Sonic Rush is easily the greatest new Sonic game and a worthy addition to anyone's collection.
The story is that Eggman Nega has travelled from his dimension to Sonic's dimension, this has caused a tear in the space time continuum and the world is distorting. Blaze is on a mission to collect the Sol Emeralds in Sonic's dimension to restore order. And so the great rush to save the space time continuum begins.
There are two playable characters, Sonic and Blaze the Cat. They play more or less the same, but Sonic seems slightly faster, but Blaze's R button tricks are more versatile. The game has a real emphasis on speed, but also has some platform sections to break up the pace. Sonic can be fast AND have platform sections - the evidence is here. There are seven uniquely themed stages each with two acts and a boss. There's the typical green world, an under water world, pyramid, some aerial place ect. Sonic and Blaze have exactly the same levels, but go through them in a different order. There's also an unlockable time trial mode.
You zoom through levels using the boost to go even faster, take out enemies, do a bit of platforming. You will swap between screens throughout the level. My only complaint with the game is that there are WAY too many bottomless pits. The controls are almost perfect, and both platform and high speed sections can be done with ease. The bosses take a while to complete as your window for attack is very small, so you have to be quick and time those jumps perfectly.
If you are playing as Sonic you can get the Chaos Emeralds in levels by finding weird circular spinny things. If you have enough boost power boost whilst holding on to the handle and you'll be taken to the special stage. The special stages are similar to those in Sonic 2. You use the stylus the move Sonic through a half pipe collecting as many rings as possible whilst avoiding spikes. If you collect enough rings, you win a Chaos Emerald. Blaze will win the Sol Emeralds by defeating bosses.
The graphics are nice. Sonic, Blaze and bosses have 3D models, but everything else is done using sprite graphics. The backgrounds are nice, colourful and detailed.
The music is weird but just plane awesome. The funky beats are upbeat and a lot of fun to listen to. Unlike traditional Sonic games where act 1 and 2 have each stage have a different remix of the song, in this game the music is different depending on if you are playing as Sonic or Blaze. (With the exception of boss battles where the music is the sane regardless of character) Personally for the most part I prefer Blaze's music
So Sonic Rush is easily the greatest Sonic game on a 7th generation console (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP - in other words) and will be difficult to top. If you haven't played this yet, definatly pick it up - it's a real blast to play.
Milesprower2k9 original reveiws