Now I expect alot of hate after this post, but I actually liked this game. Just lower your pitchforks and torches down and let me explain. This game was "OK". It was a decent racing game and it had likable (At most) characters and hover boards are a thing I rarely see in gaming. Why give the world's fastest hedgehog a hover board anyway when he can just run to the finish line? A question I can't exactly answer. This was one of those games that raised alot of questions, but it wasn't a bad game for me anyway.
Since Sega has a habit of doing anything and everything to this blue spikey hedgehog. It didn't concern me that "hover board riding" would be the next thing on their list in 2006. It was for the Gamecube, Xbox, PS2 and PC. It was also the fourth Sonic racing game in the series. The game was released to start off the 15th anniversary of the Sonic the hedgehog series, introducing new characters including the Babylon rouges and the Xbox version was released with a Sonic X DVD. I'm not a big fan of the shows since they never interested me, so that last bit of information was as pointless to me as you guys.
The story splits into two halves, one with the Heroes story and the other with the Babylon story. All of the stories start differently but soon overlay, which I like with multiple storylines. Also, Both stories are only told from the point of view of the specified characters and Omochao (Fucking love that cute piece of shit). The layout of the story is pretty cool since it's rare to find a racing game with a decent story. It's not a GREAT story but it's good. So it goes into the "Meh" category. The story revolves around the Babylon Rouges and a place called Babylon Garden which holds great treasure. There's the three members of the Babylon Rouges who are introduced into this game, the rest being previous characters in the Sonic series (Other characters can be unlocked like Shadow and Cream). The three are Jet (The leader), Wave (The mechanic) and Storm. These characters play a large part in the game and their personalities are.. Okay? I tolerated them. Wave seemed to be targeted as Tails' love interest (or so I thought while playing) and talking of that two-tailed fox. Try playing this game and take a shot everytime he says "Babylon".
The look of the game is "eh". It's not the best looking game on the PS2 but it's similar to the design on Sonic heroes (I'm referring to the actual game). The concept art and opening scenes though are a different story. It uses a street art-style of art which works quite alright with this style of game. Since hoverboards are similar to skateboards and they are usually linked with street art and graffiti. I actually really liked the opening sequence when I played this game. I have no idea why. Maybe it was the colours or the fast pace it had. I can't remember. The music is upbeat, fast and works with the racing. There are times where it gets annoying while playing on different tracks but it's bearable. What I DO hate is the beeping sound when you run out of air. The tracks themselves are pretty good for racing. My favorite being just the city track. I praise the game for giving different routes for different types of characters. Speed characters using rails to grind, Fly characters to fly a long distance with rings and the Power characters for smashing things out the way. It had a similar feel as Sonic heroes, making you play as different characters to experiment with different routes (Although you are three characters at once in Sonic Heroes).
The game-play is similar to most racing games. The hover boards work similar to skateboards so it's best to be compared to a skateboarding racing game. there are 16 tracks with 9 of them being unlocked by going through the story. This is a decent amount of tracks for a Sonic racing game. I actually expected less.
The main difference to this from other racing / Skateboarding games is the air tank. Players have to keep the air tank filled with well... air to keep the hoverboard (or Extreme gears for you nerdy dicks) from stopping. The air is depleted as the race continues but can be regained by cornering and doing tricks in the air. This component can be annoying but doesn't add to the tension in racing. If a player runs out of air, their character will start running, putting them at several disadvantage so keeping the air tank filled is vital if you want to stay first.
The controls are alright. Floaty but that's expected for a game where you ride air. So I can't complain about the game for that.
This game wasn't bad. The story is alright but can drag on a little if you're the type to like Sonic stories (They can be shitty). The actually game-play is difficult to grasp at first because of the air tank and the different things you can do. It took me a little while to get better at it and finally began to enjoy it when I wasn't getting frustrated at it. It was nice coming back to it but I doubt I'll be going back to it again anytime soon as there are better racers out there that I enjoy better.
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