Sonic Free Riders

"Jump into the race of a lifetime."

- Tagline

Sonic Free Riders (ソニック フリーライダーズ), also known as SFR and Sonic Riders 3, is a Sonic the Hedgehog video game released for the Xbox 360 in November 2010. The game uses the Microsoft Kinect's motion sensor capability. The game was first announced on 14 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
The plot starts with Dr. Eggman who has held a second EX World Grand Prix however in the announcement he seems to disguise himself as King Doc, hiding himself from revealing his identity. 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 Heroes: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.
 * Team Babylon: Jet, Wave and Storm.
 * Team Rose: Amy, Cream and Vector.
 * Team Dark: Shadow, Rouge and E-10000B.

Each team wins the World Grand Prix as the player goes through the story of each team. In the end it is revealed that Team Dark's E-10000B was actually Metal Sonic collecting the data of every racer. Metal Sonic challenges Sonic to a race, in which Sonic wins. In the end, Eggman runs off without rewarding the prize, however all the team characters agreed that they had fun.

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 the Sonic characters for an avatar, one can reach out and grab a variety of pickups along the course. By throwing, shaking, or swinging one's arms to launch one's 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 following 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 is up to four players with twelve players on an online multiplayer game. The game features "taunts" in which one can taunt your opponent by actually speaking, this belongs to the ability of the Kinect. In a team race one 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
Note that as with the other Sonic Riders games, forward movement is done automatically. There are only two types of Extreme Gear used in this game: Board and Bike.

Board
Basically the Kinect Controls of the game are simple, in order to turn left or right one moves the upper portion of one's body in the direction given. However the player must actually stand sideways as if he/she is really on a skateboard. In order to perform a jump on a trick ramp, the player must jump in a spin once the time is right or charging up (by crouching down although a small amount of Air is needed for this) and jump. The latter method is especially useful for accesing higher sections of a racetrack that usually leads to shortcuts when given enough time charging but both methods still raise the trick rank as opposed to simply jumping. The player may 'kick dash' to have a burst of speed by sticking his/her back foot and kicking it behind although this consumes a decent amount of Air so this move should be used carefully.

Most Board Gears can have two Gear Parts which only one is activated depending on the direction of the player's body is facing ('Normal' stance characters, for example normally face to the right while the top Gear Part is active and to use the Gear part on the bottom, the player must quickly turn his/her body to the left and vice versa for characters with a 'Goofy' stance).

Bike
Unlike a Board gear, the player can and must stand forward and holds his/her hands out in front of him/her like holding handlebars. To turn, the player must turn their arms to the direction they wish to go. To perform tricks on a trick ramp, the player may jump while raising their hands for a spin or before approaching a ramp, the player may slightly drop his/her arms down a little to charge up before jumping for accesing higher, shortcut routes. Kick dash is done by sticking out the player's right foot and kicking it backwards.

Other controls
To grind, the player simply leans to move the character to a rail and begins grinding. It's highly recommended that while grinding, the player shifts his/her body weight while the grind curves to prevent losing speed (leaning out to one side). To air-ride, once the player takes of to the skies by dash rings the player needs to spread his/her arms out wide to retain flying through the air; otherwise the character will immediately fall. When prompt to do so, the player spreads his/her arms out to climb or drops them down to drop down. To use Power Skill, while approaching a path of obstacles, the player will need to perform alternating punches to knock them away.

Other controls happens in specific-course sections such as swimming, bobsledding, operating a mine-cart or entering catch-mode which can help gather rings, items or accessing some shortcuts.

Customization
The customization of the game is to change the powers of an Extreme Gear with Gear Parts which can be changed during a race by swapping stances. Gear also levels up every 30 rings up to 60 which upgrade certain parts, mainly speed, of the Gear and the maximum capacity of the Air Guage.

Power-Ups
Throughout the race, the player will encounter power-up items in a race which either benefit him/her or hinder his/her opponents. Note that some of the Achievements in this game requires the player to use each power-up a certain number of times. The power-ups the player can receive varies depending on the player's position on the race.

Octo-Ink
The rider has an Octus which can distort an opponent's vision with ink. If the player screen is distorted with ink, they can motion to wipe away the ink.

Octo-Boost
While similar to the Octo-Ink, this power-up is blue instead of Octo-Ink's pink and this provides a burst of speed instead of distorting an opponent's vision.

Soda rocket
A soda can that needs to be "shaken" up to use, provides a burst of speed.

Ring Can
Another item which can be shaken up, this power-up drops down a group of rings when shaken enough. Can be shaken to release 3 groups of rings per Ring Can.

Tee-shot
The player swings as if playing golf which aims for the rider in front, stunning them for a short time.

Free Throw
The player throws as if shooting the hoop in basketball which also aims for the rider in first place and stuns them briefly.

Bowling strike
With a bowling motion, the player sets off a large green bowling ball which can cause harm to anyone in its way, even the rider who bowled to begin with.

Target torpedo
A "throwing" item that homes into opponents that it is locked on to.

"S"
The character appears to be building up energy for something and has unlimited Air for a short amount of time. When performing a Kick Dash, the character goes into a charge which can damage any opponents the character passes by. This 'charge' will vary between characters; some may use their 'Attack' mode from previous Sonic Riders games.

Extreme Gear
Sonic Free Riders is the third game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series to use the Extreme Gears in gameplay, the first ones being the game's predecessors, Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. Like in the two previous titles, the Extreme Gears are high-tech hoverboard vehicles that are used by the characters to ride on. They are fueled by Air that allows the player to perform certain actions, and are the central component in the gameplay.

Like in the two previous titles, every playable character has their own unique default Extreme Gear, which only they can use. However, additional Extreme Gears can be obtained in the game as the player progresses.

Unlike the two previous titles, Sonic Free Riders only features two types of Extreme Gear: the Board type and Bike type.

List of Extreme Gear
There are a total of 38 different collectiable Extreme Gears that can aquired in Sonic Free Riders. The following Extreme Gears are listed as they appear in the Gear Gallery, starting from the first listed Extreme Gear and onward, moving anti-clockwise on the in-game list.

Courses

 * Dolphin Resort Standard
 * Rocky Ridge Standard
 * Frozen Forest Standard
 * Metropolis Speedway Standard
 * Magma Rift Standard
 * Forgotten Tomb Standard
 * Final Factory Standard
 * Metal City Standard (Returning course)
 * Dolphin Resort Expert
 * Rocky Ridge Expert
 * Frozen Forest Expert
 * Metropolis Speedway Expert
 * Magma Rift Expert
 * Forgotten Tomb Expert
 * Final Factory Expert
 * Metal City Expert

Music
The theme song of the game is called "Free", it was first performed at the Tokyo Game Show. IGN said that almost every stage's music has lyrics which is "pretty cool". The game's OST is called Break Free as it comprises of 12 tracks and has hit the shelves on 8 December.

Offline features

 * Players: 1-2
 * Players Co-op: 2-4
 * Multiplayer Versus
 * In-game Dolby Digital
 * HDTV 720p/1080i/1080p
 * Storage Device

Xbox Live features

 * Players: 2-8
 * 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 first on every course with Sonic.
 * Jet Shirt – Place first on every course with Jet.
 * Sonic Free Riders Shirt – Watch the credits in their entirety.
 * E-10000 G Shirt - Place first on every course with E-10000 G.

Review
The overall reception of the game has been mixed. 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 does not have a good presentation but the voice support helps a lot. They had also said that the cutscenes aren't so cool because they are just "talking by heads". Official Xbox Magazine also gave it 7.5, praising the wealth of content and multiplayer options whilst criticizing occasional unresponsiveness in the controls. GameTrailers gave the game a score of 4.5, panning cumbersome controls that tax the body. Brian Crecente of Kotaku reviewed it negatively, calling it "the most broken of the Kinect titles I've played." Kotaku's Crecente later reported that the responsiveness of the controls seemed to differ between persons, with fellow reviewer Stephen Totilo saying the controls worked fine for him. Joystiq gave the game 1/5 stars, calling it "the equivalent of patting your head while rubbing your stomach while riding a unicycle." GamesRadar gave it 4/10 and X-play giving it 2/5 stars.

Demo and Download
SEGA has made their first Xbox 360 Kinect title Sonic Free Riders available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace among the Games on Demand range. It is available for £29.99/$49.99. You can also download the demo here.

Cast
This is the first game where all the previous 4Kids voice actors have been replaced with Studiopolis voice actors. Like in Sonic Colors, all the voices from 4Kids were replaced except Mike Pollock.

Trivia

 * This is the first Sonic and Sonic Riders game to be released exclusively on a Microsoft console.
 * This is also the first Xbox 360 Sonic game to have the modern Xbox banner on the boxart.
 * This is the first and so far the only Sonic game on the Kinect for the Xbox 360.
 * The game's website uses Webcam feature for a hit start of the Kinect gimmick.Uuu.png
 * Unlike the previous two Sonic Riders games, all the characters start riding on a Gear approaching the starting the line from a relatively far distance as opposed to holding a "packed-up" Gear, slightly backing up and then approach the starting line on-foot.
 * 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 merely for gameplay purposes.Eggman-power-up-soda-can.png
 * This game is the first game in which the 4Kids voice actors were replaced by new actors, mostly from Funimation.
 * 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.
 * This is the first Sonic Riders game to feature Vector and Metal Sonic.
 * This is also the first Sonic Riders game in which Shadow, Rouge, and Cream are in Story Mode, as opposed to being unlocked to be played in Race Mode.
 * This is the second game to feature Cream in missions, the first being Sonic Riders.
 * In a cutscene, Rouge is seen with fangs, which have been absent since her debut in Sonic Adventure 2.
 * This is the first game since Sonic Heroes to have Metal Sonic as the main villain. Also, Metal Sonic's plan to absorb the data of the other characters mimics his plan in Sonic Heroes as well.
 * This is the first game where all the Sonic Riders cast of a game all meet each other.
 * This is the only Sonic Riders game with no skate gear (possibly due to conflicts with some of the Kinect motions).
 * This is the first Sonic Riders game to feature weapons during mid-race and not just on a Battle Course.
 * This is the first Sonic Riders game to not feature any Sega character's from other franchises (NiGHTS, Ulala, Amigo, etc.)
 * Team Babylon and Team Rose are the only two teams that face off in the same location, Metropolis Speedway, in either story (Standard and Expert respectively).
 * The game has its own Xbox and Kinect skin sold separately.
 * During the ending of the first 1/3 of Team Dark's story, Omochao says, "Is it the calm before the storm? I'll have all the details, assuming that robot doesn't get anymore ideas." However, in the subtitle during the last 7 words, it reads, "assuming that robot doesn't get get anymore ideas."0efa0886.jpg
 * In the Final Story, after Sonic defeats Metal Sonic, Wave mentions that the lack of treasure and money will ruin their reputation as rogues, but the subtitle said "Rouges" instead of "Rogues".
 * Some of the artwork in the game (such as on the character select) are reused art from the other Riders games. Examples are that Tails and Knuckles portraits are taken from Zero Gravity. This was before original artwork for the game was used in the final build.
 * During the credits, near the end you can see your gamertag listed in the 'Special Thanks' section.
 * In some point during development, Dr. Eggman and Vector were probably meant not to be limited to Bike Gear, as there are unused voice clips of them shouting "Switch!", a line characters on board-type Extreme Gear shout when changing their stance from Regular to Goofy or the other way around, which is not possible with Bike Gear.