Air Ride

Air Ride, also called Air Riding, is a move that appears in all three games in the Sonic Riders series. It is a racing maneuver used by racers riding on Extreme Gear, where users are able to take flight into mid-air on their Gear and pass through Dash Ring/Accelerators.

Description
When performing Air Ride, the user utilizes his/hers Extreme Gear to temporarily maintain the user's altitude when propelled into the air, allowing the user to glide through mid-air for a short time. However, Air Ride can only be performed by those that have the necessary skills or use a specialized Extreme Gear.

In gameplay, Air Ride lets the playable character take off into the air, where the player can glide throughout the course and steer themselves in different directions. However, the circumstances that decide which playable characters are able to Air Ride depends on the game. While Air Riding, the player gains Air/Gravity Points in the process. Additionally, Air Ride allows the player to utilize Dash Rings/Accelerators, which usually lead into a shortcut on the racing courses and allows the player to travel faster that regular riding speed.

To initiate Air Ride in gameplay, the player has to be launched into the air by a Catapult (or Kickers in Sonic Free Riders) on the racing courses, from where the player then will use Air Ride. Over time, the player will lose momentum and fall to the ground, but at anytime, the player can cancel the Air Ride and immediately drop down.

Sonic Riders
The move first appeared in Sonic Riders where it is called Air Riding. In this game, only Flight Type characters or other characters riding on certain Extreme Gears are able to perform Air Ride. When using Air Ride, the player has free directional movements (Note though that vertical movements are inverse, so if the player moves the control stick/d-pad up, the player will move down and vice versa). To drop down immediately from Air Ride, the player has to press the jump button (/[X]/).

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
The move re-appears in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity where it is called Air Ride. Here, this ability is only restricted to Air Ride or Yacht-type Gears or Board-type Gears with the Air Ride Gear Part. other than that, the Air Ride technique works exactly as it did in Sonic Riders.

Sonic Free Riders
The move returned again in Sonic Free Riders where it is retains the name Air Ride. In this game, Air Ride can only be used if the player has chosen the Air Ride Gear Part for his/her Extreme Gear before a race.

In this game, the player can Air Ride by both going off Catapults and Kickers. Due to the Kinect controls of the game, when performing Air Ride, the player must extend his/her arms out wide to gain height. If the player wants to drop down, the player must drop their arms down. Additionally, there is no horizontal steering while Air Riding in Sonic Free Riders, so the player can only steer vertically.