4/5 ★ – KBoom17's review of Sonic Rush.

Really surprised on how great this game is. The gameplay itself is fantastic and incredibly satisfying while still giving the player a good level of challenge. Level design is almost surprisingly tight considering most other Sonic games from this time had some level of bad design in them. The two screens gimmick leads to a lot of verticality in the levels which really makes them stand out and prevents leaps of faith most of the time. Visuals hold up very well for what was a launch year DS game and it has one of my favorite art styles in the Sonic series hands down. The soundtrack is also phenomenal with its distinct hip-hop funk mix that only elevated all of the locations you go to. The story also pleasantly surprised me because while it’s pretty light on Sonic’s side, for Blaze she actually has a really well done character arc with a great message for the player to leave with. Another very important thing worth mentioning is that while special stages once again make their return, I actually did not mind hunting the Chaos Emerald this time around. Getting to them is actually quite easy, and besides the last couple stages they feel like a very fair challenge. In terms of negatives there aren’t too many that I had. The biggest one to me were the boss fights. While I don’t think any of them are bad, I do feel that most of them go on too long due to them following the system of wait for them to be open to attack instead of the traditional Sonic style of them always being open to being attacked. Along with that I also think the difficulty becomes a tad too much for me towards the end. While I actually enjoyed most of the more challenging content towards the end, I felt there were a few cheaper attempts at difficulty such as bottomless pits, very tight special stages, and some hard to read attack patterns from the later bosses In terms of nitpicks I really only have one which is that I wish Blaze’s levels had more original elements to them. While she herself plays differently, I feel they don’t utilize those differences super well, leading to it feeling like a sort of reshuffle of what I had just played with a few exclusive paths sprinkled in. Overall this game is a blast that I recommend without a doubt to anyone who’s a fan of 2D Platformers, or just a Sonic fan in general.