Sonic Riders

All the speed and attitude you could want, held back by listless controls.

Sonic Riders' box touts the blue speed demon's fifteenth anniversary, but recent years have been unkind to his reputation. Between uneven adventures and a lousy gun-toting spin-off, one had to wonder if designers had lost sight of what made Sonic appealing.

Big Blue Kahoona
This latest racing side story dispels those fears somewhat, even as it stumbles under the weight of other faults. Sonic Riders delivers a sense of speed and spectacle that's been oddly absent from the series for far too long. There's the standard Eggman nonsense, setting up the EX World Grand Prix, but it's just an excuse to throw Sonic and pals-and the newly introduced Babylon Rogues-on hoverboards, and send them surfing through jungles, deserts, and other series staples.

The slab you ride is powered by air, which is used to give a burst of speed, and can be replenished by performing simple board grabs and twists in the air. The most exciting element is the turbulence racers leave behind, creating a speed-boosting trick-enabling half-pipe in which to catch up and show off.

Put Your Hands in the Air?
Too often Sonic Riders feels more like a surreal rollercoaster ride than a game, though, thanks to controls that are often sluggish and sometimes downright ineffectual, and courses that cripple their own momentum and sweeping flow with sadistic right-angle switchbacks. Watching the twists and turns is fun if you're in the mood, but don't expect the intimate control of regular racing games. Levels are strewn with rails and shortcuts, but because each racer is but one of three types, two thirds of those options are barred from you at any given moment; while this lends a strategic element to multiplayer racing, it severely limits enjoyment of the single-player story mode.

Sonic Riders certainly gives fans the velocity they've been craving, but isn't tightly tuned enough to be much more than an agreeable party game.

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