

The difficulty level isn’t that high, the game usually flashes up an on-screen symbol to tell you when you should perform a jump or a gravity move, and any difficult spots that hold you back are easily remembered and beaten the next time around. Success in the story mode simply requires that you achieve either a certain position or better in the race, or that you beat the required number of laps within a specific time. If you are a fan of the recent Sonic games then you might not find the storyline as uninteresting as I did, fortunately you are able to skip the cut scenes if you find your interest waning (or if you get freaked out by the characters oddly large hands and feet). The first story follows Sonic and his friends as they unravel the mystery behind the meteor pieces that have granted them gravity control, the second follows the same story, but from the perspective of the Babylon Rogues and their leader Jet the hawk.ĭespite good character acting, the storyline itself is quite disposable, the characters just go from one crazy situation to another and always end up having to have a race to resolve their conflicts. There’s quite a lot squeezed into this game – the first thing I did was play both of the single player story modes. Once you’re satisfied you know the controls and you’ve completed the tutorial, you can choose to play one of the many available game modes. You can either hold the wiimote horizontally (twisting forward/backward for speed and tilting left/right for turns), you can hold it like a normal remote (guide an on-screen cursor to control speed/direction) or you can nip into your box of retro gaming periphery and use a Gamecube controller.Įach of the 3 control types have their flaws, when using the horizontal style I found it difficult turn in the right direction and I was constantly losing speed, with the vertical style the cursor can wander off screen which can sometimes cause issues, and the Gamecube pad requires you to push up/down on the stick to accelerate/brake, which interferes with your turning somewhat. Upon starting the game it’s worth taking the time to learn the techniques in the Tutorial mode, as not only are they going to be the bread and butter of how you play, but you’ll also be able to use this time to determine which of the three control styles you hate less. I’ve always been a fan of the Sonic platform games (one of my all time favourite games is Sonic CD), and found that as far as non-realistic racing games go this one wasn’t too bad. Not having played any of the three previous Sonic racing games, I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this title. Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity was released in February for Wii and PS2. Despite an awkward control system, the game boasts a decent mix of tracks, characters and game play modes and is a fairly decent racer with which to pass time until Mario Kart Wii is released. This time around Sonic and friends can increase their speed and manipulate the race track with the help of gravity controls. Sega’s most iconic character has returned with a sequel to 2006’s Sonic Riders.
