I thought I was fair in assuming this would be 'mediocre' or 'bargain bin' at worst but they gutted out every single mechanic from Riders 1 and replaced it with something explicitly dumber or commodified for Wiimote controls. This has less interaction than a mobile game and feels worse. I've never played a racing game where the sensation of turning my character made me feel like I was taking physical abrasion against the air.

But the icing on the shitcake is they get racist and retcon the Babylonians into being aliens???!?!? Why???? Like, Riders already rubs into hazy stereotype territory by framing the Babylonians as descendants of genies, but it's at least like, something that obviously feels like a product of Aladdin-isms and a larger cultural misread. It wouldn't be be the first PS2 mascot game to do that (cough cough, Ape Escape 3). But, how do you let National Geographic and white-exceptionalism historical rhetoric twist your character direction and worldbuilding??

And like, it makes them so much less cool. God.

It still has good music, the environmental design is just as astounding for PS2 as Riders (if not more), and newcomers Silver and Blaze are great. Amy gets a playable mission in story mode, hip hip hooray. But like, I don't care. This was torture. Having loved Riders and having shared really special moments with siblings through that game, this felt insulting. If this was the one game I got for a Christmas or birthday, kid me would've felt upset. I'm always hesitant to be mad about games, but I remember being a kid and only getting to pick a few new games per year. I never had an allowance, and my parents only let me pick things out at holidays. Sonic is an IP that mostly treats its target audience with respect, and a child with no access to the internet or journalism would be fair in assuming this game looks cool. Kids don't deserve things like this.

Sonic Team is forgiven for letting the haters influence their creative decisions, but their crimes are not forgotten.

As someone who's an absolute fanatic of the original riders and rated a 5/5, you might think I'd despise this game, and when I played it for the first time as a kid.

I thought it'd be just more riders: I tried drifting, I tried boosting, I tried tricking, none of it worked! I rage quit the game by how frustrated I was, and from then on would always put it at the bottom of my sonic tier lists.

Recently though, I gave it a proper chance, and after finishing the story mode and all related missions, it's... honestly not bad at all.

It's a very unique racing game with some STELLAR presentation, this is my 2nd favourite sounding and looking sonic game next to CD and that is VERY high praise!

The gameplay, while undoubtedly much slower and less advanced than the original Riders, is still quite fun, and very unique from its peers!

While it's not an absolute, timeless Classic like the original Riders game, I still felt very happy by the time I finished this one! I had a lot of fun with it!

Though, I certainly don't see myself re-playing it...

Not an objectively great game, but I have very fond memories of this game.
It was one of the Wii games at a Boys and Girls Club I used to go to, and most of the time that place was miserable. However, they had a copy of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, and playing that with all the homies was fun. We eventually decided to play the story mode, as nobody wanted to play as Amy, and there were even more fond memories there. We all took turns trying to beat each stage of the campaign (With me pretty much beating the entire game, considering I was the best player there), and the hype at the final boss was real, and when we beat him, that was fuckin awesome.

That place was kinda shit, but there were many fond memories there. The game may not be amazing, but it holds a special place in my heart.

It ain't Sonic Riders 1, and that's probably the most damning thing about it. The zero-gravity turn-and-boost gimmicks simply aren't as interesting or fleshed out as Riders' flurry of air and fuel-centric mechanics. They look and sound flashy and I love how the background music shifts into a different segment of the song whenever you use the anti-grav, but... I don't know, there's just not a whole lot going on in Zero Gravity. The breakneck intensity and complex mind games going on under the hood of Sonic Riders made way for a more streamlined and easygoing experience that simply isn't as engaging to play or talk about. It's an easier game to play than Sonic Riders, and that does make Zero Gravity more accessible, but it comes at the cost of depth and the feeling of competition and struggle.

There's a few things I like compared to Riders 1 - I like how you can choose when and where to Gear Change instead of it being automatic like it was in the predecessor. It makes the process of leveling up your board mid-race feel even more tactical than it was before. I also like how you can use the zero-gravity stuff to either angle yourself onto weirdly-placed platforms (it allows the level design to do whatever it wants without worrying about placement or position) or soar upwards in case you fuck up a jump and miss landing on the upper platform - it basically gives you a second chance to nail the landing at the cost of quite a bit of fuel. But honestly, the things they removed from Riders are far more damning than the little things they added. There's no boost anymore. All your midair tricks are automatic instead of manual. You rarely, if ever, run out of air and fuel. I'm almost positive you can't attack anyone anymore. This is Sonic Riders at its most casual, and frankly, it makes the game a lot less exciting and replayable. It is painfully simplistic, and that's what hurts it - there isn't much reason to keep playing after the campaign's done and the rest of the levels are unlocked.

It's a shame, because I like virtually everything else. The story mode's an even more enjoyable experience than the first game's, with an actual conflict, an actual narrative with stakes, happening in the background instead of a half-hearted racing contest that shoehorned a boss fight in at the end. The spiky and memorable soundtrack is a thrilling, dynamic blast of futuristic funk, techno, and electronic rock. Some of these new stages are pure, unadulterated eye candy, like the sleek, golden cyberpunk streets of Megalo Station, the red Orientalist houses and high mountains of Gigan Rocks, the howling rain and rushing aqueducts of Tempest Waterway, and the futuristic waterworld that is Aquatic Park. There's a varied amount of boards to unlock, the multiplayer is... funny, and the overall vibe of the techno-futurist game and setting is something I can absolutely sink my teeth into. On the surface level, Zero Gravity just clicks.

It's just a shame that when it comes to the actual meat of the game, Zero Gravity winds up being more than a little undercooked. 3 / 5.

RIDE THROUGH GRAVITY

Going from an air focused approach to a gravity approach comes Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.

Zero Gravity can be said to be more a simplified Riders 1 by its toning down of the previous game's mechanics and easy to understand new gravity gimmicks (also helps it has a detailed tutorial, thank god). Is it still a good time? Hell yeah.

The gameplay, rather than aiming to enhance on what Riders 1 did, instead aims towards gameplay surrounding the gravity gimmick, and as such has a lot more distinct playing experience from riders 1. While riders 1 gives you a lot of freedom with its air and trick mechanics, ZG is more automated with a bigger emphasis on timing and quick thinking, I would argue. It also has a slower pace going for it (with the gravity gimmicks literally putting you in slow motion for a split second before boosting you off). I feel like for the above reasons there's also a heavier focus on memorizing stage layout to better utilize them.

The story is a little more serious this time with a heavier focus on the babylonians' history this time; the characters are back again, expressive as usual (although a smidge bit less than riders 1 to fit with ZG's tone) and an interesting story, although I do wish there was focus on the characters' rivalries again (besides sonic and jet of course). That said, it's a good time.

The style and vibes are IMMACULATE: ZG has a far more apparent futuristic techno aesthetic, from the menus to the settings to the gears and its all done super well, and its music and sound design is so great and aaa a a aa a I vibe with it so hard.

The main complaints with this game really come down to its gameplay when compared to Riders 1, but even then I'm unsure if I necessarily dislike it more. Both take on a different approach to racing that I just have to switch my mindset depending on which one I'm playing, and I can enjoy both thoroughly. That said, I'm still bummed about some of the changes: air boosting is entirely gone which makes attempts a catch up a little more hard, tricks are automated so you entirely have to rely on jump timing to get good trick scores, e.t.c. e.t.c. ; to put it short, ZG feels more restricted than Riders 1 and while that seemed to be the intention its not one I particularly like.

Regardless, I do think overall ZG's a good fun time :) I'll definitely be replaying it from time to time.

Mario Kart a karşı çıkarılmış gibi dursa da riders serisi Kart dan çok daha farklı oynanış sunuyor. Üstelik çok önemli olmayan bir hikâye moduna da sahip. Hikâye modu her ne kadar cut sceneler arası yarıştan daha fazlası olmasa da oyuna en azından bir amaç katıyor. Başlangıçta biraz uzun bir tutorial sizi beklese de kesinlikle onu yapın yoksa çok sorun yaşıyorsunuz. İlk oyundaki girdap olayı bunda biraz az onun yerine ani drift ve uçma yetenekleriniz var. Mapleri 3-4 oynayışta ezberliyorsunuz bu da kanser olmanızı engelliyor. Kısa bir oyun zaten bence o nedenle bir şans verilebilir.

I love Sonic Riders, ever since my family first got a copy of the Xbox release way back in 2006, and yes while the skill ceiling is very steep as people have often mentioned, what's in store is one of the most addictive and thrilling racing games ever created, and something I always check back and play every now and then cause of it. Alongside the formation of Extreme Gear Labs, a group of dedicated fans and modders creating the DX mod, a multiplayer-oriented overhaul that just recently launched its new update, and it's safe to say it firmly established itself as one of the biggest cult racing games around.

However, while I spent so much time with OG Riders, I never actually spent a lot of it on its sequel here. I can distinctly remember my brothers getting the game on Wii at some point, but for one reason or another gave it away (probably cause of the tilt control BS and we had no idea we could've just swapped it to Gamecube Controller inputs in the options). Thanks to the aforementioned team's custom Dolphin build, I was able to replay the previous game vanilla, as well as finally get my filling of this one with the story mode, two grand prix races, as well as the two Sega-themed tracks, no mission mode since I heard and saw it was largely the same as last time. Overall it's fun, but I'm unfortunately one of THOSE guys that thinks this is a large step back and gross streamlining of what made the original so compelling and unique.

First though, I will say there are definite improvements, or at the very least attractable sidegrades, this has over OG. For starters, and to get it out of the way, the OST is fantastic, easily one of my all time favorites from the blue blur's music repertoire. The previous game's music was already great, but this feels a lot more varied in tone and composition, while still consistently engaging and earworm-inducing, and its main vocal theme, Un-Gravitify is genuinely like top 5 Sonic Vocal theme to me, and I prefer the remix of Catch Me If You Can by a slight margin (and while it's kinda cheating since they're just the instrumentals of the two vocals, even the menu and option music go harder than they needed to). Next, some of the streamlining are admittedly beneficial, such as only needing to jump in the vicinity of a rail to grind on it, and the flight controls being easier to get the hang of, plus I do think the whole type management being done through the actual vehicle instead of character types, while different, is pretty good on its own, especially since there's a decent variety of ones available that have their own sets of available upgrades to make them a bit more standout than just sticking with the default for a majority of the time like in the original.

The campaign this time around is about as entertaining and thrilling as the original. I'm kind of confused when some people say it's more expository by comparison, cause there's only so few additions to the "characters stop and talk about lore" shtick here, though since I did play Jak X a few months back, maybe my standard on how much a racing game is so focused on story has thus shifted. Aesthetically speaking, this doubles down on the techno-future stuff instead of being a mixture of that and the more grounded aspects of the Sonicverse, and though I can see some not being that into it, I think the courses, story places, and overall vibe of it are good and consistent enough to give it its own identity even today. On the note of courses, I'll also say there's at least an attempt to give each one their distinctive flair and mastery of said types to go through the races, and there's some good shit in here like more alternating paths, any sort of items now drop a little more often, and the new Gravity Drop mechanic sometimes leads into new shortcuts with the right finesse and ingenuity, usually during a jump, which gives me the same dopamine feeling as with Generations, and some more impressive setpieces. Though, like I said, sometimes it can do that, and there in-lies the main issue I have with Zero Gravity: the actual meat of the races and course design.

I know OG Riders fan bitch about the over-simplification made to the formula a LOT, but it really does bear mention cause it's incredibly noticeable, even if you didn't dabble that much into the game. Tricks and jumps are now automated with a button press, getting higher and better the closer you are to the edge, which means if you were already good managing jumps in the first game like I was, you'll consistently get AA rank or higher, as well as access a few of the shortcuts those contain, only exception being the X rank cause it's a lot more tighter in where exactly you must press the button in order to get the special animation. And like yea, I guess it being automated is fine, but the trick system from the first game can give you major Air back as well as be consistently satisfying to make it all work, at the very least I would've liken an option to do it all manually, even if it'd be kind of a mess for Wiimote users. Another change I don't like is how corning is done now, you use the aforementioned Gravity Drop mechanic to turn sharp corners instead of a regular drift like before, and for any looser turns you can just do it normally. I REALLY don't like this change, it cuts away the potential for tight turns into a Type path or minimal and quick fixes, as well as the fact controls here feel a smidge more heavy which, while I did get used to, doesn't really sat right with me regardless. It also just hurts the overall course design, cause now there's always gonna be a part where you use the Drop for a corner-turn, which takes this potentially (and as mentioned before, indeed applied) race-defining path management into more of a gimmick than anything.

By far my biggest gripes though, are with the Gravity Dive and its feeling of automation, and how the AI operates. See, the Dive is this game's version of a Boost, so to speak, with the press of a button you glide through the air and have to hit objects to not only go faster, but as well as refill the gauge at the bottom left that lets you do this (as well as the Drop) in the first place. Sounds cool, but it's always, ALWAYS used during straightaways, which are WAY more prevalent than the tight corner issue I have with the Drop by comparison, along with there being little things on the ground during these sections to give you choice as to whether or not it'd be a viable option, which in turn makes this feel so boring and gimmicky. It also leads into the automation issue, while granted this was also present a bit in the first game, it's way more noticeable here due to the two previous issues creating a sense of homogenized track layouts even when I do think each stage are more standout than others, as well as there being instances where you just kinda... do nothing except maybe turn a smidge. I legit spent some amount of time on some tracks not touching the controller, and nothing bad really happened to me. I'm not exactly as picky about this sort of thing like other Sonic fans are, but at the very least I'd like there to be a balance between automated setpieces and input-based satisfaction, and while far from the worst instance of managing the balance, it's still rather lopsided at it, not helping is the fact that, with all this combined, there's little to do in order to play catchup to the competition, meaning if you're not in first, you're more than likely never gonna be able to obtain it. Finally, hot damn the AI here rarely puts up any sort of challenge, a majority of my time has been clearing out the competition within 15-30 seconds ahead of the player from behind. I tend to play racing games solo, so no matter the content I'd like there to be AI that makes me want to get better at the game for various reasons, so I'm pretty bummed I can't even do that here as well.

The last few paragraphs make it sound like I don't like this all that much, but that's not true at all. Despite how glaring those are to me, I can at least say that the positives are pretty favorable, and when it all clicks into place, it CAN be a fun and thrilling racing game on its own. In fact, part of that is what gave me my conclusion once I finished both (and in fairness, definitely better than the original's) Sega-themed courses called 80s Boulevard and 90s Boulevard. After all was said and done, I got the feeling that Sonic Team didn't really know who to make this for. It sands off a lot of the appeal I and others have for OG Riders, and it doesn't really take advantage of its new design and direction that often to slot itself as a standout amongst other casual racing games, let alone the ones Sonic has. Maybe the Regravitified mod the people at EXGL made could fix this, but I haven't dabbled in that yet to really say. Regardless, if you bounced off OG Riders, you could probably enjoy this more, as seen by a couple of other reviewers on this site.

On a more general note about the Riders continuity specifically (I am not playing Free Riders for a long while, especially since I don't even know if I still have my Kinect), I just want to say that man, I wish Sega would free the Babylon Trio from Dropped Character Hell like they did with a couple other characters recently, and utilize them again for something. Between the Main Trio being a close-knitted group going through the toughest of spots together, and Team Dark being a found family bonded together through melancholic backstories, I feel like BT does a good job being around the center spot by being Complete Fucking Dorks.

Ok, I have to ask, did they choose to greatly simplify the mechanics from OG Riders because of the Wii's motion controls, or because people complained about said mechanics after the first game?

Zero Gravity feels like it's on autopilot for the most part, almost braindead. Riders' gameplay wasn't super polished or anything, but drifting, boosting and air management felt pretty good to master. All of those are thrown out the window here in favor of gravity mechanics that seem like they open crazy possibilities on the surface, but don't add much at the end of the day. Stopping everything to reposition yourself in a sharp turn doesn't feel nearly as good as keeping up speed with a tight drift. (I was gonna say "At least it looks pretty cool" but I'm not too sure about that either. It loses its luster after the 30th time you have to use it.)

Track variety isn't much better when compared to the original; honestly, it's a bit worse. The water track is the only one that stood out to me, everything else felt kind of samey. It doesn't help that there are certain parts of the story mode where you're racing by yourself, making these tracks feel even more barren than they would otherwise.

The story is pretty inconsequential again, but the presentation did get an upgrade across the board; in-game models and CG cutscenes all look much better, and the soundtrack is sick. Catch Me If You Can and Ungravitify are super catchy, stage themes weren't bad either, Gigan Rocks being my favorite, and it has one of the best Main Menu themes in any game ever, instantly recognizable and iconic.

It's a shame. Riders had a lot of potential with its gameplay system, and I hoped that Zero Gravity would expand on those ideas, but instead it feels like they got cold feet.