Sonic Riders (film)

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is the fifth Sonic the Hedgehog film. It returned to Disney Channel on July 30, 2008, after Shadow the Hedgehog: The Movie moved to ABC Family, due to "mild language" not used for kids and under. The movie was the shortest into the franchise. It brought an disapointing 4.5 million viewers.

Plot
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are walking across a bridge in Future City, searching once again for the Chaos Emeralds, when Tails' radar goes off. At that point, three mysterious riders on hoverboards smash through a nearby sign, and drop into the highway below. The trio realize that the Emerald's signal is coming from one of the three riders. Sonic begins pursuit on foot. He catches up with one of the riders, knocks him off his board, and hops on it. He quickly catches up with the lead rider, trying to maintain his balance, but is outmaneuvered. Sonic is thrown off his board after Jet attacks him from above, and the three mysterious riders disappears into the distance. The next day, Sonic's arch-nemesis, Doctor Eggman, appears on a giant screen in the city, and announces to the public that he is holding the "EX World Grand Prix", in which racers will compete on Extreme Gear (the hoverboards used by the three previously encountered riders) to claim the title of champion. He also states that all entrants must pay a fee of one Chaos Emerald, and that "the winner takes all." It is unclear whether or not he means that the winner will receive all seven Emeralds or not. Three racers are shown on the screen, and Sonic recognized them as the three mysterious riders they had encountered the night before. Unaware of Eggman's real motivation to steal the emeralds later on, they decide to enter the race. While strolling in Splash Canyon (one of the courses in the game), the mysterious riders are later discovered to be a group of outlaws, called "The Babylon Rogues", whom Tails described came from a floating island known as "Babylon Garden". Then Wave enters and examines the board Tails made, and secretly puts a small detonator on the bottom. She then laughs and calls Tails' board "a piece of junk", which angers Tails. Later, Knuckles encounters Storm, another one of the riders, at the Egg Factory. They start to fight, but then are interrupted by the intercom stating the next race will begin. They decide to settle their rumble on the track. After that, in Green Forest, Tails and Knuckles are sitting at the sidelines, watching Sonic show off the new tricks he learned. Jet then appears and tells Sonic he has no chance. Tails then remembers Wave's remark about the air board, and enters the race, hoping to defeat Wave. The remaining racers then line up to race in Sand Ruins, the final round. Jet shows up next to Sonic, saying his progress was only luck. In the end, Jet ends up falling behind Sonic, but After the competition, Jet then unknowingly uses the Emeralds to summon Babylon Garden from the desert sands. Eggman steals the key from Jet's hands. Amy grabs onto Eggman's cruiser, and ends up being pulled away to the Garden. Sonic and friends then pursue Eggman in the Tornado, while Jet flies in his own air flier. Tails then gives Sonic a newly created Blue Star II (unlockable after completing the story), and Sonic proceeds to pursue Eggman. Jet then appears next to Sonic on his own board, and Sonic must then out race him to win. After beating Jet, he flies off his own board and hits the ground with Sonic saying "Even without wings, I can still fly! Right?" Jet pounds the ground with his fist. Sonic finds Eggman, and proceeds to take him out, but Eggman pulls Amy out of the bushes, his hostage. Sonic activates his air board and disappears into the air. He then flies down and attacks Eggman, pulling Amy into the newly created air tornado with him. He throws the key at Jet, who starts complaining about how he doesn't want nor need Sonic's pity. Wave comes in, saying "Are you crazy?! If they don't want it, then let's take it. Treasure is treasure." Then Sonic says it's time to leave. They start to walk, then Amy yells for Sonic, angry that he dove into Eggman, knowing she was there. She goes after him with her Piko Piko hammer, saying she "won't forgive him this time." The story then ends and goes to the credits.

Development
The game is played in its entirety using hover boards, which function largely like skateboards. Players must race seven other competitors on a total of 16 tracks, 9 of which must be unlocked through progress in the story mode, and two of which must be unlocked by winning Gold in each World Grand Prix (5 tracks per Grand Prix). Each individual character has different statistics, altering their performance slightly in races. A key component of the game is the air tank, displayed in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Air serves as the fuel for Extreme Gear, and is depleted gradually as the race goes on. It is also depleted faster by certain maneuvers. These include cornering, which involves using the air as a sideways force against the board, allowing the player to round sharp turns with ease, and building tension before a jump, which involves using the air to propel the player higher off of ramps. If a player runs out of air, their character will start running, putting them at several disadvantages; they can't boost, attack, corner easily or use charged jumps. After going off ramps, players can perform various tricks, which refill the air gauge according to their rating. Building the tension before a jump will allow the player to perform more tricks before landing. Throughout the courses, there are many rings lying about. Picking them will allow the player to reach higher performance levels. Players start races at Level 1 with no rings and max out at level 3, with 60-100 rings. Possibly the most costly maneuver in terms of air is boosting, by which a player greatly increases speed for a short duration. If a boost is performed when in close range of an enemy racer, the player will launch an attack against the racer, causing them to lose rings, and remain stunned for a short duration.

Rider Attributes Each racer in the game has one of three beneficial attributes: Speed, Flight, and Power. These allows players to grind along rails, propel themselves in mid-air through a series of suspended hoops, and bash certain obstacles out of their way, respectively. Each of these maneuvers will refill the air gauge partially when used. Most characters stats are minimally different from others, the only point of interest is their race attribute, and in the case of Eggman, E-10000 Robots and Ulala, what gears they can ride. Eggman can only use bikes, Robots can only use boards, and Ulala cannot use bikes.

 Types of Gear There are three types of gear in the game: Boards, the gear unlocked initially, and the only gear used in story mode. Skates, which tend have slightly lower performance than boards, but burn less air, and bikes, which resemble floating mopeds, and have higher performance, but burn more air. Most gear must be purchased from the shop or unlocked in story mode.

In the Story Mode, players take part in consecutive races, one after the other, based on the storyline, in order to defeat the Babylon Rogues and win the Grand Prix. Throughout the story, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles must each challenge and defeat the respective member of the Babylon Rogues that matches their attribute type. Mission Mode allows is unlocked after successfully completing the original story. Players take part in various missions assigned in order to gain secret gears. Survival Mode is a special mode of gameplay consisting of two separate modes: race and battle. Race consists of snagging a Chaos Emerald on the track, and passing through five hoops without having the Emerald stolen by another racer. The Emerald is stolen by attacking the player holding it. Battle involves launching attacks at the three other racers on the track. Each racer begins with three health points. The racer loses a health point every time they are attacked. The last racer standing wins the match. The Shop is where players can purchase new Extreme Gear with the rings collected in previous races.

Babylon Story After the initial story is completed, another story is unlocked, in which players assume the role of the Babylon Rogues in their quest to find hidden treasures. The levels in this story are, altered, more difficult versions of the original tracks, and are unlocked by completing this story. After both story modes are completed, a selection of new characters not featured in the story become playable. At the end of this alternate story, players battle the only boss in the game.

Reception
Sonic Riders had mixed reviews ranging from good to average:
 * Nintendo Power: 8.0 out of 10
 * GameSpot: 6.6 out of 10
 * Gamesmaster Magazine UK: 65%
 * IGN: 6.2 out of 10
 * Games Radar: 5 out of 10
 * X-Play:
 * Game Informer: 5 out of 10

As of January 2009, Game Rankings ranks Sonic Riders as 63.1% for the GameCube, 59.7% for the PlayStation 2, 59.0% for the Xbox, and 43.3% for the PC.