Sonic Riders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sonic Riders | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Sonic Team's UGA Division Sonic Team |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Release date(s) |  February 23, 2006 February 21, 2006 March 13, 2006 November 14, 2006 (PC) November 24, 2006 (PC) |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone CERO: All ages |
| Platform(s) | GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC |
| System requirements | GameCube: 1 Block; Ghost Data: 14 Blocks |
Sonic Riders (ソニックライダーズ) is a racing game developed by Sonic Team's UGA Division (a second-party developer for SEGA) for the video game consoles Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and PC DVD-ROM. It is the fourth racing game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, preceded by Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2 and Sonic R. This time, the characters race on floating airboards, air shoes and motorbikes powered by air, 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.
On August 22, 2006, a PC port of Sonic Riders was announced; the port was released in November according to Sega of America's website, and a price of $19.99 is listed on Sega's Press Release. [1] A downloadable demo was released on October 19, 2006.[2].
Contents |
[edit] Story
[edit] 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 Future City Bank fall 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 pursue Jet. The two are racing, and despite his inexperience, Sonic gets ahead. Sonic tries to cut Jet off, but realizes that Jet is gone. When he looks up, Jet uses a tornado to send Sonic flying off his board. Jet says, "So, YOU'RE supposed to be the fastest thing alive?" and flies away, as Wave and Storm arrive so Storm can grab his board and flee.
The next day, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are 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!"
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles have a hard time getting through to the final match. Tails and Knuckles defeated Wave and Storm (respectively) in the semifinals, whilst Amy Rose, who had also joined the competition, was defeated in the earlier heats by Wave. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Jet make it to the final race, taking place on the Sand Ruins track. Sonic almost reaches the finish line during the final race, but, unexpectedly, Wave activates a bomb attached to the bottom, blowing up his gear, allowing Jet to win. Jet then activates the odd cube he had received from his ancestors which causes the Chaos Emeralds to fire a beam of light to the desert in the distance which causes a giant island to rise: Babylon Garden. Out of the blue, Dr. Eggman steals Jet's cube and heads off into the Garden with it (unknowingly to Eggman, Amy was hanging on to the back end of his vehicle after a failed attempt to stop him when he left). The heroes give chase, and a final encounter to chase Dr. Eggman causes Sonic and Jet to race one last time, leaving Sonic victorious.
Dr. Eggman, at the front of the door leading to the Babylon garden is confronted by Sonic who sends him swirling up a whirlwind causing him to drop the cube (and Amy in the process). Sonic believes the cube should go to its rightful owner, Jet, and the Babylon Rouges continue past the door to find the entrance to the location of the Babylon Treasure. Just as they find the treasure, they awaken a genie, and, as a result, the only exit door starts to close. Sonic, Amy, Tails and Knuckles hear the loud cry and see the door rapidly closing. The four of them rush inside the room, barely making it and as the door shuts, the seven of them are confronted by a hulking evil genie known as the Babylon Guardian, who guards the Babylon Treasure.
[edit] Conclusion
After defeating the Babylon Guardian, Sonic and Jet opened the treasure chest only to find that the Treasure of Babylon was a Magic Carpet prototype Gear. Eggman then dashed in and held the heroes and Babylonians at gunpoint, demanding that they give him the carpet. When they gave it to him, Eggman ecstatically examined his new prize. It dawned on Eggman that he exerted the effort of organizing the EX World Grand Prix for something utterly useless to him, causing him to faint 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 makes a vow: "You may be the fastest for now, but I'll be back, Sonic the Hedgehog."
[edit] Characters
In Sonic Riders, there are 16 characters with varying types. The seventeenth one isn't actually a 'character,' but is a variation of one of the characters using the Chaos Emerald Extreme Gear.
[edit] Speed
[edit] Power
[edit] Flight[edit] All[edit] Non-Playable Characters
|
[edit] Notes
Some notes about the list:
- Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, and Storm the Albatross, all new, are members of a new organization of thieves known as the Babylon Rogues and are led by Doctor Eggman during the tournament until a certain point in the game. Jet is Sonic's rival at the time, Wave is Tails' one and Storm is Knuckles'. Other than that, very little is known about them except that Wave is a master mechanic.
- Only Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Jet, Wave, and Storm are playable in Story Mode. However, Amy, E-10000G, and E-10000R do race against the other players. Amy, E-10000r and Eggman also make appearances in the plot of Story Mode.
- Amy is also the only character not playable in story mode to be unlocked from the start.
- On the official US Site, in the character section, it was revealed that there were a total of 17 Characters in the game. This turned out to be correct, as Super Sonic is widely considered to be the 17th Character, although he does not get a spot of his own on the character selection page.
- In all versions, Eggman has clips of his voice by Deem Bristow and Mike Pollock. This is apparently because they decided to reuse some of Eggman's Sonic Adventure 2 2-Player Mode quotes in Sonic Riders. The rest of the characters use brand new quotes.
- It has been confirmed that Omochao is the race announcer.
- Apparently, the Chao in the Shop area identifies his shop being located in Dark World, which could possibly refer to the Dark Chao Garden from Sonic Adventure 2, the SA2 Black Market, or it could refer to some other world that was not explained in the game.
- E-10000G and E-10000R, despite the confusions with the US/European gamesites, actually have flipped types to what they are generally considered to be. E-10000G is a power type, and E-10000R is a speed type. Also, E-10000G makes more appearances throughout the game than E-10000R.
[edit] 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, Digital Dimension, and the unlockable Sega themed parks do not appear in Story mode.
[edit] Hero
[edit] Babylon
|
[edit] Battle
[edit] Sega Theme
|
[edit] Extreme Gear
These air vehicles are called "Extreme Gear" which consists of bikes, skates and boards. There are 54 Extreme Gear in total [3]. 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 (Eggman can only ride bikes, Ulala can't ride bikes, and E-10000G and E-10000R can only ride boards.)
|
|
|
|
|
[edit] Reception
[edit] General Reception
Sonic Riders was at times viewed in a positive light, but, overall, the game spawned mixed reactions from many resources as seen below:
- Nintendo Power: 8.0 out of 10 [4]
- GameSpot: 6.6 out of 10
- Gamesmaster Magazine UK 65%
- IGN: 6.2 out of 10
- Games Radar: 5 out of 10 [5]
[edit] Criticism
The game received some criticizing comments when it was first released in the U.S for a multitude of reasons. For one, it was stated from sources such as IGN.com that even for dedicated veteran gamers this game can be significantly difficult. Players increase their level, 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 their current level or situation. Depending on the level of the attacking computer player, the player attacked could also be stunned for several precious seconds. Loss of all rings also occurs when the player falls off the track in certain courses.
The game was also referred to having "hidden catches" since after obtaining certain gears, they are not automatically added to your collection. They must be purchased from the shop instead, and this was sometimes seen as a misguided attempt at increasing replay value. The game also received numerous other criticisms by fans for various opinionated reasons.
The game was also criticized by others for one of the levels entitled "Digital Dimension". In this level "Heaven" and "Hell" elements were constantly present, adding a different perspective to the track and game as a whole. Religious connotations made some fans feel slightly uncomfortable, however, even though the idea was derived from Hero and Dark gardens in the Chao World of Sonic Adventure 2.
[edit] Records
One of the most well-known communities for hosting some of the best records for the game is The Sonic Center. The record-based website hosts some of the greatest records for the game in comparison to other sites. [6]
[edit] Trivia
[edit] Character Trivia
- 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 eventually merged with Sonic Team.
- Wave uses some of Blaze the Cat's voice clips from Sonic Rush; they both are voiced by the same person.
- When you are using Super Sonic he will start off 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 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. Nintendo Power also started a false rumor that Mario would appear as a racer on the GameCube version.
- The Babylon symbol is a "magic lamp" with wind markings around it as a reference to being descendants of "real genies".
- 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.... Their appearances, since they are not Sonic characters, can be likened to the inclusion of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Blinky in Mario Kart Arcade GP and R.O.B. in Mario Kart DS (although they are Sega characters, so their inclusion would make sense).
- 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-10000Gs can use speed, flight, and power abilites when you race against them.
- In Rouge's official art her eyelids are blue, but in races, on the tailing map at the bottom of the screen Rouge's icon has pink eyelids, this could be because these images are just snapshots from other 3D sonic games, and Rouge's image was ripped from Sonic Heroes.
- Jet is voiced by Jason Griffith, the voiceover for Sonic and Shadow.
- The Sonic Riders instruction manual doesn't mention anything about Amy, even though she is a starter character.
- In the cutscenes, Sonic and the Babylon Rogues are the only characters to keep their racing costumes: the others revert to their normal costume in full CG animation.
- Jet the Hawk questions if Sonic is truly the "fastest thing alive". This may be a reference to the opening song of the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series ("SatAM").
When playing with Shadow,after you perform a few tricks, the announcer will say '"she" instead of "he".
[edit] Track Trivia
- 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 Axel, one of the main car drivers from the original Crazy Taxi game. 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.
- 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 is visible a billboard with a picture of Sonic running from the Orca off Sonic Adventure and 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.
[edit] Story Mode Trivia
- If you listen closely during the beginning of the Hero story, but before the Babylon Rogues interrupt, you can hear the Future City theme. This is actually the basis for the music of the SEGA CARNIVAL track.
- In the Heroes Story opening scene, during Eggman's announcement, a city that appears to be Central City (from Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog) can be seen in some monitors or windows behind him.
- Also during Eggman's announcement, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles have there racing goggles/glasses on, even before the Ex World Grand Prix has started.
- The Heroes Story contains six races; Babylon Garden is the final Heroes story mode stage. Babylon's Story contains 7, but the last race, Babylon Guardian, is played as Sonic.
- In the CG opening to the Heroes story mode, Storm's exhaust from his Type-S appears as orange. Wave's exhaust, from Type-W, looks purple. In the game, the three exhaust colors are Green (Level 1), Red (Level 2), and Blue (Level 3). And when Sonic hops aboard Type-S, the exhaust is blue right off the bat. Sonic Team may have tried to color code, or they didn't know the exact colors of the exhaust when they animated the scene.
- In the 2nd cutscene of Babylon story you can see Wave placing the explosive on Sonic's gear using the left hand, the same hand she was using to hold the board, while in the Heroes cutscene she just turns it quickly and laughs. Also, the Babylon cutscene has been slowed down due to the fact that Wave's thoughts appear.
- In the cutscene right before Sky Road, Tails, Knuckles, Wave and Storm encounter. As Kncukles and Storm start to fight, Tails says it's not a good time for it. Wave agrees, and insults Knuckles by calling him "red mutt". The two Rogues and Knuckles get out the place, leaving Tails back. As Tails launches, he leaves turbulence, making Eggman's robots go backwards instead of being taken further like in the race.
- In the last CG movie, Wave rides as a left rider (with the left leg leading), but during the game she is a right rider.
- In the cutscene that Tails explains about the Kutta-Joukowski Lift Theorem, he is holding the Blue Star, but in the race he uses the Yellow Tail.
- After playing the Sky Road/Babylon Garden, you see a custscene were Sonic gives the Control Box to Jet. Together with him, are Knuckles and Tails, which were with Wave and Storm in the Sky Road according to the Babylon Story.
- In the first Babylon cutscene, Eggman shows Jet data about Sonic. In the pictures he's already wearing the glasses and sneakers.
- If you set the audio mode to Dolby Pro Logic II© and watch the Heroes Story CG opening, Jet and Sonic's voice inside the tunnel are metalic and have the echo feature.
- In the last CG movie's dialogue, Jet says: "the back of the carpet has more words of wisdom. It says: this was invented to allow babylonians to travel all over the world to gather treasure". Shoudln't he say the note of the carpet?
[edit] Extreme Gear Trivia
- The Crazy Gear is a taxi from Crazy Taxi, which is why 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 Kinto'un and is "said to be used on a grand adventure".
- The High Booster Gear has a pattern similar to the Shadow the Hedgehog game symbol running down the side of it which is partly due to the fact that it was originally meant to be Shadow's default gear. [citation needed]
- The Turbo Star's name is a name of a vehicle in Kirby Air Ride, a game to which Sonic Riders has often been compared to.
- The ability of Flight-type characters to soar across the sky is referred to as "Air Riding" in the instruction booklet.
- On the back of Heavy Bike, there is a picture of the American flag.
- One of the unlockable Gear, the Opa-Opa, is a reference to the classic Sega game Fantasy Zone.
- There is a small error in the Hang-On's information, it claims "It has great Value". The Super Hang-On doesn't have the error.
- There is a small error in the information on Blue Star and the Blue Star II. Tails said he made both of them, but it states that they are both "built by Robotnik corp." This can be explained by Tails using parts from Eggman's machines.
- The Hang-On gear is the only gear with tires.
[edit] Music Trivia
- The invincible jingle in this game is a loose remix of the tune from the Sonic Heroes main theme song of the same name.
- 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 pure instrumental theme song since the original Sega Genesis titles. Even then, only Knuckles had a theme song, and it was only instrumental in the Sonic and Knuckles adaptation to Sonic 3.
- "Sonic Speed Riders" and "Catch Me If You Can" were performed by the same person/group (Runblebee).
- The game is the first post-Sonic Adventure console game in which Crush 40 did not perform any theme songs, excluding Sonic Shuffle, which lacked a theme song entirely.
[edit] Miscellaneous Trivia
- The Archie Sonic Comic issues #163 and #164 include a loose adaptation of Sonic Riders, even using the same animation style used in the game's title sequence.
- On the European Sonic Riders website Ulala, AiAi and NiGHTS all have Knuckles' profile for some reason.
- This was the last Sonic game to be released for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Sonic Riders Sequel
In an interview with Eurogamer, Takashi Yuda (the producer of the original Sonic Riders) announced that Sega would release a Sonic Riders sequel on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. [7]
[edit] Other 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 Wii; but based on what he does know, he believes that the system could bring Sonic Riders "to the next dimension" [8]
