Team Sonic Racing being a thing is great and I’ve heard nothing but good things from it, there’s still part of me that wants the Sonic Riders series back! And I’m not talking about a sequel, I’m talking about a Sonic Riders reboot or a remaster with all the best elements for the past two games, not three, TWO!
For those of you guys that may not know about this game series:
Sonic Riders is a 2006 racing video game for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in which the player controls characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series on hoverboards. In the game’s 16 tracks, the player competes against characters—either controlled by computers or other players—in story and battle modes. Sonic Riders is based around characters racing each other using devices known as “Extreme Gear”, anti-gravity-equipped vehicles consisting of hover boards, hover skates, and hover bikes.
The first game had a mechanic in which air serves as the fuel for Extreme Gear, and is depleted gradually as the race goes on. The sequel discarded the air fuel all together and used gravity however, I preferred the air fuel as it added another level of skill to it. A remastered or a remake of this franchise would be dope in my opinion. YES, I’M AWARE OF THE TRASH THAT IS KNOWN AS SONIC FREE RIDERS….let me calm down here, yeah I’m aware but I’m not gonna let that game stop me from wishing for a new riders game.
What I liked about THE Sonic Riders game was the use of the air fuels. Air in the game is quickly spent using techniques like cornering, which allows the player to round sharp turns with ease, and building tension before a jump, which involves using the air to propel the player higher off of ramps. This prevented them from boosting, attacking, cornering easily or using charged jumps.
However, I will not knock Sonic Riders Zero Gravity down either, as I thought that game was also good for what it was doing. Zero Gravity added a new gameplay system based around gravity. During the race, they could perform one of two maneuvers. A Gravity Dive would create a black hole that gives the player a boost, launching them quickly down the track; this will also displace objects in the vicinity such as cars or signs, which players can grind on to gain additional speed. Alternatively, Gravity Control will shift the gravity of the course, allowing players to reach otherwise-inaccessible areas and shortcuts. Players can also use Gravity Drift to more easily maneuver around sharp corners.
They even had a new system called “Gear Change”. Once players gain a certain number of rings during a race, they can choose to activate one of their Gear Parts. Gear Parts are predetermined based on the racer’s equipped Extreme Gear, and will grant bonuses when activated, such as increasing a character’s top speed or automatically accessing shortcuts that would otherwise require Gravity Control.
If they can somehow reboot the series while somehow incorporating the best of both of these games without trying to add some unnecessary shit then I’d say we might have something on our hands. I mean Sonic did the gravity gig first but Mario gets all the praise for it. That’s kinda messed up!
For the story, they just need to tell the story with the animation from the opening intro of the first game. That would be amazing. Heck, I’d take an small animation TV show just based on that animation style.
Anyways let me know what you guys think of this wild idea.
