Sonic Rivals is a mini sonic game that is on the Playstation portable that mostly takes inspiration from the rush and advanced games focusing on Sonic vs his 4 Big Rivals from the generations of Sonic.
There are a total of 5 Characters in Sonic Rivals, and the point of the game is to... race your rivals lol.

The characters being:
1. Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog)

2. Knuckles (second Sonic Rival, appearing first from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, later becoming Sonic's friend after the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles)

3. Shadow (third Sonic Rival, appearing first in Sonic Adventure 2 as the opposing force to Team Sonic, Shadow being the ultimate lifeform later teams up with Sonic and sacrifices himself in the final battle of Adventure 2, only to return in Sonic Heroes surviving his fall to earth, later saving Earth once again in his very janky spinoff)

4. Silver (Fourth Sonic Rival, appearing in Sonic 06 as hero from the future who tricked by Mephiles the Dark into killing Sonic to unleashed the entity know as Iblis into destroying the world, known for being very whiny but cool in terms of his story being similar to Future Trunks, and him having Psychokinesis. Also known for the iconic and joked on quote "It's no use.")

5. Metal Sonic (Sonic's First Rival and Active Enemy, Metal Sonic first appeared in Sonic CD, in the destroyed Future of Stardust speedway where he challenges Sonic into racing him in order to save Amy, who Metal captured early on in CD, Sonic destroys Metal only for Eggman to rebuild him and has even been shown to be faster than Sonic. Another big thing is Metal Sonic has the ability to copy cat based on his Neo-Metal Sonic form from Sonic Heroes, which comes back in this game, being able to copy all other 4 characters abilities.)

The story is essentially Sonic discovering a new island called Onyx Island and Eggman captures important things to Sonic, Shadow, Silver, and Knuckles in order to gather data from them. He captures Tails, the Master Emerald, Amy, Rouge... and Eggman? by turning them into cards (yes it's dumb but if you ever watched Power Rangers SPD, the SPD Rangers captured their enemies in Card Prisons, so it's not that big of a deal).
Each of the characters have their own stories except Metal Sonic who can be unlocked after finishing the game. Sonic's story is about rescuing Tails and Amy. Knuckles has to do with getting the Master Emerald back from Eggman. Shadow's Story is about Shadow figuring out what's going on with Eggman, since he recieved a distress message asking shadow for help, Shadow later finds out Eggman is not Eggman, and defeats him in order to save Rouge. Silver's story is what ties everything together where we find out that Silver has never been chasing Eggman, but in fact the true villian of Sonic Rivals is actually... EGGMAN NEGA, who wants to change the future because of the original Eggman's failure, he wants the future to change his family history. Silver Teams up with Shadow and Knuckles to stop Eggman Nega, Silver successfully defeating Nega. Later Nega turns himself accidently into a card, allowing for Silver to capture and imprison the doctor... until Sonic Rivals 2.

The stories intertwine, but have different endings for different characters, with Sonic and Knuckles respectively never meeting Eggman Nega in this game, though Shadow and Silver do. Also the stories mostly have Silver, Knuckles, and Shadow teaming up towards the end of their stories, while Sonic is sort of just there to save his friends, not so much uncover the truth of EGGMAN NEGA. The story is overall good, I think it giving more of a spotlight to the rivals is nice. Though honestly it's a shame SEGA didn't think of a story mode for Metal Sonic... shunned again after Sonic Adventure 1.

The game has a total of 5 stages, each of them focusing on you (whoever you're playing as) racing against a rival and thats about it. You do fight 5 bosses in the game, though one of them you have to fight both the final boss and metal sonic who can't be killed, is more so just an obstacle attempting to stop you from hurting the boss.

The stages are in order:

1. Forest Falls Zone (a jungle zone on Onyx Island)

2. Colosseum Highway Zone (a sunset zone that looks like a 3d version of Marble Garden Zone, which has a lot of Greek/Roman architecture in the background.)

3. Sky Park Zone (sort of fusion of Carnival Night Zone from Sonic 3 and Knuckles, mixed with aspects of Twinkle Park from Sonic Adventure 1)

4. Crystal Mountain Zone (Sort of a reference to Ice Cap Zone from Adventure and Sonic 3 and Knuckles)

5. Death Yard Zone (Sort of looks like a mix of Oil Ocean and Chemical Plant with a more orange pollution hue. It's essentially a giant Pollution factory.)

6. Meteor Base Zone (Final Zone that essentially looks like a mix of Madgear in Space with magman/lava).

There are 5 bosses in Sonic Rivals:

1. Eggman Turtle (Boss of Forest Falls Zone)
2. Eggman Falcon (Boss of Colosseum Highway Zone)
3. Metal Sonic (Second Act Boss of Sky Park Zone, you are challenge by him in a race for all characters)
4.Eggman Lynx (Boss of Crystal Mountain Zone)
5. Eggman Kong (Boss of Death Yard Zone)
6. Egg Destroyer (Final Boss of Sonic Rivals)


The game is essentially a 2 act structure where you race in 2 races then fight a boss in each stage, except for Sky Park Zone.

The game overall is an ok sonic game, but it can be frustrating in terms of some areas of the game being janky and sometimes it feels like it was made to be in order for you opponent/rival to constantly be able to keep up with you.
Rivals 2 is a major improvement over Rivals 1, but this is a good portable sonic game, even if it is short.

a rather ho-hum and uninspired sonic game. You really aren't missing out on much if you haven't played this one. It's a 2D racing game where you have to just beat your opponent to the end of the level. Music is okay, level design is okay, the plot is okay, it's just an overall okay video game. Doesn't do anything wrong besides being a bit generic. All the playable characters play the exact same though which is kinda lame, like you really can't even give knuckles his glide? Maybe this game would be more interesting if you play it with someone else, but I flew solo this time so I can't tell. I guess if you have nothing but a PSP and want to play a sonic game then this is definitely a game for you, but eh it's pretty okay

I wouldn't really call Sonic Rivals a bad game but I do find it really boring and mediocre. I get what they were going for but the game relies way too much on automation for it's level design with not much to keep you coming back for replays.

Really the only thing that's going to keep you going is the fact the story is mildly entertaining but they present the story in the most basic way possible limiting it's potential. The game's rubber band AI is to be expected but sometimes it can be obnoxious but the game is still pretty easy regardless especially with the bosses.

The game does have a lot of extras which is pretty cool to see but after the 4 playthroughs, my Sonic Rivals fuel is empty and I can't keep going anymore. It didn't help that everyone plays the same outside of their special ability.

The game graphically looks nice for a PSP game and it's got it's charm even if some parts of the game feel cheap. The voice acting is your typical earlier 4kids actors so it's very not good and sadly you're stuck with it as the game lacked a Japanese release. It's also oddly really quiet when they talk which idk is an emulation problem or not. The music is also really boring like good lord I got sick of some of it.

Sonic Rivals has potential but it squanders on it by just not being interesting. It's playable, being neither bad or good but there is practically no reason to play it in today's age. A sequel was made so I'll probably play it someday. Apologies for the short review with this one. The only thing I have left to say is, I hate Sonic's render in this game. It looks atrocious.