I'll just be honest with everybody; I had my worries about this one. After the bad Sonic the Hedgehog title on the 360/PS3 and the abysmal so-called port of the original Sonic game for the Game Boy Advance, I was worried that Sonic Rush Adventure would turn out as bad as those two. Thankfully though, when I picked this game up for the first time and tried it out, massive relief swept over me. This game is almost as good as the first Rush. I say 'almost', because there were a couple of things about the game that bugged me.

The story, for one, is actually pretty decent. Sonic and Tails get caught up in a storm and swept up on a mysterious island, where they meet a young raccoon girl named Marine. Yes, that's right. Sega added another new character. The worst part about it is that Marine is almost pretty much a pointless addition. Quite simply, she wants to go out and adventure but she ends up wrecking her own ship because she forgets to install brakes. Tails offers to build a new ship for her, and their adventure begins. Of course, Blaze makes a return, but I don't want to reveal how or why in case people who have yet to play the game do not want spoilers, but it's pretty good.

In the first Rush game, you were thrown right into the gameplay. I got the impression that in the first game, the gameplay was the number one priority. Here, when you start the story mode, you are thrown into a medley of cut-scenes, showing Sonic and Tails in the storm, and up to when Marine's ship gets wrecked. Then you are thrown into a tutorial, which, thankfully, you can skip if you're already familiar with the controls from Rush, as none of the controls have changed in this game.

You do eventually get around to the fast-paced, screen-jumping gameplay from the first game, and when you do, you'll find it's pretty much exactly the same as the first Rush, which isn't really that much of a bad thing, because the first Rush was brilliant in terms of gameplay. The boost system's still there. When you start you'll only play as Sonic, but later on, you'll unlock Blaze. The best part is though; you don't have to go through two separate stories like you did in the first Rush. Once you've unlocked Blaze, you can choose which of the two characters you want to play as when you reach a level, and that's it.

There are also more touch screen-based levels here than in the first Rush. To get to new levels, you need to travel to them by various sea-related vehicles that Tails' builds. You mark your route on the map, before travelling to your location. You use the touch-screen in various ways to control whatever vehicle you're using, or in one particular case, to shoot enemies while on a ship. It's, for the most part, pretty fun, though while I was riding on the water bike to the first proper platforming level, all I wanted to do was to play the game like I did Sonic Rush – just speed through the platforming stages.

There is one major gripe I have with the game though, that stopped me from having the same amount of fun that I had with the first Sonic Rush; the repetition. You need to collect materials for Tails to build new things, and to stock up on said materials, you'll often have to revisit certain levels and beat them again to get more materials. Unlike in Sonic Rush where you only went through a level twice in story mode (once with Sonic and once with Blaze), and time attack was optional, here you have no option. If you want to progress with the story, you have to go back to these levels many times over to collect more materials. The higher your grade, the more material you earn.

In this game, you not only have to collect the Chaos Emeralds, but the Sol Emeralds as well, and each are collected differently. To collect the Chaos Emeralds for Sonic, you have to race against Captain Whisker's lackey, Johnny, who you have to search the seas for. To collect the Sol Emeralds, you have to perform various side missions. Personally, collecting the emeralds in the first game felt like a simpler, more fun experience than here.

Other than those changes here and there, some which improve the Rush formula and some which sets it back from the first Rush, the gameplay is a lot like the first Rush titles, with a few other gameplay elements tossed in to bulk the game out. The bosses are a bit better in this game though than in the first Rush in my personal opinion, I just found them more fun.

There is multiplayer, though I cannot say if it lags or not due to not fully trying this myself, but the good news is, it's got the option of local multiplayer and online multiplayer, which sounds like fun.

The graphics haven't changed at all from the first Rush game. The levels still have that Sonic feel to them, and are still colourful, if not simplistic in places. The music is also pretty good, but it's not as good as the music in the first Rush game. The voice-acting is pretty much the same as from the first game, meaning Sonic still sounds emotionless and bland, Tails still sounds girly, whereas Blaze and the two Eggman characters sound decent. Marine has no voice. Captain Whisker and Johnny's voices weren't that special.

I can't really say much more about Rush Adventure, so what it all boils down to is; did you enjoy the first Sonic Rush? If you did, then you will likely enjoy this title as well, though it might prove to be a little disappointing in some areas, like having to repeat levels to get materials. But it's still a lot better than some other recent efforts, and is probably worth a look.