E3 2005: Sonic rushes back to life @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on May 18, 2005

News: Sonic Gems Collection and Sonic Rush are the E3 Sonic surprises.

Sega had previously announced that they planend to unveil two new Sonic titles during the first day of E3. Well it's the first day of E3.

Sonic Rush we knew about before as Sonic DS. Sonic Rush is scheduled for release in the fall and pairs Sonic with a new character, Blaze the Cat. Blaze and Sonic are searching for the Sol Emeralds and players will get a chance to play as both characters. On top of that, things that happen in one character's half of the story will affect things in the other character's story.

Sonic Rush will take full advantage of the DS' two screens by combining them into one large screen to create "long steep dives, super high jumps, huge loops". All of this will take place in a 2D world rendered in full 3D. Think Gradius V, Ikaruga or Contra: Shattered Soldier.

Sega also promises "Stylus support for a truly innovative control scheme on selected gameplay modes." I'm not sure what that means.

Click here for the first screens of Sonic Rush

Elsewhere, Sega announced Sonic Gems Collection for the GameCube. Coming at the end of the summer, Gems picks up where the Sonic Classic Collection left off and includes everything else Sonic-related.

The underappreciated Sonic CD, the Sonic kart racing game Sonic R (but they run because they're so fast) and the formerly arcade only Sonic the Fighters make up most of the collection.

The game also includes the Game Gear titles Sonic Spinball, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Sonic The Hedgehog Triple Trouble, Sonic Drift 2, Tails' Skypatrol, and Tails Adventures.

Truly a good day for Sonic fans.