Ride the Air Waves

The new Sonic Riders™ game puts our old friend Sonic the Hedgehog on a new track. Dr. Egghead has announced the EX World Grand Prix, a race on Air Boards. When Sonic and his pals discover that their primary competitors will be the thieves that stole a coveted Chaos Emerald from them, they decide to race. From that point on, it's mayhem and mastery aboard slick Air Boards that combine the trick potentials of skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing.

Zoom into the future.

Speed Indeed
This game has numerous dimensions that make it fun to play. Most importantly, it has Sonic's trademark speed. Zipping along on the Air Boards keeps the action fast and furious. This game isn't about the leisurely exploration of a world; it's about tearing through it at top speed with your ears flapping behind you. While you're on your board, you have to work to slow down, and really work to stop. The board has a natural forward momentum that keeps you moving without being told to go, so don't blink or you'll miss something.

Most of the challenge involves maximizing your speed. You have a number of ways you can do this, from collecting Speed Power-ups to performing tricks while surfing the Turbulence trail of an opponent. You also use your Air Boost (either X or B), although it uses up your board's stored Air quickly, so you had better be ready to find a way to replenish your supply.

If you're savvy, you not only fly
through the course, you do it with style.

Trick It to Lick It
If you're savvy, you not only fly through the course, you do it with style. When you perform leaps and loops without taking any lumps, it replenishes the Air that drives your board. You use up the Air as you go along, so anything you can do to refill it helps. You can do front flips, back flips, rolls, and even rail rides.

Controlling your trajectory, despite the speed, has important payoffs as well. You fly through items and barriers and into tunnels of turbulence to gain certain perks. Among the most important benefit is collecting rings that serve as currency for purchasing additional Extreme Gear. The game has more than forty different pieces of equipment that you buy to tweak your ride.

Waterfalls in the Green Cave.

No Lack of Track
Strange and wonderful—that's how I would describe the tracks in Sonic Riders. The first one in racing mode, Metal City, takes you through a futuristic urban setting in which you dodge traffic, race through tunnels, and swing from towers. All in all, there are more than 13 tracks, and each has its own unique and imaginative personality. The Green Cave track, for example, takes you through the treetops of a jungle inhabited by giant millipedes on whose backs you fly. The adventure never ends.

The battle tracks have different functions, and, therefore, require a different treatment. Designed to allow you to backtrack to outwit your opponents, these circuits don't meander in quite the same way as the racing tracks. The first, for example, consists of two concentric ovals with paths leading between them at regular intervals. On this track, the walls themselves can prove as troublesome as your opponent.

Fans of Sonic will enjoy the story portion of the game as well. The cutscenes bring the characters to life and embellish the racing world. The bad guys, a previously unseen group of thieves known as the Babylon Rogues, are just as cool as Sonic and his pals.

Now get out there and catch some air.

Article by Angel Leigh McCoy