So, I've been thinking of doing some sort of review for a while, so I've decided to review Sonic Riders (GameCube). This is my first ever review, so criticizm would help a lot for any future reviews I may decide to write. So without further delay...
Sonic Riders
The basics of the game is you race with a type of vehicle called Extreme Gear. The main type of Extreme Gear are snowboard-like thingys (Like the ones on the front cover), but you can unlock other types as well. At the start of the race, you can walk around freely behind the finish line (Which has an electrical field on it), but you have to cross the line just after the 5-second countdown finishes to get a good starting speed boost as you get on your Extreme Gear. The best way to do this is by backing up a bit, then as the countdown shows a 2 (Or when it gets to 2.99) dash torward the line. But if you hit the electrical field before it gets to 0, you get shocked and loose time. I like how they put this in the game rather than reving up your engine to get a boost, but sometimes I accedentally turn the character slightly which sort of messes the timing up. Not a big problem, though.
As you're racing, you don't need to press anything to go forward, sort of like Kirby Air Ride. But this is far from using just the A button. Pressing B makes you boost, which is like the ordinary Mushroom boost from Mario Kart. But if you boost into someone, you attack them, making them stop and lose their rings. Every character has their own attack. This is a nice feature, but it can mess you up if you're near a turn or ramp (This rarely happens, though.). Holding A charges a jump, which is useful for ramps. Time your jump right and you can get to secret areas, although it's somewhat tricky to do (That or I haven't played the game enough.). And turning while pressing R makes you drift. Just be sure to read through the whole instruction manual. I decided to just skip it and play the game, and I didn't know what the heck to do. This could apply to any game.
As time passes, you lose a tiny, tiny bit of Air every second (Boosting and drifting also loses Air). Air sort of acts like gas, if you run out you have to go on foot to find some source of Air to start racing again (Since this is a Sonic game you're still decently fast on foot, but you can't boost, jump, or drift. It's actually kind of fun running until everyone else catches up to you. I don't get what IGN says about it being an "unessicary penalty," or something along those lines.). You can get more Air by doing tricks in midair by simply tilting the Control Stick, or there's a section in every track whereas movement is automatic (e.g. You're hanging on a small plane or being carried by a stream) where you can get Air by rotating the Control Stick. (Again, don't get what IGN's thinking. It's review says you can just put the controller down and relax during these times. Wow.) Also, there's this thing called Turbulence, sort of like drafting. When someone's going real fast the wind behind them creates a half pipe which you can leech off of and go super fast to catch up to the person. When an arrow pointing up appears on a side, go to that side and press up to do a trick, which also gives you Air. (I think this is what IGN said is the time you could relax. I'm still wowing at them. /troll)
Something that adds more variety to the game is the character catagories. There's three catagories, speed, flight, and power. Speed characters can grind on rails, giving them extra speed and more Air. I like this one, because I mainly use Sonic. There's ramps specally built for flight characters. While airborn you tilt up and down to go through rings, giving you extra speed and Air. This one's also good for quick speed. Finally, power characters can punch through obsticals, like cars, to open up secret passages. All of these abilities can open up shortcuts. There's also Extreme Gears that can let you do something you can't normally do. For example: Using the Extreme Gear Access lets speed and strength characters fly though rings, something air characters can do. I love this because: Being able to do two things = More shortcuts. Although these type of Extreme Gears are pretty costly.
Now, something that's pretty sweet is collecting lotsa rings. There's also levels in this game (As in Pokemon-like levels. Not World 1-1 stuff.
), you start at level 1, collect 30 rings for level 2, and 60 for the grand level 3. Higher levels boost your abilities, giving you a stronger boost and better stats. And after the race the collected rings can be used to buy new Extreme Gear. Whatever you do, don't let anyone attack you or fall off the stage with the maximum limit of 100 rings. You'll downgrade and have to start all over again.
There's a story mode, which, apparently, I've played through the whole thing and I don't know much about the plot. That's because I skipped the cutscenes, which are littered with cheese. You can really tell why they needed to replace the voice actors. Especally Amy's (Oh, gawd, I can't explain how terrible her voice is, I'm only dissapointed they replaced Sonic.). But fortunately, whenever someone speaks text is displayed on the bottom of the screen, so just mute the TV when Amy appears and you're all set. I can, however, tell you the bare bones of the plot (And I should to prevent spoiling you.). So Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails are searching for a Chaos Emerald in the Magnet City (Nighttime), and three people (Jet, Wave, and Storm. They're Team Rouge.) bust out a building window with, well, a Chaos Emerald, all riding Extreme Gears. So Sonic and his friends jump from a bridge in front of Team Rouge and try to stop them. To put it shortly, they failed. The next day Eggman's hosting a tournament and Team Rouge is competing in it. That's all I'm gonna tell you about story.
So, now for grades.
Gameplay - 9/10
The only thing not giving this a 10 is the fact some secret areas are hard to get by ramp. Other than that gameplay's fast-paced and exellent.
Originality - 6.5/10
This is more or less of a rip off Kirby Air Ride, since some aspects of the games are the same (I can think of two). And putting Sonic on a snowboard may seem awkward at first. Still, there's some original aspects, and this game's made by SEGA, not Sony.
Replayability - 10/10
Since this is a multiplayer game, you'd expect this to be very replayable. This game doesn't let you down there. Let's see... Loads of characters and Extreme Gears to choose from, a total of 14 tracks (More than half of them are unlockables.), many modes to play, from Time Trials to Death Matches to Tag Races. If you have lots of friends you can play with, or if you just want a good replayable racing game, I suggest you buy this (Or Zero Gravity if that's easier to get).
Music - 8/10
Not nearly as great as Brawl music, but still pretty good and upbeat.
Graphics - 8/10
This game's really effective in making you
forget about graphics and play the flippin' thing. But the graphics are pretty impressive for a 2006 game.
Overall - 9/10
Only reason I'm giving this a 9 is because Zero Gravity must be much better. The things needing improvement is just the voice acting. Everything else, outstanding job by SEGA. This is the game that got me hooked to the Sonic series, like Pearl got me hooked to Pokemon. Like I said earlier, if you want a good racing game, this is the one to get.
