A lucky few of you get to be a part of history. My first review. Isn’t that awesome? Well I bought Sonic Rush today for the DS, and I posted my thoughts in a very biblical form.I also bought an Intec case for the DS Lite. I got very anal with the older DS case and PSP sleeve I had. I wanted an effing safe to keep this thing from getting contaminated. I liked this one. You can fit a few games in there and possibly the charger…I didn’t check.

Circuit City is having a big sale for the 4th of July weekend. I’m hoping to get a copy of Metroid Pinball for $9. The sale has kind of started already, and my brother got the last copy of that game. Word is they pulled the games off the shelf…I hope it’s true…

-Adam

Introduction: Today I picked up Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS. It’s the first and only Sonic game on the DS, following Sonic Advanced 1, 2 and 3. I was willing to pay full price for this, so it wasn’t a budget purchase. Here’s my little rundown on what I think.

Gameplay: Sonic Rush plays just like the original Genesis games. To keep it fresh, there’s a lot of style to it. Gameplay-wise, it stays fast-paced most of the time. Rush makes use of the Dual screens by using both for control of Sonic. You will stay on the top screen until an event forces you to the bottom, at which point the game focuses on the bottom screen allowing you to see what’s going on above you. Each screen moves up and down according to Sonics movement, but there is a threshold that separates the screens, allowing movement between the two. You will see unreachable things on both screens that will make you want to play the level again out of curiosity. This Sonic game, much like the others, include special bonus stages that will let you aquire a chaos emerald. These bonus stages are similar to the ones used in Sonic 2. They are the half-pipes that contain rings. Get the correct amount of rings and you get an emerald. What’s cool about this is that you use the stylus to move Sonic around; obtaining rings and avoiding spikes. This was done very well; I’ll have to give them props for that. The Boss battles add something neat which start at the end of each two act stage. These battles are in full 3-D, where Dr. Eggman moves around all he wants on the screen, moving Sonic in 3-D on a 2-D plane. While a neat little addition, it sometimes takes too long because you have to wait for each attack, just trying to survive. Similar to 8-bit and 16-bit era bosses.

Graphics: The stages are somewhat bland, but you are moving at such a high rate of speed that you don’t even notice it. Sonic is a full 3D polygonal character, making his animations fluid and varied. They did a good job with this. The enemies, though, seem to be hand drawn, and limited on animation…IMO, not as good as the earlier games. If anything, you will be pleased. There’s nothing here to really complain too much about.

Sound: The techno beats fit Sonic well, but I’m more of a fan of the punk sounding tunes. The special effects are all reminiscent of the older games, which gives the game that old-school Sonic feeling. All the characters have voices too. That was pretty unexpected and it adds to the atmosphere.

Final Thought: Good game if you’re a Sonic fan, and a good game if you’re a fan of platformers. I’ve only played through three worlds, but so far I don’t regret paying full price. A little on the difficult side…but I love it like that. You own a DS, you understand the games on the handheld. This is a game to own on it.

Verdict: Buy

Okay, here’s a round-up of all my thoughts on the current/next gen consoles.

XBox360: Could use more games, but it’s showing off some cool stuff. Live! is just amazing, and the Live Arcade turned into much more than I thought. Microsoft is doing good, picking up where Sega left off their legacy.

Wii: Cheap and good gameplay. That’s what we need to get to and Nintendo is doing it. It’s good that they aren’t focusing too heavily on graphics and are trying to get good gameplay out the door. Finally jumping on the online bandwagon, they are offering updates while you sleep and downloadable old-school games.

PS3: Opposite of Nintendo. Exspensive console with NOTHING. Might be good for JapRPG fans, but that’s only if you’re willing to fork over all that cash. $600 is just too much. And you’re paying for a Blu-Ray DVD player that’s hardly worth it. The mainstream are just about finished furnishing their homes with HDTV’s, but now Sony wants them to buy new HDTV’s with 1080p? I’m sorry, but sell your console for $300 with everything mentioned but the Blu-Ray capabilities, and you got yourself a decent deal. And create a library of games. Sony’s sure people will buy on the brand name alone.

I got into a discussion on save points in games. Someone complained of a certain title not having enough save points. IMO, that’s pretty weak. Games are way too easy and a lot of that has to do with save points. Remember the original Mario and Sonic? You couldn’t save your game if you wanted to go eat. Having few save points allows for a much more intense gameplay experience. The more save options you have, the less likely you’ll take a section of that game seriously, throwing the feel and atmosphere right out the window. But gaming has become more mainstream, so I have to suffer for it.

The DS Lite has been taking up a lot of my time. The New Super Mario Brothers is fantastic, not to mention Mario Kart online. Hopefully I’ll be back soon with a review or two…of something.

-Adam

Ok. So it’s been years. I’m a hardcore gamer, and I’ve always tried getting a good gaming blog up and running. This will be the end all, be all gaming blogs with my blunt and honest opinions on various topics.

-Adam