Video Game / Sonic Rush

Double the screens...
Double the excitement!

Today's the day! Today's a new day!
Today's the day! Today's a new start!
Today's the day! Today's a new day!
Today's the day! I'm gonna change my way!

— "A New Day"

Sonic Rush is a game in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise developed by Dimps (with Sonic Team in a supervisory role) and released for the Nintendo DS in 2005. It's similar to the Sonic Advance trilogy in that they are reminiscent of the classic side-scrollers for the Mega Drive/Genesis.

In this game, we are introduced to Sonic and Dr. Eggman's alternate dimension counterparts: Blaze the Cat and Dr. Eggman Nega. The Chaos Emeralds also have alternate dimension counterparts in the form of the Sol Emeralds, which Blaze must protect at all costs.

A gameplay feature introduced in this game is the Sonic Boost; while holding down the X or Y buttons, your character will gain a boost of speed as long as the tension meter is not empty; the meter can be filled up by destroying enemies and performing tricks. The Boost would later be a major part of gameplay in later 3D Sonic games beginning with Sonic Unleashed.

Playable Characters

• Sonic the Hedgehog: Slightly faster and can perform the Homing Attack. Compared to Blaze, his running animation has smaller but faster strides.
• Blaze the Cat: Superior airtime and distance with R-trigger tricks and can slow her descent by shooting flames from her feet. Her running animation is slower than Sonic's but she takes much larger strides.

The game would later receive a direct sequel in 2007 titled Sonic Rush Adventure.

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Sonic Rush contains examples of:

• 2½D: Everything except Sonic and Blaze in normal levels is a sprite, but the bosses, their arenas, and special stages use full 3D graphics and gimmicks that make use of 3D perspective. Some levels have 3D sections, like the platform in Mirage Road, hang glider in Altitude Limit, parallel rails in Plant Kingdom, and the mine cart in Coral Cave, all of which use a 3D perspective, but the obstacles (save the lava pits in the latter) are sprites.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Altitude Limit takes place in a military base high in the clouds.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The True Final Boss is fought in a brightly-colored dimensional rift, the result of Sonic and Blaze's worlds merging together.
• Amen break: Used in the Final Boss theme "Bomber Barbara".
• Anti-Grinding: If you attempt to bounce on the same spring multiple times in order to fill the boost meter, the game will give you less and less energy until you get none at all. In addition, you can only get the Animal bonus the first time you interact with any such setpiece.
• Artificial Brilliance: Even without considering their Secret A.I. Moves, the opposing boss in the Sonic vs. Blaze fight is a massive step up from the ease of usual character boss fights in this series. The opponent does its best to not leave any openings, and so it will take quick thinking on the player's part to get in a hit during those short moments.
• Attack Reflector: Super Sonic's boost does this against the True Final Boss.
• Award-Bait Song: "Raisin' Me Up," the ending theme of the game, is an upbeat sweet harmonious song reflecting Sonic and Blaze's now-fully-grown relationship. Some have described the beginning to sound like a church hymn.
• Big "SHUT UP!": At the climax of the Sonic vs. Blaze boss fight, Blaze shouts "Enough!" at Sonic in response to him chipping away at her reasons for always fighting alone, which is followed by the resulting boost finisher.
• Bilingual Bonus: The word "Sol" means Sun in Spanish and Portuguese. Blaze's emeralds are literally powered by the Sun itself.
• Blade Lock: Sonic and Blaze do a variation with their heads by boosting into each other in the Sonic vs. Blaze boss fight.
• Boss-Only Level: The Final Boss and the True Final Boss are each separately fought in a dedicated level.
• Bottomless Pits: Loads of them, sometimes in the form of lasers that cause instant death on contact.
• Brutal Bonus Level: Sonic's special stages take the form of classic ring-collection tracks. The early stages are simple enough, but the difficulty scaling is abrupt and harsh; the 7th stage will make you work for that true ending.
• Call-Back: The cutscene leading to the Last Story calls back to the opening cutscene of the Perfect Chaos fight in Sonic Adventure, as the Sol Emeralds are reduced to ordinary stones due to Eggman and Nega draining their power, and Blaze's friendship powers them back up.
• Canon Discontinuity: The origin of Eggman Nega being from the Sol Dimension has been rendered non-canon by later installments. He's actually Eggman's descendant from 200 years into the future, the same time period that Silver is from as told Sonic Rivals, and anything that says otherwise should simply be ignored. However, it's worth nothing that while in Rush, Eggman Nega referred to Blaze's world as "my world" or "our world", in Rush Adventure, which was released after Rivals, he simply refers to it as "this world". Considering the type of person Eggman Nega is, it's not too farfetched that he'd lie about his origins and masquerade as a dimensional counterpart of Eggman to hide his true identity.
• Cats Are Mean: Blaze was a bit of an insociable Jerkass when she was first introduced. She quickly got better, though.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Amy Rose got really pissed when she heard that Sonic was seen with a feline and only calmed down when told it wasn't like that.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In Sonic and Blaze's boss fight, they both have moves you can't normally access in the levels. Obviously justified, as it is a boss fight and normally having those moves could make levels easier to finish.
• Continuity Nod: Huge Crisis features G.U.N. robots as enemies.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • This game says Blaze is from another dimension. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) says she's from the future. Rush Adventure, however, goes into further detail about the nature of her world and makes it clear that she is indeed from a parallel universe.
  • In 2012, Takashi Iizuka, the head of Sonic Team, confirmed that Blaze is from another dimension, and that Sonic 06 should be ignored. However, by then another contradiction was formed involving Eggman Nega, who identifies himself as from another dimension in Rush, but as Eggman's descendant in Rivals. Takashi Iizuka says that the latter origin is true, and that the former should be ignored.
• Cursed with Awesome: Prior to becoming friends with Sonic, Blaze hated her powers, as they brought her nothing but loneliness and misery.
  Blaze: I am the guardian of the Sol Emeralds... It is a fate that forces me to live with my curse, my flames... Because of my powers, I have always been alone... It's also why I must do this alone! It is my responsibility!
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Blaze is cold and aloof at the beginning of her arc, but warms up to Sonic and his friends thanks to her growing friendship with Cream.
• Demoted to Extra: Tails, Cream, Amy, and Knuckles went from being playable characters in the Advance games, to being mostly supporting characters here, mostly to make way for newcomer, Blaze.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Blaze is a variant: she has lived a lonely life, thanks to her duties as the guardian of the Sol Emeralds and her fear of hurting other people with her fire. As such, she's extremely reluctant to accept any help and regards Cream as just a nuisance when the rabbit tries to befriend her, as well as lashing out and attacking Sonic when he tries to reach out to her. She eventually learns that having friends and getting emotional support isn't a sign of weakness.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The official soundtrack version of Vela-Nova, the music that plays during the Duel Boss between Sonic and Blaze, also counts. In game, it legitimately fits the scuffle. However, the OST version sounds like they're fighting in a different way thanks to one small line at the end: "(sigh) Let's do it."
• Duel Boss: You face off against the other playable character as the boss of Dead Line.
• Elemental Powers:
  • Sonic can stir up a tornado during the boss battle in Dead Line. His boost is also implied to be so destructive because it conjures a shield by disrupting the air around him.
  • As guardian of the Sol Emeralds, Blaze was born with flame powers.
• Eternal Engine: Huge Crisis and Dead Line take place in a military naval fleet and a space station, respectively.
• Evolving Music: The world map music changes slightly once the Final Zone is unlocked.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Eggman and Nega engage in this during their monologue prior to the True Final Boss.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Other than going faster, this is the boost's primary purpose.
• Forgot I Could Fly: Subverted, Blaze is capable of flying by creating two small jets of flame under her feet, but she willingly avoids using this ability during the story because she is scared of heights. Cream decides to carry her around instead.
• Genre Mashup: As Hideki Naganuma composed the soundtrack, it carries his trademark hodgepodge of genres and samples from other titles like Jet Set Radio and Ollie King.
• Guide Dang It!: The game leaves a lot to the player to guess, to the point that the game's own manual doesn't even explain game controls. Some basic moves like the various tricks aren't intuitive, and most interestingly Night Carnival Zone has a point that requires the use of a non-intuitive maneuver to move past (the player needs to gain extra height off a spring by performing an up-trick with R+Up), creating a trap point much like Carnival Night Zone and its infamous barrel.
• I Work Alone: At first, Blaze insists that Eggman Nega is her problem and her problem alone, and refuses to accept help. It gets to the point where she fights Sonic because she thinks he's getting in the way.
• Jungle Japes: Leaf Storm Zone takes place in a dense jungle.
• Kill Enemies to Open: Some acts will trap the player in a certain area where several enemies appear. The player must then defeat all enemies to escape and continue through the level, with a counter showing how many of them are left.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Played with. Blaze knows Sonic isn't in league with Eggman, but fights Sonic anyway in an attempt to end his involvement in what she considers 'her problem'.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: Blaze opens up considerably to other people thanks to Character Development, although she's still introverted.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Downplayed and Gender-Inverted Trope. Sonic plays this for Blaze to some extent, helping her to better understand the Power of Friendship with his light-hearted demeanor. However, Blaze does have her own goals and is quite competent, and there is nothing explicitly romantic between the two, so it's not as grating or noticeable as other examples of this trope.
• Merged Reality: The plot sees Blaze's world being drawn into Sonic's due to the displacement of the Sol Emeralds. This is very much a bad thing, and Blaze is out to reclaim the Emeralds before the process is complete and both realities are irrevocably ruined. However, while getting all the Sol Emeralds does stop the Reality Bleed before it becomes complete and permanent, it doesn't actually start reversing the effect much to Blaze's confusion. This is because only by being able to properly use their power can she reverse the merging, something that until she finally understands The Power of Friendship is beyond her.
• Mirror Boss: The boss in Dead Line has access to a similar moveset as the player character, namely a spin jump, spin dash and the boost. However, they also have unique powers of their own: Sonic can create tornadoes, while Blaze can raise pillars of fire.
• Mistaken Identity:
  • When Sonic first encounters Eggman Nega, he rather obviously assumes it's just Dr. Eggman before he notices how oddly he's talking before Nega makes his dramatic proclamation.
  • When Blaze and Cream meet Knuckles, Knuckles senses the power of the Sol Emeralds in Blaze's possession and, not being aware of her alternate dimension, thinks she's carrying around Chaos Emeralds and suggests that she should hand them off to Sonic for safekeeping. This being the first time Blaze has ever heard of the Chaos Emeralds, she only files away that tidbit before once again being annoyed at someone trying to get her to rely on Sonic for help.
• Nerf: The Rolling Attack's ability to pick up momentum from hills was massively nerfed in order to encourage more use of the new boost.
• Nitro Boost: This game marks the first appearance of the Sonic Boost ability. It would later be introduced to the 3D series in Unleashed, Colors, and modern Sonic's ability in Generations.
• Not So Invincible After All: For the Super forms. Sonic Rush is one of the few times in the entire series where Super forms can actually take damage instead of simply getting stunned or slowed down. The super move of the boss can actually cause damage, causing a significant loss of rings. Their regular attacks however, do only cause hitstun.
• One-Hit Kill: Most of the bosses have an instant-kill attack. Fortunately, they're usually heavily telegraphed, and Eggman prefaces them with a unique audio cue ("Get ready to be schooled!").
• Opposites Attract:
  • The Big Bad Duumvirate of Eggman and Eggman Nega. Both share the same intellect, but while the former is a pragmatic villain, the latter is a cold sociopath with little regard to the lives of others and even his own.
  • The Chaos and Sol Emeralds are said to be like magnets, and can either attract or repel each other. Sonic and Blaze's personalities can be described the same way, and considering their connections to the emeralds, this parallel seems to be intentional.
• Out-of-Character Moment:
  • If you are playing as Blaze, the boss of the seventh zone will be Sonic himself. In the bottom screen, Cream will still be shown cheering for Blaze whenever she lands a hit, despite the fact that Cream is Sonic's friend and looks up to him as a hero.
  • Cream is also a little more passive aggressive here than in other games, explaining to Blaze that Knuckles and Amy are rather dim within dangerous hearing range, inadvertently leaving them on somewhat cold impressions.
• Parental Abandonment: Blaze tells Sonic that she's always been alone, which would explain her emotional issues and why she's tasked with guarding the Sol Emeralds at the young age of 14. But in Rush Adventure, it's stated that she has a living family, though they are unseen.
• Pause Scumming: In the special stages, you control Sonic using the touchscreen. By moving the stylus across the screen, you move Sonic around to the left and right. The thing is, Sonic doesn't actually move towards where you're touching, he just instantly appears at any spot you touch. So if you're having trouble, you can pause the game, touch the area you want Sonic to be at, and unpause to have him appear there much faster than you would normally be able to move your hand. You can also exploit this during the sequences when you're forced to tap spots in a specific order, since pausing the game does not obscure the action with a menu.
• Playing with Fire: Blaze, as the name implies, has limited pyrokinetic abilities which allow her to conjure flames, put away fires and rocket into the air. Her powers amplified by the Sol Emeralds let her hurl destructive fireballs which grow more powerful the longer she charges the move.
• The Power of Friendship: The main theme of the series. In fact, like the Chaos Emeralds as discussed in Sonic Adventure, this is literally what powers the Sol Emeralds.
• Press X to Not Die: During the Egg Eagle boss fight (Altitude Limit Zone), there will be certain points in the battle where Eggman/Eggman Nega will slam down on one edge of the platform and transform the Egg Eagle's wings into high powered fans. As soon as he activates them, he will yell "Get ready to be schooled!", then mashing the B and A buttons becomes your only way of surviving this attack. Otherwise, failure means you will be blown off the edge of the platform and lose a life. In the zone 7 boss, on the final hit, mashing the B and A buttons would push Blaze (or Sonic) to the edge of the platform. If the player does nothing or mashes too slowly, they'll get pushed off and instantly lose a life. If the player mashes enough, they push their rival off, beating the stage.
• Rank Inflation: Both games embrace this trope like their 3D brothers, awarding you a lettered rank based on your score in an act/boss fight. The levels are, from best to worst, S, A, B, and C.
• Reality Bleed: The map screen becomes more distorted as Sonic and Blaze's dimensions merge together throughout normal gameplay progress.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Dr. Eggman is loud and excitable. Eggman Nega is very calm, cunning and cruel.
  • At first glance, in contrast to their actual colours, Sonic seems like a good fit for Red Oni (passionate, adventurous) while Blaze seems to be the Blue Oni (stoic, loner). This dynamic, however, is completely shattered during the Dead Line Zone boss fight. Blaze, with her temper finally at its limit, instigates the battle against Sonic, who originally had no intention of fighting her. Then, during the actual fight, Blaze is the one whose emotions explode while Sonic is the one who tries to calm her down.
    The same occurs at the end of Rush Adventure, where Blaze, in a moment of desperation, nearly blindly runs headfirst into danger, and Sonic has to calm her down and make her see reason. The developers likely did this on purpose, to provide a nice contrast between the two protagonists: Sonic is the free and adventurous, yet level-headed and cool one, and Blaze is the outwardly stoic and blunt, yet inwardly highly emotional one.
• Repeat Cut: Every time you destroy a boss, the game shows the player character dealing the final blow from three different angles for dramatic effect.
• The Rival: Blaze's animosity towards Sonic escalates due to their contrasting personalities, until the two protagonists clash late in the game. Ironically, this marks the beginning of their friendship, as they ultimately come to respect each other after the fight.
• Sampling: This is probably the first Sonic soundtrack since Sonic CD to have so much of this, thanks to composer Hideki Naganuma (yes, ''that'' Hideki Naganuma).
• Sarcastic Clapping: Eggman Nega likes doing this.
• Schizophrenic Difficulty: The last stage is much easier than either of the ones preceding it, and the fourth stage is harder than stage five. For Blaze, the level orders are switched around, meaning one of the most challenging/cheap levels is the first one she plays!
• Secret Final Campaign: Beating Blaze's story, collecting all the chaos emeralds in Sonic's story, and beating Sonic's story will unlock one last story which has Sonic and Blaze become Super Sonic and Burning Blaze for the True Final Boss.
• Shifting Sand Land: Mirage Road takes place inside a pyramid.
• Ship Level: Huge Crisis Zone, which serves as Sonic's fifth action stage and Blaze's sixth. This stage takes place onboard several G.U.N. naval aircraft carriers, and the boss stage takes place on a naval destroyer.
• Space Zone: Dead Line is set in a space station.
• Stranger Danger: A downplayed example: When Cream first meets Blaze she tries to befriend her at first sight. While Blaze agrees she warns Cream she shouldn't be so trusting as not everyone is a good guy like her.
• The Stoic: Blaze, although she does start to warm up to Sonic and friends by the end, and grows an especially powerful bond with Cream the Rabbit.
• Super Mode: Blaze the Cat has her own super form, given the moniker "Burning Blaze" and attained by channeling the energy of the seven Sol Emeralds (her dimension's equivalent of the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic's universe). Interestingly it initiates a Power-Up Full Color Change that even affects her normally-purple coat, turning it red, while her lavender fur turns pink.
• Theme Naming: The names of the bosses start with the word "Egg" with the exception of the fight between Sonic and Blaze.
• Title Scream: Courtesy of Sonic himself.
• Trapped in Another World: Blaze is stranded in the main universe, which prompts her to recover the stolen Sol Emeralds.
• True Final Boss: The final confrontation is unlocked by collecting all of the Chaos and Sol Emeralds.
• Variable Mix: The Invincibility Theme changes depending on the stage you're currently in.
• Younger Than They Look: Despite her seemingly mature personality, Blaze is actually a year younger than Sonic. To be precise, she's 14 and Sonic is 15.

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When I was down, you'd pick me up
When I was low, you'd raise me up
When I was down, you'd pick me up
When I was low, you'd raise me up
(Oh-oh-ohh!)
Rise, rise, me up
You took me higher!
Rise, rise
Raise me up, raise me up
(Oh-oh-ohh!)
Rise, rise, me up
You took me higher!
Rise, rise
Raise me up, raise me up