This game surprised the living daylights out of me!!! 'Nuff said
As for graphics this game's definitely got it. In my opinion it beats out alooooot of DS games in the graphics departments. The bosses are awesomely animated. I know this may sound stupid but in all honesty the boss graphics in the game remind me of Gamecube bosses from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. But that's besides the point. The backgrounds are in 2-d but that doesn't matter since it all goes by in a flash anyway, we don't need 3-d background to look at. Beside it would lag the game like hell...furthermore, Sonic and Blaze's animations look really great. The only thing that stopped me from giving graphics a ten was the fact that the explosions look like total crap. They are horrible looking because they are all pixelated so much. It ruins the mood when your fighting an awesomely animated boss with great graphics and you finish him and then you see these crappy explosions that look like they can come from the NES. It sucks yah but don't worry about it, the explosions only appear in like .0003% of the game.
The music stands out for me more than any other DS game because it actually uses voices. It's reminiscent of Sonic Adventure with their cheesey rock music but this time the music actually fits the level really well and the singing isn't too bad. There are a few unforgettable songs in this. Other DS games I've played had their nice songs that came and went but this game has some nice music that can stick with you. When you unlock sound test 100% you will be glad. I don't wanna spoil anything but one of the best songs in the game for me are "Wrapped in Black". Theres plenty more though.
The only one complaint that I have about this game is the lack of different gameplay modes for the multiplayer race. The multiplayer race is alot of fun actually, but it just gets bland after all the time just racing. I don't think it would have been too crazy to add some kind of "score" mode instead of just racing. Score would have been great because it would actually do justice to you doing extra tricks(beyond the tension gauge) for those of you who like to be crazy with tricks and all. Oh well, next time. Don't get me the wrong though, the multiplayer is really fun, even playing the same stage over doesn't make it feel repeated. It's just that it could have had a score mode or something.
Everything else in the game is great, I'm not in the mindset to remember every single detail and write about it so I guess I'll just leave you with that. About the value...it's a great game for 29.99(MSRP) The fact that I bought the game for 24.99(with tax around 28$) doesn't make me feel in the least bit jipped because this game is one of the best purchases I've made for the DS.