Sonic Riders Zero Gravity: A Diamond in the Rough
When I first played this game, I was playing it during the time that the Sonic franchise was in question. With so many mediocre projects and games that were "good, but not great", some wondered whether the long-lasting franchise can ever create a decent game.
I think Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity could fit the bill of a decent game.
Zero Gravity was probably the most underrated Sonic game:
When I played it, I saw a game that had awesome graphics and sound, and a game with innovative gameplay
What did the reviewers say? Controls are bad, story is abysmal, and they did not mention the positives very often.
I'm going to try to break down the aspects of ZG, and why the game is actually great
STORY
The Zero Gravity Story revolves around the Arks of the Cosmos, rings that can control the power of gravity. They land on Earth (of the Sonic Universe) and cause the security bots of the world to start a rampage. The Arks become a target for:
Sonic and his friends: So that they can save the world
The Babylon Rogues: They are back to rediscover their past
Eggman (duh): To control the robots (and take over the world)
The story was often bashed for being ludicrous and being absolutely nonsense. GameSpot attempted to bring down the story. They wrote that Eggman wanted to obtain the Arks (that caused robots to rampage) so that the robots can rampage. That sounds stupid, I know, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense:
EGGMAN WANTED THE ARKS SO THAT HE CAN CONTROL THE RAMPAGE OF THE ROBOTS (INSTEAD OF THE ROBOTS ACTING ON THEIR OWN). NOW DOES IT MAKE ANY DARN SENSE?
OK, one more thing about the story before going on. This is a racing game, so the story is not a big deal. However, the story itself makes sense overall everything makes sense. To find answers, you just need to dig for them.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay was often criticized for rough controls. Of all the pro reviewers I saw, I keep hearing complaints of the controls.
To be honest, there is some truth to that. The characters don't steer as well they maybe should be, and that's a bigger problem to characters that don't turn well to start with (eg. Knuckles). Also, when you accidentally turn the face of the Wii Remote (the face with the directional pad) away from the TV set, your character will stop dead; That is very annoying, but there is actually a way to reduce these problems, which will be explained later. But let me say something right here. The controls are actually very responsive and they are no delays; It’s just the turning that isn’t tight.
Those problems are probably overshadowed by the unique gameplay that ZG brings to the table. The most obvious addition of the game is the gravity powers. There are two available powers (Gravity Control and Gravity Dive/Meteor Burst).
The first ability stops the character, turn him/her into another direction, and then boost him/ her to that direction, allowing the character to execute tight turns
The latter creates a black hole, sucking up the character and it sends the character off his/her feet (increasing his/her speed) along with other objects. The character can ride along with the affected objects, and then get a HUGE amount of speed (Meteor Burst).
Both powers work very well and can be used for a lot of situations. The G. Control can give you a boost a speed when you accidentally stop or can put the characters on alternative paths of the course. The G. Dive can take you to places where you typically couldn't reach, and it can give the character a boost of speed.
The only drawback is that they might bring problems when facing towards the ramps and loops, where the character might get stuck. That’s why I tell you that you shouldn’t use the G. Powers there. And that’s why there are visual cues to tell the player in places where he/she must use the ability.
The trick system is simplified compared to the original Sonic Riders. You just press the “2” button to jump off the ramps and side-ramps. The only purpose of the tricks is to increase the Gravity Gauge to use the G. Powers. The trick's effectiveness depends on timing of the jump and how fast the character is before jumping off. However, it couldn't hurt to keep the trick system, but they also work very well on their own nonetheless.
You can also upgrade your board (otherwise known as Extreme Gears) on the fly. Upgrades include an increase of speed, the extension of the G. Gauge, and so on. However, in my opinion, the most important upgrades are the ones that allow the character to go through certain shortcuts (Grind, Air Ride and Bike). Grind allows the character to grind on rails. Air Ride lets the character to come off of certain ramps and fly through rings in the sky. And Bike lets the character to smash through debris. All three fill up a part of the G. Gauge and the usually leads to shortcuts too.
And finally, like Mario Kart, there are certain power-ups scattered around the course. These abilities are very diverse which can either help or hinder the racers. Powers include a short burst of speed, an Attack Mode that increases the speed of the user, stop other racers and can access shortcuts, a giant bomb that can bomb other racers and so on. What I like about these abilities is that it makes the race competitive. 1 Place Racers would often pick up less helpful abilities and more hindering abilities. Conversely, racers that are behind will pick up more helpful abilities and Attack Mode. As I said, this helps to keep the race tight and can give anybody in the race a fighting chance to be first place.
Overall, the gameplay of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is not perfect by any extent. However, the problems that inhibit the game are problems that anyone can live with. I believe the controls are too bashed, and the other parts are overlooked, like the creative G. Powers. So if you can ignore the little problems, you’ll be sucked in a very interesting racing experience.
PS: Before I go on, I need to tell you how to minimize the problems of the controls. Please hold the Wii Remote parallel to the TV (if you are using default control scheme) and only ues the motion control for the activation of the Gravity Dive (by shaking the remote). Use the D pad to accelerate and to steer for all purposes (for G. Powers and abilities etc.). This should lessen the problems of the controls. Yeah, you can say good-bye to the majority of the motion controls, but hey, I would prefer a controlled rider to interesting controls any time of the day.
PRESENTATION
This is probably the game’s biggest strength. The graphics and the sounds are absolutely well done. There is only one issue I have with the sound, and that’s it.
The cinematic cutscenes of the game look awesome, and they are the greatest of the game’s graphics (Too bad there are only 2 of them). And the in-game graphics are also something to see. The courses look very clear and detailed, and therefore the in-game cutscenes also look smooth.
The sound and music, while not as good as the graphics, can hold their own. Some of the music catches the atmosphere and the mood of the courses (eg. When you are racing at Megalo Station, you are greeted with very futuristic/cyberpunk music). The music that don’t do that still sounds very good. The only problem I have with the sound is Jet’s voice, who sounds like a squawking crow or a chicken, not a hawk (which is what he is!) But nonetheless, the voice acting is good, because the personalities of the different characters are apparent. Sonic sounds hero-ish, Storm sounds hulkish and brutish, Jet (despite sounding strange) sounds very cunning etc.
So there is really nothing much to say, except that Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is a great game to look at and to hear.
Bonuses, Alternatives and Replay Value (BARs)
The main mode of the game is the story mode, where you go deep into the story of the Arks of the Cosmos. However, any racer who knows what they are doing will finish the two story modes in a sitting. So what are the other things that can entertain the player? In Zero Gravity, you have a lot of digging before you there is nothing left.
At the bare minimum, there are 3 interesting mini games (Survival Ball, Survival Battle, and Survival Relay). Survivial Ball is using the G. Powers to move a ball into goals. Survival Battle is about hurling objects at other racers to knock them out. And Survival Relay is a baton race, except you use the Extreme Gears. While not the best multiplayer games in the world, you will still have a blast if you have a couple of friends.
There are also the typical modes. The free race mode allows you to race on tracks that you unlock with other racers. The time attack mode lets you race on tracks alone and let’s you record a ghost race (which will be explained later). Then there is the unlocked World Grand Prix, which is like a tournament where you race on several tracks.
You also have to buy the Extreme Gears from the Shop. There are a lot of them, to say the least. But they are all very different; they have different stats and some even have different concepts. Some might have the Air Ride, Bike or Grind upgrades already implanted (and you don’t have to buy them on the fly) and then there are some that are very unique (eg. “The Crazy” Extreme Gear uses rings for Gear fuel and the G. Powers). Therefore, the quest to collect all the boards is quite worthwhile.
There are characters to unlock too, including Shadow, Rouge, Cream etc. (they aren’t involved in the story). However, some characters have same stats and their boards, while different, have the same properties. That’s a bit of a downer, and I wished that SEGA could at least make the stats of the characters a bit different from each other. But still, you would want to unlock the characters if they are among your favorites.
The part that will probably glue you to the game is probably the missions. They are about 10 for every course, and with 16 tracks in this game, that means that there are at least 150 missions. However, these missions are not easy. You would probably need to do it a couple/ a lot of times to get the highest rank possible, so that’ll keep the players occupied for some time. Completing the missions can help you unlock other missions and helps you unlock some hidden characters and gears.
And finally, there is Wi- Fi in the game. Although there aren’t online races (which is also a bit of a downer), you can send ghost races to the Net and can download other ghost races and race against them. You can use the ghost races to your advantage and can learn from the masters. So the ghost race concept is pretty interesting.
So before you pack and leave for other games, you’ve got lots of things to find and discover in Zero Gravity.
OVERALL
Without a doubt, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is not perfect. There are obviously parts of the games where things can be improved, such as the controls, the lack of diverse stats of characters and so on. However, the races are very interesting and the tracks are all very unique. The gameplay and gravity powers fit very well, and the graphics are stunning.
Gamespot was wrong. ZG is not going to entertain for only a few laps. They will entertain for maybe even years, thanks to its unique gameplay and awesome graphics that will bring players back to it.
Now, when people were asking, “Can we get a good Sonic game?” maybe they should look here.
Score:
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 5/5
BARs: 4/5
Overall: 16/20