It's time to get up to speed with the blue blur that is Sonic the Hedgehog. Besides the fact that's a very strange animal to choose as a mascot, the other characters don't exactly get such identifying monikers. Oh well. We've got quite a few videos for you to check out in addition to the one above, so take the plunge and watch the others after the jump.

Video game trends are fairly commonplace in the industry. For example, cel shading was the "it" thing to do a few years ago. Now, it's button mashing a la Resident Evil 4 and God of War. PSP games are not immune to this increasingly tiresome gimmick -- even Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (somewhat unnecessarily) featured the gameplay device.

Sonic Rivals 2 is proudly featuring the gameplay mechanic in its latest trailer, and we have to admit, it's probably for the best. Races will become interesting as there's more interactivity to each level. Instead of simply blindly moving forward from point A to B, the required button presses will add a bit more depth (or so we hope).

It's pretty hard to describe, this video. While we understand the concepts of "King of the Hill", the video really confuses us as to how it'll all play out in the end. No matter, we're more interested in Tag Mode -- something that seems a natural fit for the Sonic universe. The mode plays exactly as it sounds: you tag an opposing player, giving them the "bomb" and they chase someone else down to tag them. Since Sonic games are always built on speed, we expect that mode to have a little more playability than sitting on the top of a hill. Seriously, Sonic doesn't like standing still. He taps his feet and glares angrily at you.

Yet another video of Sonic Rivals 2's battle modes have been revealed. This time, see a Chao get kidnapped in this brand new mode. Remember, Rivals 2 will support Game Sharing, so we're expecting many (if not all) of these features to be available over one UMD.