Why was sonic riders reviewed so badly?

Why was sonic riders reviewed so badly?
Was a pretty good twist on racing games and I enjoyed playing through Babylon and the Hero story line.
Was better split screen too.

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Because gamejournos back then sucked just as much as they do now.

Cuz the green bird meanie. NO PLAY

Fuck man the first riders was so good. ZG looked pretty but the gravity mechanic was dumb. They had something going with that first riders and the irreparably fucked it up with each sequel. I’ll always be mad about that.

>15th anniversary

You know what anniversary that was right? 2006, 06.

High execution and skill ceiling, the mechanics took a bit to get used to but once you got them down, holy fuck it was satisfying blasting through the story GP’s and missions. The art style was god tier too. I liked using Shadow + Legendary Endurance Gear

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It wasn't Mario Kart

The cut scenes are still cringy but it's not as bad as I remember.
My older brother has a ghost that has been notoriously hard to beat so I'm gonna clean up my skill and see if I can beat it

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It had a pretty different control scheme compared to a lot of racing games and lot of people just didn't want to bother with learning out to get the most out of it. Zero Gravity made the controls a lot simpler but the people who didn't want it still didn't want it and the people that actually liked the complexities of the first game were left with a sour taste. Then Free Riders came out and no one liked it and the "franchise" died.

Shadow was main

Mechanics were a bit jank, abysmal track roster, annoying difficulty spike in story mode, gameplay wasn't as dynamic and casual friendly as Mario kart nor as skill based and technical as a sumo digital racer.

I love riders, but I won't pretend like it wasn't heavily flawed and in need of refinement.

...so?

As for why the game reviewed so badly, if I had to guess I'd say that the air meter mechanic turned a lot of people off. Also this , unfortunately. Nowadays people are lukewarm towards the series on a good day, but back then, people were outright hostile towards anything Sonic related. Even if the game wasn't really bad, it'd get shat on relentlessly. Now, I will be the first to point out that some of those games definitely deserved it, but Riders? Nah. It was a fairly well put together racing game with a neat gimmick that made it stand out from Mario Kart.

>Why was sonic riders reviewed so badly?
it wasn't

Man, I just remember having a fucking blast with all the unlockable shit in this game.
>playable NiGHTS, Ulala, and AiAi
>those Sega carnival stages
>wacky gears like the Hang-On machine, flying carpet, and burst roller skates
>the heaven and hell Babylon stage
>slapping mismatched gear on other characters (like giving Rouge a power gear so she couod got and punch through things)
This game hasn't been topped for best Sonic spinoff

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I never got good at Sonic Riders or Zero Gravity. I need a way to replay them

>This game
you mean this series

1st on dolphin, 2nd on ps2 emu

I fucking loved this game and Zero gravity shame the series is dead

It was the start of the hard bashing because of 06. Many things were leaked before hand and people hated how that opening seemed like something from FF and then the redesigns(like sonic being taller). The demos were bad and we started to realize how bad things were going with the development with old staff leaving like Naka.
Sonic games that got good reviews were always Nintendo exclusive like the DS games and the multiplats of home consoles always got a sightly better score on the nintendo versions, like Unleashed that is considered better on the Wii than the fucking HD version according to reviewers

Hell, even the Shadow game didnt got that bashed when it was released, people didnt liked the idea of the guns but the level design was fine despite the silly writing. That game only got bashed HARD after 06

No PC. Just an okay laptop. Might find a physical way down the road.

Sonic Riders > Mario Kart

The sequels were shit, so he probably really did mean game instead of series

Because it was boring

Only Free Riders
If you think Zero Gravity is bad you aren't even a pleb, you have brain damage.

Only the awful Xbone game that completely destroyed everything done before, Zero Gravity had everything the first one had and more

Most Sonic fans were genuinely too dumb for the game back in the day and most still seem to be.

SUPER SONIC SPEED

SUPER
SONIC
SPEED

I remember reading one review and the guy was complaining that he constantly had to refuel, meaning he wasn't doing any tricks. that being said I do remember Riders having a pretty harsh learning curve.

>Tracks have two major gimmicks in them
>Hairpin turns impossible to do normally that require you to gravity control and 'drift', basically requiring you to come to a standstill and turn around
>Long straightaways requiring gravity dives, which if you aren't doing at this moment you will fall behind easily

Removal of Air fuel was fine because a deeent player would have 100% uptime on it anyways but gravity fuel can go fuck itself

>Free Riders killed the series
It hurts so much. I remember staying up late at night playing the game because I turned the laps up to 99.

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While I never got the complain myself, apparently a lot of people were confused with the game's mechanics & found it unwelcoming or difficult to apprehend.

Fuck mario kart, fuck team sonic racing, give me this shit back

Spinoff's are guaranteed to have negative reviews

One of the few sonic games worth playing
Also zero gravity blew massive ass