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January 8, 2006 | 12:56 AM PST
by: Sean Kennedy
Somewhere there must be a written rule that all popular platformer video game mascots must at some point have their own racing game. Ever since Mario Kart came onto the scene back in the early 1990’s, developers have felt the need to follow suit with their own mascot racing games, such as the Crash Bandicoot series of mediocre racing games. Sonic Team has also gone down this path in the past delivering some rather forgettable Sonic the Hedgehog based racing games for both the Sega Game Gear and Saturn platforms. Now Sonic Team is trying its hand at mascot racing once again with Sonic Riders.
Features
Will the fourth time be a charm?
Moving away from the kart racing style of the Sonic Drift games from the Game Gear and the “running” mess that was the Saturn’s Sonic R, Sonic Riders revolves around a new air board racing style, which is a kind of snowboarding-surfing-high-speed racing hybrid. From the start players will choose one of over fourteen Sonic universe characters each with their own abilities in the areas of Speed, Flight, and Power to mount to air boards and send on a fast and frantic racing adventure.
After the player selects a character they must equip it with a board or “Gear” as it is called in the game. Similar to the snowboard system found in the SSX series, each board has its own strengths and weaknesses. As player advance through the races and collect coins, they can turn in there coins to purchase “Gear” upgrades and open up a new range of skills. There are over thirty types of “Gear” available, so players will have a lot to choose from.
Once players select their characters and Gear, they will now take to the tracks. The Sonic Team designers have done a great job in creating environments for the tracks that fit into the Sonic universe. Players will notice many locations which are familiar to those found in past Sonic titles mixed in with all new locations. The tracks offer up a great deal of sharp turns, jumps, hidden shortcuts, and obstacles all of which allow to the racers to achieve high levels of speed and pull of crazy tricks. As players advance through the races tracks will become more challenging, offering more and more obstacles and dangers for racers to contend with. The design of the tracks themselves seem very similar to what Sega did for Nintendo in F-Zero for the Game Cube. This of course is a good thing as that title stands as one of the best and the fastest racers ever.
Simply hoping on an air board and taking off is not the only thing players will need to be concerned with in Sonic Riders. Players must learn to master the use of turbulence in order to be successful during the races. A quick glance at some of the screenshots and you will notice an air stream flowing behind the racers. This air stream is the turbulence you must learn to use to your advantage by guiding your character into the stream to get a speed boost sending you ahead of your opponent. This type of boost system is nothing new to racing as anyone who has played the recent Mario Kart titles knows, but it is a nice addition to the game keeping the sense of speed up. Players will also need to keep track of their characters air tank. Failure in keeping their air tank full by collecting rings and performing tricks will result in your racer greatly slowing down. This method of keeping a players speed up by performing tricks is similar to the system found in the SSX games and works well in Sonic Riders.
Will Sonic Riders finally be Sonic's answer to Mario Kart?
On the topic of tricks, performing tricks in Sonic Riders is fun and essential to keeping your character moving fast. Through the use of the three mechanics of the trick system: trick zones, turbulence, and grinding, players will be able to pull of a large variety of tricks in order to fill their air tank and earn points. The more difficult the trick performed, the greater the points earned will be. The tracks offer a large number of areas to pull of tricks and grind, so it will not be difficult to pull of tricks right from the get go. Whereas other board based games have you accomplish in-air tricks by pushing large button combinations, Sonic Riders keeps it simple by having the various tricks be determined by how far you jump and timing. Whether or not implementing a simplistic trick system of this nature will remain enjoyable is anyone’s call, as it may have the potential to become stale and boring over time.
What is a racing game without solid controls? It’s Sonic R! All kidding aside, Sonic Riders features tight controls allowing players to accurately navigate the tracks and pick up real speed, unlike the previous Sonic racing efforts. That said Sonic Riders does follow in Sonic R’s footsteps by using a rather different control system then your average racer. Players will use the analogue stick to make their character move left, right, forward, and backwards. The R and L buttons work as your Air Slides, allowing you to make tight turns, similar to what is found in most racers of this type. That all seems rather standard until you find there are not any buttons for acceleration or breaking. In their place you have your Air Boost button which will provide you a boost of air sending you forward, but at the same time draining air from your air tank. Again, this is why it will be essential to constantly collect coins throughout the race.
From what has been shown so far of Sonic Riders it appears that Sonic fans, racing fans, and gamers in general have a fun and original game to look forward to. Borrowing what worked in other popular racing series, it does look as though Sonic Team learned from the mistakes of their previous racing efforts and a fourth time will be a charm when Sonic Riders hits the Xbox this February.
Features
- Over 13 characters new and old from the Sonic Universe
- Over 14 unique tracks
- All-new air board racing
- Insane in-air and grinding tricks
- 4-Player Ultimate Battle
- Over 40 types of Extreme Gear to collect and customize
- 5 modes of play: Normal Race, Story, Mission, Tag, and Survival
- Available for Xbox, GameCube, and Playstation 2
Will the fourth time be a charm?
Moving away from the kart racing style of the Sonic Drift games from the Game Gear and the “running” mess that was the Saturn’s Sonic R, Sonic Riders revolves around a new air board racing style, which is a kind of snowboarding-surfing-high-speed racing hybrid. From the start players will choose one of over fourteen Sonic universe characters each with their own abilities in the areas of Speed, Flight, and Power to mount to air boards and send on a fast and frantic racing adventure.
After the player selects a character they must equip it with a board or “Gear” as it is called in the game. Similar to the snowboard system found in the SSX series, each board has its own strengths and weaknesses. As player advance through the races and collect coins, they can turn in there coins to purchase “Gear” upgrades and open up a new range of skills. There are over thirty types of “Gear” available, so players will have a lot to choose from.
Once players select their characters and Gear, they will now take to the tracks. The Sonic Team designers have done a great job in creating environments for the tracks that fit into the Sonic universe. Players will notice many locations which are familiar to those found in past Sonic titles mixed in with all new locations. The tracks offer up a great deal of sharp turns, jumps, hidden shortcuts, and obstacles all of which allow to the racers to achieve high levels of speed and pull of crazy tricks. As players advance through the races tracks will become more challenging, offering more and more obstacles and dangers for racers to contend with. The design of the tracks themselves seem very similar to what Sega did for Nintendo in F-Zero for the Game Cube. This of course is a good thing as that title stands as one of the best and the fastest racers ever.
Simply hoping on an air board and taking off is not the only thing players will need to be concerned with in Sonic Riders. Players must learn to master the use of turbulence in order to be successful during the races. A quick glance at some of the screenshots and you will notice an air stream flowing behind the racers. This air stream is the turbulence you must learn to use to your advantage by guiding your character into the stream to get a speed boost sending you ahead of your opponent. This type of boost system is nothing new to racing as anyone who has played the recent Mario Kart titles knows, but it is a nice addition to the game keeping the sense of speed up. Players will also need to keep track of their characters air tank. Failure in keeping their air tank full by collecting rings and performing tricks will result in your racer greatly slowing down. This method of keeping a players speed up by performing tricks is similar to the system found in the SSX games and works well in Sonic Riders.
On the topic of tricks, performing tricks in Sonic Riders is fun and essential to keeping your character moving fast. Through the use of the three mechanics of the trick system: trick zones, turbulence, and grinding, players will be able to pull of a large variety of tricks in order to fill their air tank and earn points. The more difficult the trick performed, the greater the points earned will be. The tracks offer a large number of areas to pull of tricks and grind, so it will not be difficult to pull of tricks right from the get go. Whereas other board based games have you accomplish in-air tricks by pushing large button combinations, Sonic Riders keeps it simple by having the various tricks be determined by how far you jump and timing. Whether or not implementing a simplistic trick system of this nature will remain enjoyable is anyone’s call, as it may have the potential to become stale and boring over time.
What is a racing game without solid controls? It’s Sonic R! All kidding aside, Sonic Riders features tight controls allowing players to accurately navigate the tracks and pick up real speed, unlike the previous Sonic racing efforts. That said Sonic Riders does follow in Sonic R’s footsteps by using a rather different control system then your average racer. Players will use the analogue stick to make their character move left, right, forward, and backwards. The R and L buttons work as your Air Slides, allowing you to make tight turns, similar to what is found in most racers of this type. That all seems rather standard until you find there are not any buttons for acceleration or breaking. In their place you have your Air Boost button which will provide you a boost of air sending you forward, but at the same time draining air from your air tank. Again, this is why it will be essential to constantly collect coins throughout the race.
From what has been shown so far of Sonic Riders it appears that Sonic fans, racing fans, and gamers in general have a fun and original game to look forward to. Borrowing what worked in other popular racing series, it does look as though Sonic Team learned from the mistakes of their previous racing efforts and a fourth time will be a charm when Sonic Riders hits the Xbox this February.
November 20, 2009
