@@Penncentral-vr6mg Yes, but the problem is that the game hardly tells you even about the existence of this tutorial movie. So most newcomers are left figuring out a lot on their own just because the game has a tutorial but doesn't bother to tell you that it has one and how to access it. For example, I found out about the tutorial movie *after* beating the Hero story. (Watched tutorials on YT to learn the mechanics cuz I thought there's no tutorial) But the game is amazing once you get a hang of it, the onluly problem being that the game doesn't tell you about it's tutorial unless you go to the extras menu *then* the Theater menu
Riders ' humor is what I prefer if the series wants to be funny sometimes. It exaggerates the characters traits just enough that it doesn't get annoying or make them a continued butt of a joke.
@Janeiro I I feel like Heroes overdid it sometimes (especially regarding Amy and Knuckles) but that might very well be because it came after SA2 where the characters were nowhere near as exaggerated. Nevertheless, Heroes’ characterizations are ATLA compared to whatever the hell the 2010s were doing.
@@rainpooper7088 wait knuckles was exaggerated? Really? I never really felt that, I felt like he was just more energetic in that game. Honestly I feel like knuckles was more exaggerated in riders than in heroes. I don’t really recall knuckles being portrayed as being an idiot or overly angry at everything, although he was portrayed as being a cool older brother type character which I think fits him as long as still has certain things that he’s not cool about and he still gets angry. Also I don’t feel like the way Amy was exaggerated was as bad as people say it is. The only bad line I felt like she had was the “no there’s no way out of marrying me” line which yeah was a bit weird but I felt like the main reason everyone gets on it is because team rose attacked sonic, knuckles and tails after. But in context, that wasn’t the only reason they attacked them. They also believed that sonic had the missing chao and froggy because of that picture. Of course they could’ve done explaining that within the cutscene although that’s a problem with the pacing with all the cg rendered cutscenes most likely due to budget constraints so they had to be really short. I’m not trying to excuse it I’m more trying to explain it.
@@rainpooper7088 lolwut? literally every character in heroes talks so juvenially. at least the 2010s characters speak like actual living beings. heroes dialogue sounds like listening to bad AI chatbots.
@@ctpp64 ehem"no copy right law in the universe is gonna stop me", "bucket of sushi, now with fish", "you the missed the BBBE, the best boss beating ever". Yeah people sure speak like that don't they, and that's form a singular game that just got remastered
In Zero Gravity Jet sounds more unique from Sonic, which is great in scenes where they interact. However, I think I personally like Jet better in the first game, purely because of how silly and crazy his voice was. I loved Jet's unique and hilarious way of speaking, and it's too bad we'll probably never hear his voice again.
I’ve waited for this. They could remaster this game with updated graphics, an online mode, character and extreme gear creation and I’m all over it. No Zero gravity please
I think in my childhood head, I had this headcannon that the Riders games were set in the future when technology has finally caught up to Sonic and he can't outrun things on feet anymore, hence the need for hoverboards and why everything looked so futuristic or even why the Chaos Emerald's looked slightly different in the game. I do find the Babylon Rogues to be really fun rivals to team Sonic and would love to see them outside of the racing games, although that probably would never happen. We do get a taste of them in the IDW comics though which was nice.
I only played it a few months ago but the first riders is pretty solid. Only 2 major issues, the game isn’t good at teaching it’s mechanics and the track variety is lacking. Here they take the act structure for these areas but quite a few of the “2nd acts” are just slightly modified versions of the first track or are otherwise too redundant in look and feel. I love the act structure in the platformers but I think it suffers a lot when applied to a racing game. TSR and Sonic All-Stars Racing had the same problem.
@@windy3935 ...that's exactly the problem. Yes they're not all the same but they end up being similar enough aesthetically that it takes some of the excitement away from the track list as a whole. It's more of an issue with the tracks that were ported from the earlier all-star racing titles though.
@@DesignDoc Now that comment I basically entirely agree with. No exaggerations, and associating the issue moreso with the returning classic stages, which I definitely agree with. It's nice that real effort actually went into remaking them versus their return in Transformed, but it didn't help much the issue mentioned.
I don’t get how the game doesn’t teach you the mechanics when there’s literally a tutorial mode and an instruction booklet. In the video, he said he didn’t know how to create tornadoes but they literally teach you that in the booklet 🤷🏽♂️
I don't like how overtime, the Riders models just became the main series models with extra accessories instead of being exaggerated-just look at Sonic in Riders compared to Free Riders.
I love the cringeworthy cutscenes. It's the best part of this era of the series for me, really. Jet's voice actor is literally perfect and it's a hill I will gladly die on.
@Janeiro I I don't know if "cringy" is the right word. Maybe "campy"? The acting is pretty bad and some of the lines are utterly bizarre, but I find it endearing and endlessly quotable. I don't get the same vibe from Sonic Colors's dialogue, but I'm constantly quoting stuff from the earlier 3D era because there's just so much lovable stupidity.
@Janeiro I There's a lot worse than early 3D Sonic but the line deliveries were very questionable. The voice directing was apparently handled by Japanese people who were trying to direct English speakers, with no proper context of the scenes. It's why we get so many amusing readings like Knuckles's "I'll follow it back to Eggman's base!" and Sonic's "Watch out! You're gonna crash! Ahh!" that remain hilarious to this day. The voice acting is at least charming for me. There's some sort of cheesy, fun energy to it that I just don't get with the games of today.
This game has an unique appeal, i used to play it a lot with my brother and he doesn't even like Sonic games that much, but for the longest time i didn't get very into it since i could never grind on rails, until by pure accident i found out that you need to press jump again to ride them, since that moment i tried to start a new playthrough and i just %100 the game last week Now i can really appreciate the fun story, cool music, way past cool gameplay, the missions and the SEGA Love, seriously, these cameos are great
Apparently the reason they used Bristow's lines instead of Pollock was because Bristow sadly passed away before Riders released. They added them as a tribute.
I have a love-hate relationship with the original Riders, but most of that hate just comes down to me sucking at the game, so I do still enjoy it a lot. I LOVE Zero Gravity though (which may or may not have to do with the fact that it was my first Sonic game), but I'll comment on it more once that video's up!
Sonic Riders 4 having 4 in the title would be acknowledging Free Riders. It should be like Crash 4. Name the new Riders "Sonic Riders 3" or something and casually throw in a joke that makes fun of Free Riders.
@@mr_indie_fan I agree. Literally all they need to do in order to fix Free Riders is to completely get rid of the motion controls entirely and replace them with traditional button and analog controls and fix the story mode by properly animating the cutscenes and have Ian Flynn give better writing for the characters. I also kinda just want the 4kids actors to reprise their roles for Free Riders, but I know that’s just a pipe dream……
"You have to press X a second time to attach to rails" I have put more hours into this game than I care to admit and now I know why it was always such a crapshoot to attach to them. Yeah this game really doesn't teach its mechanics. Great video as always, dude, it's nice to see a good review for a game I've always considered a guilty pleasure.
The most underrated Sonic spinoff ever, i had so much fun with this game as a kid on the ps2, i even did 100%, not only i did all the missions with gold rank but i also got every single board, character and everything in the game. To me, Riders is one of the best and most unique mascot racers ever (just to name it someway) the other favorite one being CTR, which i have to say, Nitro Fueled is even better. I think like CTRNF, Riders deserves some love and a remake, with new characters (Sonic has a lot of characters, they could get up to 100 if they wanted to) and a lot of skins (again, there's a lot of different iterations of the characters, or they can just create new skins for them like CTRNF) and of course, adding a lot of new tracks, maybe inspired in Sonic stages and online. Man, i would buy that game in a second, i miss Riders.
Sonic riders is such an underrated game. I really love aesthetic of these games being flashy and cool and just oozing everything that made sonic cool. I also like the character dynamics with team sonic and the Babylon rouge's.
I’m glad this game is getting some love, several sonic games in general have the potential to be good, but lack polish which I believe comes from poor game development time & management.
I love the Sonic riders series. It captures that signature edge that's been missing throughout the 2010s honestly. Sonic riders zero gravity is my childhood.
I'm not sure if anyone in the comments has ever mentioned this, but the opening for sonic riders was produced by the same people that animated the early Attack on Titan series. I've always appreciated how fluent the motion was and even had thoughts about what if Sonic Riders were to be an anime lol
I was literally playing Sonic Riders just NOW, when this video showed up! Been trying to get Gold ranks on every mission to unlock Super Sonic... Its been super difficult so far...
Good luck! I remember grinding one whole day at college to get him. It took me all day and night. Super Sonic is definitely worth it though! He is a fun character who requires great skill to master despite his access to all three shortcuts.
It's honestly not worth that headache. It's one of those things that you'll unlock once and NEVER want to do again. Super Sonic using rings instead of air absolutely destroys any kind of game breaking fun you could have. I'd much rather have fun with the other 3 SEGA characters you get rewarded for simply beating all the missions. NiGHTS is awesome!
I honestly love this. Easily one of my Sonic Spin-Offs of all time, seeing how this game oozes style and personality (despite the 3D visuals besides the CGI aging) makes me wish we had a proper console Sonic fighting game with a story mode with badass moments. Seeing how this franchise is nowadays I'm happy it'll probably never happen...
The jump ramps you mentioned have two different versions. The curved ramps are the ones that give you height. You pull the control stick backwards on these to gain the height. These ramps are for tricks. The second ramp type are flat ramps, and these are used for distance. These are the ramps you had trouble with. Pushing forward on the stick when jumping off them pushes your character forward, making certain leaps onto otherwise unreachable platforms. These are meant for exploration and gaining distance. If you're pulling back when on these ramps, then that's why you have trouble on them. You're supposed to jump forward on them.
The funny part is the game has a tutorial that is actually pretty decent, but you have to go out of your way to find it. As a kid I would always check out every single menu option so I never considered it to be hidden until now.
Hey, now you're adding midroll commercials in your video, maybe it's a thought to add more natural pauses in your video during editing, because now the midrolls often happen mid sentence, kinda ruining the pacing of your review. Altough the first midroll in this video had perfect timing, right after you called Eggman's plan a failure and he falls on his face. Almost a mike drop moment. Yeah, Sonic Riders. Seems the kind of game I should love, but I could never feel comfortable with it's gameplay style, it just doesn't click. Shame.
Thanks for watching man. I think you are right. I try to do it where the ads break up the different topics, but since I speak really fast, topic transitions are read like any other sentence so there is no break in the action if that makes any sense. Will see what I can do.
@@JsReviews I have to give you major credit for trying. I’ve loved your videos for a long time and midreel interruptions for many other channels are so badly timed. I didn’t know you choose where to put them. Thanks for all your work as always
The more automatic trick system is one of the main reasons I didn’t like zero gravity nearly as much, you just don’t have the control you have in the original.
Same, I liked Zero gravity but it just felt clunkier than this game. So many time I tried doing normal air tricks until it hits me that Zero gravity's gimmick wasn't focused on air tricks anymore, which was a learning curve.
"I can't help but notice how bad the textures held up. Using low poly or just straight up pixelated assets." Interestingly, that's only a fault of the Gamecube version. For some reason they forgot to add texture filtering on that version so it looks worse than all the other versions lol.
@Charles Hastings I play on My Xbox 360(Backwards compatibility) after testing it on the original Xbox and on my Xbox 360 I have 219 hours in and 100% (This game in its best version will never leave me)
I loved the missions! The only problem I had while playing it on PC are knowing its mechanics and how difficult it is to get enough rings to buy new gear.
I actually love this game a lot, it took me a while to start figuring out how to play it properly and learn my way around the mechanics but once I did it was incredibly satisfying. I also remember rarely using the pit stops, and even when I used them I usually only stayed for like a second or two before moving on. If I wasn't at boost lv. 3 I would either keep running anyway and collect more rings to level up and have my air meter auto restore or if someone passed me and the happen to have that wind trail behind them I would use that to keep a decent pace while doing tricks to get some air back. Man I miss this game, I sucked at it at first and after a got better I couldn't get enough of it. An even after all these years I've found out about tricks and mechanics I never knew about before.
This game is one of my favs one of my best memories is staying home from school from a bad fever and playing this game and finally understanding the game mechanics. This game is super fun to explore and discover all the hidden routes and shortcuts. I even found a new one recently at egg man factory this game is a hidden gem that has so many features packed into it !
I remember as a kid i'd go onto the sonic team website near everyday just to watch the trailers and tutorials for this game leading up to release and then I was surprised with my parents when they actually bought this for me out of nowhere on day 1 release. This game truly was a gem and I kinda hate how the sequels just kept moving further and further away from what made this one so good since even though I didn't hate Zero Gravity, even as a kid I felt it was a bit of a step down on the gameplay side of things.
5:40 Mike Pollock actually commented on that line on Twitter a year or so ago. He claimed he was respecting authorial intent when he read the line, and maybe it’s just a bit of extra character for Eggman. Although a translation oddity also seems likely.
Riders hold a special place to me since it was my first Sonic game, when my brother lent a game to a friend and got this in exchange. I revisited the game on PC many years later and decided to become a Sonic fan after that.
"I also had like Gran Turismo... something or other, I don't even know, I never played it, I mean its racing with cars... I don't wanna play that!" Did this man just brush off the greatest racing game of all time? The absolute travesty! I liked this Sonic Riders review
It sure has been a while but I'm glad we're back. Keep it up J and I'm really impressed with the consistent schedule of uploads. I do have to disagree on one thing though. Jason Griffith's Jet is great, but yeah it's better in Zero Gravity. Just like every other character.
Riders is literally the only Sonic game I have ever enjoyed. The sense of speed, skill expression, funny story, visual flare, and even the battle mode all make it so perfect to me. It is super sad it never got a proper sequel. 2006 is literally the best year for Sonic in my eyes because Riders is so much fun to play and Sonic 06 Speedruns/playthroughs are so much fun to watch.
Same, it's also my fav. Didn't play sonic much when i was little. I just sat on the couch and watched my older sibling play it because i was too small to understand the games. However for 4 year old me, sonic riders was my shit. And then i started school and never looked back or cared about sonic. I recently replayed the game and learnt how to actually play it and beat the story, something 4 year old me could not do. 13 years later its still hours of fun. Since i like this game so much i made the mistake of emulating some other games like the classics and I'm just dogshit. So riders is still my favourite for now lmao
Found this video and remembered how much I adored this game as a kid. Bought it again off Amazon and just popped it back in today to see where I left off. Remembered the perfect timing out the gate within 3 races and remembered the majority of the track layouts and the best routes. I even retained the muscle memory for my go-to X rank trick combo. Started working on getting gold on all the missions that kicked my ass as a kid and knocked off 8 of them. Man it feels good to play this game again.
Glad to see so many people enjoy Sonic riders. Some of my fondest childhood memories were playing this game with my cousins for countless hours and we still come back to this game 15 years later as adults :)
2000s nostalgia is going to be the return of sonic because man. If you were there for when basically anything after SA2 released on dreamcast people hated every single release regardless of quality. I can’t believe people love riders/SADX/SA2B again. Ive even seen 06 rehabilitation lol. What a time.
I always felt that the smaller "floatier" jumps played well into the risk/reward you were talking about. If I have a ton of boost left in my guage, I speed over them without jumping. If I need to refill, I'll hit the jump, do the tricks, and get the refill.
@@mason2978 i don't give a damn, i just hate the meta era for the lack of ambitious plots that's all sonic 06 still gives me nightmares tho Elise is the worst thing that i ever saw in sonic...
I remember playing this with my friends when we were still in high school. Playing video games (like this) for hours & then later watching a crappy movie from Blockbuster while eating a Dominos pizza. Those were the days
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is the only Riders game I've ever played, but I absolutely loved and played tf out of it. If anything, it's what brought me back to the Sonic series back when I'd already lost interest.
Also the secret to always get X on ramps is to first start with a back flip/front flip (depending on if you wanna go high or long) and then just hold ether left or right till you go 3 spins then you’ll always get an X rank for maximum air gain (provided that you got enough air time from said ramp of course) I recommend this method cause the tricks last the shortest amount of time, so you wouldn’t be doing any halfway looking flips (don’t know how to better describe it) as well as the fact that your able to land halfway through side flips and still get a ranking instead of a C rank for failing the trick (basically you only have to finish what I believe is 3/4 ish of the side flip to receive your ranking)
My first Sonic racing game was "Sonic R" was fun but when i looked at it from a Sonic story perspective: "What the?! Sonic's on his feet, no one stands a chance but Metal." then Sonic Riders hits almost 10 years later and i went: "This FITs in the story and it feels like something Sonic would do in the spirit of competition and fair game.
You’re confused by Jet the HAWK sounding like a *squawking… bird?* Why *wouldn’t* he sound like that? It’s totally appropriate! It’s Storm and Wave that sound out of place. …it doesn’t help that Wave and Blaze pretty much have no difference in their voices. At least Jason Griffith TRIED to sound different… you know, since he also voices Shadow AND Sonic. Honestly that why I like Jason’s voices compared to the other actors for characters he did. He sounds like he’s *trying.* *cough ROGER *cough
Even though I can definitely hear Sonic, Blaze, and Knuckles in their performances, the Babylon trios' voices are destinct and funny enough that I can distinguish between the characters. I really wouldn't change them at all, they sound great and bounce really well off each other.
Roger Craig Smith is actually pretty good now in my opinion. Yeah he was pretty bad in Colors and Free Riders, but he’s improved a lot over the past decade. I still easily prefer Jason Griffith’s voice, but Roger is definitely not bad anymore.
This game was my childhood. My cousin completely destroyed me on it so I went home went to GameStop and got myself Sonic riders. I played that shit religiously. We'd do 100 lap races that would take almost an hour to complete and lap the NPC's like 50 times. I personally completed and aced every single mission available in game, unlocked all extra characters and gears. And I had a really good 3 lap record of 2 minutes 8 seconds without glitches but sadly I accidentally deleted it and I'm still mad about it to this day. There are only 2 games where I have complete dominance in and that's Sonic riders and Naruto clash of ninja 1 and 2(I know that's 3 but I lumped the Naruto games together). I want to play sonic riders online but I don't know how to mod the GameCube to do that. I used to know people who modded smash bros melee on the GameCube but I never kept in touch with them
Sonic Riders is the only known game where Eggman actually is successful in his quest. Not counting Sonic Forces, since his victory is eventually reversed.
I remember this game featured heavily in a video game/DVD rental commercial back in the day (don't remember the name, but it was a boy who opened it & the dad had a Need for Speed title). I think it goes to show how unique a concept it is. It fits well with how Sonic is/was distinctive in providing a unique take on something popular & doing it with quality art/music/gameplay etc.
One major thing. A lot of these subtle mechanics that you mention, is that it was all explained in the book for the original game. I remember as a kid struggling and when I learned how to read better. It was explained. And I had that a ha moment. It explains grinding, forward,backward jumps, turbulence, tornadoes.
I played this game a lot when I was a kid, I remember after playing for like 2 years, me and a friend tried multiplayer, I was watching his screen and noticed a wind tunnel, and said "that's weird, there isn't supposed to be a wind halfpipe thing there". I had forgotten that other characters create wind trails that you can ride. I was so used to being in 1st the whole time that I forgot a major game mechanic existed lol
Riders is an incredible game. It's got such an attitude and cool vibe to it, and that identity oozes through every aspect of the game. The OST is incredible. The gameplay is fast, rewarding, and feels great to play. And the story is so wack and fun, I love it to death.
Great review, Riders was so much fun! I used to play it non-stop as a kid, collecting the 100-ring box on Splash Canyon over and over again so I could finally buy all the boards in the shop. It's such a shame the series ended because it had so much potential... And the art style for the characters and intro animation had so much personality, it's an even bigger shame they only used it for one game...
I'd love for a Riders HD trilogy game that features all the Riders games - giving Free Riders normal controls instead of Kinnect - and allowing you play on all tracks from each game in either one. So like, you can play Zero G or Free Riders tracks in Riders, or Riders tracks in Zero G, etc, since each game does tweak the mechanics and add new features. And then expanding the character list for all 3 games with characters that had come out since each game's release. And then obviously having a full online mode.
While it has a steep learning curve, actually getting a grip on the little things feels so awarding, like holding up or down in ramps knowingly or tornadoes.
OHH MY GOD!! THANK YOU!! I never knew how to jump higher or further on the ramps to reach the sort cut. That would of helped a lot when I was playing it.
I loved this game. My dad took me to toys r us and I had bday money. He got mad bc I wanted to spend $40 on game instead of getting 2 games! But I think we played sometimes. So much fun. Rest in peace babu
Its so cool to see a bit of a cult following for this game! For me, when I was a kid, I owned and loved this game, I 100% it and played it to death but literally nobody else i knew even knew what it was, it felt as if I was the only person who knew about and enjoyed this game, so its so nice to see it still has a dedicated fan base!
Was just playing this game the other day and I still it’s one of the best racing games I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing, wish the sequels were more like the original. The only 2 faults I can give this game is small track variety and the fact that you bounce of walls like crazy other then that it’s an amazing game and the sequels should have followed the same formula.
Fun fact the studio that animated this game’s opening is Production IG, same studio that worked on Attack on Titan, Ghost in the Shell, Psycho Pass, Kuroko no Basket, and Halo Legends🔥.
The first 2 Sonic riders games are my favorite games from the series! I hope that one day we'll get the 4th instalment or a port of free riders without the motion controls! Also there will be 2 Sonic riders fan games at this year's sage expo which I'm excited for!
@CP D2191 true! The visual novel styled cutscene are definitely a downgrade compared to the GCI ones. To be fair, team Sonic racing has the same problem but the GCI cutscenes really made the stories more interesting to watch. I miss having only GCI and in game animated cutscenes in Sonic games.
@@sonicmaiden2871 Agreed, and the openings of both Free Riders and Team Racing showed that the CGI teams were capable of greatness, but they went underused. I’m also willing to bet Free Riders was rushed so it could be out in time for the Kinect’s launch. Think about it: we didn’t know about the Kinect’s existence until E3 2009, and then Free Riders was released in late 2010. If Sega has just pushed Free Riders’s release into 2011 to give us another game for Sonic’s 20th anniversary, it might still have been mediocre, but it probably would’ve at least worked and have more polish in the cutscenes, gameplay, story, etc, and it probably wouldn’t have killed the Riders series.
@@JdRDMS true! Sonic free riders was released as a launch titles for the Kinect. I don't think that Sega made a good decision by making the 3rd riders instalment on the Kinect tough. The first 2 games were released on Wii, GameCube and ps2 so they should've released the next instalment on the ps3 and Wii u, where the fans of these consoles went. Also the first 2 riders games, especially the first one are more complex than a kart racer so oversimplifying that formula and releasing a broken Kinect game wasn't a good idea either. And you're right! Sega can make some great cg cutscenes! Maybe they went underutilized because of the budget they had for these games or just they rushed the games.
You have a very good point about the game just not having enough content, Team Sonic Racing has the same issue, and while they COULD have made DLC for the game, they didn't for some stupid reason Also allow me to counter the old "why doesn't Sonic just run" meme by directing you to his car description in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, it STATES that Sonic KNOWS he's faster but he CHOOSES to drive in order to make it actually fair. He knows he has an unfair advantage and is choosing not to use it
When I was in elementary school they had a game cube at the pre school daycare. They used to reset the data on it once a week every week so me and all my friends at that time was basically speed run the game to see how far we can get in the story
on the subject of racing games that don't really teach how to play them. My favorite racing game, and what I think is the best racing game ever, F-Zero GX on the GameCube, has no tutorial on all the different ways to adjust your turns so you don't ram into every wall or fly off every cliff. Which is a much bigger deal than in Mario Kart, because if you run out of health, either because you hit too many walls, boosted all your health away, or just straight up got attacked by another racer, you're dead. As in, you're out of the race, start over. It's also got 30 racers per track, and in the Grand Prix, if you finish in 1st, you start the next one 30th (and so on). And then on the second and third laps, you get the ability to drain your health to give yourself a boost.
That makes sense. Just wish they included a dedication. An ‘In Loving Memory to Deem Bristow’ in the credits. I think that would have made the inclusion feel less random. Maybe it’s there and I missed it though.
The Cons: They don't tell you how the game works
The Pros: The game is fucking amazing
Especially once you learn the game
@@dizzyheads its like a smash tier skill ceiling
There is a tutorial movie in the extras menu.
@@Penncentral-vr6mg Yes, but the problem is that the game hardly tells you even about the existence of this tutorial movie.
So most newcomers are left figuring out a lot on their own just because the game has a tutorial but doesn't bother to tell you that it has one and how to access it.
For example, I found out about the tutorial movie *after* beating the Hero story. (Watched tutorials on YT to learn the mechanics cuz I thought there's no tutorial)
But the game is amazing once you get a hang of it, the onluly problem being that the game doesn't tell you about it's tutorial unless you go to the extras menu *then* the Theater menu
If 5 year old me can figure it out and beat the game. Anyone can.
Riders ' humor is what I prefer if the series wants to be funny sometimes. It exaggerates the characters traits just enough that it doesn't get annoying or make them a continued butt of a joke.
@Janeiro I
I feel like Heroes overdid it sometimes (especially regarding Amy and Knuckles) but that might very well be because it came after SA2 where the characters were nowhere near as exaggerated. Nevertheless, Heroes’ characterizations are ATLA compared to whatever the hell the 2010s were doing.
@@rainpooper7088 wait knuckles was exaggerated? Really? I never really felt that, I felt like he was just more energetic in that game. Honestly I feel like knuckles was more exaggerated in riders than in heroes. I don’t really recall knuckles being portrayed as being an idiot or overly angry at everything, although he was portrayed as being a cool older brother type character which I think fits him as long as still has certain things that he’s not cool about and he still gets angry.
Also I don’t feel like the way Amy was exaggerated was as bad as people say it is. The only bad line I felt like she had was the “no there’s no way out of marrying me” line which yeah was a bit weird but I felt like the main reason everyone gets on it is because team rose attacked sonic, knuckles and tails after. But in context, that wasn’t the only reason they attacked them. They also believed that sonic had the missing chao and froggy because of that picture. Of course they could’ve done explaining that within the cutscene although that’s a problem with the pacing with all the cg rendered cutscenes most likely due to budget constraints so they had to be really short. I’m not trying to excuse it I’m more trying to explain it.
@@rainpooper7088 lolwut? literally every character in heroes talks so juvenially. at least the 2010s characters speak like actual living beings. heroes dialogue sounds like listening to bad AI chatbots.
@@ctpp64
The „extra clobbering“ scene begs to differ.
@@ctpp64 ehem"no copy right law in the universe is gonna stop me", "bucket of sushi, now with fish", "you the missed the BBBE, the best boss beating ever". Yeah people sure speak like that don't they, and that's form a singular game that just got remastered
I only wish there were more tracks. But it’s nice to see someone defend this game for once. It’s actually really fun
If you want more, check out Black Mage Benjamin’s (formerly Black Mage Maverick) video. Genuinely underrated RUclipsr, and he likes Sonic Riders too.
For once? I haven't really seen negative reviews on it before, aside from SomeCallMeJohnny.
@@blackdot105 He’s probably referring to blind Dark Age (or post-Genesis Sonic in general) haters or people ignoring it.
there's hate for this game? everywhere I look, everyone is always praising it.
@@JTTestCheck ratings online. It hurt my heart with what they said about the game
I actually like Jason Griffith’s performance as Jet. I think it suits the character really well
Same. He sounds even better in Zero Gravity too.
@@jaydenyugi9034 agree
I like it too.
@@jlev1028 if Jet had a Dreamcast va it couldve been better.
In Zero Gravity Jet sounds more unique from Sonic, which is great in scenes where they interact. However, I think I personally like Jet better in the first game, purely because of how silly and crazy his voice was. I loved Jet's unique and hilarious way of speaking, and it's too bad we'll probably never hear his voice again.
I’ve waited for this. They could remaster this game with updated graphics, an online mode, character and extreme gear creation and I’m all over it. No Zero gravity please
I personally loved zero gravity.
@@crunch1495 Same. I loved Zero Gravity as a kid.
Ngl zero gravity is great in both visual and music
but gameplay wise og riders is still better
@@MikeJr9284 Same
Look at all these people of culture in this comment section 🥲
I think in my childhood head, I had this headcannon that the Riders games were set in the future when technology has finally caught up to Sonic and he can't outrun things on feet anymore, hence the need for hoverboards and why everything looked so futuristic or even why the Chaos Emerald's looked slightly different in the game. I do find the Babylon Rogues to be really fun rivals to team Sonic and would love to see them outside of the racing games, although that probably would never happen. We do get a taste of them in the IDW comics though which was nice.
"CALZONE POACHER!" -jet, the idw comics
I only played it a few months ago but the first riders is pretty solid. Only 2 major issues, the game isn’t good at teaching it’s mechanics and the track variety is lacking. Here they take the act structure for these areas but quite a few of the “2nd acts” are just slightly modified versions of the first track or are otherwise too redundant in look and feel. I love the act structure in the platformers but I think it suffers a lot when applied to a racing game. TSR and Sonic All-Stars Racing had the same problem.
TSR does not have the same problem you described. You generalized it because of off-track environments sharing some of the same assets.
@@windy3935 ...that's exactly the problem. Yes they're not all the same but they end up being similar enough aesthetically that it takes some of the excitement away from the track list as a whole. It's more of an issue with the tracks that were ported from the earlier all-star racing titles though.
@@DesignDoc Now that comment I basically entirely agree with. No exaggerations, and associating the issue moreso with the returning classic stages, which I definitely agree with. It's nice that real effort actually went into remaking them versus their return in Transformed, but it didn't help much the issue mentioned.
I don’t get how the game doesn’t teach you the mechanics when there’s literally a tutorial mode and an instruction booklet. In the video, he said he didn’t know how to create tornadoes but they literally teach you that in the booklet 🤷🏽♂️
Easiest racing game ever lol literally just ride turbolence and boost
I don't like how overtime, the Riders models just became the main series models with extra accessories instead of being exaggerated-just look at Sonic in Riders compared to Free Riders.
I love the cringeworthy cutscenes. It's the best part of this era of the series for me, really. Jet's voice actor is literally perfect and it's a hill I will gladly die on.
@Janeiro I I don't know if "cringy" is the right word. Maybe "campy"? The acting is pretty bad and some of the lines are utterly bizarre, but I find it endearing and endlessly quotable. I don't get the same vibe from Sonic Colors's dialogue, but I'm constantly quoting stuff from the earlier 3D era because there's just so much lovable stupidity.
I wouldn’t say cringey.
@Janeiro I There's a lot worse than early 3D Sonic but the line deliveries were very questionable. The voice directing was apparently handled by Japanese people who were trying to direct English speakers, with no proper context of the scenes. It's why we get so many amusing readings like Knuckles's "I'll follow it back to Eggman's base!" and Sonic's "Watch out! You're gonna crash! Ahh!" that remain hilarious to this day.
The voice acting is at least charming for me. There's some sort of cheesy, fun energy to it that I just don't get with the games of today.
Say what you want but “Even without wings I can. Right?” is that hardest line to be spoken in man’s existence.
Riders was actually one of the first Sonic games I've ever played as a kid.
This game has an unique appeal, i used to play it a lot with my brother and he doesn't even like Sonic games that much, but for the longest time i didn't get very into it since i could never grind on rails, until by pure accident i found out that you need to press jump again to ride them, since that moment i tried to start a new playthrough and i just %100 the game last week
Now i can really appreciate the fun story, cool music, way past cool gameplay, the missions and the SEGA Love, seriously, these cameos are great
Apparently the reason they used Bristow's lines instead of Pollock was because Bristow sadly passed away before Riders released.
They added them as a tribute.
I have a love-hate relationship with the original Riders, but most of that hate just comes down to me sucking at the game, so I do still enjoy it a lot. I LOVE Zero Gravity though (which may or may not have to do with the fact that it was my first Sonic game), but I'll comment on it more once that video's up!
It is such a shame that Free Riders practically killed the Sonic Riders series. I’m still hoping for a potential Sonic Riders 4 to this day………
Sonic Riders 4 having 4 in the title would be acknowledging Free Riders. It should be like Crash 4. Name the new Riders "Sonic Riders 3" or something and casually throw in a joke that makes fun of Free Riders.
A remastered collection of all 3 games that fixes free riders problems would probably be better.
@@mr_indie_fan I agree. Literally all they need to do in order to fix Free Riders is to completely get rid of the motion controls entirely and replace them with traditional button and analog controls and fix the story mode by properly animating the cutscenes and have Ian Flynn give better writing for the characters. I also kinda just want the 4kids actors to reprise their roles for Free Riders, but I know that’s just a pipe dream……
The Riders Art is truly amazing and looks quite similar to the Sonic Battle style, which I also love too.
"You have to press X a second time to attach to rails" I have put more hours into this game than I care to admit and now I know why it was always such a crapshoot to attach to them. Yeah this game really doesn't teach its mechanics. Great video as always, dude, it's nice to see a good review for a game I've always considered a guilty pleasure.
The most underrated Sonic spinoff ever, i had so much fun with this game as a kid on the ps2, i even did 100%, not only i did all the missions with gold rank but i also got every single board, character and everything in the game.
To me, Riders is one of the best and most unique mascot racers ever (just to name it someway) the other favorite one being CTR, which i have to say, Nitro Fueled is even better. I think like CTRNF, Riders deserves some love and a remake, with new characters (Sonic has a lot of characters, they could get up to 100 if they wanted to) and a lot of skins (again, there's a lot of different iterations of the characters, or they can just create new skins for them like CTRNF) and of course, adding a lot of new tracks, maybe inspired in Sonic stages and online. Man, i would buy that game in a second, i miss Riders.
Sonic riders is such an underrated game.
I really love aesthetic of these games being flashy and cool and just oozing everything that made sonic cool.
I also like the character dynamics with team sonic and the Babylon rouge's.
Man I was never a fan of racing games, but something about sonic with a flying skateboard really clicked with me when I was a kid, loved this game
Sonic Riders DX Dev here! Thanks for the mention! I've been waiting for your take on this series.
I’m glad this game is getting some love, several sonic games in general have the potential to be good, but lack polish which I believe comes from poor game development time & management.
06 is a perfect example of this
I love the Sonic riders series. It captures that signature edge that's been missing throughout the 2010s honestly. Sonic riders zero gravity is my childhood.
This game is amazing, in fact, it's so loved that to this day it still has a competitive scene.
I'm not sure if anyone in the comments has ever mentioned this, but the opening for sonic riders was produced by the same people that animated the early Attack on Titan series. I've always appreciated how fluent the motion was and even had thoughts about what if Sonic Riders were to be an anime lol
I think Deem Bristow’s clips were put in as a tribute, as he died the previous year.
I was literally playing Sonic Riders just NOW, when this video showed up! Been trying to get Gold ranks on every mission to unlock Super Sonic... Its been super difficult so far...
Good luck! I remember grinding one whole day at college to get him. It took me all day and night.
Super Sonic is definitely worth it though! He is a fun character who requires great skill to master despite his access to all three shortcuts.
It's honestly not worth that headache. It's one of those things that you'll unlock once and NEVER want to do again. Super Sonic using rings instead of air absolutely destroys any kind of game breaking fun you could have. I'd much rather have fun with the other 3 SEGA characters you get rewarded for simply beating all the missions. NiGHTS is awesome!
Ya I did it a few months ago, I hope you luck in your endeavours
Funny enough, Sonic Riders was my very first Sonic game that I owned and played. I didn’t unlock all the characters though and the SEGA themed tracks
I honestly love this. Easily one of my Sonic Spin-Offs of all time, seeing how this game oozes style and personality (despite the 3D visuals besides the CGI aging) makes me wish we had a proper console Sonic fighting game with a story mode with badass moments. Seeing how this franchise is nowadays I'm happy it'll probably never happen...
The jump ramps you mentioned have two different versions.
The curved ramps are the ones that give you height. You pull the control stick backwards on these to gain the height. These ramps are for tricks.
The second ramp type are flat ramps, and these are used for distance. These are the ramps you had trouble with. Pushing forward on the stick when jumping off them pushes your character forward, making certain leaps onto otherwise unreachable platforms. These are meant for exploration and gaining distance. If you're pulling back when on these ramps, then that's why you have trouble on them. You're supposed to jump forward on them.
The funny part is the game has a tutorial that is actually pretty decent, but you have to go out of your way to find it. As a kid I would always check out every single menu option so I never considered it to be hidden until now.
Farting on people with Robotnik's level 3 was hilarious and the only reason I played as him.
I kinda want a game in the cel shaded animation style of the art. Like, that art is so slick.
Hey, now you're adding midroll commercials in your video, maybe it's a thought to add more natural pauses in your video during editing, because now the midrolls often happen mid sentence, kinda ruining the pacing of your review.
Altough the first midroll in this video had perfect timing, right after you called Eggman's plan a failure and he falls on his face. Almost a mike drop moment.
Yeah, Sonic Riders. Seems the kind of game I should love, but I could never feel comfortable with it's gameplay style, it just doesn't click. Shame.
Thanks for watching man. I think you are right. I try to do it where the ads break up the different topics, but since I speak really fast, topic transitions are read like any other sentence so there is no break in the action if that makes any sense. Will see what I can do.
@@JsReviews I have to give you major credit for trying. I’ve loved your videos for a long time and midreel interruptions for many other channels are so badly timed. I didn’t know you choose where to put them. Thanks for all your work as always
The more automatic trick system is one of the main reasons I didn’t like zero gravity nearly as much, you just don’t have the control you have in the original.
Same, I liked Zero gravity but it just felt clunkier than this game. So many time I tried doing normal air tricks until it hits me that Zero gravity's gimmick wasn't focused on air tricks anymore, which was a learning curve.
Sonic Riders 1 is still my favourite game in the series, despite some of its flaws, I had so fun with this on the PS2
"I can't help but notice how bad the textures held up. Using low poly or just straight up pixelated assets."
Interestingly, that's only a fault of the Gamecube version. For some reason they forgot to add texture filtering on that version so it looks worse than all the other versions lol.
That’s why I prefer the Xbox version
PS2 version look worse though and low poly Characters and Gear
@Charles Hastings I play on My Xbox 360(Backwards compatibility) after testing it on the original Xbox and on my Xbox 360 I have 219 hours in and 100% (This game in its best version will never leave me)
I miss this game SO much. It was one of my favorite Sonic games. Legit my try out the ones you mentioned towards the end
I loved the missions! The only problem I had while playing it on PC are knowing its mechanics and how difficult it is to get enough rings to buy new gear.
I actually love this game a lot, it took me a while to start figuring out how to play it properly and learn my way around the mechanics but once I did it was incredibly satisfying. I also remember rarely using the pit stops, and even when I used them I usually only stayed for like a second or two before moving on. If I wasn't at boost lv. 3 I would either keep running anyway and collect more rings to level up and have my air meter auto restore or if someone passed me and the happen to have that wind trail behind them I would use that to keep a decent pace while doing tricks to get some air back. Man I miss this game, I sucked at it at first and after a got better I couldn't get enough of it. An even after all these years I've found out about tricks and mechanics I never knew about before.
This game is one of my favs one of my best memories is staying home from school from a bad fever and playing this game and finally understanding the game mechanics.
This game is super fun to explore and discover all the hidden routes and shortcuts. I even found a new one recently at egg man factory this game is a hidden gem that has so many features packed into it !
I remember as a kid i'd go onto the sonic team website near everyday just to watch the trailers and tutorials for this game leading up to release and then I was surprised with my parents when they actually bought this for me out of nowhere on day 1 release. This game truly was a gem and I kinda hate how the sequels just kept moving further and further away from what made this one so good since even though I didn't hate Zero Gravity, even as a kid I felt it was a bit of a step down on the gameplay side of things.
5:40 Mike Pollock actually commented on that line on Twitter a year or so ago. He claimed he was respecting authorial intent when he read the line, and maybe it’s just a bit of extra character for Eggman. Although a translation oddity also seems likely.
Riders hold a special place to me since it was my first Sonic game, when my brother lent a game to a friend and got this in exchange. I revisited the game on PC many years later and decided to become a Sonic fan after that.
"I also had like Gran Turismo... something or other, I don't even know, I never played it, I mean its racing with cars... I don't wanna play that!"
Did this man just brush off the greatest racing game of all time? The absolute travesty!
I liked this Sonic Riders review
Great review, I remember buying this game from my school’s scholastic book fair in third grade lmao Aah the memories.
It sure has been a while but I'm glad we're back. Keep it up J and I'm really impressed with the consistent schedule of uploads.
I do have to disagree on one thing though. Jason Griffith's Jet is great, but yeah it's better in Zero Gravity. Just like every other character.
And this is what mostly filled up my early child with the Wii. Un gravitify and the OP of Riders are still a banger to this day.
Riders is literally the only Sonic game I have ever enjoyed. The sense of speed, skill expression, funny story, visual flare, and even the battle mode all make it so perfect to me. It is super sad it never got a proper sequel.
2006 is literally the best year for Sonic in my eyes because Riders is so much fun to play and Sonic 06 Speedruns/playthroughs are so much fun to watch.
Same, it's also my fav. Didn't play sonic much when i was little. I just sat on the couch and watched my older sibling play it because i was too small to understand the games. However for 4 year old me, sonic riders was my shit. And then i started school and never looked back or cared about sonic. I recently replayed the game and learnt how to actually play it and beat the story, something 4 year old me could not do. 13 years later its still hours of fun. Since i like this game so much i made the mistake of emulating some other games like the classics and I'm just dogshit. So riders is still my favourite for now lmao
Found this video and remembered how much I adored this game as a kid. Bought it again off Amazon and just popped it back in today to see where I left off. Remembered the perfect timing out the gate within 3 races and remembered the majority of the track layouts and the best routes. I even retained the muscle memory for my go-to X rank trick combo. Started working on getting gold on all the missions that kicked my ass as a kid and knocked off 8 of them. Man it feels good to play this game again.
Riders 1 is easily a top 5 Sonic game for me, let alone a solid contender for my favorite racing game. Great review!
Glad to see so many people enjoy Sonic riders. Some of my fondest childhood memories were playing this game with my cousins for countless hours and we still come back to this game 15 years later as adults :)
2000s nostalgia is going to be the return of sonic because man. If you were there for when basically anything after SA2 released on dreamcast people hated every single release regardless of quality. I can’t believe people love riders/SADX/SA2B again. Ive even seen 06 rehabilitation lol. What a time.
Not just a race… But a SPECIAL RACE to see who’s the fastest!
I can’t express how much I want the sonic riders games to come back
I always felt that the smaller "floatier" jumps played well into the risk/reward you were talking about. If I have a ton of boost left in my guage, I speed over them without jumping. If I need to refill, I'll hit the jump, do the tricks, and get the refill.
"Sonic Riders The PERFECT Spin Off"
that's a based AF statement
U mean biased?
@@tyrone2423 Nope. He meant based.
why does the dark age get so much praise? it's not even good.
Riders and Riders Zero Gravity are good games tho.
@@mason2978 i don't give a damn, i just hate the meta era for the lack of ambitious plots that's all
sonic 06 still gives me nightmares tho
Elise is the worst thing that i ever saw in sonic...
One of my favourite racing games.
I remember playing this with my friends when we were still in high school. Playing video games (like this) for hours & then later watching a crappy movie from Blockbuster while eating a Dominos pizza. Those were the days
Ngl this is one of those games I just flat out ignored but it looks like a good time
I would love a sequel to this game. The concept is fantastic, it just needs some improvement. The sequels just became more gimmicky.
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is the only Riders game I've ever played, but I absolutely loved and played tf out of it. If anything, it's what brought me back to the Sonic series back when I'd already lost interest.
This is my favourite sonic spin off and I didnt know about the tornado or holding forward and back gives distance and height on jumps!
Wow.
Also the secret to always get X on ramps is to first start with a back flip/front flip (depending on if you wanna go high or long) and then just hold ether left or right till you go 3 spins then you’ll always get an X rank for maximum air gain (provided that you got enough air time from said ramp of course) I recommend this method cause the tricks last the shortest amount of time, so you wouldn’t be doing any halfway looking flips (don’t know how to better describe it) as well as the fact that your able to land halfway through side flips and still get a ranking instead of a C rank for failing the trick (basically you only have to finish what I believe is 3/4 ish of the side flip to receive your ranking)
My first Sonic racing game was "Sonic R" was fun but when i looked at it from a Sonic story perspective: "What the?! Sonic's on his feet, no one stands a chance but Metal." then Sonic Riders hits almost 10 years later and i went: "This FITs in the story and it feels like something Sonic would do in the spirit of competition and fair game.
You’re confused by Jet the HAWK sounding like a *squawking… bird?*
Why *wouldn’t* he sound like that? It’s totally appropriate!
It’s Storm and Wave that sound out of place.
…it doesn’t help that Wave and Blaze pretty much have no difference in their voices.
At least Jason Griffith TRIED to sound different… you know, since he also voices Shadow AND Sonic.
Honestly that why I like Jason’s voices compared to the other actors for characters he did.
He sounds like he’s *trying.* *cough ROGER *cough
Even though I can definitely hear Sonic, Blaze, and Knuckles in their performances, the Babylon trios' voices are destinct and funny enough that I can distinguish between the characters. I really wouldn't change them at all, they sound great and bounce really well off each other.
Roger Craig Smith is actually pretty good now in my opinion. Yeah he was pretty bad in Colors and Free Riders, but he’s improved a lot over the past decade. I still easily prefer Jason Griffith’s voice, but Roger is definitely not bad anymore.
It’s kinda weird that we went from Secret Rings, Unleashed, Black Knight, and all the way back to Riders again lol
well he did rivals after Black Knight
This game was my childhood. My cousin completely destroyed me on it so I went home went to GameStop and got myself Sonic riders. I played that shit religiously. We'd do 100 lap races that would take almost an hour to complete and lap the NPC's like 50 times. I personally completed and aced every single mission available in game, unlocked all extra characters and gears. And I had a really good 3 lap record of 2 minutes 8 seconds without glitches but sadly I accidentally deleted it and I'm still mad about it to this day. There are only 2 games where I have complete dominance in and that's Sonic riders and Naruto clash of ninja 1 and 2(I know that's 3 but I lumped the Naruto games together). I want to play sonic riders online but I don't know how to mod the GameCube to do that. I used to know people who modded smash bros melee on the GameCube but I never kept in touch with them
Sonic Riders is the only known game where Eggman actually is successful in his quest.
Not counting Sonic Forces, since his victory is eventually reversed.
I look forward to you playing free riders. It. Will. Be. Ragetastic.
Its gonna be just a five second video showing words "fuck you im not playing free riders"
The most fun racing game alive ever played. With the best announcer
Pretty sweet video dude
I remember this game featured heavily in a video game/DVD rental commercial back in the day (don't remember the name, but it was a boy who opened it & the dad had a Need for Speed title). I think it goes to show how unique a concept it is. It fits well with how Sonic is/was distinctive in providing a unique take on something popular & doing it with quality art/music/gameplay etc.
One major thing. A lot of these subtle mechanics that you mention, is that it was all explained in the book for the original game. I remember as a kid struggling and when I learned how to read better. It was explained. And I had that a ha moment. It explains grinding, forward,backward jumps, turbulence, tornadoes.
I heard Jason Griffith as Jet and it sounds like sonic just started going through puberty
I played this game a lot when I was a kid, I remember after playing for like 2 years, me and a friend tried multiplayer, I was watching his screen and noticed a wind tunnel, and said "that's weird, there isn't supposed to be a wind halfpipe thing there". I had forgotten that other characters create wind trails that you can ride. I was so used to being in 1st the whole time that I forgot a major game mechanic existed lol
5:30 Story of the entire industry. I've listened to fan translations that put most of these so-called professionals to shame.
Riders is an incredible game. It's got such an attitude and cool vibe to it, and that identity oozes through every aspect of the game. The OST is incredible. The gameplay is fast, rewarding, and feels great to play. And the story is so wack and fun, I love it to death.
Great review, Riders was so much fun! I used to play it non-stop as a kid, collecting the 100-ring box on Splash Canyon over and over again so I could finally buy all the boards in the shop. It's such a shame the series ended because it had so much potential... And the art style for the characters and intro animation had so much personality, it's an even bigger shame they only used it for one game...
I'd love for a Riders HD trilogy game that features all the Riders games - giving Free Riders normal controls instead of Kinnect - and allowing you play on all tracks from each game in either one. So like, you can play Zero G or Free Riders tracks in Riders, or Riders tracks in Zero G, etc, since each game does tweak the mechanics and add new features. And then expanding the character list for all 3 games with characters that had come out since each game's release. And then obviously having a full online mode.
While it has a steep learning curve, actually getting a grip on the little things feels so awarding, like holding up or down in ramps knowingly or tornadoes.
OHH MY GOD!! THANK YOU!! I never knew how to jump higher or further on the ramps to reach the sort cut. That would of helped a lot when I was playing it.
I loved this game. My dad took me to toys r us and I had bday money. He got mad bc I wanted to spend $40 on game instead of getting 2 games! But I think we played sometimes. So much fun. Rest in peace babu
spin off? its better than most of the mainline games ngl.
Sonic Riders and F Zero GX were the most innovative racing games we seen in the last 20 years.
This is my favorite racing game of all time.
I watched so many of your videos when i was first getting into sonic that your voice is just the voice i associate with sonic videos in my head now
This game is top tier, I just stream both sides. Couldn’t get pass the second game, but we won’t talk about it
Its so cool to see a bit of a cult following for this game! For me, when I was a kid, I owned and loved this game, I 100% it and played it to death but literally nobody else i knew even knew what it was, it felt as if I was the only person who knew about and enjoyed this game, so its so nice to see it still has a dedicated fan base!
Was just playing this game the other day and I still it’s one of the best racing games I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing, wish the sequels were more like the original. The only 2 faults I can give this game is small track variety and the fact that you bounce of walls like crazy other then that it’s an amazing game and the sequels should have followed the same formula.
Apparently the animated intro for Riders was animated by the same team that animated Attack on Titan :0
Jak x and sonic riders - the 2 spinoff games that made it feel cool to race and use cars.
Obviously riders doesn't use cars but you get my point.
Seeing this unlocked a memory I didn’t know I had , this game was my childhood
Fun fact the studio that animated this game’s opening is Production IG, same studio that worked on Attack on Titan, Ghost in the Shell, Psycho Pass, Kuroko no Basket, and Halo Legends🔥.
The first 2 Sonic riders games are my favorite games from the series! I hope that one day we'll get the 4th instalment or a port of free riders without the motion controls!
Also there will be 2 Sonic riders fan games at this year's sage expo which I'm excited for!
@CP D2191 true! The visual novel styled cutscene are definitely a downgrade compared to the GCI ones. To be fair, team Sonic racing has the same problem but the GCI cutscenes really made the stories more interesting to watch. I miss having only GCI and in game animated cutscenes in Sonic games.
@@sonicmaiden2871 Agreed, and the openings of both Free Riders and Team Racing showed that the CGI teams were capable of greatness, but they went underused. I’m also willing to bet Free Riders was rushed so it could be out in time for the Kinect’s launch. Think about it: we didn’t know about the Kinect’s existence until E3 2009, and then Free Riders was released in late 2010. If Sega has just pushed Free Riders’s release into 2011 to give us another game for Sonic’s 20th anniversary, it might still have been mediocre, but it probably would’ve at least worked and have more polish in the cutscenes, gameplay, story, etc, and it probably wouldn’t have killed the Riders series.
@@JdRDMS true!
Sonic free riders was released as a launch titles for the Kinect.
I don't think that Sega made a good decision by making the 3rd riders instalment on the Kinect tough. The first 2 games were released on Wii, GameCube and ps2 so they should've released the next instalment on the ps3 and Wii u, where the fans of these consoles went.
Also the first 2 riders games, especially the first one are more complex than a kart racer so oversimplifying that formula and releasing a broken Kinect game wasn't a good idea either.
And you're right! Sega can make some great cg cutscenes! Maybe they went underutilized because of the budget they had for these games or just they rushed the games.
You have a very good point about the game just not having enough content, Team Sonic Racing has the same issue, and while they COULD have made DLC for the game, they didn't for some stupid reason
Also allow me to counter the old "why doesn't Sonic just run" meme by directing you to his car description in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, it STATES that Sonic KNOWS he's faster but he CHOOSES to drive in order to make it actually fair. He knows he has an unfair advantage and is choosing not to use it
When I was in elementary school they had a game cube at the pre school daycare. They used to reset the data on it once a week every week so me and all my friends at that time was basically speed run the game to see how far we can get in the story
on the subject of racing games that don't really teach how to play them. My favorite racing game, and what I think is the best racing game ever, F-Zero GX on the GameCube, has no tutorial on all the different ways to adjust your turns so you don't ram into every wall or fly off every cliff. Which is a much bigger deal than in Mario Kart, because if you run out of health, either because you hit too many walls, boosted all your health away, or just straight up got attacked by another racer, you're dead. As in, you're out of the race, start over. It's also got 30 racers per track, and in the Grand Prix, if you finish in 1st, you start the next one 30th (and so on). And then on the second and third laps, you get the ability to drain your health to give yourself a boost.
About the two different Eggman voices, the reason why they kept the first Eggman’s voice actor in was for a way to honor him after he passed away
That makes sense. Just wish they included a dedication. An ‘In Loving Memory to Deem Bristow’ in the credits. I think that would have made the inclusion feel less random. Maybe it’s there and I missed it though.
one of my favorite games as a kid glad im seeing more people talking about it
I'm suddenly realizing (now that you mentioned it) I spent so many hours on this game and never even touched the story mode.