Comic-Con 07: Hands on with Sonic Rivals 2

Ask a six-year-old child what a hedgehog looks like and they'll likely describe a spiky, red-booted, blue-haired creature capable of blazing a speedy trail through the forest. In that context, actually finding a plodding, brown-spiked 'hog in the real-world wilderness would be an eye-opening experience.

Which, thankfully, is how you can describe our time with Sonic Rivals 2 at Comic-Con 2007.

The sequel to 2006's original PSP title, Sonic Rivals 2 offers three modes: Story, Battle, and Free Play. We didn't get to tour Story, although we're told it mirrors the format of the first game, with a series of races against specific Sonic characters.

Battle mode, meanwhile, promises head-to-head action either against the computer or a buddy via ad-hoc. And because of gamesharing support, only one UMD is required to play, which should make it easy to get a friend to join up with you for a race.

Our single-level demonstration of Sonic Rivals 2 was in Free Play mode, which enables you to pick a character and a venue to race independent of the story. We ran with Shadow in Sunset Forest Zone, a forest maze filled with branching paths and crazy jumps. With all of the jumps, boost pads, and other funky obstacles littering the level, a meter at the bottom of the screen let us know our progress through the stage and our placing in the race.

Stages feature multiple racing tiers, with the highest level granting the best speed. Should you fall from one tier, you simply drop onto another. In rare cases, you'll outright die, but in the Sunset Forest Zone there were only two such holes in the entire level. This means Sonic Rivals 2 should be much more forgiving than its predecessor, making it possible to continue racing after a slip up.

Character-wise, you're able to pick from a slate of racers that includes Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Silver, and Tails. In addition, Sega told us three new, unannounced characters are being added to the group, so expect a total of eight playable characters in the final game.

Each character possesses a signature move powered by rings collected during a race. A gauge in the upper right corner gradually fills with every ring you collect and, when complete, you can pull off a special move. For instance, Sonic gains a burst of speed, Tails can take flight, while Shadow slows down time but is able to continue rushing ahead to gain ground.

Complementing character-specific signature moves are the general power-ups within each stage. Only two were available in the level we played – a magnet and mine. Getting a hold of the magnet proved useful since it enabled us to draw in rings within Shadow's general vicinity. More of a cheap shot power-up, the mine can be laid out so as to trip up an opponent running behind.

Obviously, other power-ups are in the works, but Sega declined to elaborate on them.

Happily though, everything we've seen so far of Sonic Rivals 2 looks solid. The gameplay appears to have been polished over the original, new characters and stages are being worked on, and the mix of power-ups and signature moves should add action into the mix.

The game is expected this autumn.