Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Wii)
It’s been awhile since there was a decent futuristic racer on the market, the last being Wipeout Pulse for the PlayStation Portable. With F-Zero yet to make its presence known on the Wii, the closest thing being a couple tracks in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the genre looks ripe for the picking. Enter Sega with Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, the sequel to the Sonic Riders game that saw a release on Gamecube. The original saw a lukewarm reception among reviewers, citing shoddy controls and unbalanced AI as the main culprits. With so much riding on its shoulders, does Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity fix the problems of its predecessor, or is it just more of the same?
In true Sonic the Hedgehog glory, the story involves ring shaped objects, Dr. Eggman, and schemes to take over the world. Glowing rings, known as Ark of the Cosmos, have fallen to earth and woken up Eggman’s massive robot army. Unfortunately, Eggman no longer has control of said army and the robots are rampaging unchecked across the world in search of the other Arks, causing all kinds of havoc for our heroes to fix.
True to its name, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is all about racing. Sonic, usually known for his speed on foot, dons a board, known as an Extreme Gear, as he moves through the tracks in an effort to beat the competition. Story mode introduces players to the cast of characters, though it does a poor job of explaining the backstory. Since this was my first foray into the Sonic Riders universe, I was at a loss as to the connection between the Babylon Rogues and Sonic’s crew, but after playing through both sides of the story, enough was explained for it to make sense.
Speaking of tracks, the environments are meaty and varied. Each stage has two versions, one that you unlock while going through Sonic’s storyline, and one that you unlock while going through the Babylon Rogues’ storyline. The stages aren’t mirror images either, as each stage is different, even if it shares some themes with its counterpart. In total, 16 tracks are playable after beating both halves of the game, including two extra tracks that never appeared in storyline mode.
Everything moves at a nice clip, with no notable slowdown. With that said, however, Sega could’ve done so much more when it comes to the art direction. Zero Gravity feels as if it would’ve been more at home on the Dreamcast than the Wii, as the game doesn’t take advantage of anything the more powerful system offers. Sadly, the most impressive visual feat seen in the game was the inverted color scheme while initiating Gravity Dives.
At least the game has loads of content and modes. Collecting rings on the course allows you to “Gear Change”, adding special abilities to your board like rail grinding and flying. It also serves the dual purpose of allowing you to purchase new vehicles under the Trade option. Rings can also be acquired by completing the World Grand Prix, a mode that opens up after successfully completing Sonic’s story mode. In World Grand Prix, players get the chance to race through team Sonic or Babylons’ courses using any character and board combination of their choosing. Players can even unlock new characters by playing through story mode and World Grand Prix.
Rounding out the list are Nintendo Wi-fi and Survival Mode. No, you can’t actually race anyone online, which would’ve been a great feature for Sega to add, but you can download, race, and post time trial scores. It’s about as pointless as it sounds, unless you want to see how the masters go about shaving a few seconds off their lap times.
Survival mode, which has three sub-modes, is a hoot, however. Effectively a multiplayer deathmatch, Survival mode pits four players against each other in a test of skill. In Ball mode, players use their gravity powers to launch a giant ball into floating hoops above the arena. Relay mode is a relay race to the finish. Battle mode sees players using their gravity powers to launch missiles at each other. A chirp from the Wiimote tells you when a target is aquired.
Despite all the little extras, modes, and tracks, Sega hasn’t fixed the problems that plagued the first game. Cheating AI runs rampant. During standard races, unless players can master every corner of the track, unlock all of their special abilities in a timely fashion, and hit all of their ability sensor spots (e.g. grind all of the rails, etc), they are prone to lose. Because the AI never misses a chance to get ahead, players will find themselves playing stages repeatedly just to snag the number one position.
Problems are compounded by the loose controls, most notable during the gravity boost/dive sections of the track where control is essential. The AI will never miss a chance to use its gravity powers, however. Even though the game uses two configurations for the Wiimote and one for the Gamecube controller, the Gamecube controller is the best option, as the motion sensing, though functional, isn’t nearly as responsive as one would like.
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity isn’t a terrible game, but it’s not the messiah for futuristic racing fans. If anything, it’s a frustrating game that can be entertaining in spurts but definitely not in the long run. Some of the modes are fun, and the Gear collecting can become an obsessive sport if you’re into that kind of thing, but the game is best enjoyed as a rental. If Sega ever thinks of making another one, and let’s hope they don’t, perhaps they’ll do what they did with Sonic and the Secret Rings and reinvent the franchise. Or at the very least, make the game playable.
Primotech Rating: 
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IS VERI COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Wonderful game!!