Review: Sonic Riders

It Was Either This Or Sonic Kart
Sonic Team / Playstation 2 Xbox Gamecube / Everyone

For a major platforming mascot, Sonic The Hedgehog has done a lot less genre bending than his more, let’s say…Italian counterpart. That didn’t stop him from doing a racing game before, but the foot racing on Sonic R that fit in so well with the Sonic formula didn’t catch on and the fastest thing on two sneakers stuck mostly to platforming after that. Now it seems that after watching so many sci-fi cartoons and movies, Sonic Team has decided to put their namesake on a hover board for another crack at a racing spin-off. Marty McFly would be proud.

The story goes that while searching for the dragonballs of the Sonic world, chaos emeralds, Sonic and pals were confronted by some mysterious birds riding hover boards. Sure-enough, push comes to shove and the two crews end up together in a racing tournament hosted by the nefarious Eggman, no doubt for the continuation of some evil plot or another. Truth be told, story is never the strong suit of any racer, so the good ones will either: not even try, or have the goods to back it up. Surprisingly, Sonic Riders pulls off the latter with a wholly unique and deep brand of board racing.

The racing is actually much more complicated than one might think. From the starting line to the jumps to using boost, timing is king. For example if a player doesn’t charge up their jump they may not get enough air to pull off a sufficient trick but if they charge the jump too long then they will slow down too much and lose ground on the other racers. There are actually a lot of different elements to the races, the basics are that throughout the race there are jumps, turbulence, pit stops, and what I like to call stick segments.

The jumps vary between regular and trick jumps. Regular jumps are just variations in elevation that require charged jumps by a player to be tricked off of. Trick jumps are more common and will boost the player along, automatically providing enough air for tricks. As for the tricks themselves, each is graded for landing and difficulty and the grade affects a player’s speed, and good grades will award players with extra boost. A player must attempt a trick of sufficient difficulty for each trick jump if they land properly they suffer no loss in speed and are rewarded with boost. If they land awkwardly or don’t go big enough they receive a low grade and have their speed reduced.

Turbulence refers to a jet stream that occasionally spouts out in the wake of opposing racers. Gamers can ride that jets ream for increased speed and can even trick off of it and they can be lifesavers on a tight corner.

If a player burns through all their boost they’re forced to either: find a boost item, pull off a trick, or find one of the pit stops on each track. The pit stop is just a quick stop if you have enough boost, but someone who’s running low may need to spend more time.

Lastly, every track will have a stick section where a player must twirl their joystick to maintain speed. These portions can be crucial to position and encompass a range of activities from sliding down a rail to riding a giant flying arthropod. You read right, a giant flying arthropod.

All these factors do take a lot of practice and only the most dedicated will truly master it, but that’s what makes the game such a pleasant surprise to those expecting a simple mascot cash-in. Really the biggest issue beyond the laughable story and dialogue is that the possibilities for great and challenging online play are squandered on PS2 and Xbox where online multiplayer isn’t supported.

Sonic Riders is quite a pleasant surprise for it’s depth and complexity and, as such, is worth a rental for every racing and SSX fan. Sonic Riders is a little unorthodox, but it may just find a dedicated following among LAN partiers and racing fans in search of something beyond pimped rides, race cars, and go-karts.

7/10
By Zack Rovinsky