Sega seems intent on re-inventing the flagging Sonic franchise, but aside from an excellent outing on the DS, the once-great gaming hedgehog seems doomed to extinction. The latest attempt is Sonic Riders. Thankfully, not as bad as Shadow the Hedgehog, this is certainly the best Sonic-based racing game yet (as if that’s saying anything…).

Extreme Sonic

Sonic Riders is definitely a Sonic game. The look, the feel, the sounds… everything is familiar here—to the point where you’ll probably wish it was a 3D platformer instead of a bizarrely pointless hoverboard game. Admittedly, younger fans of the series, the cartoon show, the comic book, and other Sonic paraphernalia will probably find a lot more joy in the surreal nature of Riders.

It seems the evil Dr. Eggman (didn’t he used to be called Robotnik…?) is up to no good again. Everyone’s favorite evil, yet jolly fat man is back and, as usual, trying to scam more chaos emeralds. This time, however, he’s doing it with flair. Extreme flair on extreme gear. Dude.

Eggman has put together an elite group of airboarding bandits to not simply steal more emeralds, but actually win them in a series of high profile races he has concocted. The entry fee for each race is one gem, and the winner takes all. Obviously, such a convoluted scheme means that Eggman is a maniacal genius of epic proportions; otherwise, he might have gone with a more obvious plan… like using sharks with lasers in their heads.

Spinning Tails

Adding to the nonsense is the fact that you generally just race against Eggman’s team and his robots in the story mode. The story plays out with cinematic sequences that are painful to endure, although this part of the game does make a point to let you get the full Sonic experience by racing as Sonic, Knuckles, the much maligned Tails, along with other familiar characters.

Why there is a story at all is up to speculation, since it’s entirely unnecessary. The gameplay manages to convey a decidedly Sonic feel to it, but at the same time, still manages to be incredibly frustrating and annoying. Your hoverboard… er… extreme gear… relies on air power that depletes constantly and must be recharged through pit stops or successful tricks. While hitting boosts to rocket ahead at incredible speeds certainly adds a thrill ride appeal, the completely zany, over the top design of the tracks and hyperspeed controls make the racing feel less interactive and more like a rail game.

Turbulent Racing

You’ll need to memorize the tracks before they become something other than a visually stimulating, high speed mess of loops and tight curves, and the reliance on 90 degree turns and sudden braking gets old in a hurry. It’s too easy to over brake and end up plummeting off the edge of the track or smack right into a wall, and some of the tracks have essentially non-interaction cinematic portions that look cool the first time around, but by the third lap just get obnoxious.

Once you do get used to the touchy controls and other shortcomings of your hoverboard, you might glean some decent play value here. You can upgrade your board by collecting rings, and the tracks have a commendable amount of hidden paths and short cuts to discover. The use of turbulence is an interesting, if not entirely successful addition as well. Basically the Sonic version of drafting, you can catch the wind of an opponent ahead of you for a speed boost. There’s also lots of characters to choose from in the arcade racing mode, and several other game modes that offer quite a few more missions and challenges.

Sonic and Friends together again

Sonic Riders looks decent, with a solid framerate and some truly unusual track designs and backdrops. The audio, however, is full of holes. The music is standard, fluffy Sonic tunes, and the general sound effects are passable, but the voice acting and dialogue are awful. From the voices of the various characters to the never-ending obnoxious drone of the race commentator, it’s almost enough reason to mute the game.

Admittedly, for all the flaws in the gameplay, as a multiplayer game, Sonic Riders is much more successful. Racing against other humans in the split screen mode is far more satisfying and entertaining than racing against the stupid AI, and this would have been an excellent online game. Unfortunately, Riders is four-player split screen only, but still makes a decent party game.

Riding into the sunset

Sonic Riders is far from the worst example of a platformer-turned-racer we’ve seen (anyone remember Bomberman Fantasy Race?), and it’s definitely a better outing for the series than Shadow the Hedgehog. Just the same, this is a highly flawed game. There’s a lot to do and see here, but the gameplay and mechanics can be frustrating and annoying, the story mode is pointless, and the voice acting is truly bad.