I never had a PlayStation Portable to call my own, so the PSP Go coming out was a fine opportunity to get acquainted with SEGA’s old library of PSP games. Among these was Sonic Rivals, a game I never had a chance to play before & actually didn’t know much about.

I was pleasantly surprised: Sonic Rivals is, wouldn’t you know it, a racing game at its core, but with a lot of fun elements of standard Sonic gameplay mixed in. You control one of a handful of playable characters and, as the name suggests, square off against different rivals in a variety of stages. Story Mode for any character guides you through these stages against each other character in turn as their different story threads intersect. There is a plot to the game, mind you–Eggman (or as it turns out–spoiler alert!–Nega Eggman, who is from the future) is turning Sonic’s friends into, of all things, collectible cards. Naturally, Sonic & Co. have to race to get them back.

But that’s not the important part–the important part is this game has some awesomely fast gameplay. While playing, I constantly found myself twisting and writhing with the PSP in my hands like it was a steering wheel. The game has some terrific graphics, a basic 2D track that weaves through 3D-rendered backgrounds. I’ll admit: while Sonic games have always been known for speed, I’m such a stickler for level design that I tend to slow down to try and find every nook, cranny, and secret in a given level. I love that Sonic Rivals forces me to focus on rushing through at top speed, whittling the game down to the purest elements of Sonic-related joy.

The levels in the game are organized in fairly classic Sonic-game style: You square off against a given rival for 2 stages, then a third boss stage to see who can score the most hits. AI for the game is actually pretty great, and since each character has it’s own special powers to use during the race–for example, Shadow slows down time; Silver messes up your control scheme–each race feels unique.

In addition to the “story” mode, there’s a “cup” mode where you race against a chosen rival through a circuit of tracks, or a straight up challenge mode where you can pick from any of the zones you’ve unlocked. Each mode of play unlocks different things, from new zones to collectible cards of classic Sonic items & games to different costumes to a secret playable character.

Lest I forget: There is also the highly recommendable peer-to-peer Wireless Mode, where you can challenge someone else to a Single Race or Cup Circuit — or trade cards you’ve already collected. I’ve had a lot of fun so far bouncing around between all the different game modes. The quick pace of the levels makes the game perfectly adapted for the PSP system, and there’s always something appealing about deciding, ‘oh! I have 3 minutes before my next MUNI stop–just enough time for one more race!’

You’ve thought about it, don’t lie, you know you have. Fayonetta or Paylinetta are names you’ve mentioned in passing to friends or on forum postings; we’ve seen them. Now you can cast your vote on who the better Bayonetta look-a-like actually is and get a chance to pick up a Bayonetta T-Shirt for your trouble. Easy.

Head on over and vote now, you know you want to…

We’ve got another new trailer for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games! This one is for the DS fans, and it features the dream events in the game. Check it out!

We’re getting close to the October 13th on-sale date for the game.

If you haven’t yet, you can become a fan on Facebook, or see all the art on our Flickr feed. Keep up with the latest news on Twitter, and visit Olympic Video Games for everything there is to see about Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.

With the PSP Go heading into stores across the world, we thought it would be a good idea to write about some of our games that are headed to the PlayStation store. If you aren’t familiar with the PSP Go, it’s the newest iteration of the PlayStation Portable device with a pretty major and revolutionary feature; the system’s games only exist as a download across PlayStation Network or using the PSP Go itself. No more cases, UMD discs, just a sleeker, smaller system with everything buttoned up inside the unit itself. With the release of the Go, we’re doing a few blogs this week about games we’ve enjoyed or even taking up games we aren’t too familiar with, we hope you enjoy them.

With the release of the PlayStation Portable GO, the system also launches with nearly every back catalog game for the PlayStation Portable, including most of our Sega titles and one of my most favorite releases for the system, Crush. If you are headed out to pick up a PSP Go or happen to have owned a PSP and never played this game, then you should buy Crush, it’s just that good. Crush is a puzzle game with a unique hook; you shift the normal 3D landscape into 2D plane to overcome obstacles and challenges. It’s remarkably simple in concept, but a mind bender of a puzzle game once you get through the first initial puzzles.

Crush actually has a decent plot too, which when I first played the game I was surprised by. It’s not so much the actual story is ground breaking, but the presentation is done quite well. You play as Danny, a man who has severe insomnia and are dropped into an experimental procedure to reach into your own subconscious and find the source of your problems. This is where the C.R.U.S.H tool comes into play, guided by a psychotherapist/mad scientist, you help Danny navigate his subconscious and find clues about what is keeping him awake at night, and crush your problems away. After completing groups of missions, you come across new bits of info through cutscenes, showing off more about what happened in Danny’s past. The presentation is really interesting, and I found myself wavering on whether to solve a problem quickly to get more insight into the overall story, rather than trying to grab all the mission pick ups.

You can tell you’ve got a good puzzle game when it’s designed around a really simple idea, but expertly executed. Each level is well designed, starting off slow and simple to build your knowledge of the tools, then ramping up to challenge you at every turn. Missions are spread out across four separate hubs with individual challenges inside, each hub introduces a few more tactics or objects to help you navigate the environment, playing off either the 2D, or the 3D areas. Crushing the world is a powerful tool and plays into perspective within the 3D space, move the camera top down, left or right, and crush and you’ll find new access to things you simply could not get to in 3D.

In text this might sound confusing, but in the game it’s quite well done. Need to get atop a ledge, but can’t jump to it? Simply look top down, CRUSH, walk over to the ledge, unCrush and you’re where you need to be. The challenge then comes in working with some blocks you can or cannot traverse in the 2D plane, but can’t get across in 3D, or vice versa. Still confused? Check the trailer and you’ll see some CRUSH examples in action:

As a big puzzle game fan, this is really a unique game that you should pick up and play if you haven’t had a chance to check it out. Having picked it up for this blog, I’m absolutely hooked on trying to get through some of the tougher missions. Crush is a true Sega classic and well worth picking up for the PSP Go or in UMD form if you can find it in your local store.