Sonic Free Riders

Sonic Free Riders is an XBox 360 released in November 2010. The game uses the Microsoft Kinect's motion sensor capability. The game was first announced on 14th June, 2010 on E3 2010 at Microsoft's Conference. It is the third installment of the Sonic Riders series, the first being Sonic Riders and the second, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.

Plot
Dr. Eggman is up to his schemes again. This time, he has held a second EX World Grand Prix. This time he challenges four teams against one another, rather than two like in the previous EX World Grand Prix, to prove who is the best:


 * Team Sonic: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles


 * Team Babylon: Jet, Wave and Storm


 * Team Rose: Amy, Cream and Vector


 * Team Dark: Shadow, Rouge and E-10000B

Gameplay
The game brings full body motion controlled fast-paced boarding action, developed to take full advantage of Kinect for the Xbox 360. Kinect’s unique motion sensor means Sonic Free Riders will see family and friends controlling their fully customizable hover board or bike by twisting, turning, and jumping in an exhilarating race to be first to cross the finish line.thumb|300px|right|This video shows how to play with a Speed Type Character (Sonic)

Choosing from one of your favorite Sonic characters or your own avatar, you can reach out and grab a variety of pickups along the course. By throwing, shaking, or swinging your arms to launch your items, you can gain the competitive edge over your rivals in high octane single or multiplayer races. Players can use Kinect to hurl items such as bowling balls, rockets, and other traps toward opponents in the race to the finish.

Main Menu
In the final version of the menu of the game you can select one of the next options:

Offline Mode

 * World Grand Prix - Enter the World Grand Prix and challenge yourself to a variety of missions.
 * Free Race - Race with three rules types for one or two players.
 * Tag Race - Team up with another player and race against your rivals in Tag Mode.
 * Relay Race - Team up 2 to 4 players.
 * Time Attack - Race for the best time on each course.
 * Tutorial - Learn how to ride an Extreme Gear.

Multiplayer
The multiplayer will be up to 4 players with 12 players as online multiplayer. The game will also have "taunts" in which you can taunt your opponent by actually speaking, this belongs to the ability of the Kinect. In a team race you can simply team and beat your opponent, however at a pit, the players can connect with each other and have their palms on each other showing absolute co-operation, note that this does not stay permanently in the race.

Kinect Controls
Basically the Kinect Controls of the game are simple, in order to turn left or right you move the upper portion of your body in the direction given. However the player must actually stand as if he/she is really on a skateboard. In order to perform a jump on a trick platform the player must jump in a spin once the time is right. Once a special part of the track comes the player must do certain movements, the special parts include swimming, mine-carting and using bobsleigh.

Customization
The customization of the game is to change the powers of an Extreme Gear, and also level up one characters extreme gear by tasks.

Courses

 * Dolphin Resort
 * Rocky Ridge
 * Frozen Forest
 * Metropolis Speedway
 * Magma Rift
 * Forgotten Tomb
 * Final Factory

Weapons

 * Octo-ink
 * Soda rocket
 * Tee shot
 * Bowling strike
 * Target torpedo

Music
The theme song of the game is called Free, it was first performed at the Tokyo Game Show.

Speed Type

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Jet the Hawk
 * Amy Rose
 * Metal Sonic
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Blaze the Cat

Flight Type

 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Wave the Swallow
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Silver the Hedgehog
 * Rouge the Bat

Power Type

 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Storm the Albatross
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Vector the Crocodile
 * E-10000G
 * E-10000B
 * Multi-Colored E-10000 robots

Offline features

 * Players: 1-2
 * Players Co-op: 1-2
 * Multiplayer Versus
 * In-game Dolby Digital
 * HDTV 720p
 * Storage Device

Xbox Live features

 * Players: 2-12
 * Content Downloads
 * Leaderboards
 * Voice Messaging
 * Voice Support

Avatar Support
There are unlockable costumes in which the player can unlock for their avatar, both male and female. These are the following:

Sonic Shirt – Place 1st on every course with Sonic.

Jet Shirt – Place 1st on every course with Jet.

Sonic Free Riders Shirt – Watch the credits in their entirety.

E-10000 G Shirt - Place 1st on every course with E-10000 G.

Review
IGN gave the game a 7.5/10. Praising the gameplay, music and options. They had said that that it is a must buy game of the Kinect because there are lots of features in both multi-play and single-play. They had criticized the menu screen saying that it doesn't have a good presentation but the voice support helps alot. They had also said that the cutscenes aren't so cool because they are just "talking by heads".

Cast

 * Travis Willingham was credited as Kent Hampton.
 * Michael Yurchak was credited as Mike Mycheck.

Trailers
Video:Sonic Free Riders - Introduction Trailer|Sonic Free Riders Introduction Trailer Video:Sonic Free Riders Weapons Trailer Video:Sonic Free Riders Trailer HD|Sonic Free Riders Japanese Trailer Video:Sonic Free Riders Trailer Japanese Video:Sonic Free Riders - Gamespot Gameplay (Xbox 360/Kinect) (HD)|This video shows the final look of the game. Video:Sonic Free Riders GameSpot Daily Demo #2 Video:Sonic Free Riders - Launch Trailer

Trivia

 * This is the first Sonic Riders game to be released exclusively on a Microsoft console.
 * This is the first game where Sonic is seen swimming without a life jacket (With the exception of Super Smash Bros. Brawl). However, this is probably not canon in the series and merely for gameplay purposes.Eggman-power-up-soda-can.png
 * This game is the first game in which the 4kids voice actors will be replaced by new actors.
 * In the game, there is a "Soda Can" item which you shake until it bursts, giving the player an extra boost. On the can, if you look closely, you can see Eggman along with the words "Power Up".
 * The Eggman artwork on the "Soda Can" item is from Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.
 * In the second Official Japanese Trailer, you can hear the theme song (Free) with lyrics.
 * This is the first Sonic Riders game to feature Vector.