The Gear Part (ギアパーツ Giapatsu?) is a gimmick that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a type of performance-enhancing technological modifications to Extreme Gears which grant the player a variety of special abilities during a race.
Description[]
Gear Parts are performance-enhancing components that can be installed into Extreme Gears.[1] When activated, the Gear Parts provides the user of the Extreme Gear with various abilities and/or upgrades during a race, ranging from upgrading the Extreme Gear's basic attributes to granting additional abilities such as the ability to grind on rails. In gameplay, this allows the players to gain extra advantages during a race, such as giving them a boost in their stats, allowing more efficient traversing of the tracks or even influencing the contents of Item Boxes.
Game appearances[]
Sonic Riders series[]
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity[]
HUD of the Gear Parts in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.
The Gear Parts made their first appearance in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. In this game, Gear Parts come as components pre-installed into the Extreme Gears available in the game. Each Extreme Gear can have a maximum of three Gear Parts and no Gear Parts at all as a minimum. For those Extreme Gears with Gear Parts, they possess a permanent set of specific Gear Parts, meaning that their Gear Parts cannot be exchanged with others.
In gameplay, while in a race, the Gear Parts will remain inactive until the player acquires and trades a specific number of Rings to activate each of those Gear Parts, with each Gear Part requiring a certain number of Rings. When activating a Gear Part through a process called "Gear Change", the Extreme Gear is covered in an orange-colored void indicating that the Extreme Gear is modified with that Gear Part coming into effect.
As long as the player has enough Rings to activate a desired Gear Part, the player can activate any Gear Part on the Extreme Gear. That means that the player does not need to activate the Gear Parts in the order of which they become active, but can choose to not use the Rings on the available Gear Part and save up Rings until the desired Gear Part becomes active. However, some Extreme Gears' Gear Parts may require a previous Gear Part of that Gear activated before they can be activated (in addition to having the required number of Rings). Such Gear Parts are indicated as gray circles with a question mark which are replaced with the actual Gear Part icon once the activation pre-requisites are fulfilled.
To activate a Gear Part in gameplay, the player has to press the following buttons:
| PS2 | Wii (remote) - sideways | Wii (remote) - forward | Wii (Nintendo GameCube Controller) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Up on 
|
|
Sonic Free Riders[]
Gear Parts return in Sonic Free Riders, but with different gameplay mechanisms. Unlike in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, the Gear Parts are separate from the Extreme Gears and the player can equip any Gear Part to available Extreme Gear, as opposed to having specific Gear Parts pre-installed into the Extreme Gear, allowing a larger range of abilities an Extreme Gear can possess during a race. The player is required to spend Rings in the shop to acquire more Gear Parts in addition with purchasing Extreme Gear.
Most Board type Extreme Gear can be equipped up to two Gear Parts of any type while most Bike type Extreme Gear can only be equipped with one Gear Part. All Bike type Extreme Gears, however, cannot be equipped with "Power Skill", since all Bike type Gears come equipped with the Power Skill by default.
While racing on a Board type Gear, only one Gear Part is active at a time. The player's stance when playing the game is what determines which Gear Part is currently in effect. By switching the player's current stance (by facing in the opposite direction), the player can activate the other Gear Part equipped to the Extreme Gear, while deactivating the first.
List of Gear Parts[]
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity[]
| Name | Icon | Description | Extreme Gear(s) with Gear Part |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Ride | 
|
Transforms the Extreme Gear into an Air Ride-type Gear, granting air riding capabilities. | GP Accumulator, Night Sky, Omnitempus, Psychic Wave, Rainbow, Smile, Temptation, Type-W, Wind Star, Yellow Tail |
| Angel/Devil | 
|
Changes the Extreme Gear into Angel/Devil mode. | Angel • Devil |
| Attack Time UP | 
|
Extends the duration of Attack. | Mag |
| Auto Wall-Run | 
|
The rider can automatically access wall-route shortcuts without using Gravity Control. | Kunoichi, Shinobi |
| Base Stats UP | 
|
Improves the Extreme Gear's basic stats. | Mag |
| BGM Change | 
|
Transforms the Extreme Gear into a new form in addition with the BGM. | Hang-On |
| Bike | 
|
Transforms the Extreme Gear into a Bike-type Gear, allowing it to crash through obstacles and barricaded routes without slowing down and gaining GP in the process. | Omnitempus, Power Egg, Rainbow, Red Rock, Road Star, Type-S |
| Durability UP | 
|
Improves the Extreme Gear's endurance. | Advantage P, Cover F, Cover S, Master Off-Road, Skill Booster |
| GC Boost UP | 
|
Increases the speed boost from Gravity Control. | GC Booster, GC Master |
| Ghost | 
|
The rider and the Extreme Gear becomes invisible to the opponents and the rider's character icon disappears from the minimap. | Kunoichi, Shinobi |
| GP Gain UP | 
|
Increases the amount of GP gained from performing GP-earning actions by 50%. | GP Accumulator |
| GP Gauge UP | 
|
Increases the Extreme Gear's GP Gauge. | Airship, Black Shot, Blue Star, E-Rider, Flame Lance, GC Master, GP Accumulator, GP Tank, G Shot, Hyperdrive, Light Board, Master Off-Road, Night Sky, Pink Rose, Power Egg, Psychic Wave, Rail Linker, Red Rock, Rhythm Machine, Shooting Star, Smile, Temptation, Type-J, Type-S, Type-W, Wind Catcher, Yellow Tail |
| GP Usage UP | 
|
Grants unlimited GP for 25 seconds. Can be used repeatedly. | Mag |
| Grind | 
|
Allows the Extreme Gear to grind in Grind Areas. | Black Shot, Blue Star, Faster, Fastest, Flame Lance, G Shot, Hyperdrive, Light Board, Omnitempus, Pink Rose, Rainbow, Rhythm Machine, Type-J, Shooting Star, Turbo Star |
| Item Rank +1 | 
|
Increases the chance of getting beneficial items from Item Boxes. | Beginner |
| Magnetic Barrier | 
|
Attracts nearby Rings. | |
| Max Speed UP | 
|
Increases the Extreme Gear's top speed. | Advantage S, Airship, Black Shot, Blue Star, Cover F, Cover P, E-Rider, Faster, Fastest, Flame Lance, Pink Rose, Power Egg, Psychic Wave, Rail Linker, Red Rock, Rhythm Machine, Skill Booster, Smile, Temptation, Type-J, Type-S, Type-W, Untouchable, Wheel Custom, Wind Star, Yellow Tail |
| Parts Lock | 
|
Grants Parts Lock to opponents. | Magic Broom |
| Ring Cap UP | 
|
Increases the number of Rings the rider can carry. | Bingo Star, Chaos Emerald, Gambler, The Crazy, Wanted |
| Starting Speed UP | 
|
Increases the Extreme Gear's acceleration. | Advantage F, Cover P, Cover S, Rail Linker, Road Star, Turbo Star, Wheel Custom |
| Status Trap | 
|
Grants Speed Down to opponents. | Magic Broom |
| Tank | 
|
Fully refills the player's GP Gauge. | Reserve Tank |
| Trick Rank +1 | 
|
Increases the Rank of the player's Tricks by one. | Legend |
| Throttle | 
|
Grants the player one of three abilities: Ring Cap UP, GP Gauge UP and Max Speed UP. | Throttle |
| Vision Trap | 
|
Grants Colorball to opponents. | Magic Broom |
| Wheel | 
|
Turns the Extreme Gear into a Wheel type Extreme Gear, allowing it to burst through obstacles and make Slide Turns. | Road Star, Wheel Custom, Master Off-Road |
| Yacht | 
|
Turns the Extreme Gear into a Yacht type Extreme Gear, granting air riding capabilities and lets it automatically ride opponents' slipstreams for acceleration. | Airship, Wind Star |
Sonic Free Riders[]
| Name | Icon | Description | Price (Rings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grind Skill | 
|
Enables the use of the Grind skill. | N/A |
| Air Ride Skill | 
|
Enables the use of the Air Ride skill. | N/A |
| Power Skill | 
|
Enables the use of the Power skill. | N/A |
| Start Speed UP | 
|
Increases initial acceleration. | N/A |
| Max Speed UP | 
|
Increases top speed. | N/A |
| Durability UP | 
|
Decreases speed loss due to poor terrain. | N/A |
| Air Saver | 
|
Decreases Air consumption. | 500 |
| Cornering UP | 
|
Increases cornering ability. | 250 |
| Trick Boost | 
|
Yields an extra boost after landing a Trick. | 150 |
| Rapid Dash | 
|
Increases top speed when Kick Dashing. | 250 |
| Rapid Stream | 
|
Increases top speed when in a rival's slipstream. | 400 |
| Extra Air | 
|
Increases Air Gauge capacity. | 250 |
| Air Plus | 
|
Increases Air earned by landing Tricks. | 400 |
| Invisible | 
|
Turns the user invisible, avoiding all attacks. | 1,500 |
| Ring Eater | 
|
Pulls in nearby Rings. | 1,500 |
| Big Air | 
|
Increases jump height when performing tricks. | 600 |
| Item Lock: Rings | 
|
Item Boxes yield Rings. | 250 |
| Item Lock: Air | 
|
Item Boxes yield Air. | 250 |
| Music Change 1 | 
|
Changes the music to "High Flying Groove". | 1,500 |
| Music Change 2 | 
|
Changes the music to "Un-Gravitify". | 1,500 |
Trivia[]
- In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, most characters tend to say "Gear Change" when activating a Gear Part. On a similar note, most characters in Sonic Free Riders tend to say "Switch" when switching stances to activate the other Gear Part.
References[]
- ↑ Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity instruction manual.