Sonic Riders

Sonic surfs his way into our full review.

	Version Xbox, PS2, GCN	Developer Sonic Team	Publisher SEGA	Genre Racing

By Joseph Jackson

Commemorating the 15 year anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega sends its iconic little blue dude with attitude on a futuristic thrill ride of sorts in Sonic Riders, the latest Sonic offering from the fine folks at Sonic Team. But rather then throw Sonic and company in an all-new platforming adventure Sonic Team decided to deviate from the norm and try something a little different, something a little more extreme.

While mascot-based racers are pretty common nowadays, Sonic Riders does away with the familiar racing conventions of land-based racers like Mario Kart, Crash Racing, Jak X, and Sonic R respectively, and offers an alternative racing experience that has the potential to appeal to fans of futuristic style racers like the F-Zero and Wipeout series.

The result is a game that looks, sounds, and plays decently, but does neither of those things particularly well. If anything, with the problems that plague Sonic Riders, the game feels like something that will appeal mostly to the hardcore Sonic crowd who enjoyed Sonic's previous non-platforming exploits like Sonic R.

But unlike Sonic R which was basically a foot racer of sorts, Sonic Riders has a much more futuristic theme to it as all of the characters are equipped with their own hover boards along with the ability to perform extreme tricks while speeding through the courses and doing all they can to try and remain ahead of the competition.

In a way, Sonic Riders kind of feels like a cross between Sonic R and F-Zero GX. The futuristic course designs and the high rate of speed you can travel at feels like the familiar territory of Amusement Vision and Nintendo's joint efforts in F-Zero GX, while the loose controls, number of tracks, and the use of characters from the Sonic universe gives it that Sonic R feel. Too bad it isn't a lot more like F-Zero GX though, that engine could have done wonders for this game.

Initially, the main problems that plague Sonic Riders are the same ones I had issues with in Sonic R, a combination of frustrating controls and somewhat annoying track designs. Of course things do improve a little with lots of practice and better familiarity with the layout of the courses, especially when it comes to negotiating some of the more trickier turns in the game, but unfortunately that won't stop the first couple of races from being a frustrating affair that'll probably have players throwing their controllers down in disgust. That said, Sonic Riders isn't a total lost as there are some enjoyable aspects to the game.

The game features 4 game modes to choose from: Story Mode, Normal Race, Tag Mode, and Survival Mode. In the Story Mode, Sonic & friends are hanging out in Metal City one evening when they stumble upon a special Chaos Emerald. But before they know what's happening the Chaos Emerald is stolen from them by a mysterious trio known as the Babylon Rogues, who happen to be riding around on fancy Extreme Gear airboards. While the thieves manage to escape, Sonic and the rest of the gang are provided with a small clue as to the identity of the thieves after one of its members drops his board during the scuffle.

As if dealing with the Babylon Rogues wasn't bad enough, Sonic and his pals then have to deal with Dr. Eggman running off at the mouth again. This time about some kind of tournament he's set up to see who's the very best with using Extreme Gear. While initially reluctant to even bother, seeing that the Babylon Rogues are the top ranking entrants in the tournament pushes Sonic to answer Dr. Eggman's challenge to compete in the EX World Grand Prix, where the winner will be rewarded with a rare Chaos Emerald. While being the fastest on land is a reputation well-deserving of Sonic, he and his friends find themselves in unfamiliar territory with using extreme gear, and thus the real challenge begins. And as players progress through the story mode they'll be presented with numerous CG cutscenes that will expand on the story and help tie everything together.

Cutting to the proverbial chase, the Story mode of Sonic Riders can be both fun and a pain in the ass to play. Players will alternate between using Sonic and his friends all throughout the story mode, and each character is categorized as 1 of 3 character types - speed, flight and power type - that provides them with certain advantages on the courses. Characters of the speed type have the ability to grind along rails and pipes, increasing their speed as they do so, while characters of the flight type can launch off of runways and zip through airborne accelerators positioned at various spots throughout the courses. Lastly, characters of the power type can use their brute strength to smash through barricaded areas in order to reveal shortcuts. In addition to the different characteristics and attributes of the characters, the characteristics of each airboard also differs, providing them with different strengths and weaknesses that affect how well they handle on the courses. So basically, when playing any of the other game modes with selectable characters and airboards you can mix and match up the best possible combinations based on their characteristics. While a nice idea in theory, the problem with the game however extends out onto the courses themselves.

Controlling the characters can at times be an exercise in frustration regardless of which characters or airboards you use. While still doable after a bit of practice, the controls could have definitely been better. The game's control scheme is kind of tricky at first but allows players to perform various moves throughout the course of the races. Steering is handled via analog stick, both braking and air slides are performed with the L & R shoulder buttons and helps in rounding some of the deeper, trickier corners. Additionally, with the same L & R buttons players can release mini-Tornados in order to slow down rival racers approaching from the rear fast.

In addition, the face buttons allow players to jump, as well as perform an air boost move that not only provides your racer with a momentary boost in speed, but can also be used to attack rival racers and is governed by an air gauge that gets depleted with each use of the air boost, or every time you smack into walls, or hit hazardous objects and whatnot.

Once your board's air gauge is completely depleted, your character is relegated to running the rest of the way on foot until they can either acquire air-replenishing power-up items, temporarily ride the turbulence trail of a rival racer, perform tricks for bonus air while landing from big jumps, or reach one of the air pit terminals located around the tracks. These air terminals serve as pit stops for replenishing your air meter but unfortunately can often times slow you down long enough for other racers to pass you by.

While the controls of the game can be a tad bit troublesome at times, especially when rounding some of the trickier turns since air sliding/braking hasn't been implemented as well as can be and takes a bit of practice to not overcompensate on turns and go crashing into walls, some of the track designs offer their own sets of headaches for players to endure and will require a good deal of trial n' error to get right.

That would've been ok if it wasn't for the game's seemingly unforgiving nature. It kinda goes without saying that Sonic Riders is NOT an easy game by any means. Completing the story mode is a great challenge onto itself as you'll need to come in 1st place in each of the races in order to proceed, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. That only serves to make the game more frustrating than fun as you'll not only spend a significant portion of the races fighting the controls and struggling with some of the course designs, but you'll also be fighting to overtake the lead position and maintain it all the way to the finish line. Such a thing only serves to make for a game that's a bit too frustrating for its own good and mainly something that probably only hardcore Sonic fans will really want to bother with.

However, despite its annoying faults, there are some enjoyable aspects to Sonic Riders. The game has a pretty nice sense of speed and there's a pretty cool Turbulence system that allows riders to surf trails of Turbulence left behind by other riders in the lead. The mechanics behind the Turbulence system involve catching up to rival racers emitting Turbulence trails and either entering their Turbulence from the rear, or veering into it from the side.

While riding a rival racer's Turbulence you can increase your rider's speed by quickly ducking left and right, and eventually catch up and overtake your rival. One of the coolest things about riding Turbulence trails is that, during those brief moments you can sit back and let the other racer do all the work of negotiating some of those tough turns, with you just literally sitting back and riding their coat tails or erm, trails.

In addition to riding Turbulence trails there are a variety of other items on the tracks to help players out during the races. Players can utilize launch ramps, accelerators, and rails to travel at a higher rate of speed as well as make use of Automatic Trails, which are certain sections of the courses where your rider is automatically carried down predetermined paths without needing to input any commands. The controls at those points are limited to rotating the analog stick as quickly as you can in order to increase your speed and air gauge. Additionally, as players zip through the tracks they'll be able to smash into item boxes that contain power-up items, as well as collect rings that can be used to level up their character after acquiring a certain amount of rings, and purchase additional boards from the shop to be used in the various other game modes.

In addition to the Story mode Sonic Riders comes complete with various other game modes for players to suffer through, err, I mean compete in. There's a Normal Race mode where players can compete in a number of standard race types that include, Free races, World grand prix, and Time attack. There's also a Survival mode where players will not only race but also battle their rivals as well. There's a Tag mode where characters will team up and engage in some 2-on-2 racing action while sharing a single air tank with their respective partners. There's also a mission mode where players will have to clear various missions and defeat the Babylon Rogues.

While neither of the aforementioned game modes feel as if they offer any improvement to the overall game, they do provide it with a bit more variety, and at the very least, allow players to try out other selectable characters and airboards. In addition to Sonic and his small clique, other selectable characters include Jet the Hawk, Storm the Albatross, and Wave the Swallow, all of which are selectable from the start with additional characters and boards becoming unlocked as you progress through the game.

While the game features both single-player and multiplayer modes, there's no doubt that Sonic Riders is a game that would be better served in a multiplayer environment simply because, at the very least, you'll have other human players struggling with the controls and the tracks right alongside you, putting you on even grounds with your opponents rather than competing against AI opponents who seem to have no difficulties in negotiating the tracks.

In addition to all of the airboard ridin' action, Sonic Riders also comes with a solid set of extras. Players will be able to unlock additional tracks, characters and airboards. Additionally there's also a theatre mode where players can unlock and view all of the CG movie sequences shown throughout the game. There's also an Audio Room that serves as a sound test mode so players can check out the music of the game, a Gear Gallery where players can check out all of the Extreme Gear they've obtained throughout the game, and a Records mode where players can view their race and lap records throughout the game.

Visually, Sonic Riders sports some decent graphics with solid framerates even in split-screen multiplayer mode, cute, colorful characters and fairly decent track designs, but nothing that really stands out.

While the visuals aren't much to sneeze at, the audio portion of Sonic Riders is even more disappointing. The sound effects are Ok, the voice-acting is fair, and the music is surprisingly generic for a Sega/Sonic Team game and is easily forgettable.

As it is, Sonic Riders is a game that can be both fun and utterly frustrating at times. While the game has a decent amount of replay value, depending on your level of masochism, and especially in a multiplayer setting, it's not hard to imagine that once players get over the initial thrills and spills of Sonic Riders, the game loses its luster rather quickly, making it something that few will bother returning to after completing the main story mode and unlocking all of the characters and tracks.