Sonic Riders

The Good
Graphics: The graphical effects are eye bleeding and vibrant. The character models are well done. The game uses a lot of cool effects such as frame buffer effects, and motion blur.

Gameplay: The gameplay is actually really fun.... If you learn how to play it. Gliding through turbulence, gaining speed, doing multiple, fast tricks on ramps.

Music: Now the music in the game isn't that good. but it gets the job done. For a video game, the music is actually really decent. But for a sonic game, it's pathetic. Sonic games are supposed to have a wide variety of music such as rock, electronica, midi, orchestral. But this sonic game only has techno music. There isn't even that much music. There are 16 levels but only 8 songs for the levels. For example Metal City and Night Chase have the same song. But nonetheless, the music is still catchy and upbeat.

The Bad
Level Design: One of the most important things in a sonic game is level design. All of the 3D sonic games have had large, imaginative levels ranging from 14-31 levels. But this game doesn't even come close to that. Despite the game having 7 level designers, they didn't take advantage of the fact that they were making levels for a Sonic game!! The first few times you play the levels in this game, they're fun and fast. But the best part about playing sonic games is going through the levels over and over again.... right? But the levels in this game last only 30-45 seconds long. The levels themselves don't really have very imaginative designs. Most of them are just long stretches of flat road with no loop, or corkscrews!! Also some of the levels in the game have the same design as some others..... for example: Metal City and Night Chase are basically the same levels but one takes place in day and the other in night. Splash Canyon and Red Canyon one canyon takes place in day the other in sunset. Seriously, how lazy can you get? There are 16 levels in all. The levels aren't bad, it's just that for a sonic game, they aren't intuitive. Story: Oh gosh, the story sucks so bad! First of all, there aren't even that many C.G.I. cutscenes, second the plot goes too fast and just feels plain stupid. The script in the game is also really, really bad. It seems they were aiming this game at little elementary kids. Definetly not suitable for a sonic game. Also, I dislike the Babylon Rogues ( A team of 3 generic rivals for Team Sonic ) They're so uninteresting. Jet the Hawk is just this stupid, generic rival for Sonic. Sonic already has more than enough rivals. He has shadow the hedgehog, eggman, metal sonic, and I guess knux. Also Jet the Hawks voice makes me cringe my ears. The other two members of the Babylon Rogues ( Wave and Storm ) well, they aren't as bad as Jet, but there purpose in the game was just worthless. It's a good thing these guys didn't appear in any of the other major 3d sonic games, or I would of gone mad!

The Bottom Line
Should you get Sonic Riders? Well if you have friends that are willing to be patient to learn the game mechanics in this game, then yes, you should get it. Believe me once you know how to play the game, it'll be alot of fun. But it has very low replay value. If you don't have any friends, then just buy it at a low price.

Game Developed By: Sonic Team UGA division (United Game Artists)