This one left more of an impact than the first one, but it more or less solidifies my thoughts on the first. I think I'd just forgotten a lot about the first over the last two years, since playing 2 reminded me that most of these problems exist in the first game.
So it's a decent high-level concept - an expansion/update to Genesis Sonic's Versus modes (I assume; admittedly I've never had a player 2 for Classic Sonic), slapped onto the hot new PlayStation Portable. But the general physics are only mostly there. Sonic is a series where its games are made or broken by its physics, and Rivals fails to stick the landing in a few key places. The Spin Dash is less practical as a momentum builder than you'd think, and it's usually just faster to keep running, despite that initial kick of speed and what curling up usually does in Sonic games. There are those hurdles where you hit X or O to either jump or dash over 'em, but you whip by 'em so quickly that it's easy to miss the QTE prompts even when you're expecting them. There's a decent amount of creativity with obstacle theming, but a lot of them mechanically come down to button mashing - that bit in Frontier Canyon with the minecarts is more similar to that bit in Sunset Forest when you're climbing the mesh vines, etc.
There's a general issue with consistency to the game. This is a problem in both directions. The game has 8 playable characters, each having their own storyline, but the game adheres to an absolutely rigid narrative structure cross each of them, where the same characters play the same stages in the same order (the only differences being win conditions, character dialogue, and your choice of opponent on the versus stage). At the same time, how well you do on a given stage is largely contingent on how the AI does, which isn't consistent. I had a few stages where I failed over and over and over again, only to win because I did generally the same thing, just the AI doofed up somewhere along the line. You especially feel that in the Act 2 stages, where sometimes you spend a million years chasing down the rival, and sometimes you're able to stunlock them for an easy victory.
And holy crap, it all comes together in a sucky way with the bosses. Like, you try to attack the boss when you're supposed to, and sometimes it just doesn't feel like taking damage. Egg Bull in particular was an infuriating, excruciating fight.
I think the most succinct way to communicate my thoughts on the game lie with its narrative. As mentioned, the game is split into eight stories. I played through Sonic's story, had a mediocre time, and was left with a bunch of unfulfilled plot threads, but Sonic had finished the storyline he'd set out to accomplish, so whatever. I played Rouge next because why not, variety's fun. I played the exact same levels in almost the exact same way, ended on the same final boss, and hit credits, with some things explained. I realized that there wasn't going to be any secret Last Story to unlock after beating the eight character stories, realized that four of the character stories are going to be almost entirely redundant, and decided I'd had my fill.
Loose scattered thoughts: including the Sandopolis Ghosts in Mystic Haunt Zone is a cute throwback, Eggman Nega does basically nothing for this game, and that character art of Shadow smiling (reused from the first game) looks very silly.
So it's a decent high-level concept - an expansion/update to Genesis Sonic's Versus modes (I assume; admittedly I've never had a player 2 for Classic Sonic), slapped onto the hot new PlayStation Portable. But the general physics are only mostly there. Sonic is a series where its games are made or broken by its physics, and Rivals fails to stick the landing in a few key places. The Spin Dash is less practical as a momentum builder than you'd think, and it's usually just faster to keep running, despite that initial kick of speed and what curling up usually does in Sonic games. There are those hurdles where you hit X or O to either jump or dash over 'em, but you whip by 'em so quickly that it's easy to miss the QTE prompts even when you're expecting them. There's a decent amount of creativity with obstacle theming, but a lot of them mechanically come down to button mashing - that bit in Frontier Canyon with the minecarts is more similar to that bit in Sunset Forest when you're climbing the mesh vines, etc.
There's a general issue with consistency to the game. This is a problem in both directions. The game has 8 playable characters, each having their own storyline, but the game adheres to an absolutely rigid narrative structure cross each of them, where the same characters play the same stages in the same order (the only differences being win conditions, character dialogue, and your choice of opponent on the versus stage). At the same time, how well you do on a given stage is largely contingent on how the AI does, which isn't consistent. I had a few stages where I failed over and over and over again, only to win because I did generally the same thing, just the AI doofed up somewhere along the line. You especially feel that in the Act 2 stages, where sometimes you spend a million years chasing down the rival, and sometimes you're able to stunlock them for an easy victory.
And holy crap, it all comes together in a sucky way with the bosses. Like, you try to attack the boss when you're supposed to, and sometimes it just doesn't feel like taking damage. Egg Bull in particular was an infuriating, excruciating fight.
I think the most succinct way to communicate my thoughts on the game lie with its narrative. As mentioned, the game is split into eight stories. I played through Sonic's story, had a mediocre time, and was left with a bunch of unfulfilled plot threads, but Sonic had finished the storyline he'd set out to accomplish, so whatever. I played Rouge next because why not, variety's fun. I played the exact same levels in almost the exact same way, ended on the same final boss, and hit credits, with some things explained. I realized that there wasn't going to be any secret Last Story to unlock after beating the eight character stories, realized that four of the character stories are going to be almost entirely redundant, and decided I'd had my fill.
Loose scattered thoughts: including the Sandopolis Ghosts in Mystic Haunt Zone is a cute throwback, Eggman Nega does basically nothing for this game, and that character art of Shadow smiling (reused from the first game) looks very silly.