Sonic Rush Adventure

[Jaguar360]

One of the things I miss most about both Rush games is the trick system. The "Good! Great! Awesome! Outstanding! AMAZING!" stuff from Colors and Generations didn't really cut it for me. Rush Adventure had some really nice improvements over Rush with the trick system and stepped it up with the gameplay in pretty much every other area as well.

While I prefer Rush's groovy techno music to Rush Adventure's (based Naganuma Kreygasm), RA's soundtrack is still one of my favorites. Love Sky Babylon, Coral Cave, Haunted Ship, Blizzard Peaks, (I don't want to list all the stages, but all the stages have great music pretty much lol), the waterbike music, the boss music, the Whisker and Johnny Boss music, the penultimate boss music and the final boss music (I just listed like 70% of the soundtrack lmao).

The story was well done, though I agree that Sonic didn't shine that much like someone said before me. I really hope that Marine will return soon. She was an interesting character and really developed over the course of the game. I want to know more about her "special power" (hydrokinesis?) too.

Overall, great game and sequel to Rush. Rush 3 needs to happen so we can see more Marine, maybe more Blaze and Cream interaction, etc.

[Dantemustdie00]

I will also say, I also liked how they handled the Homing Attack in this game, it could only be used onced per jump and it required you to be somewhat close to the foe for it to even lock on, thus not being too overpowered or reliable. That's how I want the Homing Attack to be handle in 2D games.

[Salamander]

Cross-quoting from the Sega Plans 2015 thread:

2006 FY:

Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2/XB/GC) (US/EU): 1,590,000

Sonic Rush (NDS) (US/EU) (the report incorrectly labels it Sonic Riders): 930,000

Total: 2,520,000

2007 FY:

Sonic The Hedgehog [2006] (PS3/360) (US/EU): 870,000

Sonic Mega Collection (Plus) (PS2/XB/GC) (US): 570,000

Sonic Riders (PS2/XB/GC/PC) (US): 560,000

Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2/XB/GC) (US): 470,000

Sonic Heroes (PS2/XB/GC) (US): 420,000

Sonic Rush (NDS) (EU): 360,000

Total: 3,250,000

2011 FY:

Sonic Colors (Wii/DS) (US/EU/JP): 2,180,000

(Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (iOS) is listed, but in a "Major Titles/Other Game Content" category for mobile/web browser games that are separate from the "Major Titles/Home Video Game Software" category retail titles are in. This specific category also lacks sales numbers.)

2012 FY:

Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii/3DS) (US/EU): 3,280,000

Sonic Generations (PS3/360/3DS/PC) (US/EU/JP): 1,850,000

Total: 5,130,000

2014 FY:

Sonic Lost World (WiiU/3DS) (US/EU/JP): 710,000

2015 FY:

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (WiiU) + Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS): (US/EU/JP): 620,000
______________

Will probably try to make a mini followup post that details any recorded sales of Sonic games that didn't make it to the fiscal year but were recorded on the financial quarters (I know Rush Adventure appeared in one quarter at least), but there you have it for the fiscal year sales, at least. Some (personal) conclusions:

[...]

Rush, with the 2006 and 2007 FY results combined, sold at least 1,290,000. So it definitely sold more than one million. Couple that with Rush Adventure not appearing in any of the fiscal year results, and its safe to say that game did pretty poorly in comparison, hence the dumbed-down Dimps cousins of console Sonic Team games we've gotten since then.

[...]

I've heard reports in the past that Rush Adventure sold poorly, with an apparently particularly terrible launch week in Japan.  I wonder exactly what did for it?  It fared well enough with the critics, and the positive Rush sales shouldn't have been a bad omen.  On the other hand, I recall the sailing sequences being publicised enough beforehand for it to be obvious they weren't a terribly good idea, and going back and watching a few old trailers for the game, it strikes me that the whole "robot T. rex" "evil pirates" angle may not have felt terribly Sonic-appropriate.  Added to this, the game's setting and world map interface were very similar to another big-name, highly-anticipated game sold at around the same time - The Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.  I have a theory that the latter might have cannibalised or at least eclipsed SRA.  Any other theories?

[Diogenes]

Why would a robot T-Rex not feel Sonic-appropriate? Sonic's been fighting robot animals from the start.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

Why would a robot T-Rex not feel Sonic-appropriate? Sonic's been fighting robot animals from the start. 

i thought it was animals trapped in robots. the robots themselvfs werent animal like to me. 

but i want to see a e-series t-rex bot one day.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Sonikku.
please hit me....

[Muscles Maximum]

The badniks were robot ladybugs, caterpillars, snails, bees, fish, birds, turtles, etc. 

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

The badniks were robot ladybugs, caterpillars, snails, bees, fish, birds, turtles, etc. 

OK thanks. Totally forgot. 

[Milo]

Cross-quoting from the Sega Plans 2015 thread:

I've heard reports in the past that Rush Adventure sold poorly, with an apparently particularly terrible launch week in Japan.  I wonder exactly what did for it?  It fared well enough with the critics, and the positive Rush sales shouldn't have been a bad omen.  On the other hand, I recall the sailing sequences being publicised enough beforehand for it to be obvious they weren't a terribly good idea, and going back and watching a few old trailers for the game, it strikes me that the whole "robot T. rex" "evil pirates" angle may not have felt terribly Sonic-appropriate.  Added to this, the game's setting and world map interface were very similar to another big-name, highly-anticipated game sold at around the same time - The Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.  I have a theory that the latter might have cannibalised or at least eclipsed SRA.  Any other theories?

To follow up your cross-quote of my results:

So I checked the quarter result reports...

Sonic Rush Adventure showed up in the second quarter report for 2008, 144,300 copies sold in the US, 234,800 copies sold in Europe. That rounds up to 379,100 copies sold concerning both territories.

It showed up in the third quarter report of the same fiscal year...with the numbers exactly the same. Didn't show up again after that.

[...]

...so yeah. When the numbers are compared, it seems that even if you take the performance of both games in Japan out of the equation and focused only on the sales performance of both games in the US and Europe; Rush Adventure barely made 3/10ths of what the first Rush sold.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Gabe

[Sean]

I also don't recall the game being hyped pre-release to the extent that Rush was. Even at the time when I more of a Sonic fan than I am now and followed game news more closely, I didn't hear a whole lot about SRA and miraculously played the game almost totally unspoiled.

[Salamander]

Why would a robot T-Rex not feel Sonic-appropriate? Sonic's been fighting robot animals from the start.

You're right, I should have been clearer: Something about how the aesthetics of how it's handled in SRA struck me as a bit off when I went back and rewatched it in the trailers, so much so that I didn't give it a second thought when I mentinoed it yesterday.  I'd be hard-pressed to put my finger on a single cause, but it's like a scene from a different series entirely.  I think it has something to do with the relatively realistic structure of the robot dinosaur in question, combined with the use of yellow-greens in the design that give it too organic a feeling, and it's brought out especially against the dark background.  Add that to the fact that it's clearly not being piloted by Eggman (which I think was pretty unusual for the handheld titles, which emphasised Eggman's personal control of his boss robots even where the main games were no longer making a point of showing it) and, even with the obvious "robot" cues to its design, the scene feels to me more ilke it's conveying "Sonic vs. a real dinosaur."

Ironically, when I boil down the design choices like that, it's actually something I like about SRA.  But with that thrown in the trailers along with other unconventionally Sonic material like pirates (however robotic they too may be) along with first-person touch-screen boat piloting, and I think there's an argument that SRA was too conveying a bit too much of a sense of the spin-off.  I'd draw comparisons to Lost World and the Boom games as conveying an impression of "Sonic vs. some random enemies you've never heard of."  But even those games still made a point of advertising Eggman's inclusion, whereas he's nowhere in the promotion for SRA because he only popped up at the very end.  Again, it's something I like about SRA that it does this, but it's possible that the lack of the traditional Sonic structure in the promotion helped to turn off potential purchasers - and at the end of the day, something did really turn them off, big-time.

I also don't recall the game being hyped pre-release to the extent that Rush was. Even at the time when I more of a Sonic fan than I am now and followed game news more closely, I didn't hear a whole lot about SRA and miraculously played the game almost totally unspoiled.

A failure of advertising as well, then?  I've seen that pointed to more and more often recently as a factor in poor sales, particularly in western handheld releases - although there's also often an issue of a game being undershipped in the first place.  (For instance, I had a hard time getting hold of Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia and Tales Of The Abyss 3D, two titles which were later reported as having sold poorly - hardly to be unexpected if nobody can get their hands on a copy.  TotA3D actually sold out.)  It'd be interesting to learn the sell-through rates for SRA.

[Semi-colon e]

Rush Adventure was also not quite as well received by critics as the first Rush, as they complained about Marine's characters and more importantly the sailing minigame stuff, which I can see why someone would be put off with that. Particularly with regards to the "grinding" to upgrade your vehicles. Not sure how much that hindered sales, but some might have been put off by that judging by perhaps being burned by genre roulette. I wonder also how many people didn't buy it because between Rush and this game they gave up after the 2006 game and thought it looked stupid.

 

It's kind of one of those games where the fans liked it more compared to the previous game than the critics did. Was still received well though but Rush 1 just tended to have more of an impact being the first one and being an early DS game. It's the same reason why a lot of people loved Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow when it first came out, even though in hindsight it's good but extremely grind happy for random drops and a lot of people prefer Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia these days (which, to be fair, did get glowing reviews as well).

Edited November 13, 2015 by Semi-colon e