Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity

Sept 21, 2007

Now, say out loud that you think the original Sonic Riders was a bit rubbish, and you'll have an army of blue hedgehog fans purposely showing you Sonic's trademark hand signal the wrong way round. But, guys, it was. Floaty, sticky, interminable, nearly-on-rails "racing" that reminded us of Kirby Air Ride - not a good thing.

Zero Gravity could be much better. Wii's tilty nature was surely born for 3,700kph anti-grav hoverboard racing; improved visuals and an outer-space setting will slap the face of the last game's uninspiring Green Hill Zones and lava-spilled caverns; and "unique gravity control moves" mean we're now pelting along walls and running on ceilings like footage of the spider olympics on fast forward. In truth, Sonic %26amp; The Secret Rings was halfway to being Sonic Riders - if the speed, imagination and satisfying tippy-turniness of that little beauty is back, we're all ears. Spikes, sorry.

Red Bull has clearly been gushing through big transparent tubes directly into the waiting mouths of Sega's character-creation department. This can be the only possible explanation for Zero Gravity bringing us yet more new Sonic buddies to join the foxes, rabbits and crocs of the last game. We just hope someone's remembered that even the addition of Mango The Marmoset (or whatever) won't compensate us if they forget to remove Sonic Riders 1's most irritating feature - racers actually getting off their boards and trotting along for a bit if you couldn't manage to keep their speed up.

Oh, and February 2008, Sega? You want to be careful about getting too close to a little thing that has Mario at the start and Kart at the end.