] Story

Blaze the Cat lands in Sonic the Hedgehog's world, and the Sol Emeralds are stolen by Doctor Eggman. She works on getting her Sol Emeralds back from Eggman and learning something about friendship while Sonic battles a mysterious Eggman look-alike, Eggman Nega. Blaze meets Cream the Rabbit while looking for the Sol Emeralds, and is shocked by how polite and trusting Cream is. All the while, Tails finds out that her world and Sonic's are beginning to merge. Sonic starts to become suspicious of Blaze (who he met while fighting Eggman at the beginning of the game) and starts to look for her. Sonic and Tails meet up with Blaze and Cream. Sonic questions Blaze but Blaze, being withdrawn towards strangers, refuses to give information and takes off with Cream. Sonic decides to follow Blaze, when He arrives on Eggman Nega's base It is revealed that Doctor Eggman and Eggman Nega are in fact working together to collect both the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds. Blaze then arrives and declares that she will destroy Eggman Nega when Sonic questions Blaze's nature Blaze turns on Sonic and fights him. During the battle Blaze declares that she is the only one who can save their worlds and refuses Sonic's help. After the match Sonic managed to show Blaze the error of her ways. Shortly Eggman kidnaps Cream, and Blaze, after admitting to Sonic that Cream is her friend, goes after him while Sonic takes on Nega. Once Sonic collects all seven Chaos Emeralds he meets up with Blaze who had tried and failed to restore the two worlds. Sonic and his friends finally help Blaze understand the meaning of friendship and Blaze transforms into Burning Blaze she then teams up with Super Sonic against the Eggmans in the final showdown to restore their worlds. Afterwards Blaze is forced to leave to her own world . As she flies back to her dimension she states that she understands her powers and thinks of Sonic's advice. Later on Sonic's planet, Cream is crying because she misses Blaze until Sonic tells her that Blaze promised she would return one day.

 Characters

There are two playable characters: the titular character, Sonic, and a new character, Blaze the Cat. Blaze has the ability to hover and make use of fire created from her own hands (but the fire is purely for decoration). Both characters have mostly separate adventures (the levels are the same, but in very different orders), but as each character's story progresses, they occasionally bump into each other, and end up working together in the final story.

Tails and Cream the Rabbit show up in cutscenes and cheer the player on during bosses; Sonic has Tails tag along, while Blaze is followed by Cream. Knuckles, Vanilla the Rabbit and Amy all make small appearances in cutscenes and non-speaking roles.

Dr. Eggman and Dr. Eggman Nega are Sonic's and Blaze's antagonists, and are fought at the end of each zone, with the exception of Dead Line.

 Gameplay

Sonic Rush builds on the trick system introduced in Sonic Advance 2 adding a point combo system to it and a grade system, both of which had been introduced into the Sonic series in Sonic Adventure 2. Also added to the game is a "Tension Gauge" which can be filled by using tricks and defeating enemies. The energy can be used to perform an extremely fast dash (which can defeat enemies as well), and in accessing the Special Stages (only as Sonic) via the spinning generators.

The special stage in Sonic Rush is reminiscent of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which sees the player running through a half-pipe, grabbing as many rings as possible to meet the required amount. Unlike Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Sonic is unable to jump, making the special stage slightly more difficult. This is also where the touch screen comes into play - instead of the direction pad being used, players use the stylus or their finger to move along the left or right to guide Sonic in the that direction.

Like many of the other modern Sonic games, Rush has an "extra" story in the form of "Sonic & Blaze" and consists of a single boss fight. It also has Sonic and Blaze fighting Eggman and Eggman Nega in what would appear to be the remnants of the merging of Sonic's and Blaze's worlds.

End of Stage Rank

At the end of each act (including boss battles), players are ranked on their overall score for the level and given a letter grade of either C, B, A, or S (the highest). The four parameters players are ranked on are Time Score, Trick Bonus, Ring Bonus, and Speed. Players get a "C" ranking if they score less than 50,000 points; a "B" ranking if they score between 50,000-80,000 points; an "A" ranking if they score between 80,000-100,000 points; and an "S" raking if they score at least 100,000 points. In boss battles, the score requirement is halved, but works the same way (and players are only ranked on Time and Ring bonuses). Unlike previous Sonic games, players do not unlock anything for getting the highest rank on each Zone and boss battle.

 Multiplayer

Sonic Rush uses single card and multi-card wireless play; there is also an option within the game to send demos to other DS users. The multiplayer mode in Sonic Rush features a race between Sonic and Blaze in one of the many levels in the game. However, you can not battle bosses in multi-player. It is not possible probably because if one is defeated, the other would keep going or the game would end by one being defeated.

Music

The music is atypical for the Sonic series, incorporating more overt funk and hip hop influences. They include small phrases and words throughout the song. These phrases usually conclude as becoming the name of the song.

The soundtrack was composed by acclaimed Sega composer Hideki Naganuma. Other notable soundtracks by or involving Hideki Naganuma include the Ollie King and Jet Set Radio OSTs. Also a 45 track CD was released in Japan by Wavemaster Studios containing 7 digital remakes and original Nintendo DS tracks. The soundtrack was titled as "SONIC RUSH Original Groove Rush." Released November 23, 2005.

 Reaction

Reviews from both critics and players were positive overall. Critical sticking points include the poorly designed and protracted boss fights, death caused too many times from enemy placement and falling into bottomless pits, and the game's use of supporting characters to occupy the lower screen during battles.

Development

 Sonic DS

Before SEGA decided to make Sonic Rush, they decided to make a game called "Sonic DS". This game was for the Nintendo DS. 7 playable characters are in it - Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Shadow, and Blaze. It seems the gameplay is to rub the screen to make the character(As seen in a gameplay video). The game was cancelled and SEGA decided to make Sonic Rush.

Early gameplay videos shows recycled clips of Ryan Drummond (of Sonic Advance 3) into the game. But with the 4Kids voice actors arrival, Drummond's voice was replaced by Griffith's voice.