Sonic Riders, The official topic(Picture-heavy) Options

[RocketDarkness]

First up, box and character art for Team Sonic and the new guys:


Sonic
Tails
Knuckles
Storm
Wave
Jet

Ryo's Scan


17 Playable Characters
1) Sonic
2) Tails
3) Knuckles
4) Jet
5) Wave
6) Storm
7) Amy
8) Robotnik
9) Cream
10) Shadow
11) Rouge

Tracks
1. Metal City
2. Splash Canyon
3. Egg Factory
4. Green Cave
5. Sand Ruins
6. Babylon Garden

Next up, game story and character backgrounds (IGN):

In the inky blank night of Metal City, Sonic and his friends uncover a valuable Chaos Emerald. As they stand admiring the glittering jewel, three mysterious air boarders appear out of nowhere and snatch the precious gem. As they jet off however, one of the boarders drops his board. Sonic climbs aboard without thinking and takes off in hot pursuit, but unfamiliar with riding, he loses his footing and they get away.

The next day in Metal City Plaza, Sonic and his friends are puzzled by the crowds, but a familiar voice on the intercom quickly brings a scowl to Sonic's face.

"What's he up to now?" Sonic grumbles as Dr. Eggman announces his search for the fastest extreme gear rider in his very own 'Ex World Grand Prix!'

Sonic turns to leave when the three thieves appear and Sonic's attitude changes.

"Let's do it!" exclaims Sonic.

Sonic
We all know Sonic is fast, but how fast can he board? In this race unlike any other, he must pit himself against the worlds' best riders, but Sonic wouldn't have it any other way if it means Eggman will fail. Though Sonic is usually friendly and easy going, he locks down his focus like a hedgehog possessed to give it everything he's got.

Miles "Tails" Prower
Tails the two-tailed fox loves coming up with new contraptions to help his best buddy, Sonic, foil Eggman's plans. With his mechanical talents, Tails helps the Hero Team stay on track.

Knuckles the Echidna
With temper intact, Knuckles is as aggressive as ever, and ready to show Eggman he can't be fooled … again. After he puts Eggman to shame, he'll head home to Angel Island to resume his watch over the precious Master Emerald.

Jet the Hawk
Has Sonic finally met his match? This mysterious new character is widely known as the "Legendary Wind Master" due to his impressive Extreme Gear skills. He leads a talented group of thieves known as the Babylon Rogues and he carries a mysterious control box, said to have been passed down from the Ancient Babylonians.

Wave the Swallow
This stealthy swallow is a mechanical genius and Extreme Gear is her specialty. While Tails and Eggman are among the best, Wave's skills leave them far behind.

Storm the Albatross
This power-packed force of nature is Jet's right hand man and the muscle behind the Babylon Rogues. He has a quick temper and may stutter when he's flustered, but if you're quick, you can outrun him since he's stronger than he is fast.

Now for videos:
Anime Intro Video (IGN) (Sega FTP)
Sonic Riders CG Trailer(darkshadow)
Sonic in Metal City
Amy in Metal City
Eggman, Green Cave
Gameplay Basics Tutorial

Impressions: Looking fantastic. Sonic's got the spin dash as his Boost method, pretty sweet. Lots of classic items, such as invincibility and lightning shield. Level design looks very nice, catchy music. Amy + Electified fence = hilarity. The trick system looks a bit more fleshed out than what IGN was saying. And the turbulence drifing looks extremely cool.

Gameplay Basics & Impressions (12/9)
Wow, the mechanics in this game officially rock.

Sharp Turn: Hold down the Left or Right shoulder button and turn. Voila. A racing game standard.

Quick Start: Almost every racing game has some way of getting a boost off the starting line. Riders' involves an electric fence. The characters start out in a line, with an electric fence a few feet ahead of them. You can move forward and backwards during this time, and the goal is to get as much momentum as possible without running into the electric fence (which, obviously, cuts out when the timer reaches 0). Hit it, and you get stunned until the race starts.

Air: Your board is fueled by air. Every time you boost or do certain other moves, your air meter depletes. When out of air, your character has to run along the ground, drastically reducing your speed. You can refuel by doing tricks and going into air refuel stations.

Tricks: A method of refueling your air, and they plain just look cool. Instead of giving you massive trick customization, the trick system is actually quite simple. When approaching jumps, hold down the jump button, then release at the edge of the jump to trick. Depending on how good your timing was (and thus, how good your tricks and landing were), you'll get back air for your air meter.

Turbulence: Every racer creates a turbulence field (of wind, obviously) behind them. Racers who are trailing behind can maneuver themselves into the turbulence then "ride" it with a back and forth sort of halfpipe motion, you can even do tricks while within the wind halfpipe.

The Tornado: The counter to turbulence riders. When an opponent is riding your turbulence, you can execute this attack by pressing both shoulder buttons together, which uses up some of your air, in an attempt to counter. Your character does a quick 360, creating a massive tornado that will suck up anyone too close on your tail.

Note: All 3 of the Type-specific abilities restore Air
Grinding: For speed-types only. Jump onto rails, then hold down the jump button to grind. Self explanatory.

Floating: Flight-type only. A gentle up and down motion on the control stick will allow you to float great distances. Useful for shortcuts andother such things.

Punching: Power-type only. Run into obstacles and your character will knock them out of the way if possible. You get air for hitting things out of the way.

Japanese Website
キャラクター: Images of all the characters, plus 4 in-game screenshots each..

コース： The Japanese site has awesome 3D maps of six tracks, complete with 3 little dots racing around and markers that you can click on to see some of the cool stuff on the course.

This post has been edited by RocketDarkness: Feb 2 2006, 10:10:36 PM

[Yellow Comet Gru...]

I thought it was 360 only? oh well, i don't like the birdy people plus if shadows on it, then all noobs will be him if its online.

[Fedùle]

The sequel will be for the next gen consoles, and I'm fairly certain it's not online.

[Yellow Comet Gru...]

^Good no noobs, but i don't know why but i can just sense those bird guys are gonna be annoyingly good and have awful catch phrases.
*shudder*

This post has been edited by Yellow Comet Grunt: Dec 11 2005, 10:35:17 AM

[Yellow Comet Gru...]

What the? double post?

This post has been edited by Yellow Comet Grunt: Dec 11 2005, 10:34:57 AM

[Kosheh]

If I get that game, I'm always playing as Amy. Dx
Or, I'll play as Cream for annoying-factor.

For some reason, I'm scared for this game to come out.

SONIC HAS FINALLY MET HIS MATCH.


IT IS A BIRD.
OH NO!
What the hell ever happened to Bean? He was awesome as...as pie. Bean ran circles around everyone with his scarf and his bomb skills. Yeah. D:<
Bean > Sonic > everyone else

[Howl-Z]

What's with all this O LOL JET IZ BETAR TAN SONIK AND WAEV IS SMATR TAN EGAMN junk? If you think Sonic is a bad design Naka why not just scrap him and invent your own series? If not, sit down and stop trying to obsolete established characters.

[Kosheh]

What's with all this O LOL JET IZ BETAR TAN SONIK AND WAEV IS SMATR TAN EGAMN junk? If you think Sonic is a bad design Naka why not just scrap him and invent your own series? If not, sit down and stop trying to obsolete established characters.

Yep, and at this point, keep an eye out for the new Sega title JET THE HAWK where it's JET VS EVERYONE IN THE WORLD INCLUDING SHADOW, THE CURRENT BAD BOY OF SEGA. FEATURING WAVE THE BOMB EXPERT AND STORM, THE POWERHOUSE BODYGUARD WHEN JET ENTERS THE NIGHTCLUB.

THE BALLIN' BEGINS
JUNE 2008

Actually, I could see Sonic fighting a black hedgehog with a sinister grin, rather than a green hawk. I mean, out of all the inspiration they pull out of their ears, where in the WORLD did they pull a green hawk out of? XD
And I find it kind of humorous that they can take characters like Wave, Jet, and Storm, draw them on the storyboard, and just throw a beak on them and BAM it's a bird. Last time I checked, birds didn't have hands. XD

...

And if this had a little more dose of realism, couldn't that Rogue team just throw their gloves off and fly through the levels instead? >>;

This post has been edited by kosheh: Dec 6 2005, 10:31:43 AM

[RocketDarkness]

You really think a bird can fly faster than a tweaked-out hoverboard?

[Spazoid]

DAMN YOU ROCKET!!!!! You beat me to it!! LOL!

Anyway, they annoced that their would be MANY sequels.....

"Sonic Riders is also going to have some sequels, which will appear on next generation consoles. We're also trying to see if we can come up with more Sonic franchises - not just racing games like Riders - but other ideas as well, something suitable for fans." This may leave an unsettling taste in the collective mouths of some, with the recent atrocious whoring of Sonic's once-rival, Mario. Yuda reckons we won't be veering into territory too far removed from the blue blur's character though. "I don't think there will be a Sonic Golf, for example..."

All and all, The game looks great, But I can't view any of the movies you posted Rocket..........

[RocketDarkness]

Try right-click saving them, there's a link underneath the little video box on the websites.

[Illidan37]

God, no. This game is looiing wose than ever. That's it. Sega, stop killing Sonic and bring back the Shadow we all know and love.

[RocketDarkness]

Apparently the anime intro is done by Production I.G., a famous animation company that does Ghost in the Shell, among others.

[Illidan37]

Apparently the anime intro is done by Production I.G., a famous animation company that does Ghost in the Shell, among others.

Then that company will be losing credibility very soon.

[Kosheh]

Apparently the anime intro is done by Production I.G., a famous animation company that does Ghost in the Shell, among others.

Then that company will be losing credibility very soon.

o rly is that true?

Knowing Sega and its Sonicreputation, people would be like OMG ANIMEINTRO IT LOOKS COOL but at some point I don't think a majority of some gamers will even care who makes the intro. >>; How could the studio possibly lose credibility?

[Illidan37]

IN my eyes, Sega has lost credibility with me. Sonic has had his IQ lowered drastically with the "We'll defeat them with the power of teamwork!" and the only characters I have faith left in are Shadow and Omega, and E-102.

EDIT: And all of the extra characters! Amy and Cream were bad enough! Now, they add all of these useless birds! Why can't we just have Eggman?!

This post has been edited by illidan37: Dec 6 2005, 09:57:54 PM

[RocketDarkness]

I'd rather they try new things than end up like the Megaman series, which, while still good, is extremely resilient to change. Besides, this game is going to rock, whether or not you agree. F-Zero with a Sonic flavor. Plus, they've already got a sequel planned, so get used to it. =p

[Spazoid]

IN my eyes, Sega has lost credibility with me. Sonic has had his IQ lowered drastically with the "We'll defeat them with the power of teamwork!" and the only characters I have faith left in are Shadow and Omega, and E-102.

EDIT: And all of the extra characters! Amy and Cream were bad enough! Now, they add all of these useless birds! Why can't we just have Eggman?!

They also have AIAI from the Monkey Ball games

In Total Sonic has about 35 characters (in games) I honestly wish they would bring them all back....in one game.

I still don't see the problem with new characters? I mean the Final Fantasty games replace their cast every game 0_o....I hear no complaints on that do I?

[RocketDarkness]

A-freaking-men. It'd be hellishly boring if it was just Sonic versus Eggman every game, with no new twists. Hell, every major game has added new mechanics and characters.

S1: Robotnik, Sonic.
S2: Tails, Spindash.
S3: Knuckles, Insta-shield, controllable Tails flying, Elemental Shields.
S&K: Egg-Robo (or just count this and S3 as one game, as it should be), Knuckles plowing through walls, Knuckles climbing.
etc.

I mean, seriously. You want us to all wear afros and go to Discos on Saturday nights? The times have changed, get used to it or stop yer whinin'.

[Illidan37]

I know new characters a re good, but I think Sega has taken the idea a little bit too far with Big the Cat, Cream, and these stupid birds.

[RocketDarkness]

Cream provides another female to help balance out the male/female ratio out slightly, as well as producing the first Sonic rabbit character. She also has radically different moves in the Advance series, compared to the other characters.

The birds provide the first set of bird characters in the new art style, as well as potentially being a recurring lesser evil.

[Spazoid]

The question is WHY NOT BIRDS???? Its about freaking Airboards, it makes sence to me that they would be birds.....I mean what else???? Team Zebra?????

@Rocket:First set of bird characters but I believe Bean came before Jet (I wish Jet was Bean, That would be the best remade character EVA!)

Cream is great! She stole meh heart in Sonic advance 2, partly due to the fact that Cheese slaughtered every boss in the game and I love her design, its like she is another Tails!

Big was kinda a mistake but he adds somthing odd to the series....Like Waluige in a Mario game..POWER TO FAT PEOPLE!!!!

And we need more "Lesser Evil" Characters othere than Shadow in the series so it is just not Sonic Vs Eggman with a bit of metal sonic and Shadow here and there :/

[RocketDarkness]

Yeah, Bean was WAY before Jet, but I did mention that this was in the "new" art style.

One thing I like about Cream is she can drop in mid flight, whereas Tails has to land first.

[RocketDarkness]

Double post, but I don't care.

Awesome new gameplay mechanics video up at SoA's Sonic Riders website: http://www.sega.com/games/game_temp.php?ga...&id=hp_pldwnlst. Pretty much demonstrates everything you might want to know about how the game controls.

[Setoshi]

I heard the game was rated E for comic mischief. It's about time that Sonic will have a game with a bit of humor.