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.
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.
2 Comments
Like I said you'd probably get mileage out of it by comparison, especially since this game actually has tutorials instead of a mismanaged explanation video tucked away (and yea there's the manual, but this was in the early stages of when games were putting those control methods onto the package itself, for better or worse)
FallenGrace
1 year ago