Xbox

Sonic Riders

Would you play a fighting game without learning how the game works, or finding out how to execute each character's special techniques? How about Gran Turismo without learning how each specific car handles? Would you take on a new game by playing it exactly like one that is distantly related to it at best? If you found out that if the game didn't truly play that way, wouldn't you do your best to research?

Wer sich in der Spielgeschichte auskennt weiß: Für die einen gab es Sonic für die Anderen gab es Mario. Schon damals hat sich abgezeichnet, dass die beiden Spiele und deren Spieler verschiedene Wege gehen werden. Was nicht heißt, dass eine der Spielfiguren als Verlierer dasteht. Beide Figuren haben es geschafft sich in der Spielgemeinschaft zu etablieren. Zum ersten Mal in der Konsolenwelt bekommt Sonic nun mit Sonic Riders auch ein eigenes Rennspiel. Bei Sonic ging es schon immer um Geschwindigkeit in jeder Hinsicht. Er ist in seinem Universum eindeutig der schnellste zu Fuß. Doch jetzt ist alles anders, zum ersten Mal werden Sonics Gegner genauso schnell sein wie er. Sonic Riders versetzt das Spiel in eine neue Geschwindigkeitsdimension.

There comes a time in the life cycle of every platforming character, where they wake up one morning and take a long look at their life. They aren’t releasing games like they used too, and now the fans that made them big are starting to move on to “mature” games, with “violent” themes. Thus, our cute and warm characters are left with but two options. The first is to hijack a cab and go do some pimp slapping and killin', or, to star in their very own kart racing title. The best of the genre have ventured into this racing world, with varied results. Mario, Crash Bandicoot, and even little Diddy from Donkey Kong have made the transition from leaping platforms, to collecting brightly colored fruit on a race track. The newest mascot putting his license to the test? Sonic, in the aptly named Sonic Riders.

Like most popular platformer franchises, the Sonic series has dabbled in the racing genre in the past with games like Sonic R for the Saturn. Despite the fact that Sonic's already-speedy nature might seem like a perfect fit for a racing title of some sort, the results of these attempts have been disappointing thus far. Sonic Riders is the latest attempt to get Sonic back on the race track, though this one eschews the typical kart- and foot-racing brands of racing one would usually find in a racer starring popular platformer heroes. Instead, Riders gives Sonic and pals their very own Back to the Future II-style hoverboards, which they can use to dart and dash around wacky tracks of varying levels of difficulty. Unfortunately, Sonic Riders isn't really all that much better than any of Sega's previous attempts to make Sonic a racing hero, simply because it can't quite manage to keep its diverse and chaotic racing mechanics together into one cohesive package.

Someone at Sonic Team has really got to lay off the Marketing for Dummies books. Undoubtedly discovering that players sometimes gravitate toward games with guns, the pioneering Japanese studio last year created Shadow the Hedgehog, which was more or less Sonic Adventure with weapons. The added shooting mechanics were arguably the weakest additions to the formula. Now comes the racer Sonic Riders, a concept that initially seems to make sense for SEGA's speedy mascots. After all, Sonic R for the defunct Saturn console had potential and the best bits about recent hedgehog games have been the frenzied, rollercoaster areas.

While Sonic Riders is quite colorful and features some of the gaming world's most beloved and cool characters, it leaves you puzzled as to why Sega would bother even advertising this stinker. Save your bucks, folks, and get a better game. You'll thank yourself later.

The majority of your gameplay time will involve trying and retrying the courses, feeling out the alternate routes. Sure, you've got to pull off a few tricks here and there to keep up your momentum, but SSX it ain't.

SEGA is 0-for-2 on good Sonic games in the last few months. Aside from Sonic Rush on the Nintendo DS, they haven't put out a fantastic, or even acceptable, Sonic game for years. What's the deal? Is it really that hard to take such an iconic, impressive, and lovable character and make a good game out of his speed and intensity? Is it really a better idea to throw a hover board underneath him and his friends and take away any feeling of control? Seriously, what were they thinking? Sonic's creator Yuji Naka should be so ashamed. I really don't like being so harsh on a video game, but Sonic Riders isn't worth your money. It isn't worth your time, and it isn't worth having Sonic's name and image plastered on the cover. If you want to play a mean trick on your kids, buy them Sonic Riders - they might enjoy it just as much as Shadow the Hedgehog.

The general feeling this game conveys is confusion and chaos, akin to being flushed down a jet-powered toilet. If that sounds fun to you, I say go for it.

Sonic Riders a pour lui sa réalisation en plus de quelques idées intéressantes comme le système de turbulence et les figures à réaliser indispensables pour faire remonter sa jauge d'air, mais tout cela est en grande partie gâché par une jouabilité vraiment médiocre, par un nombre de circuits assez faiblard aux tracés mal pensés et par un niveau de difficulté trop élevé.

Sonic Riders' box touts the blue speed demon's fifteenth anniversary, but recent years have been unkind to his reputation. Between uneven adventures and a lousy gun-toting spin-off, one had to wonder if designers had lost sight of what made Sonic appealing.

Think back to the heyday of SSX, Tony Hawk and all things extreme. Talk about missed opportunities. Sega could've named this Sonikk Riderzz XXX. Cross-promotional tie-ins with Mountain Dew, Johnny Moseley and Jackass could have had all the kids in line to buy Sonic's madcap racer. If only someone had foresight, maybe we wouldn't be receiving a lukewarm, SSX clone-ish, Sonic racing game in the year 2006. Still, I didn't even see one Sonic Riders billboard during any of the snowboard events of this winter's Olympics…which causes me to question Sega's enthusiasm for its hero's latest exploits.

The game does deserve props for its innovative approach towards drafting and the starting line, but the remainder of the content is a mangled mess of blue fur and something rank.