Sonic Riders

[sharky~]

Sonic Riders is on all 3 consoles (Xbox PS2 and GCN)
But I think It will do best on and.. is deffinitly needed more on GC so I post it here.

Sonic Riders Hands-On
What happens when the world's fastest hedgehog gets outrun by a hoverboard? Well, if you can't beat 'em...
Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the oldest non-Nintendo game mascots still kicking, having been created way back in 1990 for the Genesis. Over the years, he and his cast of teammates have starred in a number of different types of games, including side-scrollers, fighting games, party games, and even a pinball game. In Sonic Riders, the blue-haired hedgehog tackles a multitude of gameplay styles including snowboarding, skateboarding, and racing.

Riding in turbulence streams gives you a huge speed boost.
You'll be forgiven if you need to read through that again: Sonic Riders definitely sports a pretty bizarre mixture of influences. Overall, the game plays as something of a mixture between an SSX-style snowboarding game--complete with jumping tricks and railgrinds--and a Hydro Thunder-esque arcade racer. It's certainly a unique experience and is looking like it might be worth checking out, if you're into arcade-style racing games. We had a chance to sit down with a build of the game recently and took away these impressions.

The plot of the game begins with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles hanging around in Metal City, where they witness a chaos emerald being stolen by a mysterious trio of thieves known only as the Babylon Rogues. To retrieve the emerald, Sonic and company agree to go head-to-head with the Babylon Rogues in the Ex World Grand Prix, a racing tournament set up by none other than Dr. Eggman. For what it's worth, the game does a good job of integrating the plot into the heroes mode, which intersperses cutscenes between the races and sets up the rivalries between the two trios of characters.

As far as the racing goes, there are many aspects of Sonic Riders that set it apart from the pack, not the least of these being the inclusion of different classes for the characters. Each character is assigned to one of three categories: speed, air, or power. Racers of different categories will experience the race and interact with the course in fundamentally different ways. Speed characters, such as Sonic, are capable of jumping their airboard onto rails and grinding for an extra speed boost, while air characters, like Tails, can jump into accelerators suspended in midair to propel forward. Power characters don't get any special movement powers, but can instead knock aside obstacles that would normally trip up other characters, and they can even knock through weak sections of the walls to reveal shortcuts.

Anyone looking for a madcap racing game will probably want to take a look at Sonic Riders.
One of the interesting aspects about this system is that you'll really have to know the various courses in order to take advantage of the movement system that's available to your character; it's very difficult to hit all of the accelerators, rails, or shortcuts that are available to your character on your first trip around a track (though there are signs for each kind of shortcut scattered around the track, pointing out their presence). When you learn their positions, though, you'll be able to take better advantage of them; but even if you know where all the spots are, it's still tricky to use them. For instance, when grinding a rail, you can't just sit on a single rail and grind your way through; you often have to jump between numerous smaller rails. The same goes for airborne accelerators--you have to maneuver through multiple accelerators to complete your speed boost. Failing to complete an entire set of rails or accelerators will send you plummeting back to the track, or on some levels, dropping off into empty space, which will reset your position and cause you to lose a lot of time.

The reason you want to take a chance on these risky maneuvers is that they'll add to your air tank. Your air tank in Sonic Riders is somewhat like the boost meter in a game like SSX--you can use it to go faster when needed, or even attack your opponents, but it will run down when you attempt to speed up or make a sharp corner. You'll be forced to constantly recharge it, either by performing your maneuvers or by jumping into one of the air pits that are scattered around the tracks (which gradually fill up your tank at the cost of keeping you immobilized).

You can also increase your air tank by attempting to perform tricks during jumps. When you approach a jump, you have to hold down your jump button while approaching it. As is standard, the longer you hold the button down, the higher you'll eventually jump, but if you hold it down too long, your speed will be sapped. If you jump with the right timing, you'll rocket into the air and have a chance to perform your tricks. Tricking out isn't as complicated as it might seem, since everything is controlled by pressing directions on the left analog stick. The more tricks you pull off during a jump, the bigger the charge you'll receive to your air tank when you land. You're also ranked on the strength of your landing, so if you happen to try too many tricks, you'll hit the ground awkwardly and take a big speed penalty.



Taking advantage of your character's special abilities will be key to winning races.
Lastly, one of the cooler aspects of Sonic Riders is the inclusion of turbulence. When a character starts to move especially fast, he or she will leave a tunnel of turbulence behind. If other characters hop into the tunnel (which acts essentially like a long halfpipe), they'll be able to ride inside the turbulence instead of on the track itself. There are some huge advantages to riding inside turbulence, such as the fact that it's much easier to make sharp turns while you're in the pipe. You also get a fairly large speed boost, allowing you to eventually catch up to and overtake the character that started the turbulence. If you're skillful, you can even jump up out of turbulence, do a few tricks, then land back inside the air trail to gain an even greater speed boost.

One of the high points of Sonic Riders at this point is the graphics. Everything looks very sharp, with a bright color palette and a good sense of speed, especially when you're sliding through a turbulence pipe. The drawbacks include a limited number of tracks (only five are initially selectable, although we're hoping more are unlockable) and that there's apparently no way to turn off the somewhat grating announcer's voice.

Sonic Riders is currently on point for release in late February, so check back with GameSpot for a full review when it hits store shelves.

Print this StoryBy Matthew Rorie

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/...ml?sid=6143182

A few points worth knowing that they didnt say is:

1)When you collect Rings in the level they level up your attack power

2)Rings also act as money you can buy new boards and equiptment
even Skates and A hover bike.

3)There are 17 Characters to choose from.

4)When someone is rideing your terbulance you can alternate it so that
they get sent flying off corse if they hit it.

[Nem]

sounds fun. Im gonna get it!
17 characters sounds nice too...

[Seraph]

as long as the 17 characters dont include those retards from Knuclkes Chaotics.

Ill still wait for the sharky seal of approval before I buy this game.

[Dr. Bombay]

Seraph, you are the only person in the world who doesn't like the Chaotix.

Anyway, I'll wait for a price drop, then pick it up for xbox.

[Joe Redifer]

I am not reading all of that.

[Vegetto]

lol me either

[Soba]

Originally Posted by seraph830

as long as the 17 characters dont include those retards from Knuclkes Chaotics.

Ill still wait for the sharky seal of approval before I buy this game.

I wish it would include the Chaotix and not those retards such as Amy, Big, Cream, Shadow, and every other character that sucks.

[Mistatee]

Sorry but, Amy and Metal Sonic from Sonic CD rocks, but Amy from Sonic Adventure is a tramp.

[Soba]

The young Amy is okay, but the preteen one is just too annoying for her own good.

[Dr. Bombay]

Originally Posted by Mistatee

Sorry but, Amy and Metal Sonic from Sonic CD rocks, but Amy from Sonic Adventure is a tramp.

Hehe.

"Sphinx so cute, I had to shave it."

[Seraph]

I like Amy and Shadow.

The Chaotix characters all look uninspired and dumb to me. Reminds me of characters like WaLauigi. Come on. A Aligator with a Gold bling bling necklace?

Originally Posted by Dr. Bombay

"Sphinx so cute, I had to shave it."

I always wondered what she said. Although now that i know its still over my head

[Soba]

Originally Posted by Dr. Bombay

"Sphinx so cute, I had to shave it."

Another line is "He reminds me of parsley when he's standing there all alone"

Um....parsley?

I wonder how the heck they come up with that stuff, heh.

[sharky~]

Ill find a list of which characters have been announce so far.
Here:

In the Story mode you can eather Pick 'Hero' or 'Villan'
Hero are:
Sonic
Tails
Knuckles

Villan are 3 new characters who are the best in the world at this hover board sport
Jet the Hawk (Male)
Wave the Swallow (Female)
Storm the Albatross (Male)

The hole list of announced Characters so far is:
Sonic
Tails
Knuckles
Jet
Web
Storm
Amy
Dr Robotnik
Shadow
Rouge
Cream
Robot 1
and
Robot 2

There are still 4 more unknown characters.

You can visit the offical site here:
http://www.sega.com/gamesite/sonicriders/

[Seraph]

Anyone else not happy with the multi-platform stuff for sonic? To me any game franchise that used to be exclusive and goes multi-platform makes it feel like a cheap game to rake in money.

Originally Posted by sharky~

There are still 4 more unknown characters.

Please let the chaotix team die. seeing them in Sonic Heros made me sick.

[B.B. Gambini]

who remembers the classic dialogue for House of the Dead??

"Rember, theres no such thing as a second chance" hahaha wtf?

and of course who could forget the greatest character name in a video game "G"

i dont think Sega would be Sega without their amazing voice acting