3/5 ★ – Protector_Of_Memes's review of Sonic Rivals.

Sonic's 15th anniversary was definitely an interesting year for the Blue Blur. Many look back on this year with utter disdain, thanks to the big title of the year, Sonic 06. However, what doesn't get talked about as much from the 15th anniversary are the spinoffs SEGA released. Riders has at least managed to establish a cult following, but there's another spinoff released for the PSP that doesn't even have that. That of course, is Sonic Rivals, developed by Backbone Entertainment. The game's plot is as follows. Eggman shows up boasting about his new camera that turns people and objects into cards, revealing to Sonic and Knuckles that Tails, Amy and the Master Emerald are now in his possession thanks to this. Though instead of just ganging up on the fat scientist and curb stomping his ass, they decide to make it a competition as to who can get to him first. Meanwhile, Shadow receives a distress call from Eggman, who's gotten himself into quite the jam, though a Hedgehog by the name of Silver is giving chase to the mad scientist as well. The story ultimately just has the characters racing each other in what may as well be a petty dick measuring contest, with a few run ins with Metal Sonic, and stopping Eggman from turning the entire planet into a card, which is when our four heroes remember the concept of working together. However, each character's story has some exclusive plot moments, some of which sheds a light on a few things. Knuckles finds out that the setting of the game, Onyx Island, is actually Angel Island from the future, brought into the present thanks to the Master Emerald's transdimensional properties going out of wack when it was turned into a card. However, as Shadow and Silver find out, Eggman's not the main villain. That would be Eggman Nega from Sonic Rush, who is now from Silver's future instead of Blaze's dimension. For some reason. It also turns out the camera itself is from Silver's time, and he's trying to get it back. What's most interesting about Nega, is in Shadow's story when he reveals why he's done all this. Simply put, Eggman's constant failures soured the Robotnik name, so even with his incredible intellect, Nega was denied a chance to be a leading scientist on account of his heritage. But still, it's quite the contrast compared to Rush where he had no problem working with his ancestor. The story's ok, nothing special, but also non-offensive barring the weird retcon for Nega that's now the canon backstory for him. It definitely feels like it's going through the motions, despite the interesting premise of running through a future version of Angel Island. As for the presentation, the game looks great for an early PSP title. The game takes on a 2.5D approach with the aesthetic, and everything still holds up pretty well. The character models animate well, framerate stays consistent, the visuals and performance are solid. As for the soundtrack, we have Remix Factory behind the composing wheel on this one. One potential complaint some may have is that the songs don't take long to loop, but if Sonic 3 & Knuckles still has a great soundtrack despite this, then Rivals can hold its own. You may have already heard of Quick Trip To Paradise thanks to Generations, but other personal highlights include the boss theme, Crystal Mountain, Death Yard, Meteor Base and the final boss theme. It's a good soundtrack that should be given a bit more love, but it doesn't beat out something like Rush. As for the gameplay, if you're at all familiar with the multiplayer modes for Sonic 2 and 3, Rivals is essentially an expansion on those concepts. Two characters go head to head in a race and naturally, reaching the end first decides the victor. Like Sonic 3, you can start revving up a Spin Dash to get a head start at the beginning of a race, but the game does a bit more with this Race To Win concept. For starters, items are far more prevalent here than in Sonic 2's multiplayer, with their functions changing depending on your position. For example, the ice cube item sends a projectile to home in on and freeze the leading player, but if the leading player uses it, it just leaves a block of ice behind them to freeze the opponent if they run into it. Naturally, good use of items can make a difference in the heat of the moment. But it's not just items you can use to screw over your rival, you can outright attack them with a Homing Attack or a grounded Melee attack (referred to in game as jostling) to momentarily stop them, which does help when you're in close range. Another means of getting an advantage in the race are with air hoops and small hurdles on the ground that can either launch you into the air if you press X or send you flying straightforward if you press O. This gives you access to multiple pathways that can help give you the lead, and helps to make levels less of an automated experience. As for your playable characters, we have Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow and Silver, who basically play the same as each other, no real difference besides looks. In fact, you're probably wondering, why play as Sonic over Shadow when they play the exact same? That lies within each character's signature move, which can be obtained as an item, specifically a star, but it is part of a roulette. Sonic gets the Sonic Boom, which increases his speed exponentially as trouble keeps him running faster. Knuckles gets the Knuckles Slam, which stuns anyone unlucky enough to be on the ground when it happens, and it's not hampered by how far away he is from you. Shadow predictably has Chaos Control, which slows down the opponent to around half their normal speed, and Silver gets Psychic Control, which messes up the victim's controls, and it isn't just a simple case of reversing controls, and down can potentially become left while under its effects. Naturally, Sonic's my go to, because in a race, speed is what matters, but none of the others have bad signature moves, so it's ultimately personal preferance. There's also bosses in the game, but they too are races in a manner of speaking, first character to land six hits on the future Egghead wins. They're ultimately nothing special, though I do find it funny that just like Sonic Rush, there's a boss called the Egg Turtle. However, there's one last major gameplay addition that is worth mentioning, the collectible cards. Akin to Crash Fusion and Spyro Fusion on GBA, you can earn cards, only this time, via just playing the game and beating levels, bosses or certain Missions, but there are some you have to fulfil specific accomplishments to obtain, like beating each character's story for example. The cards aren't just for show however, as they can unlock extra content, like alternate menu themes based on the playable characters, customisable outfit parts to spruce up the appearance of your character of choice, and three cards in particular unlock a new playable character, that being Metal Sonic, who's only available for free play and multiplayer, packing the signature ability to copy his opponent's signature ability. There is one other thing you can unlock with the cards, that being Cups to win a best 2 out of 3 grand prix, but I've never been able to unlock those, because that ties into the tedious mission mode, where for each stage and boss, you get prerequisites like beat this under a certain time, or beat up your rival X amount of times, varying on what difficulty you choose, and while it's a lucrative way to earn cards, it's honestly not something I want to invest my time into, especially since a couple of the Missions require me to be right next to my rival to fulfil, and they can rubber band which makes things more irritating. Definitely the lowest point in the game, but at least it's optional, though that doesn't excuse its tedious nature. Honestly, the only major flaw with this game outside of Mission Mode's tedium is that it's rather short. Each story only takes around an hour to complete, and there's not much else to do outside of multiplayer but really, who's playing the game's multiplayer in this day and age? Sonic Rivals is a harmless game, not bad, but also not really all too special. It's on the PlayStation Store for the Vita around £3 to £4, so you're not breaking bank if you decide to go for it, but there's probably a reason why the game is generally ignored outside of being Silver's first canon appearance outside of 06 and permanently changing Eggman Nega's origins. But it had to have struck gold somewhere, because it got a sequel a year later with Sonic Rivals 2.