Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity Confirmed.

[K2J]

Yeah, I'm glad this game ditched the whole Air thing. It really got annoying that every CPU just laid into the B button the whole time since their meters had infinite Air. The stages are a good variety, too. The only thing I have to complain about is the completely rediculous story. How the hell does Amy/Tails suddenly conclude that the Rogues are aliens?! Babylon Garden could just be a flying device, you know. Also, the SA1 Eggmobile is back. Though it's already appeared in Rush and the first Riders, it kinda surprised me, especially how it looks like the model hasn't changed in its ten years.

[DackAttac]

After realizing that I probably had the first one for a month before I honest-to-God got into it, I've decided to be patient with the footnote that it's got to pull some sort of miracle out its ass to get out of the disappointment category. If the controls are grasped easily over the next few weeks, though, maybe I can upgrade it out of the "hate self for purchase" category. But in all honesty, the first one had a brutal learning curve, and in learning it, I thought the Wii version would more or less be the same thing, only with wii-mote jiggling for Air recharge.

My main hang-up right now is the tricking, since I'm supposed to trick by holding a direction. Are you supposed to do multiples? Do they still have that system where you hold down (or steer down, here) to get altitude and press forward to get distance? Because to grade me on my ability to hold a direction

Also, now that Air is gone, why have they not nixed the turbulence? And what's more, made it impossible to control on? My worst enemy on some shortcuts is that shit, as it sucks me in and I can't get out of it; were they at least kind enough to include a way to escape it like in the first one?

I finally figured out how to time the grinds right today, but I can't for the life of me get Tails to trick off the ramps. Also, they go down from time to time? What kind of arbitrary punishment bullshit is that?

[Zeta]

Um, actually, you don't trick by holding a direction. You trick by hitting the jump button when you approach a ramp. The farther you are on a ramp when you press a jump button, the better your trick is rated. So hitting it early on will cause you to stumble but doing it at the last second will get you S. You'll automatically land perfectly if you get a B or higher and you don't have to touch anything in mid-air.

As for the flying ramps - in this game, you have to upgrade your Gear to use the shortcuts. Your first upgrade costs 20 or 30 rings (don't remember which) and gives you a speed boost. Second upgrade is 50 rings after that and lets you use your character class's shortcuts (bashing enemies as Power, flight rings for Flight, and Grind Rails for Speed). Final upgrade is 70 rings later and gives you a bigger gravity gauge. If your character does not have the second upgrade, the ramps to the flight rings will stay down. In addition, you're not supposed to try to trick off them. Doing that will fuck up your jump. Just ride up them and you'll be carried into the flight rings. Provided your gear is at level 2, of course.

[FlashTHD]

Um, actually, you don't trick by holding a direction. You trick by hitting the jump button when you approach a ramp. The farther you are on a ramp when you press a jump button, the better your trick is rated. So hitting it early on will cause you to stumble but doing it at the last second will get you S. You'll automatically land perfectly if you get a B or higher and you don't have to touch anything in mid-air.

Not quite the whole story there. If you want better than an S, you need to hold a direction while doing it - any direction this time, doesn't matter, that is if what i'm getting from the GameFAQs people is right.

Another thing I picked up from them is that you should try pushing a different direction each time if you want to keep doing the best tricks; doing it the same way every time would slowly screw you up. Give it a try both ways.

[Isuka]

I think that holding a particular direction in a particular ramp has slightly more probability of being an S/ X class trick, but that's just a guess.

Short notes: boo for no animated opening sequence, hooray for selectable Japanese voice track, boo for dumbing down the mechanics, hooray for making them look awesome, less frustrating and actually fun. Overall it's a better game than the first, most of the courses are a step forward, all the SEGA fanservice is still excellent, the characters have better and smoother animation, and THERE ARE ZERO CHAOS EMERALDS!!1!1

The PS2's version autosave feature doesn't look to be intelligent anymore, though. Now it'll save all the time instead of only when something is unlocked or a record is broken, but whatever. Oh, and the first couple of times you play it, you'll consistently screw up because the controls have been almost completely remapped.

[Crazy Penguin]

Have they fixed the learning curve? What about the insane requirements for unlockable tracks?

[Isuka]

Two words: actual tutorial.
You get to practice the game's mechanics before starting the Story Mode, move by move. Not just a self-played video tutorial, this time around you get to follow the instructions while a ghost shows you how it's done.
For the fanservice courses, I got them by just beating the two stories, which took about an hour or so. That'll also unlock most of the characters.

And that reminds me, Gibbon! was right about Blaze's voice (Nao Takamori), she's hot. :P

[Crazy Penguin]

Unlocking the Sega stages in the original is so cruel. Five consecutives tracks with no retries and you're only allowed to come in second place once.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

So was losing all your rings each time someone hit you. That got old really, really fast.

[Isuka]

It looks like, unless you are playing the Wii version, you can throughly ignore GameTrailers' review.
Though the graphics look a bit better in Wii (and the framerate probably doesn't get nailed to 30 fps when playing multiplayer), it also looks like the controls are totally fucked up when using the wiimote and nunchuk, and there's no way to use the Classic controller so you are stuck with the GameCube one. All the rest of the guy's whining is because he's a faggot who can't tell which direction is forward, not even with the on-screen help.

Oh, and the minigames suck. Whooo, you're making me cry chump :(

[FlashTHD]

And 1up completely blew it - this dude is too blind to find the tutorial and doesn't give enough a care to tell anyone about the meager online features; or much of anything, really.

The big voices definitely have turned the bias up to extra spicy on this one, and (though i've not played it) even i'm wondering what pissed in their coffee now.

[Isuka]

Given the absolutely brutal onslaught of stupidity I've been exposed to by reading several "OMG professionalz!1" reviews, I feel compelled to write a pretty childish rebuttal of most of these stupid pieces of written garbage.

First off, what's actually wrong with the game. The story is kinda short, which is only a bad thing if you happened to enjoy it (which is also most probable if you turn the voices to Jap in order to make them less annoying); the music isn't nearly varied enough, since each track is used for two courses, but some of it sounds great and the rest fits in alright; the courses' design is still a bit spotty (the darkened version of MeteorTech facilites is fucking hard, you can't see a damn thing!), but definitely leagues above and beyond the cheap-a-thon that the first Riders represented. That's all I can think about now.

Now, the point-by-point STFU guide:

Whining: "Waahh, the story is moronic and tired, it's HAWRRIBLE, let me out mom I wanna get off ;_;"
Bitch-slap: There's always this little thingy called Start button you can press in order to skip the friggin' cutscenes, little boy. And, as I said earlier, there are no Chaos Emeralds this time around, that's some big originality plus playing there.

W: "I can't for my life Gravity Control right, I keep bumping into the walls/ falling off the course with every sharp turn!"
B-s: You see that weird icon that appears in the upper portion of the screen when you're about to get mashed? That's the button combination you have to press buddy, and it shows in the exact moment to aid your timing.

W: "OMG I can't Gravity Control since I wasted all my gravity points in a Gravity Dive, this game sucks 4.5!! (BTW, why do I speed up during a GD when I stomp objects?)"
B-s: This is best responded with a wedgie and telling the mofo to either read the manual or play the tutorial already, but since the latter seems to be absent from the Wii version, oh well... there's this thing in the lower half of the screen called Gravity Gauge, it tells you how much GP you have left all the time. If you see it dangerously low while you're Gravity Diving, just let go the goddamn button and keep racing as usual.
And you don't stomp things, you use them as platforms to ricochet, grind off forward and refill the Gravity Gauge in order to not end up outta juice.

I'll ignore the most powerful bits of ignorance (like, and I shit you not, "why don't the power-ups carry from race to race?", "the shortcuts take longer than the standard route", or the notion that you actually accelerate while pressing forward on the left analog stick) and just say that this game's just a little below your average Mario Kart in sheer multiplayer fun, but still a madly gigantic leap over the first and towards an amazing third title.

[DackAttac]

This is best responded with a wedgie and telling the mofo to either read the manual or play the tutorial already, but since the latter seems to be absent from the Wii version...

Oh, it's there.

[Dr. SEGA Monkey]

What's weird is that 4 different reviewers complained about holding foward to accelerate. (Once again, you DON'T have to hold foward.) Now tell me, what are the chances of 1up, GameSpot, GameDaily, and GameTrailers all making the same stupid mistake? Pretty slim to me.

It's so obvious that they COPIED each other's reviews without even touching the game! 1up was the first review up, and they were the first to make the mistake. Then it seemed like everyone else read it and stuck it in their own review without trying the game for themselves.

Quality or not, at least play the damn game when you write a review.

[MiraiTails]

Your logic seems pretty sound to me. Anyone have the guts to spread this idea around the net? (Digg, N4G, etc.)

[K2J]

Submit it to Kotaku or something; this is important and isn't a byproduct of people just hating Sonic games - it's tried and true not playing the actual game.

By the way, we should also mention that a dialog box comes up before Story Mode to ask if you want to do the tutorial, meaning that either the reviewers didn't play Story Mode, or they're blind. To be fair, the tutorial's a bit confusing to navigate, but it's all there.

[Dr. SEGA Monkey]

Even if it IS made widely known, most people won't care, and will pass it off as just some bitter Sonic fanboys who are crying over yet another game being poorly recieved.

[FlashTHD]

Hold up. GameDaily hasn't even reviewed it yet, and Gamespot's review seems more a problem of being mind-numbing than screaming "I didn't play this, and l00k at my fat paycheck!" I haven't watched whatever nonsense GameTrailers had to say but that's dialup internet for you.

Go ahead and harpoon 1UP, but know what you're doing when you drag others into it.

[Dr. SEGA Monkey]

GameDaily DID review the game:

http://www.gamedaily.com/games/sonic-riders-zero-gravity/playstation-2/game-reviews/review/6792/1929/

But anyway, my point was that it was clear that they didn't play the game (and instead copied other reviews) based on what they wrote.

From 1up's review:

you're forced to hold forward on the left stick to accelerate while also trying to steer your character.

From GameDaily's review:

Acceleration and control are both on one analog stick. You have to keep pushing forward to keep your character at high speed while inputting left and right movements for steering.

From GameSpot's review:

The basic controls have you pressing forward on the L-stick for thrust, and moving it side to side to turn.

And then of course we have GameTrailers saying the same thing. Again, I ask....how can 4 different reviewers make the same mistake? To me, it seems like they copied bits and pieces from 1up's review, and passed it off as their own.

[FlashTHD]

GameDaily DID review the game:

http://www.gamedaily.com/games/sonic-riders-zero-gravity/playstation-2/game-reviews/review/6792/1929/

Ah, ok, I was looking at the Wii version. Ha, I find it hard to give a shit about the PS2 ver. too. But they shouldn't.