Chickaroo Reviews - Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (PS2)

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chickaroo1
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Chickaroo Reviews - Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (PS2)

Post by chickaroo1 »

After the mediocrity of the first Sonic Riders, it got the greenlight to do a sequel. And they did a very hella job with it!!
Game: Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity / Sonic Riders: Shooting Star Story
Systems: PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii
Release Dates: 1/8/08 (NA), 1/17/08 (JP), 2/22/08 (EU), 3/6/08 (AUS)
Developers: Sonic Team / NOW Production / United Game Artists
The Babylon Rogue is Back!
Story: The story is still split into 2 parts. There’s the Heroes story (with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles), and the Babylon story (with Jet, Wave and Stormy). The stories overlap each other just like in previous games.
During the Heroes story, the gang is alerted that robots are attacking a city. Once they get there, they discover that the robots are after an artifact that can defy gravity. The Babylon Rogue finds out about it, and now the two teams are off to race against each other for the artifact.
Now, on the Babylon's side of the story, the team discovers that the artifact can rise up an ancient city. But when they find out that the Sonic team has the artifact, they declare a race to see who will get it.
Oh My God - This is MUCH Better
Gameplay: Aaaahhhhh this makes me so happy!
So the gameplay here is pretty similar to the last game, but this time, the controls are better. Racing has never felt so good.
So racing around is still pretty much the same except for no more air gages or little pit stops! Hallelujah sweet baby Jesus. So no more stopping, just straight up old fashioned racing. The one thing (out of a few) that are new is the zero gravity function. By getting to a tight turn on a track, simply hold the zero gravity button to turn yourself into the direction you want to go and let go and you’re off. Now this thing does have a meter too. Grinding and doing big jumps will fill it up. Also with the jumping, you no longer have to spin the analog stick around to make tricks. It’s just simple jumps. And I like that. Also in certain areas of races, there’s a chance to do a gravity boost (which is a bit of a speed boost). From there, Your character basically floats with speed. Several objects in the area lift up as you use zero gravity. If you bump into them, you can speed up very quickly. It’s a pretty cool thing.
There are many things to do besides races. And there are many things to collect as well. You can buy/unlock characters, boards, yachts, hover boots and all kinds of different ways to ride.
You can do battle modes or do single races. Or time trials as the typical racing game. But it’s a very fun game that’s fast paced.
Amazing Cutscenes, Weird In-Game
Graphics: So you know how in the last game, the in game cutscene graphics were kinda weird? Yeah it’s still kind of here. Now the actual CGI cutscenes look beautiful, even on PS2.
The Uprising
Music: The music here is fantastic! This is one of my favorite soundtracks. From the battle sounds of the final boss, to the groovy sounds of downtown, this soundtrack has it all. And it’s awesome!
Music is composed by Tomonori Sawada, Kenichi Tokoi, Fumie Kumatani, and Hideaki Kobayashi.
A Good Apology Letter?
Overall: I freaking love this game! So much. Even to this day. This was hell of a big improvement to the last game. It’s just a lot of fun to play. Some didn’t like it and that’s fine. But this is one of my all time favorites.
5 / 5
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Quills on Wheels
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Post by Quills on Wheels »

Nice review. Would have loved to see you write more about Graphics and music.

Yeah I really enjoyed Sonic Riders as a kid. It was one of my first racing games and it was definitely one of favourite. It was also the first game I ever finished 100%. I played all stories, all grand prix and even did the annoying Storm and Wave challenges to unluck Super Sonic. I think I still have the save...
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