This review is a little late in coming, considering how long ago the game was released, and no doubt most are done playing it by now.
In that case I'm fairly sure this review might give many a cause to either nod in agreement or disagree. For the latter, if you already enjoyed it then fair enough, you've enjoyed your purchase.
For those who didn't enjoy it as such, you might say this is dedicated to you Boomers.
Many reviews can be called “harsh” or “overly critical.” Among STC-O reviewer humes, we do try to keep a level mind and showcase the good and bad of a game, and give a review in which the score at the end isn't really the important part.
However in this case I can assure you, harsh comments are entirely justified, and I'm sorry to say this at the beginning of a review before I've even said the games name, but Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is a a grand example of how to not make a game.
Let us begin with something simple, the graphics. Now, as I stated in the previous NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams review, graphics are second place to many other important factors in a game. This is not an excuse for them to be ugly however, which is quite openly done in Sonic Riders 2. Characters are made of shockingly few polygons to the extent that it doesn't even look like an older title, but rather just a bad creation. Overly sharp angles and odd cases of anatomy that look like a box stuck onto a torso are all too common, and overall it looks like Sega completely forgot to smooth anything out, as every edge has a juddered “staircase” shape to it. Factor in bland, detailess textures and we have ourselves one decidedly dodgy looking game, on PS2 and Wii. Over colouration becomes suddenly very apparent once the game goes into motion, as the large motion blurring at the edges sends our vision of the game into a shower of random colours and shapes without real definition, making it difficult to spot a rail, a ramp or even a gap in the track at times.
Quite simply, this game looks terrible. But what about how it plays?
One of the things I praised the first Sonic Riders for was a unique form of racing that gave a fresh breath of life into the genre for Sonic. It genuinely felt different and stylish, however they apparently forgot that and altered it a little much. Gone is the air metres to be replaced with a strange “Gravity” metre that is used for one of two things, hard turning and boosting. This is pretty similar to the air thus far right? Not really.
In the original Sonic Riders, your air metre decreased whenever you made a harsh turn or a boost to get ahead. This worked great, as the racer had to balance the use against whatever they had left in their metre to provide a new angle on things. Obviously this gravity idea aimed for the same, but the level designers seemed to forget that being able to do those things anytime was an important factor. In the sequel here, sharp cornerings are in specific places in every track, while boosting is only useful in one area of each track. Instead of the player getting a chance to find their own chances and uses, the game tell them when, effectively making it pointless in the end.
Oh, and there's a slight problem with the cornerings as well, when the character activates their “zero gravity spin turn dash whatever” they jump about 12 feet in the air and hover there while turning before blasting off in the new direction. I honestly thought this sounded cool in concept, but it's quickly knocked down by the fact that the race tracks walls are only about eight or nine feet tall, leading the player to more often than not go hurtling off into the nether instead of turning as they were supposed to.
On the subject of turning. Don't even bother with most characters, especially Knuckles. Unless it's a race with no corners, he isn't worth it. Trust me.
Controls don't really help, it was useful that multiple methods were offered, however this was only knocked down yet again by some daft design decisions. The motion control on the Wii barely works, and often gives a 2 second delay on turnings which, in the massively fast speeds used, is rather crippling. Out of annoyance, the d-pad was used, only to discover that no matter what you use, the motion control cannot be turned off and thus the player must hold the Wiimote perfectly still at all times.
PS2 wise, the controls work a lot better, but still feel sluggish and unresponsive. This seems to be a factor of the game rather than the controllers though.
Well, enough on mechanics to tell you a little about the game itself though, more particularly it's plot.
The story begins with four meteorites falling to the planet, one of these lands at the feet of a large amount of robots who begin to run out of control and search for the others. Sonic and co naturally are caught up in this, and after acquiring a strange new object move out to locate the others first and discover why this madness is happening.
Until the later, non-spoiled sections, this is pretty much the synopsis. The player controls them in races as they compete to find their objectives eventually leading further into the plot. However when it boils down to it, the story is merely icing on a (not so good) cake to bulk out the main game mode.
Additionally, there are missions and extra forms of multiplayer, however they are so average and uninspiring they are not really worth going into detail over. Same for the sound, nothing particularly stands out, especially as it stops, restarts and judders every time a skill is used in game.
I believe what brings the game down most however is the feeling that they had a good formula before, and all they needed to do was refine it a little. Make it look prettier and add a couple options. The concept of the hard turning is a great idea, just poorly implemented. The idea of changing gravity to run along all sides of the arena would have been fantastic if the level designers had thought about it properly, or if the levels didn't blur into each other so much to make it impossible to see. A somewhat cheesy plotline could have at least been fun...but somehow they messed it up. Don't ask me how.
In general it feels like an exercise in either cashing in on a name (Sonic) or simply a rushed development overall. There's a great many things feel half done, or like they could have used more time.
For under a fiver, maybe for an interesting experience if you liked the original (and I did!), but anything over 15 pounds like it currently is, and I'm afraid Sega can forget the sale entirely.
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Console - Wii, PS2 Game Type - Racing Players - 1-4 Publisher - SEGA Price - RRP £39.99 Reviewer - Iain Stewart |
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STC's Rating System: Under 40 = Yawnsville 40-70 = Normalsville 70-80 = Fun City 80-90 = Big Time City 90+ = Mega City |
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