The Sonic Riders series.

[Dr. Mechano]

I've only ever played the original Sonic Riders, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Its learning curve is a bit steep, but once you get the hang of things it's quite fun.

Also, playable Eggman earns it some major cool points for me. Seeing Eggman punch out streetcars with his bare hands is pretty awesome, I have to say.

[Phos]

Never played the first one, but the second one wasn't really a great racing game, you were basically just steering between things to make you go faster. It does give me ideas, though.

[Blue Blood]

One thing I hated about the original Riders was the awesome anime intro and art, that was completely forgotten for the rest of the game wherein some generic CG styled was used, with massive hands. Bleh. Lame. ZG at least stuck to one style, and FR kind of went with Generic No-Style.

[Chooch]

I still stand by the original being the absolute best one. Zero Gravity just kinda ruined everything. Free Riders would be more fun if it wasn't a shitty Kinect game.

I adore the first Riders game. I have put more hours into it than the vast majority of other Sonic games on the market. Not even kidding.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Chooch

[JezMM]

I would have liked the Free Riders cut-scenes and the interactions a lot more if the characters weren't all in Sonic Heroes-esque flanderisation mode.

Sonic Riders:

"SONIC I LOVE YOU" *Wave is a jerk to Tails* "That bitch >8U"

Zero Gravity:

"SONIC I LOVE YOU" *Oh u Amy* "Hurr lol, so anyway seriously what's with these robots huh?"

Free Riders:

"SONIC I LOVE YOU" *anything else happens* "SONIC YOU'RE THE BEST" *an additional thing happens* "SONIC GET IN MY VAGINA"

[Rusty Spy]

Copy Pasta from another topic:

The first Riders was the best gameplay-wise. It was fast and had a competitive edge to it, the controls were smooth once you get used to them, and it had a bit more depth to it. What ultimately sets it back is it's lack of content. Very few (decent) vehicles, relatively bland tracks and the story was tripe.

The second Riders was ATROCIOUS. It took everything good about the first game and stuck it up it's hairy ****. Gone were the (mostly) fluent controls, gone was the manual trick system, gone was any semblance of what makes a racing game. Instead all we get is a long succession of gravity gimmicks and shortcuts with little in the way of decent track design. The game is SLOOOOOOOOW. You never get any decent speed, and the acceleration on every vehicle was absolutely terrible, meaning you were always moving at a snails pace through most of the race. The computer is a cheating bastard and will not let you win if you aren't abusing every possible shortcut and gravity gimmick you can, making the race feel less like a test of skill and more of a checklist of required shortcuts to hit. That said, the AI is still easy as shit, but at the cost of removing any sense of choice in progressing along the track. The track designs are much better and more unique, as is the music, and the story is also an improvement...... until the ending....

The third Riders I haven't played, but from what I've seen of it, it looks like it has a lot of great ideas going for it. Proper items for once, being able to customize your gear by adding either speed/flight/power abilities or boosts in certain stats is brilliant, the improved boost mechanic is a step up from the first Riders, combining the boosting function of the first Riders without linking it's gauge to the fuel, making it a lot more user friendly, and the track designs have only gotten better from the first two, as well as the music. This game would've been the best Riders game yet, and may have been a really good game overall if it weren't for one ittsy-bittsy-tiny detail. THE BIG PIECE OF OVERPRICED ELEPHANT TURD KINECT! Every good thing this game had going for it is instantly ruined to compensate for the Kinects control scheme. The tracks are nothing but long stretches of road with the occasional SFP gimmick or very slight turn with everything else being completely automation lest the game be completely uncontrollable. From what I've seen the controls don't look the least bit appealing at ALL. It doesn't even look fun to WATCH cause you can just feel the player desperately trying to control the big mess.

Free Riders had the most potential of all the Riders games, and it's one that I honestly want to have ported to a console with a CONTROLLER, because the one thing holding it back is the gimmick that's supposed to be it's selling point.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Black Spy

[Solkia]

I love the first Riders. Hate ZG with a passion. Haven't played Free Riders.

[NintendoSoul]

I liked Sonic Riders, and found Zero Gravity to be better, never played Free Riders.

[sonfan1984]

I would have liked the Free Riders cut-scenes and the interactions a lot more if the characters weren't all in Sonic Heroes-esque flanderisation mode.

Sonic Riders:

"SONIC I LOVE YOU" *Wave is a jerk to Tails* "That bitch >8U"

Zero Gravity:

"SONIC I LOVE YOU" *Oh u Amy* "Hurr lol, so anyway seriously what's with these robots huh?"

Free Riders:

"SONIC I LOVE YOU" *anything else happens* "SONIC YOU'RE THE BEST" *an additional thing happens* "SONIC GET IN MY VAGINA"

In Free Riders, I probably have to mute some of the cutscenes that has Amy in them cause her new voice (at the time, she sounds better in Generations and I'm warming up to her now) kinda makes the cutscenes unbearable, lol. But other then that I still liked them.

Edited January 30, 2012 by sonfan1984

[Blacklightning]

The original had the faulty turbulence gimmick that made skill more or less null as one can completely catch up to the leader in hardly any time.

PROTIP: Use tornados. Once you realize that turpulence funnels people behind you directly into the most ideal position to get hit by it, timing's the only factor that comes into pulling it off successfully. It's amazing how basically everyone who complains about the turpulence mechanic never seems to take that move into account, conisdering it singlehandedly solves nearly every single problem related to it.

Pity the bots don't seem to know how to use it, though.

[HeroMystic]

I know of the Tornado usage, but I wasn't talking about CPUs catching up to me (which never happens anyway). I'm talking about myself catching up to them.

I pretty much raped the game left right and sideways and did all missions. Riders is fun, but I dislike the turbulance mechanic and was glad ZG toned it down considerably.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Marco

[Old dead account]

Hate them. I couldn't sit through more than an hour of Riders so when I heard that people generally hate ZG more I didn't even bother with it. Free Riders though is at least a good workout and fun with a friend

[Rusty Spy]

PROTIP: Use tornados. Once you realize that turpulence funnels people behind you directly into the most ideal position to get hit by it, timing's the only factor that comes into pulling it off successfully. It's amazing how basically everyone who complains about the turpulence mechanic never seems to take that move into account, conisdering it singlehandedly solves nearly every single problem related to it.

Pity the bots don't seem to know how to use it, though.

[SuperStingray]

the second one wasn't really a great racing game, you were basically just steering between things to make you go faster.

Isn't that... racing?

[Xenos]

Isn't that... racing?

Yeah, sure. If you want to simplify the definition to the extreme.

[Megabox91(Renzy)]

I LOVED the first Sonic riders game, I just wish it had more levels...

[Salamander]

I've never played any of the Riders games. I like the idea of them existing, but I'm not sure I'd ever have bought them myself.

[Dr. Crusher]

I don't mind them, but I'd rather play traditional Mario Kart. I wish they'd make actual Sonic zones out of the courses though, because some of them look really cool. Future City Zone? Aquatic Capital Zone? Digital Dimension Zone? Yes please.

Also, while not a fan of all three's complete stories (They were genies!... Who are aliens!... Suddenly, Blue Egg Pawn was Metal Sonic!), there were sub-plot elements in each that I did like and wish were elaborated a bit more, like MeteorTech Industries.

[Milo]

Copy Pasta from another topic:

[rant]

^ This. Zero Gravity's gameplay also gets so repetitve to the point that the gameplay gets so stale you just lose any interest to 100% the game IMO (it really doesn't help that many of the unlockable boards are priced really high). And this game was a missed oppurtunity to have some great online multiplayer; but apparently Sonic Team for some reason hates any form of online multiplayer with a passion, because aside from Free Riders (SASASR doesn't count), they haven't made any other attempts at online multiplayer for main/spinoff console Sonic games.

I also hated how they stripped away several things I liked in the first/ or made it fun (boosting to attack your opponenets, the rings level-up system, the speed/flight/power formation -which I thought worked pretty well in this game, especially considering that some boards enabled combinations of two or all three formations).

[/rant]

Regarding Free Riders, I don't have (and I'm not planning to get) an Xbox 360 and a Kinect, so I really don't care much about that game.

Edited January 30, 2012 by ModernHentaiQuillFan

[Xenos]

One problem I have with this game, it seems like Super Sonic is played off as the biggest deal ever. Considering you have to do about, 70 missions, all with a Gold Rank.

And I counted 70 all because I haven't Unlocked Jet's Mission...what a pain!

I know he probably won't be worth it entirely, but I've been becoming a 100% Run Man lately.

I MUST

This will be hell.

[Burnt Ash]

I've played the first Riders, and it wasn't that great. The only problem I had with it was the air feature...I wasn't very good at maintaining the amount of air I had in this game. I've beaten the story mode, played multiplayer a bit, tried a few missions, and I haven't touched it since.

[#EndyGate]

Does anyone else expect/hope that they'll continue the Riders game every other year tradition, and bring in a new game this year?

Hopefully if they do they'll make it as good as or even better than the original

[KHCast]

Was anyone else kinda surprised by what digital circuit actually was? I did not expect that for the level.

[Blacklightning]

That's because it's the most useless move ever. Not ONCE since I first played this game have I ever used them. It's easier to just speed ahead of the pack instead of sacrificing your speed. Really, once you learn how to race effectively you'll leave the competition in the dust.

MAYBE in a competative enviorment against human players, but even then, you can use the tornado input while in turbulence to jump out free of consequence.

The speed loss that results from it is pretty negligible when you consider it can wipe out the entire roster behind you when used properly (that, and you can just boost to get back up to speed again if you have enough air left). Really, it's less a matter of the move being outright useless and more a matter of having a playstyle that fits it and knowing exactly when it's best used. The fact you play against the mediocre AI kinda speaks leauges as to how much use you'd find it, but when you're put up against other players who actually know what they're doing you really need a way to punish them for riding your turpulence because like Marco says, a human player can close the gap really quickly if they know what they're doing.

As far as escaping turpulence goes, I was actually referring to that too seeing as it uses the same input as the tornado move. Thing is, unless you know you're about to be hit by a tornado yourself or you're about to miss a shortcut (or god forbid, the race leader decides to be a troll and lead the turpulence straight into a bottomless pit), you really don't have any reason to most of the time.

[Xenos]

Actually I found the AI in Riders 1 surprisingly annoying. No matter how fast I was going it seemed like they were rubber banned ahead of me. It was sort of frustrating trying to get 1st in all the Races in the Grand Prix.

Of course, I had to do that to Unlock the last 5 Missions from Storm and Wave.

And after I beat that, I have another 20 more to do considering I unlock Jets.

And I have to get gold on all of those for Super Sonic.

And I'm pretty sure you have to buy the Chaos Emerald Board for a hefty price, so I might need to grind for rings.

This game needs to find a less tedious way of keeping you into playing the game...I hate my completionist tendencies.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Ultimate Spidey