Sonic Riders
ソニックライダーズ
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Hello. I’ve managed to finish watching Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Paramount+, and I have another Sonic game for you which was released in early 2006 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox (as well as the PC in late 2006): Sonic Riders! It’s a racing video game developed by Sonic Team and Now Production and published by Sega. I did not own the game but a friend did on the PlayStation 2 version, as we played the hell out of it. Tomonori Sawada, Fumie Kumatani, and Kenichi Tokoi are the game’s composers.
Gameplay and Characters
Sonic Riders is a racing game based around characters racing each other using devices known as “Extreme Gear”, anti-gravity-equipped vehicles consisting of hoverboards, hover skates, and hoverbikes. Players compete to finish three laps around a racetrack before their opponents and complete the race in first place. Each race features up to eight characters competing. A key component of gameplay is the air tank, displayed in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Air serves as the fuel for Extreme Gear, and is depleted gradually as the race goes on. Characters can also perform a Boost, which will give them a sudden burst of speed at the cost of a significant amount of air. If a player boosts into an opponent, their character will attack and overtake them.
Air is also more quickly spent using techniques like drifting, 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 the edge of ramps. If a player runs out of air, their character will start running on foot; this prevents them from boosting, attacking, cornering easily or using charged jumps. Players can refill their air by using pit stops on the track, which force them to stay in place while their air meter recharges, or performing tricks when jumping off ramps or off an opponent’s slipstream, with higher-rated trick sequences restoring more air. Players can also collect rings scattered across the track; collecting a certain number of rings will cause their character to level up for the remainder of the race, increasing the strength of their abilities and extending their maximum air capacity.
Each of the characters in Sonic Riders has different statistics, altering their performance slightly in races, though some characters are restricted from using certain types of Extreme Gear. Characters are divided into three classes, each with different abilities: Speed characters can grind on rails, Power characters can break certain objects, and Fly characters can fly through boost rings. Each race track features multiple shortcuts that can only be accessed by characters of a specific class. Players can spend the rings they acquire at the in-game shop to purchase new Extreme Gear, each of which possesses unique statistics and properties. The game includes eight unique areas, each with two track variants, for a total of 16 tracks. Only a few tracks are accessible from the start; the remainder are unlocked through game progression.
The game's Story Mode is divided into two campaigns, the events of which intersect with each other: the “Heroes” story, focused on Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles; and the “Babylon” story, focused on new characters Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, and Storm the Albatross. In each campaign, players take part in consecutive races with predetermined characters, and must take first place in each race to continue the story. Completing the Heroes campaign unlocks the Babylon campaign, which includes an epilogue in which the two stories converge. Additionally, players can compete in World Grand Prix mode, in which players race through five consecutive tracks and attempt to get the highest overall score. The game also features a Mission Mode with 100 missions to complete, each of which tasks the players with completing a specific objective within a time limit, such as collecting objects on the track or destroying a certain number of obstacles. Completing each mission awards players a bronze, silver, or gold medal based on the player’s performance; by completing missions, players can unlock new characters and special Extreme Gear. Up to four players can also compete in the game's single race and battle modes.
The game has the following characters (JP = Japanese CV, EN = English CV):
AiAi (Super Monkey Ball series; Kaoru Morota JP)
Amy Rose (Taeko Kawata JP, Lisa Ortiz EN)
Cream the Rabbit (Sayaka Aoki JP, Rebeca Honig EN)
Dr. Eggman (Chikao Otsuka (deceased) JP, Deem Bristow (deceased) gameplay recycled clips EN, Mike Pollock cutscenes EN)
E-10000G (Maddie Blaustein (deceased) EN)
E-10000R (Maddie Blaustein (deceased) EN)
Jet the Hawk (Daisuke Kishio JP, Jason Griffith EN)
Knuckles the Echidna (Nobutoshi Canna JP, Dan Green1 EN)
Miles “Tails” Prower (Ryo Hirohashi JP, Amy Palant EN)
NiGHTS (NiGHTS into dreams…; never speaks in the game)
Rouge the Bat (Rumi Ochiai JP, Kathleen Delaney EN)
Shadow the Hedgehog (Koji Yusa JP, Jason Griffith EN)
Sonic the Hedgehog (Junichi Kanemaru JP, Jason Griffith2 EN)
Storm the Albatross (Kenji Nomura JP, Dan Green EN)
Ulala (Space Channel 5; Apollo Smile EN, “Herself” JP)
Wave the Swallow (Chie Nakamura JP, Erica Schroeder3 EN)
The game has unlockable tracks such as “Sega Carnival,” in which Axel from Crazy Taxi (initially for the arcades and Dreamcast) makes a cameo appearance when the player hitches his taxi, and “Sega Illusion”, which features Space Channel 5 and Chu Chu Rocket!, both of which are Dreamcast games. While this is the second Sonic game that uses 4Kids voice actors after Shadow the Hedgehog, the game’s official website, formerly located at http://sonicriders.com, is no longer available and can only be accessed through the Wayback Machine. The game’s official Japanese website is still up despite the Adobe Flash Player being discontinued in early 2021.
Also known as James “Jay” Snyder (his actual name).
Credited as “J. Griff” in Sonic X’s ending credits.
Also known as Bella Hudson/Berra Hudson.