vashivihan
Let There Be Rock
Sonic is back on his Extreme Gear and ready to show off his signature speed in his newest game, Sonic Riders Zero Gravity! Sonic Riders Zero Gravity redefines gravity in a whole new way, but can the power to minipulate gravity make this game good or a fluke?
Sonic Riders Zero Gravity is the sequal to the last game Sonic Riders. Sonic Riders Zero Gravity has taken a different approach since last time with new moves and abilities. Sonic Riders Zero Gravity also has removed such things as the boost, Air Gauge, and the trick system has been cut short. You can no longer burst tricks in a move of a control stick or movement of the Wii controller, it is now a one button mash at perfect timing and the way to choose your trick is to move your wii remote a certain direction. This might be a disappointment to fans because the trick system was fun and it was fun to bust as many moves as you possibly can in one jump. Sonic Team also decided to take off the air system, so you no longer have to worry about losing air during a race and having to run your ass to a "PIT". The boost is half there, with the special abilities, you can say you have a boost. Instead of Air, you have Gravity Points, which is pretty similar to Air. Gravity points are used when you want to use a special move, and are gained through tricks and pick-ups.
The special moves include:
Gravity Control: This is used when you want to drift through a sharp turn. You hold the 1 button and turn the direction you want to turn, if done correctly with enough Gravity Points, you will make a boosting turn. This is also used when you want to use Zero Gravity and ride on the walls.
Gravity Dive: This is very useful to catch up to your rivals. With a shake of the Wii Controller, you will float up in the air and get a high speed boost. Using this in certain areas may help you buy bumping into certain items, doing so will give you an extreme speed boost! Also, if an enemy rider is ahead of you and they themselves have used Gravity Dive, then you
can use their left over boost to give you an extra boost!
Gameplay:
Gravity Dive and Gravity Control are an excellent addition to the gameplay. Seeing Sonic boost really gives you a great sense of speed, and the gravity control really feels great to use when you do it perfectly.
There are a few flaws in the game. Acceleration is the major flaw, especially during the races. When you race, you will see the other riders fly right pass you and this can get annoying. But there is a solution to this, change your gear! Changing your gear can really help you out during a race and will cut the characters dashing pass you. Although the tracks are lengthy, they are pretty confusing. During races, you will see many marks on tracks such as Flying, Grinding or destroying obstacles. Seeing many of these can be confusing at first, but if you play for a long time,then you will get all of this down easily.
Grinding, Flying and Breaking are now all depending on the gear. Certain gear gives you the ability to do any of these things, and no longer pends on the characters. You also have to unlock "GEAR PARTS". Gear parts are used to unlock the ability to grind, fly or break depending on your gear
type, some gear automatically have the powers, but most you have to unlock. You can unlock gear parts by snagging rings scattered around on the tracks.
There are many different paths to take in Zero Gravity. You can find alternative paths by using your Gravity Control. Riding on walls is a big advantage when racing, you can take short cuts and find special power ups, power ups can either improve your speed or decrease it. You can also find
alternative paths by using your special moves or abilities. Finding these are very hard at times, and may seem impossible to reach, but if you can time your jumping right and use your gravity control, you can reach these alternative easily.
Graphics:
Graphics are worse than the original Sonic Riders. Everything looks playing an unreal (not the Unreal engine!). The original Riders looked much better and the characters didn't looked as if they were ripped. The characters in Zero Gravity look like ripped version of the previous game. Your chosen character doesn't look ripped, but your enemies do. The characters seem somewhat of a 2-D-3-D mixture, as if they are drawn on the track. One thing Zero Gravity does right as far as graphics is the water. Water looks realistic and swell, except the waterfalls. CG Cut scenes to well, unfortunetly, there are only three major CG cut scenes
Designs:
The track designs are all a futuristic based. Even jungle themed levels have a futuristic touch to it. The tracks all seem to have glass with metal tracks, with floating lights and neon lights everywhere. This looks nice, but due to a lack of graphics, this cuts the nice looks somewhat short
Modes:
Sonic Riders offers a few modes. Those modes include:
Story: Story mode is short and quick paced. You are required to play as the Heroes first, and after you beat the Hero Story, you can play as the Babylon Rogues. Each story is fairly short and will only take you about 25 minutes to beat all together. Story mode on has a few awesome CG cut scenes and the rest just in game cuts scenes.
Free Play: What it means is what you get. Play any track of your choice. You can earn rings for buying extreme gear.
Time Attack: race against the clock and try to beat your enemy riders! Hone your skills on Nintendo Wi-Fi connection and try to beat the best riders in the world!
World Grand Prix: Choose levels from a story and beat them all, try getting straight wins for the maximum amount of rings and unlocking gear!
Survival Relay: You and a friend can have a relay race on any track. This can be played up to 2 to 4 players.
Survival Ball: Much like basketball, grab a ball and shoot it in a hoop, the smaller the hope the bigger the points. Using Gravity Control to grab the ball and aiming is the key. This can be played upto 4 players.
Survival battle: Slamming your foes with missles or any other object using your gravitational powers. This can be played upto 4 players.
Tutorial: Practice honing your skills by playing in tutorial. Get hands on course training or small basic training, which may help you improve your skills.
Nintendo Wi-fi Connection Usage:
You can hook upto the Wi-Fi connection to view records other riders have in the world. You can choose to race against each of their ghost data. It would have been better to have a face to face game, but this the way it is! Its still fun to race against ghost data. You can try to get a top score by using TIME ATTACK and hooking up to the wi-fi connection there.
Sounds:
Sounds in the game all have a futuristic beat. The music is great for its setting and plot. Even the main menu theme as a nice hit to it. Some parts of the game that's sound real it will actually get you to believe that there was actually sound coming from outside! The sound affects all have a werzing noise as you would expect from Hover Boards. There are a few flaws in this department too, some of the character voices seemed as they were ripped from the original riders, as well as some sound affects. But what will rally get you going is the music!
Does this game give me a great sense of speed?
To answer that question, at first no. Why you ask? Well, at first you don't have a feel for the game yet, and you don't have the best gear to date in the game. But with a few passing of levels and a few new gear here and there, you will have fun honing your skills! Don't underestimate it at first, it may seem slow and boring, but the speed factor will come in a few minutes of gameplay!
Controls:
The controls are hard at first. You have to get a feel for the controls also. Once you mastered the Special abilities, you get yourself some fun!
Final:
Concept of the Game:
Race your way to the tracks at neck breaking speeds! Using your techniques will help you speed your way to victory!
Sounds:
The sounds are pretty well done! There are a few flaws as far as sound affects, bu the music will definetly get you going!
Playable:
The game is hard to get at first. Controls feel out of whack and the control scheme may feel boring at first. But getting your special moves down will boost your joy!
Graphics:
The graphics aren't as good as your original riders, but its pretty basic overall. If a 3rd Riders comes out, Sonic Team will need to improve their game in this department. CG cuts scenes are done well! Seeing the light of the Gear is sweet and awesome and seeing Sonic look as real as can be is
impressive. The in game cut scenes need much work, were are already in the next generation, at least make the graphics better than last generation by a small percentage!
Replay Value:
You may find yourself trying to go back and collect all the gear, or maybe even honing your skills over the Time attack over wi-fi connection!
Flaws:
There are 4 major flaws:
-Character designs: Seems as I they were drawn and painted on the track.
-Track Designs: need work, and more clear paths. Less flat paths and more
jumps.
-Acceleration: although it depends on gear, Zero Gravity needs work here too.
Improvement:
-New Special abilities are added
-Sound track is much better than last riders
-Lengthy tracks
-Solid storyline
-New Wi-Fi feature
-Multiplayer modes are fun
-More gear to choose from
-More loved characters added.
With a great sense of speed and beginning to show improvement to the Sonic Series that is needed.
Sonic Riders Zero Gravity Scores:
8.5 out of 10[/QUOTE
THE SCORE IS A LITTLE UNEXPECTED
HERES THE LINK
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