Review: Sonic Free Riders

As the last of his games hit shelves, so ends a big year for Sonic. 2010 brought with it some hotly anticipated Sonic titles: The SEGA Superstars returned for All-Star Racing, 2D Sonic returned to consoles and 3D Sonic has cleaned up his act. Meanwhile, off in the corner sat Sonic Free Riders.

Free Riders, the third game in the Sonic Riders series, made ripples (not waves) in the SEGA community when it was announced to be a launch title for Microsoft’s Kinect. The series itself had earned little respect in the past, and coupled with a new piece of hardware, enthusiasm for the game was mixed. But now the Kinect is here, the game is out. No more speculating, it’s reviewin’ time!

Best Sonic Free Riders review ever

If there is one tip I can give anyone that is planning on getting Kinect, make sure you have enough room to jump around and play games. Especially if your going to film yourself and put it on YouTube, learn to edit stuff out.

Above is a review by YouTube user lawrenceraybon, he even suggest that you subscribe to get more reviews like this. I will subscribe, thank you.

[Via: Engadget]

Sonic Free Riders multiplayer trailer

Here is the new trailer for the upcoming Sonic Free Riders, a game that is launching exclusively for Kinect in a couple of days. I have to say, it looks rather fun, I’m just not hip enough to get into the whole motion controller craze.

The game shows some of the modes you will be experincing if you decided to drop the cash for the upcoming add on; including vs. mode, co-op and relay race.

[Via: Sonic Stadium]

Sonic Free Riders: Weapons Trailer released


Check out the latest trailer for Sonic Free Riders, this one showing off some of the weapons you will be able to use in the upcoming game.

Sonic Free Riders is set to be a launch title for Microsoft’s Kinect add-on. It will be released on November 4th in North America and November 10th in Europe. No idea if there will be a Kinect bundled with the game.

Japanese Sonic Free Rider promo features excited actors


“COOOOOL!!”

Here is a new promo video for Sonic Free Riders in Japan. It is quite an odd piece of promotional footage for a few reasons, I have never seen a Japanese person smile so much, almost seems like its a Microsoft Kinect advertisement policy or something. You know, since all the US adverts have the same thing. Also who has a room that white or that large in Japan?

“Awesome!!!”

The last thing that will lead to people doing creepy shit, is the feature that lets two players join hands and do tricks on screen with two of the in-game characters. Lets be honest, Sonic fanbase is disgusting and a ton of horrible fan fiction is bound to happen.

[Source: AndriaSang]

Sonic Free Riders release date announced, website launches

As if we didn’t know already, SEGA has officially announced that Sonic Free Riders will release on November 4th (US) and November 10th (Europe) for the launch of the 360’s Kinect. SEGA has also launched the official English language website which includes a bit of new art, several locked sections and a unique navigation method in which you can use a web cam to navigate the site. I tried it at work and I looked like a fool, but it worked rather well.

[Source: SEGA’s Tweet]

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TGS round up would make Toshihiro Nagoshi proud

[Nagoshi having a rest or tanning?]

So now that TGS is behind us and we are sprinting into fall, let us look back at all the awesome SEGA announcements and news bits we posted.

News bits:

Trailers & Videos:

Screenshots & Photos:

Don’t worry, there is still news to come. We will be stalking the internet trying to get all the Phantasy Star Online 2 information we can. As you can tell, I’m are most excited for this title. Best TGS in a long time?

Project Draco not a Panzer Dragoon game


Yukio Futatsugi, creator of Phantom Dust and developer on Panzer Dragoon, is working on Project Draco. The game even looks like Panzer Dragoon, especially if you have seen the artwork (pictured above). Regardless of this, Microsoft Game Studios VP Phil Spencer says its not a Panzer Dragoon game, only inspired by.

“It’s a Kinect game for one thing, which is going to have its own take on it, there are some differences between — as a Panzer Dragoon fan — the stuff we’ve seen in the Panzer Dragoon series and [Project Draco] … Futasugi-san does have a passion for dragons and the interactions between humans and dragons, I think you could say ‘inspired by’ and obviously Futatsugi-san’s heritage with that franchise is an important part of his history. Wouldn’t characterize [Project Draco] as a Panzer Dragoon game.” – Phil Spencer Microsoft Game Studios VP

He says the game is going to be its own and even goes as far as to say “I think there’s some great things about the mechanic in Panzer Dragoon that can work really well, but we’re not in any way trying to diminish the value of that franchise or steal from it.” If this is a rail shooter, with the same art and concept as Panzer Dragoon; can we call him on his words?

[Source: Joystiq]

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Rise of Nightmares: SEGA’s horror Kinect game [Update: Press Release]

SEGA has just announced a new Kinect game, during Microsoft’s keynote. The name of the new game is Rise of Nightmare.

They showed a teaser of the new game, very hard to make out what the game is suppose to be like, according to live blogs online. Some people suggested it would be a ‘on rail’ type of game. Seems like the best way to control games on Kinect. Could be a game like D, remember that game?

The game is aimed at the hardcore, a dark horror game.

[Source: IGN Live Blog]

PRESS RELEASE AFTER THE JUMP!

Microsoft talks whether Sonic is a core game or casual


I have to disagree with this statement. I think the whole gaming industry has lost face on what is ‘core’, ‘casual’ and ‘non-gamer’. I think that casual games can be a good thing. I mean Space Channel 5 was always meant to be a casual game, so was NiGHTS and Puyo Puyo. Non-gamer games are those workout games, aiming to people that don’t have interest in playing games.

“If you think about a game like Sonic the Hedgehog, in the old days, would you say Sonic was a core game or a casual game? It’s a mix between both. There isn’t some complicated set of controls to learn but it has all the gameplay skill and depth. If we’d never heard of Sonic the Hedgehog…and I’m like ‘we’ve got this awesome game, you’re this little blue hedgehog and you’re running around collecting golden rings’ you’d be like ‘that’s not a core game, where are the games for the core?’, and yet Sonic was a core game.”Kudo Tsunoda, Microsoft

Sonic and Mario were never core, they are designed with massive appeal and that is OK. Not every game has to be core. If it is designed to please hardcore and the casual gamers, that is fine. That still makes it casual.

[Source: Kombo]

Sonic Free Riders only supports 2 players locally


Awhile back we posted the Xbox.com listing for Sonic Free Riders, where it said the game would be 4 players offline. Well, Microsoft has edited that listing and now put that the game will only support 2 players locally.  Also, number of players supported via online and co-op are yet to be determined. Last time they said it would support 4 players co-op and 12 players online.

Seems to me that someone at Microsoft jumped the gun or it was a place holder. Most likely a place holder.

[Source: Sonic Stadium]

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