Sonic Free Riders
Developer(s)Sonic Team
Publisher(s)Sega
Director(s)Kenjiro Morimoto
Producer(s)Kenjiro Morimoto
Artist(s)Hideaki Moriya
Writer(s)Yasushi Otake
Composer(s)Tomonori Sawada
Koji Sakurai
SeriesSonic the Hedgehog
Platform(s)Xbox 360
Release
  • NA: November 4, 2010[1]
  • EU: November 10, 2010[1]
  • AU: November 18, 2010
  • JP: November 20, 2010
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Sonic Free Riders[lower-alpha 1] is a motion controlled racing video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Xbox 360. The game requires the use of Microsoft's Kinect peripheral and was a Kinect launch title in November 2010.[2]

Sonic Free Riders is the seventh racing game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and the third entry in the Sonic Riders trilogy. It is a direct sequel to Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. The game's story centers on the series' main antagonist Doctor Eggman, disguising himself as "King Doc of Toreggmania", announcing a second World Grand Prix, secretly planning to gather data from the riders to program into his robots. It is also the first game in the series to be released following a major recasting of the series' voice actors in 2010, except Mike Pollock.

Free Riders received generally unfavorable reviews from critics, mainly due to game's motion controls, which were often described as unresponsive and inaccurate. However, some praised its presentation, multiplayer capability, and amount of content.

Gameplay

An example of gameplay in Sonic Free Riders

Sonic Free Riders is a hoverboard racing game featuring characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. 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 and weapons 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. As before, characters are divided into Speed, Flight, and Power classes, each of which can access specific shortcuts. Players can equip special attributes to their Gear, such as improved cornering or the ability to break through barriers, 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 mode, playable with up to 4 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 8 players. The game also supports voice recognition, allowing players to navigate menus using their voices.[3]

Characters

Plot

The story takes place after the events of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. Unlike past Sonic Riders titles, Free Riders takes a more arcade-style approach to its storytelling, omitting full CGI and in-game cutscenes in favor of static character images and short dialogue exchanges between races.

Doctor Eggman, disguising himself as "King Doc of Toreggmania", announces another World Grand Prix and promises vast riches to the winners.[4] Though everyone sees through the disguise, four teams enter the competition, each seeking to prove themselves the best or win the prize money. However, at the award ceremony, Eggman reveals himself and his true motive: to gather data from all the racers to program into the ultimate Extreme Gear. The other racers defeat Eggman, but his E-10000B robot reveals itself to be a disguised Metal Sonic, who deceived Eggman and stole the data for himself. Metal Sonic challenges Sonic to a final race, but loses and is forced to flee. Though many of the competitors are disappointed that the promised treasure was fake, they are happy to have enjoyed their time racing.

Development

The game's soundtrack was written by Tomonori Sawada and Koji Sakurai. The game's theme song, "Free", was written by Jun Senoue, with lyrics written by Johnny Gioeli and performed by Chris Madin.[5] An additional cover of the song performed by Senoue's and Gioeli's band, Crush 40, was included on the game's official soundtrack.[6]

Sonic Free Riders, alongside Sonic Colors, marks the first title to be released following a major recasting of the series' voice actors in 2010. Sonic titles released between 2005 and mid-2010 featured voice actors from the cast of the Sonic X anime, recorded at 4Kids Productions in New York City. However, Free Riders features an entirely new cast of actors under the direction of Jack Fletcher, recorded at Studiopolis in Los Angeles, with only Mike Pollock reprising his role as Doctor Eggman. Although both voice language tracks are included in the game disc, the text and voice language is determined by the console's region settings, with no in-game option to change them, with English voices being used in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, and Japanese voices being used in Japanese. The voice changes resulted in mixed reactions from critics and fans of the series.[7]

Reception

The game received “generally unfavorable reviews” according to review aggregator Metacritic. Many reviewers panned its motion controls, which they felt ruined the game and made it a bad launch title for the Kinect. IGN was one of few publishers to give a positive review, calling it a strong launch title for Kinect, although criticizing the motion controls stating that they "make it hard to just jump into the game".[15] Some commended its amount of content, number of multiplayer options, graphics and storyline. Official Xbox Magazine also gave it 7.5, praising the wealth of content and multiplayer options while criticizing occasional unresponsiveness in the controls.[17] GameTrailers gave the game a score of 4.5, panning cumbersome controls that tax the body.[14] Joystiq gave the game 1/5 stars, calling it "the equivalent of patting your head while rubbing your stomach while riding a unicycle."[16] Brian Crecente of Kotaku also reviewed it negatively, calling it "the most broken of the Kinect titles I've played."[19] Kotaku's Crecente later reported that the responsiveness of the controls seemed to differ between persons, with fellow reviewer Stephen Totilo saying the controls worked fine for him.[20]

Notes

  1. ↑ Japanese: ソニック フリーライダーズ, Hepburn: Sonikku Furī Raidāzu
  2. ↑ Playable only in Story mode

References

  1. 1 2 "Sonic Free Riders – Website Open And Release Dates Confirmed". Archived from the original on 2010-10-07.
  2. ↑ "SEGA announces its first title for Kinect™ for Xbox 360®". Archived from the original on 2017-09-01. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
  3. ↑ Tristan Oliver. "New Video: Sonic Free Riders Final Build Demo". Archived from the original on 2010-10-23.
  4. ↑ Sonic Team (2010). Sonic Free Riders (Xbox 360). Sega. Level/area: Introduction. Doctor Eggman: The winning team gets a disgustingly large cash prize... And a mid-sized mountain of treasure. Just don't expect it to be easy!
  5. ↑ "Sonic Free Riders (Original Soundtrack) - Break Free". music.apple.com.
  6. ↑ "SONIC FREE RIDERS Original Soundtrack - Break Free -". VGMdb. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  7. ↑ "RogerCraigInterview". The Gamer. 16 November 2018. Archived from the original on 21 January 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  8. ↑ "Sonic Free Riders for Xbox 360". GameRankings. 2010-11-04. Archived from the original on 2012-10-17. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  9. ↑ "Sonic Free Riders for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. 2010-11-04. Archived from the original on 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  10. ↑ Neigher, Eric (November 12, 2010). "Sonic Free Riders Review". 1Up.com. Archived from the original on June 6, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  11. ↑ Gonzalez, Annette (November 3, 2010). "Sonic Free Riders Review". Game Informer. Archived from the original on September 28, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Sonic Free Riders review". Archived from the original on November 13, 2010. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
  13. ↑ "Sonic Free Riders Review". GamesRadar. 2010-11-18. Archived from the original on 2012-10-11. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  14. 1 2 "Sonic Free Riders Review". GameTrailers. Archived from the original on 2012-10-12. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  15. 1 2 "Sonic Free Riders Kinect Review - IGN". Xbox360.ign.com. November 2010. Archived from the original on 2012-06-22. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  16. 1 2 Nelson, Randy (2010-11-04). "Sonic Free Riders review: Board to death". Joystiq. Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  17. 1 2 "Official XBOX Magazine | Sonic Free Riders". Oxmonline.com. 2010-11-04. Archived from the original on 2010-11-26. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  18. ↑ Smith, Jamin (November 30, 2010). "Sonic Free Riders Review". VideoGamer.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  19. ↑ Brian Crecente (4 November 2010). "Review: Sonic Free Riders Shows How Bad Kinect Controls Can Be". Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  20. ↑ Brian Crecente (10 November 2010). "Is Sonic Free Riders Broken, Or Is It The Reviewers?". Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
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