Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
Sonic Riders: Zero G Unlockables
| Unlockable | How to Unlock |
|---|---|
| Opening | Start the Heroes Story |
| Insert | Beat Babylon Story |
| Ending | Beat Babylon Story |
| Unlockable | How to Unlock |
|---|---|
| Shadow the Hedgehog | Beat Team Sonic’s Story |
| Rouge the Bat | Beat Team Sonic’s Story |
| Cream the Rabbit | Beat Team Sonic’s Story |
| World Grand Prix Mode | Beat Team Sonic’s Story |
| Silver | Beat Babylon Story |
| 90s Boulevard | Beat Babylon Story |
| 80s Boulevard | Beat Babylon Story |
| SCR-GP | Beat Babylon Story |
| Eggman | Beat Babylon Story |
| Blaze | Beat Babylon Story |
| Amigo | Clear all missions in story mode. |
| Billy Hatcher | Clear all missions in story mode. |
| NiGHTS | Clear all missions in story mode. |
| Chaos Emerald Gear | Get Extreme Rank on all missions in story mode. |
| MAG Gear | Clear all missions in story mode. |
| SCR-HD | Beat SCR-HD during a Free Race. |
My Review:
2. What were my main complaints from before?
3. Will it be worth my time and investment?Let me answer a couple of those questions to the best of my abilities:1. If you liked the original (all 5 of us), you’ll likely know what to expect for the most part with this game. If however you have NOT played the original, expect a completely different experience to what your used to seeing.
2. People had numerous different kinds of complaints, let me list some of the popular ones
Concern: Controls were shallow and stiff
Real deal: i can whole heartedly agree that controls were more than some were willing to swallow. With un-intuitive steering, weird air and boost systems, and did i mention the steering?
New Deal: Rejoice! The controls have been reworked and in its favor too! Strangely controlled powersliding has been tossed out the window, in favor for a Gravity Boost idea that lets you turn on a dime, completely under your control. The way this one works is you hold down square (ps2 version) and your character will jump in the air and hold it while time seemingly slows down, you may now adjust the direction with which you want to go via the left stick, release to get a massive boost in the right direction. Feel free to hit those U-Turns with ease now. Another complaint with the controls was the awkward way the board handles, well this has been reworked too. instead of the awkward sliding, were now greeted with controls that actually feel like air-board. As you steer, the character will tilt his feet with the gear and the system turns you like that based on turbulence and how good the gears “curve” rating is. REMEMBER: This is NOT rubber on pavement, do NOT expect anything remotely close to this. In regards to air-riding, i can commend Sonic Team for tweaking this enough to be believable enough. in other words: Controls have been reworked entirely, and the game definitely benefits from all of the changes present.
Concern: 4kids and Sonic Team USA just cant seem to localize right, lines are cheesy and performances are rushed, its a mess
Real deal: i wholeheartedly agree, its been since…never since Sonic and crew have given award winning performances
New Deal: While still not a nominee for best acting (Uncharted gets my vote) its some of the best performances I’ve seen SEGA pull out for the Sonic Series. the 4kids voice actors actually feel like their trying now, which was INCREDIBLY odd to hear. While some cheese exists (like Jets inherent audacity to refer to sonic by his full title “Sonic the hedgehog”, it makes me cringe) and Tails’s IQ is supposed to be equivalent to Eggmans, why does he have to keep asking sonic “What should be do, sonic?” the moment trouble stirs, all I’m saying is a little quick thinking on Tails part would have produced a solid and near perfect beginning intro cinematic. The voice acting is pretty solid, the performances in the animation for the characters show a little over-acting (it definitely feels like a SEGA game in that regard) and the localization in the lip-synching is near perfect, a couple de-synchronization’s here and there, but barely noticeable. The story and performances, and the incredibly beautiful rendered cinematics, get my both of my thumbs up.
Concern: the story mode is short and theres no online multiplayer
Real Deal: definitely, and yeah thats a bummer
New Deal: unfortunately nothing here has changed. For a person who liked and played the original to death (ie. Me), you can blast through the entire single player campaign (both story modes) in as little as 3 hours. The campaign is fun though, and ive played through it a couple times, plus its a great way to get extra rings. If you have a Wii, your in for the treat here: Online Racing capabilities. This however is lacking in the PS2 version unfortunately. Whats the deal with that? At least the solid regular racing segments are nice and challenging, but extra difficult settings would have been good.
Concern: The game didn’t express the feeling of speed, and “air” meter was disheartening when you ran out
Real Deal: it most certainly didn’t. As for running out of air, running on feet was very annoying to deal with. air recharge stations didn’t help the feeling either.
New Deal: Youll never have to experience that “running out of air” feeling again. Gone is that meter, its been replaced with “GP” or “Gravity points”. The only thing that happens when this meter runs out, is you can no longer boost or do special abilities (like gravity pulling yourself onto the wall). However there IS still running off the board, its an item pickup now, when you get it, your character is given their weapon (reminiscent of boosting in the original) and when you run into another character, their hit silly, lose rings and speed. Plus your given a ginormous temporary speed boost as you run, once that runs out, your back on your board. This game however, thrives on your unique ability of gravity control, to go super fast the whole time. If you can manage it well, the only slow bits should be when you’ve somehow managed to hit the wall and lose all speed, acceleration is sloooow. I wont lie to you, Sonic Riders Zero Gravity is good. But its only good if you consider some facts, such as what ive reiterated numerous times: People: THIS IS NOT RUBBER ON PAVEMENT, this is not a Driving Game, this is most certainly not realistic, at ALL. And if your still complaining that you cant turn or break on a dime, i suggest you pick up a hover board and try it yourself. (plus if you had the ability to break, your setting yourself up for a loss anyways)
3. Theres some phantom depth here however, there are over 60 different (and imaginative) gears to earn, there are characters to unlock, and 16 different, well thought out and balanced tracks to compete in.
While some die-hards don’t consider games like this apart of the actual Sonic series, I’m going to go ahead and say its probably the best we’ve gotten in terms of a solid and polished experience since Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast (or Shadow The Hedgehog… maybe.) Since, this game also features something we haven’t seen in a long time in a Sonic game. Its a special kind of feeling that your experiencing when playing it, watching it, experiencing it.
Its a little thing called: Love. The company definitely made sure they were having fun making this game.
so in short: Spread the love. Pick it up, rental or purchase. Choose your poison, you cant go wrong either way. The next person to compare this to any other racing game aside from maybe Mario Kart, has no merit, and no soul.
Origanal post by:Gamespot.com
