Haunted Ship (ハウンテッドシップ, Haunteddo Shippu^?) is the fourth stage of Sonic Rush Adventure. It takes place within an eerie graveyard of lost ships that is located east of Southern Island in Blaze's world. Silver Material can be earned by completing this stage's Acts.

Description[]

Haunted Ship is a gloomy nautical graveyard that is covered in perpetual purple and thick fog which obscures the sky and horizon. Rotting, half-sunken and abandoned sailing ships with tattered sails litter the waters, the majority of them having drifted together to practically form an island. Due to its spooky atmosphere, many believe this area to be haunted. Also, the properties of the Silver Materials here make the area give off strange, yet powerful electromagnetic currents.^[1][2]

Story[]

Haunted Ship is known for having spawn many stories and rumors about ships that have mysteriously disappeared in its waters and sightings of ghost ships.^[3][4]

Detecting Haunted Ship's electromagnetic activity, Sonic, Tails, Blaze and Marine traveled there in hopes of finding clues to Captain Whisker and his crew's whereabouts. Upon arriving, Marine was very uneasy because of her immense fear of ghosts. Eventually, the heroes found Captain Whisker, but instead of handing over the Jeweled Scepter which he had stolen, as Blaze demanded, Whisker had the Ghost Pirate distract Sonic and co. while he escaped with his crew. After beating the Ghost Pirate, Sonic and co. left Haunted Ship to plan their next move.

Gameplay[]

Dominating the majority of Haunted Ship are blue ropes that the player can bounce on and use Trick Actions on. The player can jump higher by landing hard on them or by jumping on them several times in a row. Then, there are anchors wrapped around masts which will twirl the characters around upon touch until the anchors throw them sideways, during which the player can use Trick Actions. However, the player can also jump off prematurely to save time.

The trademark 3D gimmick of this stage is the cannon. Touching one will make the characters load themselves into the cannon before it self-fires. The player will then fly through a 3D section, during which they pass through a series of hoops, each marked with //. Pressing the corresponding button when going through a hoop (when the button turns orange) will build up a trick combo; pressing at the wrong time will break the combo.

Akin to obstacles are skeleton barrels hanging from ropes. Those that are dark brown will come down on the characters when they get below them, capture them and go back into the air. However, the player can break free by repeatedly pressing /. While sometimes a hindrance, they can also be used to reach higher areas. In certain sections, there are also ships in the background that will chase after the characters and fire cannonballs at them, although the player can avoid them by boosting. In addition, there are sometimes breakable barrels that contain Springs or Item Boxes.

Boss[]

Main article: Ghost Pirate

The boss of Haunted Ship is the the Ghost Pirate, a robot skeleton pirate wielding a cutlass. It can be fought after clearing Haunted Ship Act 2.

In battle, the Ghost Pirate fights with slashes, kicks and different fire breaths. To defeat it, the player has to keep attacking the red core on its body until its health is depleted. In periods however, the red core will separate itself from the Ghost Pirate while its body keeps attacking. At zero health, the core will fly around erratically, making it harder to land the final blow.

Trivia[]

• Haunted Ship may be based on the Bermuda Triangle, a real-life, yet loosely defined region in the North Atlantic Ocean where several vessels are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
• The main riff for this stage's music comes from the sample CD "Kleptomania!" released by Coldcut. The sample itself is from the song "Dance to the Rhythm" by Frankie 'O' Generator.

Gallery[]

Sprites[]

Maps[]

Act 1

Act 2

Music[]

References[]