While Sonic has been shaky over the last decade when parading on the consoles in some lackluster games, he has found a comfortable happy place on portable platforms. Sonic Rush Adventure continues the blue hedgehog’s obsession with running really fast in his quest for gold rings and chaos emeralds. While the core gameplay has not changed since the first title on the DS in 2005, developers Dimps have brought some new ideas to the table.

After taking a few pointers from the Legend of Zelda series, Sonic and Tails crash on a mysterious island and must awaken the wind fish collect materials to build new sea crafts to get back home. Along the way Sonic will insult all Australians by joining up with various new critters who think they are acting out a Steve Irwin memorial. If the story proves itself to be too boring, it can be skipped with no consequences.

As tradition dictates most of the game is spent running really fast through varied environments, however the Zelda influence shines through once again in sailing sections. There are 4 different sea crafts to pilot, each with a unique touch screen control setup that makes use of the hardware. While these are enjoyable the first time through, there are no new features to see after a single trip in each ship. More variety would have been nice, but as a plot element to bridge the standard gameplay it works.

As a sequel, Rush Adventure does little to differentiate itself from the first game aside from more water/island images. The characters and bosses are all in full 3D and live out their lives in the second dimension. Environments are colourful and varied which is pleasing to the eye, but the basic designs feel like they could have been done on older technology. The 3D itself is impressive, and outside of boss battles there is no slowdown. But it’s when things start getting busy in one of the games more impressive boss fights that things can sometimes slow to a clichéd crawl.

The main story serves a standard half dozen hours, which doubled when you throw in 100 missions, chaos and sol emeralds to collect and non-story related islands to explore. Also the multiplayer from the first Sonic Rush game has been expanded and now included the option for online play via Nintendo WiFi. In terms of content, Rush Adventure does have plenty of content for what is mainly a single player experience.

As a sequel, Sonic Rush Adventure is a great improvement over the foundation laid by its predecessor. While it may look like more of the same at first glance, the new content and sea travel expand what would otherwise be a cheap and easy rehash. It wont win over any new fans, but anyone looking for a solid fun platformer should not be disappointed with Rush Adventure.

Platform reviewed: Nintendo DS

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