Sonic Riders Not Such a Bad Spin-Off

Sega's famous mascot actually performs quite well in the new racing spin-off from Sonic Team. Brief impressions and media.

Just before last week's Tokyo Game Show, Sega surprised gamers with the announcement that Sonic the Hedgehog would be getting yet another major title this year - a racing game, no less, called Sonic Riders.

The game looked much better than we thought it would in its playable form last week, with nice presentation, lush environments and a strong frame rate.

Inexplicably, the arch villain of the Sonic world, Dr Eggman, challenges Sonic and his friends to a Worldwide Grand Prix, and the prize for coming out on top is an ultra-rare Chaos Emerald - woohoo!

Gliding on air boards - which are performance-oriented for each playable character - you experience a heightened sense of extreme sports-style racing, performing tricks and stunts over treacherous wide-open terrain.

See, it looks quite good doesn't it?! Doesn't it?

Comparisons have been made with the classic Sega Saturn racing title, Sonic R, which incidentally is included in the upcoming compilation pack, Sonic Gems Collection. However, Riders offers quite a different style of air board racing - and there's no doubt that the action is much faster.

Although some of Sega's recent and upcoming Sonic titles have created mixed feelings, with the Shadow the Hedgehog spin-off facing particular hostility, it's a bit of a relief to see that Sonic Riders is shaping up to be a worthwhile outing for the mascot.

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And at least he's not for rent as much as classic rival Mario, who has recently been spotted in dancing, baseball, soccer and party titles - while solid news on a proper Mario platform game for the upcoming Revolution console is still forthcoming.

Expect to see Sonic Riders in your games emporium on PS2, Xbox and GameCube this Winter.

We'll be adding some hot hi-res gameplay videos to this page very shortly.

Adam Doree
Editorial Director, Kikizo