Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity

Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: Jan. 8, 2008
System: PS2, Wii
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web Site

In a nutshell: Sonic's X-TREME Hoverboard Racing Craziness.

0:00 I was probably one of three people who liked the original Sonic R, so there might be something in this for me. Still, based on the critical reception, my hopes are not that high.

0:01 A dark night over a futuristic city. A blue streak speeds by from the sky... it's a glowing ring of some sort. It rolls into a room full of white, humanoid robots, all of which power up in a foreboding sequence. The walkers bust through a wall and into the night. "Robots made by the leading security company... are running amok all over the world," Sonic and Tails hear on their hovercar radio. Tails happened to find the meteor outside when he heard it land last night. Knuckles yawns from the back seat. Suddenly, the trio is attacked by some flying robots. They take a detour up a car-sized elevator, but get attacked again at the top. Everyone falls from the top floor. Tails and Knuckles can fly, but Sonic falls. The meteor in his hand starts glowing and cushions him in a protective floating bubble. "Is this the stone's power?" he asks with a mischievous grin before dashing for the ground. "Woohoo!"

0:05 The menu screen tells me to press the plus button, but, in an odd turn of events, the game doesn't respond when I do. None of the other buttons work, either. I get sent into an attract mode that shows off the generic racing action.

0:07 I try a different remote on the theory that this plus button might be broken. Nope, still no response. This is getting weird.

0:09 The Home button works just fine, but nothing else I do seems to get a response.

0:10 I try restarting the game. No difference. I can't even skip the opening cinema again because the game doesn't want to recognize my input.

0:12 I search the Internet for some answers. Surely I can't be the only one with this problem, right? I find this note with the advice: "If you guys have a GameCube controller plugged in first, the game will resort to that contoller [sic]being the one you will use." I don't have a GameCube controller plugged in, but I do have a Wavebird receptor. I take it out and the problem is solved. You'd think this would have come up in testing, no?

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer