History VideoGame / SonicRivals

The game is canonically Silver the Hedgehog's debut in the franchise, ignoring ''Videogame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''. The game also {{retcon}}s Eggman Nega origins from alternate counterpart to a descendant of the good doctor.

''Sonic Rivals'' is a 2006 ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' platform-racing game for the UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable, published by Creator/{{Sega}} and developed by Backbone Entertainment in 2006 (with a sequel, ''Sonic Rivals 2'', released in 2007).

* ArtificialStupidity: The AI characters in the boss fights.

''Sonic Rivals'' is a 2006 ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' platform-racing game for the PSP, published by Creator/{{Sega}} and developed by Backbone Entertainment in 2006 (with a sequel, ''Sonic Rivals 2'', released in 2007).

''Sonic Rivals'' is a 2006 ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' platform-racing game for the PSP, published by Sega and developed by Backbone Entertainment in 2006 (with a sequel, ''Sonic Rivals 2'', released in 2007).

* AndYourAwardIsClothes: In both games, completing a certain objectives will lead to the characters gaining alternate costumes as awards. They are purely cosmetic, however.

* TwoAndAHalfD: The first 2D ''Sonic'' games to ditch sprites entirely and use 3D graphics and variable camera angles. [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome The games look great for this reason,]] with many spectacular loops and corkscrews that fly all over the place, and a similar approach was adopted by the 2D sections of "modern" ''Sonic'' games, and Dimps for the ''Sonic'' games on Nintendo 3DS.

* RobotMe: Metal Sonic 3.0, a Robot Me for ''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment another]]'' Robot Me.

* VoiceActing: Only in the second game. It's actually not too bad, although many will be inclined to skip it.
* VoiceGrunting: Only in the first game.

* AbsenteeActor: Amy is notably absent here, despite appearing in the first ''Sonic Rivals'' and the other ''Sonic'' games.

''Sonic Rivals'' is a 2006 action {{platform game}} for the PSP, published by Sega and developed by Backbone Entertainment in 2006 (with a sequel, ''Sonic Rivals 2'', released in 2007).

* PerpetualFrowner: Knuckles and Silver are never shown smiling in the game, even if their dialogue shows happiness.

* FireForgedFriends: Silver and Espio in the second game. Initially, their first meeting was iffy, but they then teamed up, and at the end of their story, they become respectful towards each other.

* FightingYourFriend: [[spoiler:At the end of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Rouge's stories, the Ifrit takes control of the teammate the player didn't choose (Tails for Sonic, Rouge for Knuckles and vice-versa), forcing the player character to fight them alongside the Ifrit]].

* AbsenteeActor: Amy is notably absent here, despite appearing in ''Sonic Rivals 1'' and the other ''Sonic'' games.

* ContinuityNod: In Shadow's ending, he says that he won't lose to someone who blames his own failures on the past. This hearkens back to the resolution of his StoryArc that occured in ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 Adventure 2]]'', ''[[VideoGame/SonicHeroes Heroes]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog Shadow]]''.

* DeathMountain: [[RemilitarizedZone Death Yard Zone]] in the first game, [[TheWildWest Frontier Canyon Zone]] in the second.

Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Silver and Metal Sonic are playable in the first game, while Tails, Rouge and Espio are added to the playable roster in the second game.

* AbsenteeActor: Amy is notably absent here, despite appearing in Sonic Rivals 1 and the other sonic games.

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:The series has Eggman Nega on both ends of the trope. In the first game, he uses a special camera to turn people into cards and planned to do this to the entire world. He gets sealed in a card himself by the end of the first game, but he breaks out of the card by the second game only to get trapped in the Ifrit's dimension at the end.]]
* AndTheAdventureContinues / AWinnerIsYou: Each playthrough of the original ''Rivals'' ends with the main character searching for more cards, and immediately cutting to the credits.

* BadFuture / LethalLavaLand: Chaotic Inferno Zone.

* CassandraTruth: In the second game, Knuckles, Rouge, and the others don't believe that Silver when the latter tells everybody that he needed the chao to save the world from the destruction of the Ifrit. They make fun of him for this. Silver was proven right at the end though.
* ChasedOffIntoTheSunset: In the end of Knuckles and Rouge's story, [[spoiler:Knuckles angrily chases Rouge who stole the Master Emerald from him.]]

* ConflictBall: Very much so. Instead of the characters working together to save the day, they would have to resort into fighting each other to get to Eggman first.
* ContinuityNod: In Shadow's ending, he says that he won't lose to someone who blames his own failures in the past. This hearkens back to the resolution of his StoryArc that occured in ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 Adventure 2]]'', ''[[VideoGame/SonicHeroes Heroes]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog Shadow]]''.
* DarkerAndEdgier: These games are certainly much edgier than the 8-bit, Advance, and Rush games. Darker maybe. The various characters seem unusually willing to fight each other for no particular reason other than to reach a certain destination faster. They don't even help each other defeat the bosses, even though said bosses are mutual enemies.

* ExcusePlot: The first game's plot consists of Eggman ([[spoiler:later revealed to be Eggman Nega]]) planning to turn the world into a card and the four characters must fight each other in order to save the world. The 2nd game's plot is a little more detailed - something about Eggman capturing all the Chao to feed to an Iblis-expy called the Ifrit- but by and by the "plot" is mostly characters insulting each other for no particular reason.

* FightingYourFriend: [[spoiler: At the end of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge's stories, the Ifrit takes control of the teammate the player didn't choose (Tails for Sonic, Rouge for Knuckles and vice-versa), forcing the player character to fight them alongside the Ifrit]].

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Of its own accord, Metal Sonic tears out the Chaos Emerald powering it to save Shadow from being trapped in the Ifrit's dimension.]]

* MonsterOfTheWeek: [[spoiler:Ifrit, the FinalBoss in ''Rivals 2'']].

* NominalHero: In ''Rivals 2'', Metal Sonic plays a heroic role for the first time, [[spoiler:but only because he is under Eggman's control to fight off Eggman Nega.]]

* PerpetualFrowner: Knuckles and Silver are never shown smiling on the game, even if their dialogue shows happiness.
* PlayingWithFire: [[spoiler:Ifrit]].

* TheRival: This is what the series is all about, [[TitleDrop hence the name]]. Instead of working together like in previous games, the characters are racing and battling each other in order to stop to Eggman [[spoiler:(actually Eggman Nega in disguise)]].

** This happens in Meteor Base Zone, the final level of the first game. One character of each story is assisted by a rival in one act and another in the next - Sonic is assisted by Knuckles and Shadow, Knuckles is assisted by Sonic and Silver, Shadow is assisted by Silver and Sonic, and Silver is assisted by Shadow and Knuckles. What makes this odd is that Sonic and Silver don't team up in the stage, nor did Knuckles and Shadow.

* SealedGoodInACan: Every good guy who gets turned into a card is technically this, but breaking the can seems to be very easy given that any card retrieved gets immediately turned back into the character.

* ShipTease: Good God, Shadow and Rouge runs high in the first game. In one scene, when Shadow attacks [[spoiler:Eggman Nega]], he calls Rouge's card 'his'. In the very last cutscene, Rouge says 'That's my Shadow', and gets more flirty then usual when she's asking Shadow to look into 'their' future. Granted, she mentions that they are treasure hunting together, but this seems like an invitation to a date. Shadow tries to back out, and we don't know if he gave in. But, this is Rouge we are talking about, so... you never know.

* StrictlyFormula: ''Rivals 2'' repeats the plots of the first game with each character. Silver traveling to the present time to find [[spoiler:Eggman Nega who is disguising as Eggman]], Knuckles searching for the stolen Master Emerald, and Shadow assisting Eggman in [[spoiler:battling Eggman Nega]]. Sonic's story is an exception as he and Tails must rescue the Chao.

** Silver is a more noticeable example. In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', he was a noble hero from the future who can be misguided with his intentions of building a better future. Then [[{{Retcon}} the events of that game was erased]], and in here, Silver is terribly rude and hostile to everyone he meets during his pursuit of [[spoiler:Eggman Nega]].
* TwoAndAHalfD: The first 2D Sonic games to ditch sprites entirely and use 3D graphics and variable camera angles. [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome The games look great for this reason,]] with many spectacular loops and corkscrews that fly all over the place, and a similar approach was adopted by the 2D sections of "modern" Sonic games, and Dimps for the Sonic games on Nintendo 3DS.
* TheUnfought: In ''Rivals 2'', just almost each character of all teams have fought two members of the other team once or twice. The battles that didn't occur were Sonic vs. Rouge, Tails vs. Knuckles, Sonic vs. Metal Sonic, Tails vs. Shadow, Knuckles vs. Espio, and Shadow vs Espio.

* TookALevelInJerkass: This happens to every single "good" character. All of them spend most of the time insulting and fighting each other in order to get to the main villain instead of working together to find him. The villains just do their gloating routine as usual.

** Silver is a more noticeable example. In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', he was a noble hero from the future who can be misguided with his intentions of building a better future. Then [[{{Retcon}} the events of that game was erased]], and in here, Silver is terribly rude and hostile to everyone he meets during his pursuit of Eggman Nega.

* ChasedOffIntoTheSunset: In the end of Knuckles and Rouge's story, [[spoiler:Knuckles angrily chases Rouge who stole the Master Emerald from him.

* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: In ''Rivals 2'', Knuckles and Rouge spend the entire game searching for the Master Emerald by using an Emerald detector. In the ending, the Emerald detector is damaged and it turns out the Master Emerald was inside there all along.

* HateAtFirstSight: Since this is Silver's official debut due to the RetCon, he gets this from the other three characters due to his hostile attitude.

* NotADate: In the second game, Sonic teasingly asks Knuckles if he and Rouge are going on a date, only for Knuckles to tell him to knock it off.