infinite10l

Padding is a good thing, and I can prove it. This game sure isn’t perfect. There is a lot of padding and grinding required to simply beat the game, but the key is to stop looking at why such padding is bad, but instead what it does for the game as a whole. Sonic games are designed around replayability, so being encouraged to replay levels to get better makes perfect sense. The better rank you get as you clear a stage, the more materials and subsequently, less grinding you’ll need to do. The sailing minigames might take up a lot of time, but people seem to forget that all of them (except maybe the sailboat) are pretty fun. Exploring the map is surprisingly intuitive and the music is an absolute jam. Once again, the highlight is the levels. Every part of this game (the stages, bosses, and story) that was in the original Rush has been completely fixed. The level design doesn’t feel like straight lines over bottomless pits anymore, the themes are much more standout, the bosses are infinitely better and are surprisingly one of the highlights now, and the writing, while not perfect, is still a definite improvement over the first game.