A game with a lot of potential, but one that really isn't as good as it should have been...
Graphics 9/10:
The graphics are just your typical Sonic ones. They look very nice and do the job very well, but there is no advancemen from previous sonic games. All the characters look nice and are easily distuinguishable. Courses look good too, however in some points seem to be lacking in detail. Boards all look great and are fun to race around on. The cut scenes, though have been done very well - especially the opening and closing- and have a really nice look for the game.
Gameplay 7/10:
Sonic Riders is a typpical racing game except in a few areas. For starters you have an air gauge. As you race around, bump into things, boost and turn corners that guage will run down. When it empties your board is out of fuel and you have to either find a pit stop or perform a trick to get more air. Thankfully there are plenty of opporunities to do this, but overall it really just seems to get in the way.
The course designs are alkso fairly boring, but they all have their good points. However they are quite short and presuming you are good at the game, you should be able to knock over the story mode in under an hour or two. Then you have mission mode to play through in which there are a number of missions per course such as performing tricks or picking uo certain items to keep you interested.
Course Design is good in theory but in practice there are some corners on the courses that no matter how mcuh practice you have, you will see yourself flying off the edge or hitting a wall. Also you have turbulence in which you can board on to gain extra speed, however ocassionally this turbulence takes you halfway around a corner and then leaves you to go slamming into a wall.
Sound 7/10:
Not a lot to say here. The sound works well, but its not amazing or original. If you normally like Sonic music, then you won't hav a problem with the background music here. Sound effects are pretty good and theres some great ones in there. What really lets the game down in the voice acting, it is terrible. The voices barely suit the characters and even then they have been very poorly done.
Replay Value 9/10:
Well it is a racing game so you can do time trials to try and beat records, you have play your friends in multiplyer which is a lot of fun and you cn try and do better in the missions! But the main game won't take you that long to beat in itself. So as long as you enjoy the game, there is a lot of value to it.
Overall 7.6/10:
Sonic Riders is a good game, its just lacking in some things and others that wern't done well enough. If you are a sonic fan then it might be worth a play, just to see what its like, but otherwise you may want to stay away, unless you like snowoboarding.