Sonic Riders returns for an even greater thrill
I like to get the smaller stuff out of the way first, so gameplay will be the last thing I write about. Feel free to skip ahead.
So here's the setup for SRZG. In some futuristic city that Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles now reside in, meteorites crash to the crash and turn out to be bracelets that can control gravity. Naturally, Sonic and Co. use this ability to their advantage in races. The rings cause security robots to go nuts, the Babylon Rogues return searching for the origin of th bracelets as well as pay-back, and Eggman is curious about the bracelets too. And so you race to the end of the story.
How is this game presented? Does it look good? Well, it certainly doesn't compare to 360 or PS3, but this has some of the better Wii graphics. The environments are highly detailed, colorful, and smooth. All the Stages you race through have a nice futuristic look, as well as crazy design that will take a few practice laps to memorize. The character models all animate well, but have weird issues concerning accessories attached to the characters and don't look too pretty up close. Rounding out the package is full Widescreen (no thin black bars on the sides), 480p, and an impressively solid frame rate (even in multiplayer). The prerendered cut-scenes are perfect, as many would expect. Not bad looking at all, but certainly could benefit from a little more polish. Oh, and this game provides a great sense of speed...insane speed...just as a Sonic game should.
Now for Sound. Should you wear head phones or crank the stereo? Honestly, it's personal preference here. The Voices Actors are the same ones people love and hate. The lines a delivered well enough, but cheesy can describe a few things. The dialogue is more plot oriented and concise.
Music is fresh and appropriate; a lot of techno. It fits this type of game, but I imagine a lot of you might feel there's a better soundtrack in your personal collection. Sound effects are spot on, and if you played the original game, you'll be familiar with a lot of the sound effects.
Now for the important part...GAMEPLAY! This game is a vast improvement...let me rephrase that, a major overall of the last game. Almost every mechanic has been changed or tweaked. The old air system is gone and gravity is in. The old air-is-fuel system disappears. When you run out of gravity, you lose the power to super boost and boost out of sharp turns, but maintain your normal speed. The slip-stream system has been toned down. They appear less frequently and they don't put you on auto-pilot. Gravity is replenished like air, except without the stations for when you run out. Perform tricks and collect item boxes.
Rings are back and so are mid-race upgrading, but this system has changed too. Remember how the racers used to be classified as Speed, Power, or Flying? Well, if you don't, these classifications determined whether you could grind, knock away objects, or use boost hoops (respectively). This is now tied to your gear, instead of the character. Each gear has three power-ups on them. Collect a certain number of rings and you can activate the power-ups. In the original, the power-ups were automatically activated and you kept the rings. This time around, you have to press a button and lose necessary rings. Luckily, there are a lot more rings on the course than last game. There still is a 100 ring cap though.
Steering you character is once again a matter of preference in that this game has 3 control options. Two of them are the Wii-mote alone (vertical or horizontal) and the third is a gamecube controller. I can sense many will choose a GC controller, but give the Wii-mote styles a shot. The Vertical mode has to basically pointing to steer. By aiming at the top you accelerate, and the bottom brakes. The Horizontal style has you tilting in all directions for braking, steering and accelerating. You can use the D-pad to steer instead, but it seems to conflict priority if you're tiliting the remote at the same time.
The trick system has been simplified even more than it was before. All you have to do is time you jump off a ramp. The closer to the edge you are when you hit the jump button, the better your trick grade will be and the more gravity points you'll score. You'll also get a speed and distance boost for better grades, which can also help you reach alternate paths.
Now lets get on to the game's big system, gravity! This allows you to take the sharpest turn without any issues, cling to a wall or ceiling to race on, or do a hyper speed boost. Pending you're control style, you'll hold a button to stop in your gravity field, and then turn the camera in the direction you want to go. If you have gravity points, you'll boost off at high speed. If you don't, you'll just be facing that direction and have completely stopped. The Hyper speed boost, called "Gravity Dive", allows you super sonic flight, knocking objects into the air and bouncing off them will allow you to gain a bigger boost and stay in your Gravity Dive longer. This is activated by button or a shake of the remote. You can cancel it at any time to save points, since you might need them for a sudden sharp turn. Alternate paths pretty much require the use of gravity to reach. You'll launch off a ramp, and if any of the walls or ceiling seem like they can be traveled on, hit the gravity button and swing the camera in that direction.
Now time to condense the bad stuff into here. Steering can be a pain. The normal turning still feels way to loose and you won't be able to turn effectively without advanced knowledge of a course. You'll have to practice and anticipate turns. This will also make it frustrating on some of the more rough terrain. The Gravity Dive controls can be a little stiff. In specific areas, the camera gets placed right behind your character and it's hard to see what's coming. It can be difficult to determine what is an alternate path, let alone find some of the crazier ones. The 100 ring cap is horrible because extra gear cost thousands, and with only being able to get 100 ring a race (barring special gear), it'll take forever to gather all, let alone the best gears.
Content wise, this game has a lot. The Story Mode won't take more than 5 hours to complete. Multiplayer mode being offline only is a major negative, but there's still plenty of fun to have with friends. Collecting all the gears will take some time and extra Missions return and those will have completionists busy. There are six types of gear now, each having different specialties to experiment with until you find your perfect fit for your play style.
Let me sum this up. Sonic fans should buy this. Racing fans should try this. Anyone who is the least bit curious should try it in the cheapest way possible. While reinventing itself, this series still has a few kinks that need working out, but none-the-less it is fun and dare I say the fastest racing game to date.