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Just as we were starting to think that Shadow had taken over the Sonic franchise for the remainder of 2005, Sega makes the surprise announcement of an all-new racing game featuring Sonic and friends. The latest issue of Famitsu reveals that Sonic Riders is being developed by Sonic Team for a Winter Japanese release on the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube this winter. Serving as producer is Yuda Koshi, a veteran of Sonic development who's also worked on Puyo Puyo and Space Channel 5.

In Sonic Riders, Dr. Eggman has set up a speed challenge, and all the Sonic characters, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Storm the Albatross, Jet the Hawk, Miles "Tails" Prower and Web the Swallow, have decided to compete. To the victor goes a Chaos Emerald.

Unlike the classic Sega Saturn racer Sonic R (now appearing as a game in Sonic Gems Collection), Sonic Riders promises an "eXtreme" experience. Yes, Sega is actually using this buzz word that we thought had died two years ago to promote the game. Sonic and friends speed through tracks on air boards, using individual special moves to strike down opponents.

Air is a big element of Sonic Riders. Your board's "fuel" source is air. You can fill up your air at various points on the course, but to race well you'll have to use another means of replenishment: performing tricks with your board. You'll also want to make use of turbulence from racers who are in front of you. By riding your rival racers' turbulence, you get a burst of speed and can even make your board leap into the air (sometimes finding shortcuts in the course). Your air supply remains fixed when riding turbulence, making this a tactic that you'll want to employ as you play the game. Turbulence isn't all good, though, as players can generate irregularities in their turbulence, knocking those who are along for a free ride out of the course.

Sega is planning a whole lot of gameplay for Sonic Riders. Expect numerous tracks, including such Sonic fare as Splash Canyon, Egg Factory, Green Cave and Sandy Ruin. The game will offer a number of different modes, including two and four player split screen.

I think this'll be one of the best Sonic games of all time, but there hasn't been any word on an English release date yet.

Interview inbetween Infoworld and Takashi Yuda, which is I believe, the producer of Sonic Riders.


"TGS - Sega talks up Sonic Riders

Martyn Williams

Sega Corp. is developing another game in the company's popular Sonic series. The game, Sonic Riders, promises players a mixture of extreme sports, airboarding and racing battles and is scheduled to ship in 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube.

The game involves Dr. Eggman and his team, the Band of Thieves, challenging Sonic and friends to a Worldwide Grand Prix with the top prize of a rare airboard, called the Chaos Emerald. Gamers get a chance to try and stop Dr. Eggman winning this prize by playing as one of the Sonic characters. A preview of the game is expected to be shown at this week's Tokyo Game Show and before the event IDG News Service sat down with Takashi Yuda, a producer at the game design section of Sega's global entertainment R&D division.

IDG News Service: Where did the inspiration for Sonic Riders come from?

Takashi Yuda: I had an ambition to make a racing game in the Sonic series but rather than make a traditional racing game, I wanted to make something different with a feeling of surfing or extreme sports.

IDGNS: How long have you been developing the game?

Yuda: One and a half years

IDGNS: What makes this different from other surfing or extreme sports games?

Yuda: In a normal racing game, the course is always the same but in our game it's always different. We've added turbulence so that the course taken through the track is different each time; just like in surfing, where each wave is different. The turbulence is in the shape of a half-pipe so you can also use it to jump on to the edge to get to short-cuts not normally available.

IDGNS: So are all the tracks water-based?

Yuda: No. We have different water tracks, city tracks and mountains tracks. There are 16 tracks.

IDGNS: So, it's not a surfboard then?

Yuda: No. It's like the airboard that was featured in "Back to the Future" movies.

IDGNS: Is it a new game engine?

Yuda: Yes

IDGNS: How many different characters?

Yuda: Seventeen.

IDGNS: Is there any difference between the games on different platforms?

Yuda: No. When the Sonic team makes a game it always tries to give the same experience on different platforms.

IDGNS: Is the multiplayer or online play?

Yuda: There is multiplayer but not online."

I wasn't calling you a liar or anything. There's a lot of information flying about at the moment - I've just heard different things. smile

I like the sound of the game as a concept. I always liked Sonic R, though my ability to corner on those tracks was pretty rubbish smile What I don't understand is why, when we already have a pretty solid cast of other characters from Sonic Adventure 2 onwards, they feel the need to introduce random new characters.

They don't sound particularly memorable to me, although, having said that, who's to say that Cream & Cheese sound memorable? Maybe I'm just getting old, but I like the cast we currently have.

The graphics, though, judging by the various screenshots available at places like IGN and Gamespy, look great. I don't subscribe to the theory that graphics are everything on a video game - I love the Animaniacs game and that is very cartoony, as it should be - but they do help.

Here's hoping for fewer bottomless pits for me to fall into though smile

DW

Well, if there's supposedly going to be at least 17 playable characters, that should provide plenty of room for past Sonic...er..heroes?

The game certainly has my attention, and I'll be pleased if I have as much fun with it as I did with Sonic R (hey, I loved the game, so sue me razz ).

The only things I hope for are that the CPU doesn't cheat (I'm looking at YOU, Sonic Shuffle...), and....a battle mode (no more having to make them up in R, consisting mostly of two characters bumping headlong into each other!!).

Well all I can say that I'm getting the game!

I might not agree verbatim with all of that, but well said. I'll type up a thorough reply when I get a few minutes to myself. smile

EDIT: More to follow when I can type it up; but here's some of my opinion on Cream, from another topic:

I like Cream a lot. To be honest, I get tired on seing people who dislike her as a character or think she's "stupid" just because she's not kickass or angsty, or doesn't have a saiyan hairdo and beat things up.

She's not a character who's meant to do that. In a continuity filled with characters who think that it's "cool" to be egotistical, or brooding, or to hit first and ask questions later, she's got that totally innocent, unsullied, pacifistic outlook - and manages to keep it, too, and spread it around through the rest of the gang.

Bunnie was similarly cheery in SatAM, but she was never against just turning around and walloping something - and she's even packing firearms in Archie these days. To me, they started out along the same lines, but Archie've drawn her too far away from what Cream represents now. For the moment, anyway.

Copied from a topic where I discussed this subject elsewhere (the comment I was responding to is also enclosed):

"

Aside from the fact that gameplay-wise, Cream's the only character in the Sonic continuity to consistently use a missile weapon, and her flying and swimming capabilities differ from Tails': I defy anyone who's heard Cream screaming "Cheese, get him!" in Sonic Heroes to not harbour suspicions that Cream's got a psychotic tendency or two.

And if we're sticking strictly to Archie, then I'll be very surprised if Cream does turn out to be just a female version of Tails. Archie doesn't just treat Tails as "The Chosen One" - he's also the Sega-esque, rapidly becoming only just pre-teen super-genius with military experience and a central role in the tactics division of the Freedom Fighters, a pilot and a character who never knew his parents.

Going off what we know of her from the other Sonic continuities we've seen her in, Cream is a relatively normal, happy six year old with, as far as we know, a relatively normal life with her mother.

That doesn't make them seem very similar to me. Granted, Penders is such a raving egomaniac that if he gets within a mile of the character, he'll probably make her serving wench to one of his pet echidna housewives, but I don't believe that what I've outlined in the previous two paragraphs isn't what a reasonably well-informed fan wouldn't expect.

I'm just fascinated by your view of Cream as "wussy" by comparison to what's "cool", since "cool" seems to equate big - or at least brawny - guys with testosterone imbalances, who punch their way out of trouble first and ask questions later.

What's so "wussy" about wanting to get along with people, rather than tell them that it's your way or the highway?

I chose the quote I put in my sig because when I saw that picture, it seemed to fit with who Cream was: someone who doesn't necessarily see any weakness in not wanting to settle everything with violence.

It's here that I think that Cream, as a member of the Sonic cast, has actually got one of the best deals in terms of character development.

We've seen her evolve.

We saw it in Sonic Battle. She started off as someone who didn't want to fight, and finished as someone who realised that sometimes you had to fight, to defend your friends or what you believe in.

We saw the same thing in Sonic X, where your "wussy" rabbit took out Emerl with nothing other than a little bit of help from Cheese - but only when she realised that there was no other way to stop lots of people she cared about from getting hurt.

And that's an angle that the Freedom Fighters and Archie in general haven't used before.

If Archie can replicate that, then I don't think that she's going to be a clone of Tails by any means. They're two different characters with two very different histories, and two very different ways of fighting (tactics and understanding).

*points at own sig*

There're more ways to fight for something than with your fists. Or are you saying that Abraham Lincoln was "wussy", too? wink "

Cream's not meant to be "cool" in the sense that Sonic is. But that doesn't mean that she isn't.