Sonic Riders

Sonic Riders is a racing game developed by United Game Artists (a second-party developer for SEGA Corporation, famous for creating Space Channel 5) for the video game consoles Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2. It is the fourth racing game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, preceeded by Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2 and Sonic R. This time, the characters race on floating boards, air shoes and motorbikes powered by wind, the Extreme Gear.

Sonic Riders was revealed by Famitsu on September 7, 2005 prior to 2005's Tokyo Game Show.

The game was released to start off the 15th anniversary of the release of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. This game introduces five new playable characters, the Babylon Rogues and the E-10000 series.

=Gameplay=

Features

 * All-new air board racing. New blend of snowboarding, surfing and high-speed racing combat.
 * Innovative “Turbulence" air-system. Catch the drift of your opponents and leave them in your wake!
 * Insane tricks. The more difficult trick combo you pull off, the more air you get!
 * 4-Player Ultimate Battle. New rival group, the Babylon Rogues sets the stage for scorching head-to-head multi-player battles up to 4 players.
 * Choose from 17 different playable characters, the largest selection in any Sonic game to date!
 * 16 outrageous tracks, plus multiple modes, and tons of bonus unlockables.
 * Collect and customize your Extreme Gear with over 9 unique types of equipment to choose from, as well as equipment upgrades.
 * Unravel the mystery in Story Mode. You’ll play as two opposing teams, complete with cut-scenes.
 * Opening movie done by the legendary anime production company Production I.G.

Criticism
The game recieved much criticizing comments when it was first released in the U.S. It was stated from sources, like IGN.com for example, that even for dedicated veteran gamers, this game is significantly difficult. Players increase their level whilst also increasing their air capacity and initial stats of the gear being used by collecting rings, with the highest possible level being 3. However, if a player is attacked, that player loses all rings and goes back down to level 1 regardless of which level the player is (which also occurs when the player falls off the track in certain courses).

Depending on the level of the attacking computer player, the player attacked could be stunned for several precious seconds. The game was also referred to having "hidden catches" since after obtaining certain gears, they are not automatically added to your collection, instead, they must be purchased from the shop and this was sometimes seen as a misguided attempt at increasing replay value. Otherwise, though, the game recieved numerous other criticisms by devoted fans for other various opinionated reasons.

Plot
It is midnight in Future City, and Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna are searching for a Chaos Emerald Tails detected on his radar. Glass shatters and from the Metal City bank falls Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, and Storm the Albatross, the legendary band of thieves known as the Babylon Rogues. The thieves are riding on Extreme Gear, floating airboards. Sonic tries to get Jet to pull over, but the hawk ignores Sonic. However, Knuckles manages to send Storm flying off his airboard. As Tails notices a strange symbol, Wave appears to catch Storm. Seeing the Babylon Rogues escape, Sonic grabs the board Storm left behind to pursuit Jet. The two are racing, but despite his inexperience, Sonic gets ahead. Sonic notices that Jet is gone, but when he looks up, Jet uses a tornado to send Sonic flying off his board. Jet makes a snide remark and flies away, as Wave and Storm arrive so the albatross can grab his board and flee.

The next day, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are still in Metal City, and they see a familiar face on the monitors. Dr. Eggman announces that he's created a race called the EX World Grand Prix. It is a competition to see who is the best on Extreme Gear. Sonic decides to pass, but when Eggman announces that the prize is all seven of the Chaos Emeralds, and that the current racers are the same thieves Team Sonic met up with yesterday, Sonic quickly changes his mind saying his famous battle line, "Let's do this!"

Conclusion
After defeating the Babylonian Guardian, Sonic and Jet open the the treasure chest only to find that the Treasure of Babylon was a Magic Carpet prototype Gear. Eggman then dashes in and holds the heroes and Babylonians at gunpoint, demanding ecstatically examines his new prize, then it dawns on him that he exerted the effort of organizing the EX World Grand Prix for something utterly useless to him. He faints in shock. Jet then decides to leave the island because of the "words of wisdom" on the back of the carpet. Everyone says their farewells, Sonic and Jet throw their boards into the air and jump on them while "Catch Me If You Can" plays. They make a U-turn, cross paths in the middle of the air in the shape of an "X" and Jet vows to return and show Sonic the Hedgehog who really is the fastest (in the air).


 * Unlike previous games, there is no "Last Story" mode, since the Babylon story ends with the Babylon Guardian's defeat, and discovering that the treasure that was so sought after was a magic carpet. However, as you're playing Sonic instead of one of the Babylon Rogues in the last level, it can count as something of a reunion with the Hero story.

Characters
In Sonic Riders, there are 16 characters with varying types. The seventeenth one isn't actually a 'character,' but is an improved version of one of the characters using the Chaos Emerald Extreme Gear.

Speed

 * Sonic the Hedgehog (Super Sonic)
 * Amy Rose
 * Jet the Hawk
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * E-10000r
 * Ulala

Flight

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

Power

 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Storm the Albatross
 * Dr. Eggman
 * E-10000g
 * Aiai

Other (Not Playable)

 * Omochao
 * Babylon Guardian
 * E-10000y (Enemy Robot in Egg Factory/Ice Factory)
 * E-10000p (Enemy Robot in Egg Factory/Ice Factory)
 * Nightopians (SEGA CARNIVAL)
 * Samba de Amigo (SEGA CARNIVAL)
 * Axel (SEGA CARNIVAL)
 * Opa-Opa (SEGA ILLUSION)

Courses
There are 16 courses in the game. Six of them appear in the Hero Story, seven appear in the Babylon Story. The Battle arenas and unlockable Sega themed parks do not appear in Story mode.

Extreme Gear
These air vehicles are called "Extreme Gear" which consists of bikes, skates and boards. There are 54 Extreme Gear in total. There is no button used for acceleration, nor is there a "trick" button; tricks are done by moving the control stick. Each character has a default gear, for example, Shadow uses a modified version of his air shoes called "Darkness", while Eggman uses a bike called "E-Rider". Some characters have gear that is exclusively for him/her, however most gear can be used by others, lessening the feeling of individuality.

Statistics
All characters have stats that depend on who they are, and what there abilities are. For Gear, the stats are relative to the character using it. Both lists are incomplete at this time.

Character Attacks
Each character has three special attacks to use on other opponents. Thus far, the known abilities for the characters are:

Unlockables
Characters

Courses

Controversies
The game was criticized for quite a number of things, even by some devoted fans. For instance, the Digital Dimension/Babylon Guardian level was said to have been something that should not have been included into the game as some religious connotations may have been suggested in the Digital Dimension level, the fact that you start off in an area that was prounounced to signify "Hell" and the second area was to signify "Heaven". Little did the public realize this was a direction that spawned from Sonic Adventure 2's Chao World.

Sources also claimed that the game was rated E10+ but this information was inaccurate. Fans wondered why the game would be rated such by ESRB in the first place for there was no language in the game, the violence was pretty mild, so naturally, the only other thing some fans concluded that the game got the rating for was because of the Digital Dimension stage.

Trivia and Easter Eggs.

 * This game, while technically developed by "Sonic Team" actually comes from the part of Sonic Team that used to be United Game Artists, who developed Space Channel 5 (the game Ulala comes from), and Rez along with Feel the Magic: XY/XX, and The Rub Rabbits. UGA eventualy merged with Sonic Team.


 * As with Sonic Rush and Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Riders features the 4Kids Entertainment voice cast from the anime Sonic X. As a result, some fans have chosen to boycott these games. However, in early versions of the game, voice clips were a mixture of the Sonic X actors and the original actors from earlier Sonic Adventure titles, likely because all the dialogue with the new actors had not been recorded yet.


 * The game has been produced by Takashi Thomas Yuda, who created Knuckles and has worked on such titles as Puyo Puyo and Space Channel 5.


 * This game has similarities to other racing games, such as the F-Zero series, Kirby Air Ride, and the [[:Category:SSX_series|SSX series]}.


 * The Hero story contains six races; Babylon Gardens is the final Heroes story mode stage. Babylon's story contains 7, but the last race, Babylon Guardian, is played as Sonic.


 * When you are using Super Sonic he will start of with 30 rings, instead of the usual 50 in other games. Also, when you lose all your rings, Sonic only needs one ring to change back to Super Sonic again.


 * The inclusion of NiGHTS, Ulala and AiAi was confirmed very early on at The GHZ, although some denied their reliability.


 * The appearance of AiAi was officially confirmed by Nintendo Power magazine, however, many were in such disbelief, that they believed the report to be a mistake, and wanted to hear it from Sega and/or Sonic Team first.


 * The Babylon symbol is a "magic lamp" with wind markings around it as a reference to being decendants of "real genies".
 * When playing as Super Sonic, you ride Blue Star instead of just floating across the track with no board.
 * In real life, no bird species has teeth, but Jet, Wave, and Storm all have teeth.
 * Speed, located in the bottom right corner, does not actually refer to mph (it is doubtful that Eggman can run 20 mph backwards)
 * In the Sega Carnival, when you are entering Crazy Taxi's city you may see a big sign telling you to turn right, but if you go in the small space (on the left) you can get a free ride in a taxi with a man named Axel. He drops you off near the finish line, and during replays you can see that Axel pushes a button on the Crazy Taxi, then flies away... literally.
 * In the Team Sonic opening, during Eggman's announcement, a city that appears to be "Central City" can be seen in some monitors behind him. Either that, or the monitors are actually windows.
 * When you start a race in Metal City and an overview of the track is shown, during the second shot of the track, at the top right you can see a billboard with a picture of Sonic running from the whale off Sonic Adventure, next to that, a picture of Sonic's artwork from Sonic Heroes.
 * The Sega Carnival and Sega Illusion stages feature numerous references to several other Sega franchises, including Samba De Amigo, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, NiGHTS Into Dreams, Super Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5, ChuChu Rocket!, and Fantasy Zone.


 * AiAi from the Sega game Super Monkey Ball is a playable character. Also playable is Ulala from Space Channel 5 and NiGHTS from NiGHTS Into Dreams.


 * When watching the story cutscene before the Babylon Guardian race, Amy Rose is wearing her normal red dress, but when the race starts, she is wearing her pink racing clothes.
 * E-10000R is said to be made using the engine parts of Metal Sonic according to the Japanese Sonic Riders website.
 * Despite the fact that E-10000G is a power character, in Story Mode, E-10000G can be a speed or power character.
 * In the CG introduction to the Hero Story, the exhaust coming from the Type-S is green, as though Storm is at Level 1. After Sonic steals the board, the exhaust coming from the back is blue. Also, when Wave is using the Type-W, the exhaust is green, which changes to blue immediately when Storm grabs on.

Extreme Gear

 * The Crazy Gear is a taxi from Crazy Taxi, and that's the reason you "pay rings" to ride it.


 * The Hovercraft Gear could possibly be another of the Sonic series' references to Dragon Ball, as it closely resembles the Flying Nimbus cloud.


 * The High Booster Gear has a pattern similar to the Shadow The Hedgehog symbol running down the side of it.


 * Interestingly, the Magic Carpet gear allows anyone who can utilize it to fly, contrary to popular disbelief.

Music

 * When riding the Hang-On or Super Hang-On gear, a music track from the game with the same title will replace the normal course music track.


 * "High Flying Groove" is Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles' first instrumental theme song.


 * One of the unlockable Gear, the Opa-Opa, makes a reference to the classic Sega game Fantasy Zone.


 * "Sonic Speed Riders" and "Catch Me If You Can" were performed by the same person/group (Rumblebee).

=Other games=

A sequel to Sonic Riders was announced by Takashi Yuda (the producer of Sonic Riders) to Eurogamer in an interview ; the game will appear on next-gen consoles, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

Rumors

 * In the same interview with Eurogamer that talks about the next-gen sequel, Yuda suggests that Sonic Riders may be ported to the PSP, but nothing has been decided yet.
 * In an interview with Nintendo Power, Yuda says he doesn't know much about the Nintendo Revolution; but based on what he does know, he believes that the system could bring Sonic Riders "to the next dimension".

=External links=
 * Official US site
 * Official Japanese site
 * Official European Site