For the staff here at Everybody Plays, Sonic Free Riders is something of a frustration, as, out of the entire Kinect launch line-up, it's the one we were looking forward to the most. We love the speedy blue hedgehog and his various animal friends, and the idea of riding a hoverboard, controlled by our own body, sounded like one that went perfectly with the idea behind Kinect.
So it was with great anticipation that we turned on our 360, and put the game in. It loaded up, and our hearts were beating - and when it presented us with the menu, we almost exploded. Not with excitement, you understand, but just because we couldn't actually make them work.
Sonic Free Rider's menu is so bad, it's practically unusable. All you have to do is sweep your hand across it in order to cycle through the options, but no matter how much you try, something inside the game seems to get completely confused whenever you try to use it, leaving the options scrolling left and right wildly, as you try slowly waving your hand to calm it down. After much back and forth with the console, we did manage to figure out a trick to use the menu (by moving your hand down, out, and to the side, before sweeping back across the menu), but when you can't even make the menu of a game work, it doesn't exactly bode well for the rest of the game. Sadly, it was a sign of things to come.
Reaching your hand out to grab the rings is one of few things that works.
There is a story behind Sonic Free Riders, although it doesn't really serve a purpose, other than to give Sonic and Co. an excuse to jump on some hoverboards and get racing. All you need to know is Dr. Robotnik's involved, and there's a cute little guy called Omochao serving as a commentator for the event, as Sonic and other characters from the loveable hedgehog's universe take part in a global hoverboarding championship.
Before you start each race, you'll be asked to stand with your body perpendicular to the TV, as if you were standing on a snowboard. And this is all well and good - although it isn't all that welcoming for lengthy playing sessions (as you'll quickly crick your neck by trying to turn your head at a 90 degree angle to your body, so it stays facing the TV), it kind of makes sense.
The rest of the controls, also, mostly make sense. They're just completely impractical, and poorly implemented, so much so they make the game almost impossible to control. In order to get your character to turn left and right, you have to lean forwards, or backwards. And although it may make sense in your mind, the problem is, it's a lot harder to lean forwards and backwards than it sounds - especially when you're trying to keep your feet in one place. The human spine isn't meant to bend backwards, so while turning right works fairly well, trying to turn left usually ends in your character crashing into a wall, and you nursing a sore back.
If you've got the space, the co-op mode is one of the few highlights.
Even less logical is the way in which you give yourself a speed boost. You can push off against the ground with your foot if you want to go faster, but the problem is, you have to push off as though you were facing forwards on a skateboard. All this means is you're left standing in your living room, facing Kinect sideways on, with your head turned to face the TV, your back bent into an ungodly angle, and now your leg hanging out, twisted at a 90 degree angle to the rest of your body, in order to push across the floor! It's about as graceful as it is enjoyable - and that's a real shame.
But still, we could forgive the awful menus, and the poor controls, if they were at least responsive. Perhaps we'd be willing to sacrifice our joints in order to experience the game if it was still fun, and we could pull off some amazing victories despite our physical sacrifice. But it isn't. Your characters rarely ever turn, the computer always beats you, and, as you lean further, and further, and further backwards in a desperate attempt to get your hedgehog to turn, wincing as you feel your back starting to give way, you're left wondering why you bought this to begin with.
But, putting everything else aside, do you know what really makes us miffed? If they'd have used a controller to begin with - if they'd have completely ignored Kinect - none of this would have been a problem. The control scheme would have been simple, our backs wouldn't have been turned into a pile of jelly, and we'd have spent less of our time bouncing off walls as we contort our bodies into ungodly shapes, and more time actually enjoying the game.
We really wanted to like Sonic Free Riders, but in the end, we simply can't. As a game, it's effectively broken, and we have no idea how SEGA actually managed to test it. We haven't been this disappointed since SEGA abandoned Big the Cat.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
