Sonic Rivals

Sonic Rivals is a game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series that was released in late 2006. It is the first Sonic game which was developed by Backbone Entertainment and Eurocom Entertainment Software and published by Sega, Sierra Entertainment and Fox Interactive exclusively for the PlayStation Portable. The game was also supervised by Sega Studio USA while the game was directed by Steven Spielberg, Chris Wedge and produced by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Chris Wedge with the screenplay by David Koepp, Philip LaZebnik and Chris Wedge.

The original score was composed and conducted by Joel McNeely with the additional music score composed and conducted by Shirley Walker. A year later, a sequel was developed by the same companies for the same platform. This is Shirley Walker's final score for the game before her death in November 2006

Gameplay
While Sonic Rivals possesses the graphical style of the Sega Dreamcast era of games, the gameplay is actually on a 2D plane, playing much like the games from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive era of games. Characters race to the finish line while avoiding the level's obstacles. The game contains six zones, each with three respective acts, the third being a boss battle, totaling in 17 stages. (One level,Sky Park, does not feature a boss stage.) Boss battles at the end of levels require the player to defeat the boss before the competing character does. Five different characters are playable; Sonic the Hedgehog Sr, Knuckles the Echidna, Shadow the Hedgehog, Silver the Hedgehog, and Metal Sonic, but gameplay is identical for all characters. The game features power-ups to collect that offer additional offensive and defensive abilities.

Sonic Rivals consists of several different modes. In Story Mode, each of the four playable characters have separate story lines, and must race each other to the finish line in each stage in order to thwart Doctor Eggman's various schemes. In Challenge Mode, the player is given a goal to complete, such as hitting your opponent a certain number of times during a race or battle. Wireless Play Mode features multiplayer games and races whereby players can wager cards, or just race for fun. It is played Adhoc, and players can customize their racers using collectible cards won in Single player, trade cards with friends, and wager cards on races. Also a cup circuit mode is available where players race a rival for the chance to win a specific cup.

Cards
Sonic Rivals features an extensive collectible card system that spans a total of 150 cards. Performing specific objectives throughout the game will give you collectible cards. Such tasks include finishing a level, getting a certain number of rings, hitting your rival a certain number of times and getting to the goal within a certain amount of time.

The cards themselves feature pictures of characters and boxart from a variety of past games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The cards themselves are used to unlock secret costumes and items that alter the appearance of the characters. While they add a customizable aspect to the game, they are merely aesthetic; they do not affect gameplay.

Plot
When the mysterious Onyx Island appears out of nowhere, Sonic Sr and Tails along with Ignitus, Sparx and Cynder fly there to investigate. They confront Doctor Eggman, who reveals his latest device: a camera which can turn people and things into cards, having already done so to Amy. He turns Tails into a card just as Knuckles arrives, angry at Eggman for using his device on the Master Emerald as well. Eggman announces his plan to conquer the world by turning everything to cards, challenging Sonic Sr and Knuckles to stop him as he flees, but Ignitus stops him which blames Eggman for turning people and things into cards before he calls him imposter. The two heroes both set out independently to stop his plan. Elsewhere, Shadow receives a distress signal from Eggman, but upon finding him, the doctor denies sending one. He later receives a communication from Rouge warning him she has stumbled upon a dangerous secret about Eggman, but she is turned to a card before she can continue. Suddenly, Silver appears from the future, and tells Shadow he needs to get to Eggman first.

After numerous conflicts, the heroes discover that Dr. Eggman had been imprisoned in a card before everything began, and that the Eggman the heroes have been interacting with is Eggman Nega in disguise. Nega is revealed to have traveled back from the future, plotting to use the camera to remove Eggman's failed schemes from existence and rewrite their family history, with Onyx Island being a future version of Angel Island he brought back to further his plan. His ruse exposed, Nega escapes into space, planning to use his camera to turn the whole planet into a card. The heroes along with Ignitus, Sparx and Cynder rescue Tails and the real Eggman, who aid them in reaching Nega's space station to stop his plan. After a final battle with the heroes, Nega is defeated and captured in a card which Ignitus gives Silver a card for his custody. The prisoners of the other cards are restored, and Silver takes Onyx Island and Nega's card with him back to the future.

Reception
Sonic Rivals received mixed reviews from critics. It received a score of 66.17% on GameRankings and 64/100 on Metacritic. IGN praised the graphics, sense of speed, and multiplayer mode, but criticized the game's controls and some level designs. Similarly, GameSpot called it "fast and fun", but did not like the "trial and error" based gameplay needed due to the level designs.