TSS was able to play Sonic Rivals for the PSP at SEGA’s E3 booth.
I was handed a PSP by the co-producer (I wish I remembered his name). He informed me that this is an early build of the game, and there were some rough edges in the stage and that’s very understandable. I noticed some bugs, but nothing that I am sure won’t be fixed before it’s released later this year.
In this build I could only play as Sonic or Shadow, Knuckles and Silver were not avaliable. I chose Sonic for the test.
Sonic Rivals is a 2D racing game with 3D graphics. There was only one stage avaliable, that reminded me alot fo Green Hill Zone, from Sonic 1. The controls were very basic and easy. If I got too close to Shadow and pressed the triangle, I could do a kick attack on him, as well as jump on him, punch him to get him out of the way, and that was definetly a lot of fun.
There were stars around the track you could collect that would fill up a gauge. Once full, Sonic can perform a dash movement and run real fast which also was a form of attack, if an opponent was on the way, he’d get hurt.
The track was quite long as well, for my surprise, with lots of different paths to take. Definetly a plus. I was told also, that depending on what character you choose, you’ll be able to take different routes, similar to Sonic Riders and Sonic Heroes.
Sonic Rivals looks definetly good, and looks beautiful on the slick PSP Screen. Check back with TSS for more information until it’s release later this year.