"Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity" Review

When I heard about the "Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity" game, it was hard to comprehend exactly what to think. I mean, almost every video game character with a memorable name has had their own racing game. Mario, Diddy Kong, Crash Bandicoot, and many others have received this treatment. It's a very smart way for the developers to make some money. Grab a well known character and throw them in a racing game.

And now we have "Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity," the Wii's Sonic-clad response to "TrickStyle" for the Sega Dreamcast. The difference between this and the Dreamcast's hoverboard title? "Trickstyle" was actually sort of fun.

This game falls flat for me. I was really rooting for it. Heck, I even drug my friends into playing the multiplayer version with me. This game could be so much more user friendly. The control system is far too sensitive for ultimately very little pay-off. The underlying story is really very inane and unimportant to the rest of the game (so that video that I posted earlier is really the only thing that holds any sort of lazily written plot).

Playing "Zero Gravity" makes you ache for a number of things: a good script, a better soundtrack, better voice-overs, and over all, more attention to the quality of the game itself. Even the graphics are sort of haphazard, but it's hard to notice since the game moves so unfortunately fast.


Yes, here's less than half of a second of the game. I guess the graphics don't need to be perfect when you're going that fast. But then again, it's hard to appreciate any of the game to begin with if you're going that fast.

There are a lot of available characters and a lot of possibilities for a good time, but it just doesn't seem to work on this game. The maps are even pretty cool looking, but it doesn't hold up in this world of "Burnout" and "Mario Kart 64."

This game just doesn't cut it for me. It's a shame - there are really very few games for the Wii that are worth the time or energy. I was hoping this would be one of them. Unfortunately, it looks like Sonic strikes out again.

Grade: C-

You can't ride a hoverboard over water, McFly! You gotta have power! - Biff, "Back to the Future"