Sonic Riders

Written by James Dauer  on April 18, 2006

Review: Finally, a racing game that rewards you for being behind all of the competition.

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If you read our Sonic the Hedgehog retrospective, then you already know Sonic the Hedgehog has had a shaky past in the racing genre. Truly, for a character that's all about speed, this shouldn't be the case, but alas, it is. From his kart racing stints on the Game Gear to the commercial mess that was Sonic R, Sonic just hasn't made the greatest transition over to the racing genre. While Sonic Riders, the new Сboarding racer that's in the vein of EA Big's SSX with some of Nintendo's F-Zero thrown in for good measure, is a good step in the right direction, Sonic still has a long way to go before he is crowned king of the racing genre.

In general, players can pick one of many racers including old favorites like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose, or even the newcomers like Jet, Storm, and Wave. Other hidden characters, many of which Sega fans will enjoy, are unlocked when races have been completed. Each racer is grouped into one of three classes- Speed, Power, or Flight. Speed racers are able to grind rails laid throughout the track, power racers are able to knock obstacles out of their way, and flight racers are able to use specialized launch pads and boost rings to fly over certain parts of the course. Each type leads to its own shortcuts. Each rider also has his or her own air board. Extra boards may be purchased in the shop so long as the player collected enough rings from any of the racing modes.

As far as gameplay itself is concerned, Sonic Riders' controls will frustrate anyone who is playing this game for the first time. It all looks very simple- just use left and right to steer. Acceleration is automatic. Jumps can only be performed at certain parts of the track, and during the jumps, players need only use the analogue stick to perform a series of tricks. The only other controls besides those are the boost/attack, the tornado attack, and the break/slide, the latter of which is context sensitive and causes more problems than it should during a race. The boost works as an attack when an opponent is ahead of you (which will usually be the case during 98% of any given race). The tornado attack works when opponents are behind you, but it's not that easy to tell where the opponents are, and it drains way more air than it's worth. While all this sounds easy and good, Sonic Riders expects you to take everything you know about racing, and throw it out the window. No racing techniques you've ever used before will work here- guaranteed. This is all thanks to the way Sonic Riders is set up- the Air system.

Air is basically the fuel for the boards, and if the player runs out of air in mid-race, it's time to hoof it on foot. Air is gained one of two ways- through tricks or through pit stops. If a rider pulls off a long series of mid-air twists and grabs and has a perfect landing, his/her air will refill very quickly. If they hit a pit stop, they pause for a moment and get a full air recharge. Unfortunately, riders will experience running out of air many times in the initial stages of the game. This is because players will generally rely on their boosting abilities to get them in the lead, but remember what I said about how no techniques you've ever used will work here. Each boost takes out a huge amount of air, so boosting multiple times is a great way to land the rider in last place quickly. There is an alternative to boosting, though. If a rider is moving exceptionally fast, they will leave a trail of turbulence behind them in which other racers can ride- causing the turbulence riders to speed up. Turbulence also allows players to execute tricks to further increase their speed. The real trick to the game is mastering the use of turbulence, and this is where many have failed. Once this mechanic of the game is understood, the game itself actually becomes pretty fun. It's just too bad most people won't have the patience or endurance to handle this learning curve. It also doesn't help that the opponent's AI is ruthless and brutal. There is no difficulty setting to the game, so players will just have to suffer through failed race after failed race until they get it down pat.

All of the 16 tracks are gorgeous, featuring vibrant colors, and lots of motion. They feel very much like the tracks seen in the Game Cube's F-Zero GX. While the tracks are beautiful, this actually can cause distraction, and I know several of my peers brought up the problem that the backgrounds just got too busy at times. Generally, this can be remedied by practicing a few laps on a given course and learning where shortcuts are, but usually the AI is so rough, even if you take a good shortcut, you'll still be far behind. With all of the hectic speed and motion, it's seedless to say, if you're the type that gets motion sick easily, you'll want to avoid this game at all cost.

There are roughly five modes to the game. The first of these is the one most players will be struggling with in the initial stages of the game- Story Mode. This mode is filled with some pointless story about chaos emeralds, bandits, and something to do with a lost civilization. The plot is just a weak excuse to introduce new tracks to players, and probably should be skipped at every chance, though a few of the CG cutscenes look really nice. The story mode starts out easy enough, but then explodes in difficulty about three races in, and believe me, it doesn't let up at all from there.

Other single player modes include Mission Mode, which clears immediately after beating the first half of Story Mode and invites players to perform a series of tasks to earn medals; World Grand Prix which is the hardest series of races the game has to offer;

Sonic team sports some rather weak multiplayer options. Despite the usual Single Race mode that plays just like the normal version of the game, only with a lower draw distance and a lower framerate, Sonic Riders has three other forms of multiplayer mayhem.

Tag Mode, one of the three multiplayer modes, is probably the most experimental feature in the game. Tag mode plays like any other race, only it plays out in co-op fashion. Each race consists of two teams of two riders. Each team must stay within close range of each other; otherwise the player in the lead will automatically stop and wait for the player behind. Also, both team members share one air tank. Ultimately the mode is just a more frustrating version of the regular races, and comes off as nothing more than a failed experiment.

Of all modes in Sonic Riders, Survival Mode is probably the most flawed. Survival Mode consists of both race and battle modes. The race mode is confusing in that, it's not really a race to the finish, but rather a race to see who can hold onto a chaos emerald and make it through five gates first. In all the hectic racing, it's hard to tell who has the chaos emerald and just where they are in relation to the player, making this mode way too frustrating to play. Battle Mode plays somewhat like Mario Kart's Battle Mode, only instead of projectile attacks, players must smash into each other. The entire mechanic of the battle mode is severely flawed because it takes a lot of air to perform an attack, and the odds of actually hitting a passing rider are so very slim players will need to constantly refuel their air boards every few seconds. The battle mode is so unbalanced that during four straight playthroughs of the mode, some with a second player and some without, the players on the field all managed to die, not by hitting each other, but rather by hitting obstacles in the field, and in all cases the battles went on for longer than five minutes.

The visuals in Sonic Riders are truly a mixed bag. The CG cutscenes are very nice looking. During the CG scenes, little details can be noticed from the feather patterns on the three new racers, to the seams on Sonic's gloves. It's only too sad that this level of detail couldn't have been kept throughout the entire game. In game character models are blocky and just downright shabby. To give an idea of how badly the models are, Sonic looked better in Sonic Adventure back on the Dreamcast than he does in this game. Luckily the tracks look great with lots of particles and details littered all over the place.

The sound is basically what one would expect to find in a Sonic game. The voices are cheesy, and not necessarily in a good way. Just like any other racing game, the music is pure forgettable techno. It's not good and it's not bad. Hey, it could have been worse- they could have made the soundtrack similar to Sonic R.