Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
North American Wii version boxart
Developer(s)	Sonic Team NOW Production [1] United Game Artists
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Kenjiro Morimoto (Producer/Director/Game System Design)
Artist(s)	Hideaki Moriya (Art Director)
Writer(s)	Masahiko Shiraishi Shiro Maekawa Hiroshi Miyamoto
Composer(s)	Tomonori Sawada (Sound Director/Sound FX) Kenichi Tokoi Fumie Kumatani Hideaki Kobayashi
Engine	Havok Physics Engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Wii
Release date(s)	NA January 8, 2008 JP January 17, 2008 EU February 22, 2008 AUS March 6, 2008
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ACB: G ESRB: E
Media/distribution	Wii optical disc, DVD-ROM

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity released in Japan as Sonic Riders Shooting Star Story (ソニックライダーズ シューティングスターストーリー, Sonikku Raidāzu Shūtingu Sutā Sutōrī^?), is a hoverboard racing video game published by Sega and developed by Sonic Team in cooperation with NowPro. It is the fifth racing game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, following Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic R and its predecessor, Sonic Riders. Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is only available on the PlayStation 2 and Wii video game systems. The PS2 version was not released in Japan. A sequel titled Sonic Free Riders was released on November 4, 2010 exclusively for Kinect on Xbox 360.

Plot

The Story is split into two halves, the Heroes Story (Team Sonic), and Babylon Story (Babylon Rogues). Although the stories start separately, they overlap each other, telling the story as the main characters within that story see it. Following the format of Sonic Riders, Babylon Story also includes an epilogue that expands past the Heroes Story.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are alerted to robots that are attacking a famous city of the future. They set out to retrieve a legendary artifact that has the ability to control gravity. Along the way they discover surprises, including the Babylon Rogues, a group of avian thieves who are also after the artifact. This sets off a war to decide who gets the artifact, leading them to settle their dispute by having an Extreme Gear competition.

Gameplay

This game introduces many new abilities in addition to ones from the first game. By gaining gravity points through tricks and technical challenges, players will enter a zero-gravity zone and be able to perform new moves.

The first is the Gravity Dive, which sucks the player towards a black hole further down the track, giving them a speed boost which tosses cars and other objects off the track and into the air which characters are able to smash into to gain more speed, and Gravity Control, which changes the gravity of the course, allowing the player to use a different track, such as one of the walls.

Also in the game is a move called Gravity Drift. This move is similar to the Grip move in Sonic Riders in which it can help characters turn on tight corners.

Items can offer help the player, such as an attack boost, or cause hardships, such as a ball-and-chain that hooks on your gear and slows your speed down.

Upgrade system

There is a new method in the game called "Gear Change". Once you gain a certain amount of rings, your gear will gain an upgrade. Each gear has from zero to three upgrades and can be upgraded during a race. Some upgrades include modifying your Extreme Gear's look or top speed. There are many different board types to use as well, adding for many options for customization.

Survival modes

In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, there are three new modes added to the game: Survival Mode, Survival Relay, and Survival Ball. Survival Mode entails each player to pick up missiles, then lock on and launch them at foes with Gravity Control, the winner being the last person standing. Survival Ball mode is, simply put, a soccer game on Extreme Gear. In Survival Relay, 2-4 players make a team of two and do a relay, with Extreme Gear as the baton.

Courses

There are a total of 16 courses in the game, eight worlds with two tracks in each. The tracks appear in the order they appear in the story mode.

• Megalo Station/Nightside Rush
• Botanical Kingdom/Snowy Kingdom
• MeteorTech Premises/MeteorTech Sparkworks
• Aquatic Capital/Tempest Waterway
• Gigan Rocks/Gigan Device
• Crimson Crater/Security Corridor
• Astral Babylon/Mobius Strip
• 80's Boulevard/90's Boulevard

Gear

Each different type of gear has their own special advantages.

Boards with the Grind upgrade and Skates are able to use the Grind Rails as a shortcut. Although boards must install the Grind upgrade themselves, Skates can already Grind from the start. Besides this, they are predominant in speed, and usually have no other functions.

Air Riders and Yachts are able to use the Launch Ramps as a shortcut. Although Air Rider Gears usually come with no special advantages, the Yacht Type Gears can ride on drafts, which is completely different from Turbulance. By tailgating an opponent, a Yacht will gradually speed up to the point where they pass the opponent. However, their major drawback is that without a draft, Yachts are very slow, generally below 130 MPH.

Bikes and Wheels are able to smash obstacles to create new pathways. Although most Bikes don't come with any additional advantages, Wheels come with a major advantage of the ability to drift.

Some Gears have no Gear Parts, but usually come in the form in the other Gears listed above. However, sometimes, they have extra abilities that help you proceed in the race. For instance, the Money Crisis Gear is a Wheel Type that has no extra upgrades, but increases speed for the more rings you collect.

The Chaos Emerald Gear is a unique gear that can only be used by Sonic. It can only be obtained after you complete all of the missions with an Extreme rank. The Chaos Emerald has no initial Skill and uses rings instead of GP. However, using Gravity Moves consumes rings during at an extremely high rate. When Sonic's rings run out, he reverts back to regular Sonic, and is forced to run the track on foot until he obtains some rings. Before obtaining 60 Rings, the Chaos Emerald Gear is just basically Super Sonic on the Blue Star. When Sonic obtains 60 or more rings, he activates his "Super Sonic Boost". In this state, Sonic gets off his board and flies around the track in a comet form. At this time, ring consumption is increased, but Super Sonic flies at 180 MPH and he is practically invincible to all attacks.

Characters

There are a total of 18 characters in the game. Each character has their own personalized gear, which is stated after their name. Characters of each type can take advantage of certain shortcuts depending on the type of Extreme Gear they ride in the race.

Speed

• Sonic the Hedgehog - Blue Star: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Grind.
• Jet the Hawk - Type J: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Grind.
• Amy Rose - Pink Rose: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Grind.
• Shadow The Hedgehog - Black Shot: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Grind.
• Blaze the Cat (new) - Flame Lance: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Grind.
• Amigo (new) - Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Grind.

Fly

• Miles "Tails" Prower - Yellow Tail: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Air Ride.
• Wave the Swallow - Type W: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Air Ride.
• Cream the Rabbit - Smile: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Air Ride.
• Rouge the Bat - Temptation: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Air Ride.
• Silver the Hedgehog (new) - Psychic Wave: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Air Ride.
• NiGHTS - Night Sky: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Air Ride.
• SCR-HD - He is a Gear in his own right, and has no Gear Parts.

Power

• Knuckles the Echidna - Red Rock: Knuckles's primary Gear, Tails upgraded this Gear for some major obstacle smashing. Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Bike.
• Storm the Albatross - Type S: Storm's primary Gear, Wave fine-tuned this board to prime it up so it can take down opponents. Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Bike.
• Dr. Eggman - E-Rider: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up and Max GP Up. Starts as a Bike.
• Billy Hatcher (new) - Power Egg: Has the Gear Parts: Max Speed Up, Max GP Up, and Bike.
• SCR-GP: He is a Gear in his own right and has no Gear Parts.
• Super Sonic - Chaos Emerald: Only becomes Power Type at over 60 Rings. Has the Gear Parts: Max Rings Up, Max Rings Up (locked), and Magnetic Barrier. Super Sonic will revert to regular Sonic without Rings. Before 60 Rings, Chaos Emerald has the same stats as the Blue Star.

Reception

Reception
Review scores Publication Score PS2 Wii GameSpot 5.0/10[2] 4.5/10[2] IGN 5.8/10[3] 5.8/10[4] Official Nintendo Magazine 72%[5] Aggregate scores GameRankings 65%[6] 59%[7]

Unlike its predecessor, this game has received mixed to poor reviews from the press. Game Rankings reports an average rating of 59% for the Wii version^[8] and 65% for the PlayStation 2 version^[9]. Both GameSpot and 1UP gave the Wii version 4.5/10 and IGN rated it 5.8/10. It has been praised for its improved graphics, larger level designs, music and easier gameplay concepts, but has also been criticized for its loose controls, lack of online play, story material and removal of certain gameplay elements from the first one. The Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game a score of 72%, praising its solid multiplayer action and the amount of bonus features but criticized it for its rough controls. GameTrailers praised the game for its graphics, but lambaste the control schemes, especially the fact the Wii version was compatible with the GameCube controller but not the Classic Controller, and saying that all options were confusing and rendered the game "almost unplayable".

References

1. ^ "Game Developer Research Institute". http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Now_Production. 
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchreview.asp?reviewid=910150
3. ^ http://au.ps2.ign.com/articles/845/845442p1.html
4. ^ http://au.wii.ign.com/articles/845/845430p1.html
5. ^ http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=3440
6. ^ http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/942738.asp
7. ^ http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/942736.asp
8. ^ Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity Reviews
9. ^ Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity Reviews

External links

• Official Website (Japanese)
• The Official Making of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Japanese)