Tails, the two-tailed fox, here. One day, we've been experiencing technical difficulties with our computers, and we stood by. This day (or so) was a story about how a special malware, disguising itself as a computer boosting software, destroyed everyone's PC games, especially what my crew and I had developed. No, I'm not referring to Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, and Sticks the Jungle Badger, but rather another team consisting of some old friends of mine who I took to school. Anyway, we were then forced to play a blatant rip-off of our game, cruder than oil.

But before this incident had happened, it all started when my bandaged friends were simply playing volleyball, like in any other day in Bygone Island, just without me.

"Hey, Knuckles!" yelled Sonic, jumping before serving the ball. "Heads up!"

In response, the big red echidna hit the ball, literally using his head. "Good thing I have a hard head!" he moaned with his eyes rolling.

After watching the ball fly away, an unamused Amy replied, "How realistic, Knuckles. You must have sacrificed brain volume for a thicker skull."

He rubbed his head. "It's a double-edged sword, a curse and a blessing."

Sometime later, I got out of my workshop and visited my friends during their game. Bringing my laptop, I wanted to show them my game I've downloaded, mainly because Sonic and Knuckles are known for their Couch Potato Saturdays, where they spend hours playing video games. "Hey, guys! Check out this game! Some other friends and I developed it for quite some time!"

Sonic scoffed, "Look, if this is another educational or puzzle game you made or bought, like the last five you showed us, we're still not interested."

Yep. I remember showing all of those games like Brain World, 4096, Sevens, which inspired 4096, Construct-a-Chain, and of course, Too Wrong to Be Right (a critical thinking game), all in one day. At the post office:

"Check out Brain World!" I exclaimed, showing up with my laptop. "Doesn't this look like a cool game?"

"Pfft, not interested," replied the blue hedgehog, holding a pink envelope.

At Meh Burger, where we normally eat lunch:

"Check out 4096!" I exclaimed, showing up with my laptop again. "Maybe this one looks like a cool game?"

"Once again, not interested," replied the blue hedgehog, scarfing a chili dog.

At the library:

"Check out Sevens," I whispered, showing up with my laptop for the third time. "50 million users bought it for a reason!"

"Shh-h-h!" shushed Amy, while reading a novel.

At Fennec Shopkeeper's market:

"Construct-a-Chain has received very positive reviews!" I exclaimed, showing up with my laptop for the fourth time, which resulted in my gang frowning even harder.

"Twice again, not interested," groaned Sonic.

"What kind of pinball moves in a path by itself!?"shrieked a frightened Sticks. "Do aliens make them?"

"No," I answered.

At the DangerCo. Deadly Equipment Warehouse:

"...Too Wrong to Be Right?" I suggested nervously, grinding my teeth and holding my cell phone.

My friends were really, really annoyed on that time. "TAILS! Stop it already!"

"I'm always too wrong to be right," muttered Knuckles, crossing his arms.

That's when I realized: those games were specialized ONLY for me. So how could I have been so obtuse? I should've respected others' tastes. Now, aside from the flashback...

"Don't worry, I think you'll really enjoy this one! No traditional puzzles or lessons. It's called Blades of the Rebellion, a platformer with innovative action, role-playing, exploration, and most of all, speed!"

Sonic looked more surprised, in a good way. "Speed? Now, that follows my style!

Knuckles flexed his arm muscles and punched the air. "Action, like punching 'till you drop, is what I do best!"

"I do enjoy RPGs," Amy pointed out. "Maybe because I love stories."

"Exploration is how I discover new kinds of species," added Sticks. "And survive."

Then, I showed them the trailer, starting off with the plot synopses.

"Once upon a time, there were five humble kingdoms living in harmony. Each have brought many ways to maintain peace including alliances and sharing their unique strengths. That was until one day, an ancient demon rose from the underworld and discovered the concept of technology. With this kind of power, he developed his own bionics to make himself stronger and create a new cyborg army. On the following week, he conquered all five kingdoms and planned to wipe out all of current civilization, to make room for a new, ghastly bionic world. Heroes have sacrificed themselves, and many of the innocent lost their homes and kneeled before the half-robot monsters. But not all hope was lost; one day, there were five teenage warriors, each from a different kingdom, who found themselves in an ancient cave after escaping. Knowing that their world is in danger, they must train themselves and work together to find all eight Crystals of Truth to form a new power to defeat the empowered demon once and for all."

With the background music as pop punk, the playable characters were main protagonist was a young king cheetah ninja whose name was Scion, according to the announcer. He had thick, tungsten-colored fur with trodden black blotchy spots, with some spiky areas on his head and back, beige bandages on his arms and legs, and a blue tattered scarf. He also used a katana as a weapon. Additionally, as the fastest in the team, his moveset emphasized speed and spacing; it consisted of quick slicing and jabs with the tip of his sword dealing the most damage.

Second came Amoroso, the sweet-but-tough pink gold-furred wolfdog knight, who wore a thin pigtail, developed armor and hexagonal bracelets on her wrists, and welded a thick longsword with a pink fuller and yellow blade. Her moveset was based on balance and versatility as she had average stats, though he had some unique abilities like spin-jumping with her sword.

Then, there was the hardcore leader, Nucleus the Noble, a gold-colored viking "grolar" bear who wore a horned gold helmet and a tattered blue plaid kilt. As the "strongest of the bunch," he held a massive, red, bandaged spiky flail with a battle axe on its other end. Due to his slow movement, he relied mainly on extreme strength (axe-flail combos complemented this trait) and defense (invincibility frames, anyone?), as well as his superior swimming skills.

Next came the clever and wise-cracking Bonnie Bones, who was a cobalt blue, eyepatch-wearing pirate capuchin who enjoyed going to new areas. Gameplay-wise, she relied on range and zoning, like shooting with her bazookas and throwing a bone-like boomerang to capture objects, though her cutlass had the least reach.

And last, but not least, there was the intelligent and wise Horns, the hooded white metal-colored/albino and red-eyed horned (hence the name) owl, who relied not on a sharp weapon, but rather sorcery as well as his keen senses. In detail, he focused on a mix of powerful magic and aerial combat, like vanishing dodges, a fire-enhanced barrel roll or an electrified shuttle loop.

But if there was one thing everyone had in common, it was super speed, vital for getting through platforms in record time.

After their introduction, the five warriors were seen going through various platforms until their battle a boss named Robogre, who resembled a giant cyborg ogre. Scion immediately charged to the beast to strike him with the tip of his sword, but after that, Robogre unleashed a sonic roar to knock him down. Bonnie took over the kid cheetah's place and used her trusty gun to shoot seeds at the ogre. Likewise, the monkey was victimized by the beast's shockwave stomps and closed her eyes while taking damage. Then, Amoroso showed up and jumped from Robogre's foot to his head which she impaled with her yellow and pink blade. She had given him a great deal of damage, but the cyborg ogre shaked his head, causing her to fall down, though she didn't receive damage. Eventually, Horns and Nucleus came to the rescue; the grolar bear kept the monster busy and defended himself with his spiky gauntlets whereas the owl was coordinating his attacks, from a quiet invisible glide to a downwards hurricane headbomb right in the beast's head, knocking him off. After Robogre was defeated, Horns magically healed the team with an aura, and he and they gave fives. Last, the trailer ended with the logo of Blades of the Rebellion.

"Liking the visuals," complemented Sonic with a thumbs up. "Who doesn't enjoy whatever looks hand-drawn with colored pencils and watercolors by an A-OK drawer?"

Amy added, "The backgrounds look highly vibrant, but not so colorful that they exhaust the player. They also look culturally diverse, and especially surreal, like in Alice in Wonderland."

After the trailer, we went home where I set up our television, connected it with a console with an advance copy of my game inside, brought one controller, and that's when we started playing. And boy did my friends have a lot of fun, despite the story mode being only single-player.

Sonic, as the first one to play, held right on the joystick. "That Scion, look at him go, running through loop after forest!"

"Don't go too fast, because you'll miss out those treasures if you do!" advised Sticks, pointing at one of the blue chests at a platform above the playable character.

"Who needs collectables when a blow in the face is refreshing enough?"

"So when do we get our turn?" asked Knuckles.

"After Sonic completes his level," I answered. "Also, you can swap characters in-game, though you have to wait until thirty seconds before Scion can be played again."

"Eh, fair enough."

At the end of the blue blur's turn, his character lost a life when falling into a poisoned-water lake when forgetting to jump. "Oh, dang, that's no good!"

"Always watch where you're going, Sonic!" suggested Amy. "Think about it, what would happen if you were speeding in a car in real life?"

"I only drove a car once!"

"My turn!" The big red echidna snatched the controller from Sonic and pressed "up" with the D-pad, replacing Scion with Nucleus. "Time to SMASH!" Indeed did he begin mashing buttons, in which in the game, the hybrid bear knocked over every enemy in sight, making a 20-kill combo and and gaining enough experience points level up. "Unlike Sonic, I don't chuckle."

When Amy got her turn, she played as Amoroso in the hub world, a lavish castle, where she found some doors to play some special stages.

"Let's see here, training stages, a pinball-like game, a 3D endless running game, and so on. The training stages are the only ones more true to the core gameplay, however, so I'll settle with those...until we unlock the rest, of course."