this game is a mess. as with most sonic games, especially the handheld ones, it's a good game deep down, but chained to its bullshit.
at its core, its still sonic rush, and that should be fine, the levels are solid and at times are even better than the first, though overall less memorable. the bosses can be fun, though some do get annoying due to just going on for way WAY too long (the first had a similar problem, but it's even worse in this game, at least if you play on normal). and that should be that, right? good stages, good controls, (mostly) good bosses, good music. so it's good, right?
well... that's when you get to actually play the levels. let me do a rundown for you. first off, the game loves to pause for its story every ten seconds, and while i dont mind usually, the cutscenes drag. skipping is an option, but i prefer to see things through. i don't think the game shouldn't have a story, it just had a problem where it popped up too frequently and dragged too long. this is sonic, not persona. (insert fursona joke)
but that's not really the only problem of course, and certainly not the biggest.
so, after you get through the zones, beat the boss, skim the dialogue, you then have to get to another island. this is where the problems begin.
see, to get to an island, you need a vehicle to get there. to get the vehicle, you need materials to build it. to get the materials, you must replay levels. better the rank you get at the end, the more materials you get. this game has crafting and grinding. now, if you A or S ranked everything your first go at these levels, you might have enough materials for your first vehicle, the jet ski. but lets face it, you probable got all Bs and/or Cs, maybe an A if you're lucky. so back to the farming mines for you, grind monkey! okay, you got your jet ski, now you gotta do a minigame to the next island, it's this game's equivalent to special stages. because there are no special stages in this game, which probably begs the question; what about the chaos emeralds? well, you gotta race a character named johnny for that, he's the antagonists right hand man basically, but he's introduced before you're even introduced to the antagonist. all he's really there for is to race for chaos emeralds, but finding him can be a bitch. they practically give you the first emerald, but the other ones you need to find yourself by exploring the map and just making a blind path until you find either johnny or a hidden island. but you're not gonna do most of that on your jet ski. that thing can barely take you anywhere, no to explore more, you're gonna need a boat, or a hovercraft, or even a submarine, each with their own minigames you have to go through every time you use them. none of them are fun. you have to craft all of them by grinding more materials when the story prompts you to. they also all have 2 upgrades that you have to do one by one, and you can't choose which to upgrade. the only upgrade that really matters are the jet skis, because some of johnny's races are literally impossible until fully upgraded, which is very annoying, especially when you have to upgrade 3 other less important vehicles to get to the jet skis second upgrade. blaze is also in the game, and she has to get sol emeralds. to get the sol emeralds, you first need to find certain hidden islands, complete the level, talk to an NPC, go to marine and then you need to complete the same level again, with no difference, so the second time is just poinless filler. this brings me to the next issue with the game, and just how poorly it's paced. there are 100 optional missions, and most of them either have you going through a level you've already done, or a boss you've already beat. sometimes there's an objective, like collect 100 rings, or get to the end before time runs out, but sometimes it won't even have that. sometimes it will literally just be "heres the same level or boss again with nothing different about it", which gets especially annoying when they force you to do the seven minute final boss again for a sol emerald. the missions that don't give sol emeralds are pretty much pointless though, as they don't even give materials. most missions give music, so i guess theres that. some missions will make the island look nicer. some missions will unlock a cutscene for you to rewatch. marine's missions give "medals" which seem to just not have a purpose at all, other than "you can look at it". most of them are optional, but they really could have more of an incentive to do them, like if they gave a couple random materials each time you completed one or something, since for whatever reason you don't get materials from these missions, and can only get them from actually replaying stages. it just bloats the game up so much. when you're not doing the ocean stages, you're replaying levels with no variety just so you could craft more/better vehicles, just so you can do more ocean stages. rise and grind, gamer.
so you've gone through all the zones, beaten the final boss, watched the credits, got all the emeralds and its time for the true final boss as super sonic and burning blaze. how is it? it's okay. one of the better super sonic final bosses i guess, they've never been a strong point for the games, as the balance always feels out of whack. either too easy or too hard. all things considered, this one does get the balancing kind of right. vertical bullet hell was an odd choice for a final battle though. the real problem though, and this somehow even more of an issue than it was even in the first game, is the screen gap. the rush games account for the screen gap in the bulky original ds by just having dead space where you can't see anything, and that is legit a problem in some boss fights, particularly in another vertical focused fight agains whisker and johnny where there's just an entire blind spot you can get stuck around, its very poorly thought out.
it's a legit shame too, because i feel like this game does have its minor improvements in gameplay and overall level design are a step up from the first game. these levels, for as much as you are forced to replay them a dozen times over, may not be as memorable as the first game's, but they do feel better to get through if that makes sense. the bosses are hit or miss, but they're not bad. had this game been level-to-level, like the first, i could maybe see it being better. but the quality is hidden behind so much bullshit that i don't even know if i can recommend it. it feels like 70% of this game is just either ocean stages or replaying levels you've done before, which ironically kills any replay value this game might have had. it's not the worst handheld sonic game, but you can do a helluva lot better.
at its core, its still sonic rush, and that should be fine, the levels are solid and at times are even better than the first, though overall less memorable. the bosses can be fun, though some do get annoying due to just going on for way WAY too long (the first had a similar problem, but it's even worse in this game, at least if you play on normal). and that should be that, right? good stages, good controls, (mostly) good bosses, good music. so it's good, right?
well... that's when you get to actually play the levels. let me do a rundown for you. first off, the game loves to pause for its story every ten seconds, and while i dont mind usually, the cutscenes drag. skipping is an option, but i prefer to see things through. i don't think the game shouldn't have a story, it just had a problem where it popped up too frequently and dragged too long. this is sonic, not persona. (insert fursona joke)
but that's not really the only problem of course, and certainly not the biggest.
so, after you get through the zones, beat the boss, skim the dialogue, you then have to get to another island. this is where the problems begin.
see, to get to an island, you need a vehicle to get there. to get the vehicle, you need materials to build it. to get the materials, you must replay levels. better the rank you get at the end, the more materials you get. this game has crafting and grinding. now, if you A or S ranked everything your first go at these levels, you might have enough materials for your first vehicle, the jet ski. but lets face it, you probable got all Bs and/or Cs, maybe an A if you're lucky. so back to the farming mines for you, grind monkey! okay, you got your jet ski, now you gotta do a minigame to the next island, it's this game's equivalent to special stages. because there are no special stages in this game, which probably begs the question; what about the chaos emeralds? well, you gotta race a character named johnny for that, he's the antagonists right hand man basically, but he's introduced before you're even introduced to the antagonist. all he's really there for is to race for chaos emeralds, but finding him can be a bitch. they practically give you the first emerald, but the other ones you need to find yourself by exploring the map and just making a blind path until you find either johnny or a hidden island. but you're not gonna do most of that on your jet ski. that thing can barely take you anywhere, no to explore more, you're gonna need a boat, or a hovercraft, or even a submarine, each with their own minigames you have to go through every time you use them. none of them are fun. you have to craft all of them by grinding more materials when the story prompts you to. they also all have 2 upgrades that you have to do one by one, and you can't choose which to upgrade. the only upgrade that really matters are the jet skis, because some of johnny's races are literally impossible until fully upgraded, which is very annoying, especially when you have to upgrade 3 other less important vehicles to get to the jet skis second upgrade. blaze is also in the game, and she has to get sol emeralds. to get the sol emeralds, you first need to find certain hidden islands, complete the level, talk to an NPC, go to marine and then you need to complete the same level again, with no difference, so the second time is just poinless filler. this brings me to the next issue with the game, and just how poorly it's paced. there are 100 optional missions, and most of them either have you going through a level you've already done, or a boss you've already beat. sometimes there's an objective, like collect 100 rings, or get to the end before time runs out, but sometimes it won't even have that. sometimes it will literally just be "heres the same level or boss again with nothing different about it", which gets especially annoying when they force you to do the seven minute final boss again for a sol emerald. the missions that don't give sol emeralds are pretty much pointless though, as they don't even give materials. most missions give music, so i guess theres that. some missions will make the island look nicer. some missions will unlock a cutscene for you to rewatch. marine's missions give "medals" which seem to just not have a purpose at all, other than "you can look at it". most of them are optional, but they really could have more of an incentive to do them, like if they gave a couple random materials each time you completed one or something, since for whatever reason you don't get materials from these missions, and can only get them from actually replaying stages. it just bloats the game up so much. when you're not doing the ocean stages, you're replaying levels with no variety just so you could craft more/better vehicles, just so you can do more ocean stages. rise and grind, gamer.
so you've gone through all the zones, beaten the final boss, watched the credits, got all the emeralds and its time for the true final boss as super sonic and burning blaze. how is it? it's okay. one of the better super sonic final bosses i guess, they've never been a strong point for the games, as the balance always feels out of whack. either too easy or too hard. all things considered, this one does get the balancing kind of right. vertical bullet hell was an odd choice for a final battle though. the real problem though, and this somehow even more of an issue than it was even in the first game, is the screen gap. the rush games account for the screen gap in the bulky original ds by just having dead space where you can't see anything, and that is legit a problem in some boss fights, particularly in another vertical focused fight agains whisker and johnny where there's just an entire blind spot you can get stuck around, its very poorly thought out.
it's a legit shame too, because i feel like this game does have its minor improvements in gameplay and overall level design are a step up from the first game. these levels, for as much as you are forced to replay them a dozen times over, may not be as memorable as the first game's, but they do feel better to get through if that makes sense. the bosses are hit or miss, but they're not bad. had this game been level-to-level, like the first, i could maybe see it being better. but the quality is hidden behind so much bullshit that i don't even know if i can recommend it. it feels like 70% of this game is just either ocean stages or replaying levels you've done before, which ironically kills any replay value this game might have had. it's not the worst handheld sonic game, but you can do a helluva lot better.