This week will surely be remembered for one thing. 2 new Sonic games coming out on the same day! Ok, so the occasion isn' t earth shattering but being a Sonic fan from age 6 (I' m now 20) I' m excited.

The game showing most promise isn' t the big multi format one but Sonic Rush for DS. It' s racked up some great reviews and seems to take the series back to it' s " d routs The GBA has never done the Sonic games justice but DS' s extra grunt means better music, background and 3D characters. The ' rush' theme means speeding through levels being able to run right through bad guys placed in sneaky spots, rather than being killed by them (like in Sa2).

Shadow The Hedgehog looks interesting, but flawed. It' s had a few good ideas thrown at it like the multiple endings depending on which of the characters you help and the pretty deep story. It' s a shame the framework of the game looks weak, the racetrack style rushes through levels and endless bottomless pits already begging you to fall to your doom. The game is worth my £30 just for the prospect of leading Dr. Eggman to victory for a change

I think the games are out tomorrow in the US and Friday for UK-ers. Am I the only UK-er here though? Bar Adam.

I like Shadow the Hedgehog preview I saw...it just looks like it has more action than most of the past (or current) Sonic games.

My sig other has a DS and would probably give her left berry for Sonic DS.

Thanks for reminding me, whatabout_paul!

Yes, Shadow will be coming to our house soon And if my daughter gets her way, she' ll have a DS for Christmas along with Sonic Rush and Nintendogs.

Gametrailers has a video review up. It got a pretty decent score too, but I' m still on the fence about buying it. Think I might rent it first.

http://gametrailers.com/player.php?id=8472&pl=game&type=wmv

*Dies on Sonic Rush again* Damnit!

*Picks up DS and is compelled to play again*

Yeh this Shadow the hedgehog. Im an old fan of the Sonic games and I found it wicked the first time people got to play as him in Sonic Adventure 2, and then when SEGA said they were going to make a seperate game for him I thought this will be cool. THEN they said he was going to have guns...I immediately though, ' SEGA' , what the hell do you think you' re doing trying to make a Sonic character into some kind of GTA character?! So, I thought there must be more to it. I was about to disown Sega completely until I saw the trailer for Shadow the hedgehog and thought hey, this might not be so bad. But the looks of the game don' t look terribly good, I mean they' re NOT BAD but no-one' s really bothered with the little features in the game, I mean there are already plenty of games with similar features but what we all really want is THE ULTIMATE GAME EXPERIENCE and yet it' s like they' ve just recycling Sonic Heroes and most games developers are just recycling other game ideas...but aside from all that, what would be really quite interesting would be to see Shadow on PS3 and XBOX 360 (as well as Sonic of course! Because of course Sonic is the SEGA mascot! And the legend who almost EVERYONE knows of!And who is simply a wicked dude!)

Also...Shadow shouldn' t need guns...He' s the ' ULTIMATE LIFE FORM' right?!...As we' ve seen he' s too quick 4 guns right? AND he can create blumin' great big shockwaves and stuff right?...Let' s be down-to-Earth here Sega. I know it' s only fantasy and fiction and all that but the public aren' t idiots! lol

The plot of Shadow the hedgehog sounds quite qell done though, and the character of Shadow seems more ' realistic' than most characters in games (as in, he questions himself and his surroundings, he is more human-like). whatabout_paul, yeh Ive been a fan of Sonic since about 6 or 7 years old too! lol

SONIC FOR THE FUKKING PEOPLE!!!!

I' ve played both briefly now and Rush riles while Shadow is a bit disappointing.

Rush is exactly what I wanted it to be; A 2D blast with DS graphical quality shining through. The ' rush' theme is done well, my deaths coming to a halt now I' ve gotten used to it and can now run straight through bad guys. The music is Jet Grind Radio ace (done by the same dude) and the story is harmless enough but involves 2 versions of Dr. Eggman. Interesting.

Shadow on the other hand is what I hoped it wouldn' t be; a confusing mess. The graphics are worse than Heroes, everything is cluttered and if you actually want to get ahead with certain missions you are forced to crawl through levels killing or collecting things placed around the levels. The only boss battle I' ve played is a mess, the homing jump failing when you need it the most and looking scrappy. On the other hand it plays ok and isn' t a broken game. Shadow moves where you want and shooting things, riding cars and bikes looks cool and being able to help any of the story characters you like is a good idea. In fact the story looks promising and the GC cut scenes are ace. The in game cut scenes show off way too many jaggies, looking worse than most bits in Sonic Adventure 2 for Dreamcast. At least it had clean edges.

Anyone else got these two yet?

I just played sonic 1,2 and 3 to sega mega drive 16 bitars,i just hope the 3d sonic will suit me too :P
I loved the 2d serie,but i just hope i will love the 3d too >_<
My mom bought me the sega system+ sonic games,when i was young.
Great choice mom :p
Also my dad was the guy who bought ff7 to my brother in christmas.
Wtf?!
Sometimes ads really make parents do good in buying games,however now parents buy fukking harry potter and other shit games :P
We need more true ads about great games,and more knowledge by people at stores.
I' m not lying,i have never meet anyone at a store who knows 10% of what i know.
Im sure its the same with you people too.
Or its just dumb swedish employers...
Its basically like no one who loves video games at games stores,its always a retard who could not get a better job,and that sux :(
In my favbourite store some of the store people talk about the games you just buy,when your gonna leave and give hints and stuff :P
And give some magazines with info about the game.
That i love,but still they are not very good,and apparently sux at the games they play :P or think im a noob.

I finally picked up Shadow the Hedgehog this evening. Had no luck with Sonic Rush all week. MAN has it sucked trying to track down both games. You' d think that stores in New York City would get them in ASAP! NCS didn' t get any of them in yet and Best Buy, GameStop, and J&R I checked didn' t get Shadow until today and neither had Sonic Rush :(...

Shadow is a pansie ass because everywhere he goes he ice-skates. He can' t run nor pick a single foot up off the ground. Gotta ice skate or he ain' t moving at all. Anyway Shadow the Hedgehog really sucks ass. The control is even worse than Sonic Adventure 2... MUCH worse! And any game which feels the need to tell you what each button does (aka tutorial) sucks balls by default. Players are good enough to figure it out! If not, that' s what the instruction manual is for.

Sonic Rush doesn' t seem to be available in stores. Circuit City doesn' t get DS games in until a week or two after they are released. They suck as a source for games. Sears is a good place, though usually you' ll end up paying 12 cents more than Wal*Mart, and you gotta get a dickwad to unlock the case so you can buy the game.

Sonic Rush' s music was done by Richard Jaques? Is Sonic Rush extremely hard or something? Should I avoid it like the plague?

Personally I don' t think Shadow is gonna be anything more than a 7.5 out of 10 rated game but who knows, I could be wrong and can' t wait to find out.

8.3 at Gametrailers

http://gametrailers.com/player.php?id=8472&pl=game&type=mov

4.7 at IGN. OUCH!!

Can' t wait to see the Kikizo and GameSpot numbers.

I really want to like Shadow. I found fun in Sonic Heroes where many people didn' t. Sure the story was poo but at least it retained the core essence of a Sonic game: moving forwards at speed and looking cool. Shadow is too slow and really shabbily put together. Again, I' ve not played it much because...

...Sonic Rush is so damn cool! Seriously, it is a little on the hard side but it' s all about knowing where to boost. The Special Stages are nice... you control Sonic with the stylus in the Sonic 2 half pipe. There are rings and spiky bombs but added now are speed ramps, opportunity for tricks (which involve pressing number in the right order in the time limit) and bad guys to kill.

The story is also totally out there. Nothing is funnier than Tails, in all seriousness screaming " It' s the Space Time Continuum!" or some such nonsense. Brilliant!