Sonic Free Riders DX

Jump into the race of a lifetime. — Tagline Sonic Free Riders (ソニック フリーライダーズ Sonikku Furī Raidāzu?) is a 2010 racing video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game uses the Xbox 360 Kinect's motion sensor capability released and was released as a Kinect launch title on November 2010. The game was first announced on 14 June 2010 on E3 2010 at Microsoft's Conference. It is the third installment of the Sonic Riders series (following Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity) and the seventh racing video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series overall.

The game received mixed reviews from critics who praised its content, multiplayer options and graphics but was panned for its controls.

Plot

 * For the scripts of each individual storyline, see Category:Sonic Free Riders scripts.

The plot starts with Dr. Eggman who hosts a second World Grand Prix. However in the announcement, he seems to disguise himself as King Doc, hiding himself from revealing his true identity. This time he pits four teams against one another, rather than two like in the previous EX World Grand Prix, to prove who is the best: Each team wins the World Grand Prix as the player goes through the story of each team. In the end, King Doc announced that the competitors still have final races to run. Doctor Eggman decides to drop his disguise and reveals that he attempted to gather the racing data of all of the competitors using Team Dark's E-10000B and challenged them all to a race once again. The doctor loses, who is disappointed that the data he found didn't help him at the slightest. E-10000B breaks down, who is revealed to be Metal Sonic who actually collected the data of every racer and passed on fake info to the doctor. Metal Sonic challenges Sonic to a race, in which Sonic wins. In the end, Eggman reveals he never had any prize to reward at all, however all the team characters agreed that they had fun.
 * Team Heroes: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles
 * Team Babylon: Jet, Wave and Storm
 * Team Rose: Amy, Cream and Big
 * Team Dark: Shadow, Rouge and Omega
 * Team Chaotix: Espio, Charmy and Vector
 * Team Sol: Blaze, Silver, Sticks

Gameplay
The game brings Nintendo Switch controlled fast-paced boarding action, developed to take full advantage of Nintendo Switch. Kinect's unique motion sensor means Sonic Free Riders will see family and friends controlling their fully customizable hover board or bike by twisting, turning, and jumping in an exhilarating race to be first to cross the finish line.

Choosing from one of the Sonic characters for an avatar, one can reach out and grab a variety of pickups along the course. By throwing, shaking, or swinging one's arms to launch one's items, you can gain the competitive edge over your rivals in high octane single or multiplayer races. Players can use Kinect to hurl items such as bowling balls, rockets and other traps toward opponents in the race to the finish.

Main Menu
In the final version of the menu of the game you can select one of the following options:

Offline Mode

 * World Grand Prix - Enter the World Grand Prix and challenge yourself to a variety of missions.
 * Free Race - Race with three rules types for one or two players.
 * Tag Race - Team up with another player and race against your rivals in Tag Mode.
 * Relay Race - Team up 2 to 4 players.
 * Time Attack - Race for the best time on each course.
 * Tutorial - Learn how to ride an Extreme Gear.

Multiplayer
The multiplayer is up to four players with twelve players on an online multiplayer game. The game features "taunts" in which one can taunt your opponent by actually speaking, this belongs to the ability of the Kinect. In a team race one can simply team and beat your opponent, however at a pit, the players can connect with each other and have their palms on each other showing absolute co-operation, note that this does not stay permanently in the race.

Joy Con controls
Note that as with the other Sonic Riders games, forward movement is done automatically. There are only two types of Extreme Gear used in this game: Board and Bike.

Board
Basically the Kinect Controls of the game are simple, in order to turn left or right one moves the upper portion of one's body in the direction given. However the player must actually stand sideways as if he/she is really on a skateboard. In order to perform Air Tricks while launched from a trick ramp, the player must jump in a spin once the time is right or charging up (by crouching down although a small amount of Air is needed for this) and jump. The latter method is especially useful for accessing higher sections of a racetrack that usually leads to shortcuts when given enough time charging but both methods still raise the trick rank as opposed to simply jumping. The player may 'kick dash' to have a burst of speed by sticking his/her back foot and kicking it behind although this consumes a decent amount of Air so this move should be used carefully.

Most Board Gears can have two Gear Parts which only one is activated depending on the direction of the player's body is facing ('Normal' stance characters, for example normally face to the right while the top Gear Part is active and to use the Gear part on the bottom, the player must quickly turn his/her body to the left and vice versa for characters with a 'Goofy' stance).

BikeEdit
Unlike a Board Gear, the player can and must stand forward and holds his/her hands out in front of him/her like holding handlebars. To turn, the player must turn their arms to the direction they wish to go. To perform tricks on a trick ramp, the player may jump while raising their hands for a spin or before approaching a ramp, the player may slightly drop his/her arms down a little to charge up before jumping for accessing higher, shortcut routes. Kick dash is done by sticking out the player's right foot and kicking it backwards.

Other controlsEdit
To grind on rails, the player simply leans to move the character to a rail and begins grinding. It's highly recommended that while grinding, the player shifts his/her body weight while the grind curves to prevent losing speed (leaning out to one side). To perform the Air Ride, once the player takes of to the skies by dash rings the player needs to spread his/her arms out wide to retain flying through the air; otherwise the character will immediately fall. When prompt to do so, the player spreads his/her arms out to climb or drops them down to drop down. To use Power Skill, while approaching a path of obstacles, the player will need to perform alternating punches to knock them away.

Other controls happens in specific-course sections such as swimming, bobsledding, operating a minecart or entering catch-mode which can help gather rings, items or accessing some shortcuts.

CustomizationEdit
The customization of the game is to change the powers of an Extreme Gear with Gear Parts which can be changed during a race by swapping stances. Gear also levels up every 30 rings up to 60 which upgrade certain parts, mainly speed, of the Gear and the maximum capacity of the Air Gauge.

Action ItemsEdit
Throughout the race, the player will encounter Action Items in a race from Item Boxes which either benefit him/her or hinder his/her opponents. Note that some of the Achievements in this game requires the player to use each Action Item a certain number of times. The Action Items the player can receive varies depending on the player's position on the race. These items include:
 * Bowling Strike
 * Free Throw
 * Octo-Boost
 * Octo-Ink
 * Ring Can
 * S
 * Soda Rocket
 * Target Torpedo
 * Tee Shot

Extreme GearEdit

 * Main article: Extreme Gear

Sonic Free Riders is the third game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series to use the Extreme Gears in gameplay, the first ones being the game's predecessors, Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. Like in the two previous titles, the Extreme Gears are high-tech hoverboard vehicles that are used by the characters to ride on. They are fueled by Air that allows the player to perform certain actions and are the central component in the gameplay.

Like in the two previous titles, every playable character has their own unique default Extreme Gear, which only they can use. However, additional Extreme Gears can be obtained in the game as the player progresses.

Unlike the two previous titles, Sonic Free Riders only features two types of Extreme Gear: the Board type and Bike type.

List of Extreme GearEdit
There are a total of 38 different collectible Extreme Gears that can acquired in Sonic Free Riders. The following Extreme Gears are listed as they appear in the Gear Gallery, starting from the first listed Extreme Gear and onward, moving anti-clockwise on the in-game list.

CoursesEdit

 * Dolphin Resort Standard
 * Rocky Ridge Standard
 * Frozen Forest Standard
 * Metropolis Speedway Standard
 * Magma Rift Standard
 * Forgotten Tomb Standard
 * Final Factory Standard
 * Metal City Standard (Returning course)
 * Dolphin Resort Expert
 * Rocky Ridge Expert
 * Frozen Forest Expert
 * Metropolis Speedway Expert
 * Magma Rift Expert
 * Forgotten Tomb Expert
 * Final Factory Expert
 * Metal City Expert

MusicEdit
The theme song of the game is called "Free"; it was first performed at the Tokyo Game Show. IGN said that almost every stage's music has lyrics which is "pretty cool" [citation needed]. The game's OST is called Break Free: Sonic Free Riders Original Soundtrack as it comprises of 12 tracks and has hit the shelves on 8 December 2010.

Offline featuresEdit

 * Players: 1-2
 * Players Co-op: 2-4
 * Multiplayer Versus
 * In-game Dolby Digital
 * HDTV 720p/1080i/1080p
 * Storage Device

Xbox Live featuresEdit

 * Players: 2-8
 * Content Downloads
 * Leaderboards
 * Voice Messaging
 * Voice Support

Avatar SupportEdit
There are unlockable costumes in which the player can unlock for their avatar, both male and female. These are the following:
 * Sonic Shirt – Place first on every course with Sonic.
 * Jet Shirt – Place first on every course with Jet.
 * Sonic Free Riders Shirt – Watch the credits in their entirety.
 * E-10000 G Shirt - Place first on every course with E-10000 G.

ReceptionEdit
The overall reception of the game has been mixed. IGN gave the game a 7.5/10, praising the gameplay, music and options. They had said that that it is a must buy game of the Kinect because there are lots of features in both multi-play and single-play. They had criticized the menu screen saying that it does not have a good presentation but the voice support helps a lot. They had also said that the cutscenes aren't so cool because they are just "talking by heads". Official Xbox Magazine also gave it 7.5, praising the wealth of content and multiplayer options whilst criticizing occasional unresponsiveness in the controls. GameTrailers gave the game a score of 4.5, panning cumbersome controls that tax the body. Brian Crecente of Kotaku reviewed it negatively, calling it "the most broken of the Kinect titles I've played." Kotaku's Crecente later reported that the responsiveness of the controls seemed to differ between persons, with fellow reviewer Stephen Totilo saying the controls worked fine for him. Joystiq gave the game 1/5 stars, calling it "the equivalent of patting your head while rubbing your stomach while riding a unicycle." GamesRadar gave it 4/10 and X-play giving it 2/5 stars. As of 27 June 2015, it has sold 1.05 million copies.[4]