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Sonic
has seen a lot of wacky action outside of his regular videogame
activities over his sixteen-year career, such as Racing, Pinball and
Fighting. Sonic Riders attempts to cash-in on the Racing
genre, correcting the mistakes of the lack-lustre Sonic R in
the process, perhaps in another  bid to usurp Nintendo's Mario
Kart as the pinnacle of the light-hearted Racing genre, but
that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.
The
back story of Sonic Riders involves a new team of emerald stealing
thieves known as the Babylon Rogues who just happen to ride around
on Extreme Gear (aka hoverboards). Sonic's seemingly only worthwhile
nemesis, Dr. Eggman, throws a racing tournament in a thinly veiled
evil plot to get his hands on those pesky Chaos Emeralds again, and
before you know it you have a barebones understanding of why you're
playing Sonic Riders, aside from the fact that you bought it.
Instead
of running on foot as we last saw in Sonic R, Tails,
Knuckles, Sonic and some new characters (all equally forgettable and
generic) this time out are all about hoverboarding. Yes, hoverboards
- as in TrickStyle, EyeToy: Antigrav and Namco's AirBlade.
For some reason, Western civilizations' fascination with hoverboards
hasn't fared well in the videogame arena and unfortunately, Sonic
Riders isn't the catalyst to spark a newfound gaming fad even
though it tries to amalgamate surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding
and racing.
The
racing in Sonic Riders is fast and might make you furious,
due to a few factors that should have remained on the cutting-room
floor.  The worst gameplay mechanic in the game has to be the loss of
Air while using your hoverboard. Using boost drains your Air Supply
which results in your chosen character running on foot if emptied
completely. To restore the Air, you'll have to find a pit stop along
the way, similar in intent to the Recharge Fields featured in the F-Zero
series. Not only does this waste valuable time, but it completely
disrupts the entire flow of the game. It’s easy to believe SEGA
thought it would add a strategic element to the game, but it only
succeeds at annoying you since you'll probably find yourself
avoiding the Boost feature at all costs; without it, the game often
seems like your standing still.
An
interesting element of gameplay that does work as intended is the
use of riding opponent's turbulence trails. Streaming from behind
them, you'll be able to jump onto their tailwind and increase your
speed and execute tricks and combos by leaping to and from a variety
of turbulence created by the other riders. The shallow Trick System
isn't anything to get excited about and the stunts are executed by a
directional push - the only downside to the tricks is landing them
incorrectly which can result in a small scale wipe-out, costing you
valuable time.
The
Track Structure is more than a little attention deficit - it's like
someone went crazy with the Track-Designer 3000. The Tracks
start out busy and distracting and  manage to assault the senses even
more the further you progress - which means they should be just
perfect for the youngsters and teens this game is targeted at.
Having seemingly avoided the bustling metropolis’ that provided
SEGA’s outlet in F-ZeroGX, Sonic Riders manages to
hit that point we were all afraid of; busy backgrounds often results
n loss-of-definition within the foreground. The Level design isn’t
bad - Sonic has always featured Level layouts jammed with everything
and the kitchen sink - it actually suits the style of the game quite
well and allows for the limited amount of technique the hoverboard
mechanic offers the player.
Controlling
your chosen character is a snap for the most part and gamers of all
skill-levels will be able to pick-up-and-play it with minimal
instruction; whether they can manage a 1st Place Win or not is
another story. The game requires the use of just a couple of buttons
-  jump, boost, R and L Triggers for tight turns and, once you get
the hang of it, you'll begin exploring the landscape using different
characters to mine their various abilities (based on speed, flight
or power) to reach cool new places.
The
game supports up to four players, which signifies that the GameCube
and Xbox owners will be ready to play right out of the box, while
PlayStation2 owners require the Multi-Tap. Let me just say for the
record that playing a game as involved as Sonic Riders is a
nightmare on a small TV in four-player Split-Screen Mode. The speed
of the game remains impressive with four players, but the twisty
turn, hair-pin curve, Level design and reduced visibility make most
of the races trial-and-error, rather than pure talent, even for the
experienced player. Two player Split-Screen is definitely workable
however.
Replay
value is high if you persevere and manage to beat the many
Difficulty Levels on offer. There are no less than ten extra
characters to unlock, including NiGHTS, AiAi (from the Super
Monkey Ball series), Shadow The Hedgehog, Ulala (from Space
Channel 5) and Super Sonic just to name a few. Unfortunately,
Super Sonic is a mixed blessing as you'll constantly be reverting
back to Sonic due to Super's high Ring Count which you must
maintain, and if you've played this game you'd know keeping the Ring
Count above a certain number can be a little overwhelming given the
lack of Rings and constant hazards that tend to take them away.
Visually
the game is pretty hot stuff, even though it’s clear the
development has been limited by the title’s multi-format nature.
Sonic Team created the environments in Sonic Riders to look
as though they were lifted from the same bizarre Sonic universe that
all of the other games were borne from. The game is very smooth with
the occasional Frame-Rate hic-cup, but it's nothing to get your
panties in a knot over. As mentioned the character designs are as
generic as they come, but let's face it, that all began with the
introduction of Tails in 1992 and hasn't showed any signs of slowing
down since. At the very least they work within the framework of what
has come before.
If
you're a patient gamer as well as a high-ranking Sonic Fan Club
member, chances are you'll be able to overlook the game’s weaker
points and enjoy Sonic Riders for what it is. It's certainly
not perfect, but it is definitely playable and enjoyable. Fittingly
snugly into the recent Sonic mould, Sonic Riders places
itself between both Shadow The
Hedgehog and the
NintendoDS’s well-placed Sonic Rush in terms of competency.
Sonic Riders is a bit of a bumpy ride, but what do you
expect with all of that turbulence? 
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