the sequence we played through, we saw Sonic on what appeared to be a Jet Ski from behind the back, and though we couldn't control his speed, we could drag the stylus back and forth to help him dodge obstacles, pick up power-ups, and jump off ramps. When launched into the air off a ramp, we could then perform a stunt by quickly dragging the stylus in a specific direction on the screen.

You can also expect some big boss fights, such as the battle between Blaze and a giant, gnarly-looking dinosaur we got to play through. Here, we were standing on a narrow platform on which we could only run back and forth, and as the T-Rex-style dino circled us, we had to jump and dodge incoming attacks while also trying to hit back by jumping repeatedly on its head. Feeding back into the sea-travel mechanics, defeated bosses will earn you materials that you can use to build new types of boats.

Though the title initially had us fearing that the Sonic Rush series would be taking on some of the slower attributes of the Sonic Adventure games, what we've seen so far of Sonic Rush Adventure has been speedy and dynamic, just the way a Sonic the Hedgehog game should be.