Proto:Sonic Rush

This page details one or more prototype versions of Sonic Rush.

  This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article? Notes: Full comparisons for level design, graphics, code, audio, etc.

The E3 2005 demo of Sonic Rush allows playing of an early version of Zone 1 Act 2, followed by the first boss battle. Only Sonic is playable.

Download Sonic Rush (E3 2005 demo) File: Sonic Rush E3 Kiosk JPN NDS-HPZ.zip (64 MB) (info)

Gameplay

To do: Replace video with higher quality one

Menu

• There is no mode or character select.
• A "Coming Soon" screen appears after a set amount of time, after finishing the boss battle or losing all your lives. No Game Over screen appears for the latter.

Main

• You can boost in mid-air, however it makes you quickly fall down, making the move pretty useless. This ability would later be implemented in the DS version of Sonic Colors, which uses the same engine as Sonic Rush.
• The Boost meter can be refilled by running.
• Boosting into the large Eggman wheel doesn't kill Sonic - he simply passes through.
• Sonic doesn't react to being tapped on the Touch Screen.
• Sonic's looking up animation is different.
• The Jump Dash/Homing Attack is mapped to the Jump button, like in the DS version of Sonic Colors (and most other Sonic games). In the final game, this move is mapped to the R button.
• The Homing Attack has no afterimages.
• You cannot pause the game.
• Enemies don't go flying when you boost into them, they simply explode.
• The "infinite boost" mode for maxing out the Tension Gauge is unfinished. The boost meter still flashes yellow, but boosting still drains the meter like normal. Sonic also does not flash yellow.
• You don't get an extra life when you get 100 rings.
• If you lose a life and respawn by the last star post hit, the timer will always reset to 0:00:00 compared to the final (and every Sonic game) in which the timer resets back to when it was first touched.
• There are no monitors in this demo.

Boss Fight

• No cutscenes play.
• The Egg Hammer Mega takes only four hits to destroy, as opposed to eight in the final (six in easy mode). Two hits initiate the second phase.
• The rolling head move is harder to dodge and doesn't have a "double" version.
• The Touch Screen just shows Sonic Rush logo.
• Eggman is silent when hit or executing an attack.

Bug Fixes

A few bugs were fixed by the final:

• When Sonic runs on slopes or jumps on bumpers, his model rotates incorrectly, often with his head down.
• The infamous vertical standing glitch from Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I is very easy to perform in the demo, especially on loops.
• The physics engine is slightly unfinished, and it is possible to get stuck when jumping against a wall until the momentum runs out.

Graphics

Icon

Proto	Final

The icon that would display on the DS menu has a three pixel difference in Sonic's eyes.

Title

Proto	Final

The stripes appear on the top and bottom and have a 3D look to them. The background is a hexagonal pattern on a white background. The copyright text uses a different font and says "(C) 2005,Sega" instead of "(C) Sega Corporation, 2005". The start button uses a different font and style.

Gameplay

Proto	Final

The life icon for Sonic looks different compared to the final being smaller, rough shading and has his eyes look in a different direction.

Proto	Final

The title card displayed before a level starts has many differences:

• The act number isn't shown in the demo, likely due to act 2 being the only playable act in the demo.
• The Leaf Storm icon also looks different having a larger tree.
• The font for "On Your Mark" and "Ready" has thinner outlines and is slightly condensed than the final.
• Sonic's icon showed on the top screen is different, looking more akin to the Sonic Team logo.
• The shading on the left screen is also inverted.

Boss Battle

• The camera angle before the player gets control of Sonic is different.

Results Screen

Proto	Final

• The "Act Clear!" text has slightly different fonts and is less centered than the final.
• The numbers reuse the font from Sonic Advance 3.
• The background is also more brighter and has less lines than the final.
• Sonic's model is much brighter and he is slighty off-centered, cropping him up to his legs.

Audio

Music

The background music in this build is composed by Teruhiko Nakagawa and is similar to the musical style of the Sonic Advance games, as opposed to the pop-inspired style by Hideki Naganuma used in the final.

Name	E3 2005	Final	Notes
Leaf Storm (Right There, Ride On)		Right There, Ride On Enemy or Friend	While entirely changed, this music was reused for the Blaze Appear event song in the final, albeit considerably shorter and with some different instruments.
1UP			This is supposed to play for when you get a 1up, which doesn't seem to be used in-game, though.
Title Theme			No resemblance to the song, A New Day.
Boss (Metal Scratchin')			These songs sound rather similar to the track "True Area 53" from Sonic Advance 2, also composed by Nakagawa.
Boss 2 (Metal Scratchin' (Part 2))
Stage Complete (Groove Rush #1)			Completely different compared to the final.

Sound Effects

The demo recycles voice clips from Sonic Advance 3, when Sonic was still voiced by Ryan Drummond.

Line	Transcript
	"Yeah!"
	"Waaahh!"
	"Alright!"

Levels

To do: Upload the maps and create a code to play them

Placeholder files for both Acts of all seven Zones from the final are present, but most are blank and unplayable except Leaf Storm Act 1, Leaf Storm Act 2 (which is normally available), Water Palace Act 1, and Dead Line Act 1.

• Leaf Storm Act 1 & 2 - The most complete stages (along with the Leaf Storm Boss), with some differences from the final.
• Water Palace Act 1 - Incomplete, but playable.
• Dead Line Act 1 - Impossible to finish, with mostly garbled graphics.

Unused Sprites

To do: Compare with the ones used in the final's credits, and upload the patch here.

Sprites for Sonic and the Akatento badnik from Sonic Advance 3 can be found in the overlay files. These can be seen in-game by exploiting a camera glitch (which doesn't work in the final game) that causes Sonic's model to disappear for a split second, or by use of an IPS patch.

The sprites are mostly functional, barring some oddities:

• Looking up does not trigger the appropriate animation, but ducking does.
• Performing any tricks just repeats the spring animation.
• The spindash sprites are misaligned, causing them to float above the ground.

Notably, the sprites used here are not the same as the ones in the credits, which use an entirely separate file and whom dust sprites are directly baked into the animation.