Sonic Free Riders

Sonic Free Riders (ソニック フリーライダーズ, Sonikku Furī Raidāzu^?) is a 2010 racing video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game uses the Xbox 360 Kinect's motion sensor capability released and was released as a Kinect launch title on November 2010. The game was first announced on 14 June 2010 on E3 2010 at Microsoft's Conference. It is the third and final installment of the Sonic Riders series (following Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity) and the seventh dedicated racing game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series overall.

The game received mixed to unfavorable reviews from critics who praised its content, multiplayer options and graphics but was panned for its controls.

Plot

The plot starts with Dr. Eggman who hosts a second World Grand Prix. However in the announcement, he seems to disguise himself as King Doc, hiding himself from revealing his true identity. This time, four teams enter to prove themselves to be the best or win the prizes:

• Team Heroes: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles
• Team Babylon: Jet, Wave and Storm
• Team Rose: Amy, Cream and Vector
• Team Dark: Shadow, Rouge and E-10000B

Each team wins the World Grand Prix as the player goes through the story of each team. In the end, King Doc announced that the competitors still have final races to run. Eventually, Eggman decides to drop his disguise and reveals that he attempted to gather the racing data of all of the competitors using Team Dark's E-10000B and challenged them all to a race once again. The doctor loses, who is disappointed that the data he found didn't help him at the slightest. E-10000B breaks down, who is revealed to be Metal Sonic who actually collected the data of every racer and passed on fake info to the doctor. Metal Sonic challenges Sonic to a race, in which Sonic wins. In the end, Eggman reveals he never had prizes to reward at all, however all the team characters agreed that they had fun racing.

Characters

Gameplay

Sonic Free Riders is a hoverboard racing game featuring characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series riding on Extreme Gear. The game is controlled by using the player's body to navigate their chosen character through the course. Actions include bending their body to steer, performing kicking motions to increase speed, and jumping to perform tricks which earn more boost. The player alternatively has the ability to ride bikes, controlled by steering motions. By collecting enough Rings, players can increase their level during each race, which enhances their attributes. There are several power-ups which each require specific motion actions to activate, such as a missile which is thrown like a football or a boost that is activated by shaking a soda can. Motion actions are also required when passing through certain sections of some courses such as swimming in Dolphin Resort. Players can equip Gear Parts to their Gear which grant special attributes, such as improved cornering or the ability to access specific shortcuts, which can be changed by switching the riding stance. Players can also perform special moves if they are falling behind in races.

The game's main single player campaign is the Grand Prix mode, where players select from one of four teams of characters to play through the story. Along with Time Attack and Free Race modes, Sonic Free Riders also features a few multiplayer modes that can be played cooperatively. Tag Mode allows two players to race together, requiring synchronized coordination to perform combined tricks, while Relay Race mode, playable with up to four players, requires teammates to swap places after each lap. The local multiplayer supports up to two active players, while online player multiplayer features one active player per console for up to eight players. The game also supports voice recognition, allowing players to navigate menus using their voice.

Objects

Items

• Air
• Item Box
  • Air
  • Bowling Strike
  • Free Throw
  • Octo-Boost
  • Octo-Ink
  • Ring Can
  • Special Item
  • Soda Rocket
  • Target Torpedo
  • Tee Shot
• Ring
• Gear Part

Gimmicks and obstacles

• Barricade
• Bomb
• Catapult
• Dash Ring
• Grind Rail
• Kicker

Playable characters

Extreme Gear

Main article: Extreme Gear

Sonic Free Riders is the third game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series to use the Extreme Gear in gameplay, the first ones being the game's predecessors, Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. Like in the two previous titles, the Extreme Gear are high-tech hoverboard vehicles that are used by the characters to ride on. They are fueled by Air that allows the player to perform certain actions and are the central component in the gameplay.

Like in the two previous titles, every playable character has their own unique default Extreme Gear, which only they can use. However, additional Extreme Gears can be obtained in the game as the player progresses.

Unlike the two previous titles, Sonic Free Riders only features two types of Extreme Gear: Board type and Bike type.

List of Extreme Gear

There are a total of 38 different collectible Extreme Gear that can acquired in Sonic Free Riders. The following Extreme Gear are listed as they appear in the Gear Gallery, starting from the first listed Extreme Gear and onward, moving counter-clockwise on the in-game list.

Courses

Sonic Free Riders features a total of eight unique tracks to race on, along with there being both standard and expert variants of each, creating sixteen different options. The courses are as follows:

1. Dolphin Resort
2. Rocky Ridge
3. Frozen Forest
4. Metropolis Speedway
5. Magma Rift
6. Forgotten Tomb
7. Final Factory
8. Metal City

Features and functions

Offline

• Players: 1-2
• Players Co-op: 2-4
• Multiplayer Versus
• In-game Dolby Digital
• HDTV 720p/1080i/1080p
• Storage Device

Xbox Live

• Players: 2-8
• Content Downloads
• Leaderboards
• Voice Messaging
• Voice Support

Avatar Support

There are unlockable costumes in which the player can unlock for their avatar, both male and female. These are the following:

• Sonic Shirt – Place first on every course with Sonic.
• Jet Shirt – Place first on every course with Jet.
• Sonic Free Riders Shirt – Watch the credits in their entirety.
• E-10000 G Shirt - Place first on every course with E-10000 G.

Soundtrack

The main theme, "Free", was performed by Chris Madin (Who performed the song "Thomas, You're the Leader" for the 2008 Thomas & Friends film, The Great Discovery), with music by Jun Senoue and lyrics by Johnny Gioeli. It was first performed at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show. The game's soundtrack, Break Free: Sonic Free Riders Original Soundtrack, was composed by Tomonori Sawada and Koji Sakurai and was released on 8 December 2010. Included in the 12 tracks is a Crush 40 version of "Free".

The soundtrack would later be released on iTunes on 25 April 2012 to coincide with the Platinum Collection re-release of Sonic Free Riders in Japan a day later, accompanied by re-releases of the soundtracks for the previous Sonic Riders titles: Speedbeats Grand Prix: Sonic Riders Original Soundtrack, and Zero Gravity Tracks: Sonic Riders Shooting Star Story Original Soundtrack.^[10]

Reception

The overall reception of Sonic Free Riders has been mixed, with its score on Metacritic sitting at a 47%,^[11] although it was the "34th Most Discussed Xbox 360 Game of 2010" on the site.^[11]

Jack DeVries of IGN gave the game a 7.5 out of 10, praising the gameplay, music and options.^[16] He stated that Sonic Free Riders is "definitely one of the games you should get to round out your Kinect collection" as there are lots of features in both multi-play and single-play. Although, he criticizes the menu screen's presentation, but says that the voice support helps a lot.^[16] Official Xbox Magazine also gave the game a 7.5 out of 10, praising the wealth of content and multiplayer options whilst criticizing occasional unresponsiveness in the controls.^[18] GameTrailers gave the game a score of 4.5/10, panning cumbersome controls that tax the body.^[15] Brian Crecente of Kotaku reviewed the game negatively, calling it "the most broken of the Kinect titles" that he had played.^[19] Kotaku's Crecente later reported that the responsiveness of the controls seemed to differ between persons,^[20] with fellow reviewer Stephen Totilo saying the controls worked fine for him. Joystiq gave the game 1/5 stars, calling it "the equivalent of patting your head while rubbing your stomach while riding a unicycle."^[17] GamesRadar gave the game 4/10,^[14] with X-Play agreeing with their rating of 2/5 stars.

As of June 2015, the game has sold 1.05 million copies.^[21] On 18 September 2011, Sonic Free Riders was awarded for "Japanese Best Kinect Title" by Microsoft Japan for its contribution to the sales of the Kinect, which had reached 10 million units sold by 9 March 2011.^[22][23] Director/Producer Kenjiro Morimoto stated that him and his team were extremely happy to receive the award, and that while they found its development to be challenging, they were glad to bring the fun of Kinect to many consumers.^[24] On 1 March 2012, Sega announced that Sonic Free Riders would also see a re-release under the Platinum Collection budget label on 26 April 2012, alongside Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force; both games retailed for 2,940 yen.^[25] The game would also see a North American Platinum Hits re-release in 2013.^[26]

Achievements

Cast

This is the first game where all the previous 4Kids voice actors have been replaced with Studiopolis voice actors, except for Mike Pollock.

Jack Fletcher was the voice director for the English dub and Keiichiro Miyoshi was the voice director for the Japanese dub.

Trivia

• This is the first Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Riders game to be released exclusively on a Microsoft console.
• This is the first Xbox 360 Sonic the Hedgehog game to have the modern Xbox 360 banner on its box art.
• This is the only Sonic game for the Xbox 360 to require the Kinect peripheral.

• The game's original website used a Webcam feature for a hit start of the Kinect gimmick.
• Unlike the previous two Sonic Riders games, all the characters start riding on a Gear approaching the starting the line from a relatively far distance as opposed to holding a "packed-up" Gear and approaching the starting line on-foot.
• Amy is the only starting character from Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity who must be unlocked in this game, which therefore makes this the only game in the subseries in which Amy is not available as a starting character.
• This is the first game where Sonic is seen swimming without a life jacket (with the exception of Super Smash Bros. Brawl). However, this is merely for gameplay purposes.
• This is the first game in which nearly all of the 4Kids voice actors were replaced by Studiopolis voice actors. Only Mike Pollock was kept as Dr. Eggman's voice actor.^[27]
• This is the first Sonic Riders game in which Shadow, Rouge, and Cream are in Story Mode, as opposed to being unlocked to be played in Race Mode.
  • This is the second game to feature Cream in missions, the first being Sonic Riders.
• This is the first game since Sonic Heroes to have Metal Sonic as the true main villain. Also, Metal Sonic's plan to absorb the data of the other characters mimics his plan in Sonic Heroes as well.
• This is the only Sonic Riders game with no skate gear (possibly due to conflicts with some of the Kinect motions).
• This is the first Sonic Riders game to feature weapons during mid-race and not just on a Battle Course.
• This is the first Sonic Riders game to not feature any characters from other Sega franchises (NiGHTS, Ulala, Amigo, etc.).
• Team Babylon and Team Rose are the only two teams that face off in the same location, Metropolis Speedway, in either story (Standard and Expert respectively).
• The game has its own Xbox and Kinect skin sold separately.
• During the ending of the first third of Team Dark's story, Omochao says, "Is it the calm before the storm? I'll have all the details, assuming that robot doesn't get anymore ideas." However, in the subtitle during the last seven words, it reads, "assuming that robot doesn't get get anymore ideas."

• In the Final Story, after Sonic beats Metal Sonic, Wave mentions that the lack of treasure and money will ruin their reputation as rogues, but the subtitle said "Rouges" instead of "Rogues".
• Some of the artwork in the game (such as on the character select) are reused art from the other Sonic Riders games. Examples are that Tails and Knuckles portraits are taken from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. This was before original artwork for the game was used in the final build.
• In some point during development, Dr. Eggman and Vector were probably meant not to be limited to Bike Gear, as there are unused voice clips of them shouting "Switch!", a line characters on board-type Extreme Gear shout when changing Gear Parts, which is impossible with Bike Gear.
• In gameplay, the player can hear the characters' dialogue which was impossible in the first two games (except when attacked by another character).
• This is the only game in the Sonic Riders series where the final boss fight takes place in its own story.
  • Additionally, this game is also the only Sonic Riders game where the final boss is a playable character.
• According to Ian Flynn, the events of Sonic Free Riders have taken place in the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs after the continuity was rebooted in issue #252.^[28]
• Sonic Free Riders is the only Xbox 360 Sonic title in Japan to be given a budget re-release under the Platinum Collection banner.

Videos

Notes

References

External links

• Official website (English) (archived)
• Official website (Japanese)