Sonic Rivals 2

Sonic Rivals 2 is a video game which is a sequel to Sonic Rivals. The game was developed by Backbone Entertainment and Eurocom Entertainment Software, supervised by Sega Studio USA and published by Sega and Sierra Entertainment, exclusively for the PlayStation Portable handheld videogame console. Sonic Rivals 2 was released on November 13, 2007 in North America. Like the original, Sonic Rivals 2 was not released in Japan.

Characters
Sonic Rivals 2 features eight playable characters, including all five characters from the previous title. All characters use Homing Attack and Spin Dash to move through the levels. Collecting Rings or destroying enemies will also fill the Signature Meter; when the meter is full, players can use a character-specific Signature Move to gain an advantage. For example, Shadow's "Chaos Control" move has the ability to slow down the other player's movement for a few seconds.

The character roster is split into teams of two, with each team having its own story campaign that tells the events of the game's story from their perspective. The game begins with a series of mysterious Chao disappearances, which Sonic Sr (voiced by Troy Baker) and Tails (voiced by Laura Bailey) decide to investigate. When the Master Emerald also goes missing, Knuckles (voiced by Kirk Thornton) and Rouge (voiced by Grey DeLisle) team up to find it. Elsewhere, Shadow (voiced by David Vincent]]) is contacted by Doctor Eggman (voiced by Oded Fehr), who is once again being impersonated by Eggman Nega (voiced by Leonard Nimoy); he asks for Shadow's help in stopping Nega's plan, offering Metal Sonic to aid him. Meanwhile, Silver (voiced by Hayden Christensen) returns from the future to prevent Nega from releasing an extradimensional creature known as the Ifrit (voiced by Clancy Brown) by rescuing the missing chao; he is aided by Espio (voiced by Travis Willingham), whom he comes across on his quest.

Gameplay
Sonic Rivals 2 has four main Single Player modes. Story Mode is the main single player mode. Players will go through each of the game's battle modes and levels to advance the plot. Each zone has three acts and a boss, with the exception of the final zone. The characters are divided into four teams (Sonic and Tails, Shadow and Metal Sonic, Silver and Espio, Knuckles and Rouge) and each character has their own story. The game introduces a new mode called Free Play. In this single player mode, players can choose any one of the eight characters and play through the zones in traditional 2D Sonic fashion. They can also try Time Attacking, or finding the ten hidden Chao in the levels. There are no opponents for this mode. This is a first for many of the characters featured. In addition, players can also try the Cup Circuit and Single Event modes. Races and battle can be customized in every aspect, and players can try to earn cards by completing challenges. There are 150 different cards to collect, and each is tied to a certain achievement. For example, getting an S Rank in Knockout Mode unlocks a card of Mephiles the Dark. The cards themselves contain art from various older Sonic games, and can unlock things such as alternate suits for the characters. Unlike the first game, only one card is needed to unlock a suit; and each character has four suits instead of the original three. The cards also unlock the Cup Circuits, and Chao Detectors for the Zones.

Sonic Rivals 2 boasts a new multiplayer "Battle Mode" with six different types of competition in addition to the main race mode. These modes are also worked into the story. The lengths of the battles can be set though the selection menus. In Knockout, each player starts with three rings. Players must knock all of the rings out of their opponent and then attack them to win. First player to the set number of knockouts wins. In Rings Battle, players have a set time to collect as many rings as possible. The player with the most rings at the end of the time limit wins.

Capture the Chao is a Sonic themed version of Capture the Flag. Players must steal a set number of Chao from their opponent's base and bring them back to their own base with their own Chao still there to win. In Laps Race, the first player complete a set number of laps around the track wins. King of the Hill has an Omochao is stationed at the top of the level with a light beam. Players earn points by simply standing under it. The first player to the set number of points wins. Tag is a Sonic themed cross between Hot Potato and Tag. Each player has a time limit that drops when they hold the bomb. Players pass the bomb by attacking the other player. The first player to have their time limit expire loses.

Stages
Each stage has three acts and a boss, instead of the original game's two. Acts one and three are races, and act two is always a battle. In the story mode, the races may be substituted with single character missions such as "Time Attack", "Collect X Rings", and other challenges. Certain stages can be skipped in the story, depending on the character chosen.

Music
Andrew Lloyd Webber worked together with Jim Steinman on the game's theme song "Race To Win" which was performed by Michael Crawford. The music was composed and conducted by Joel McNeely.

Reception
Sonic Rivals 2 received average reviews from critics. It received a score of 63.05% on GameRankings and 60/100 on Metacritic.

In March 2009, Sonic Rivals was certified as part of Sony's Greatest Hits budget line, representing North American sales of at least 250,000. Sonic Rivals 2 soon followed.