SEGA has today made their first Xbox 360 Kinect title Sonic Free Riders available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace among the Games on Demand range. The game is the third entry in SEGA’s Sonic Riders racing series and features full-body control using Kinect to steer, jump, attack and boost your way through the game’s courses. Sonic Free Riders contains lots of new content, such as new courses, more characters (including Avatar support), more extreme gear, leaderboards and both offline and online multiplayer.
If you’re interested in Sonic Free Riders, you can buy and download it for £29.99/$49.99 from your Xbox 360 console, or you can purchase it from the official Xbox website. If you want to give the game a try, a demo is also available to download.
Source: SEGA of America Blog
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With two full weeks of sales behind it, Sonic Colours has proven it has what it takes to stay relevant in the UK chart results for last week released by Chart Track today. Since last week Sonic’s latest adventure climbed two places to number 16 in the all formats chart and achieved similar success in the individual units chart by rising from 29th to 27th place on Wii and jumping four positions to number 31 on DS.
On the Wii only chart Sonic Colours rose up one rank to number 6 and beat out popular shooter Goldeneye 007, which placed at number 7. In the DS chart Sonic Colours remains seated at number 4, while Sonic Classic Collection drops one spot from 16th to 17th. Finally, in the Xbox 360 chart Sonic Free Riders stays put at number 19, but beats out some of the Kinect competition this week and interestingly places one position higher than SEGA’s well received third person shooter Vanquish.
Source: Chart Track
Top 40 All Formats
Top 40 Individual Units
Top 40 Wii
Top 40 DS
Top 40 Xbox 360
Share your thoughts on this weeks results in the comments.
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If you have Microsoft’s new Kinect device for Xbox 360 and you’re on the wall about whether or not to purchase SEGA’s first Kinect title Sonic Free Riders, then you’ll be glad to hear that a demo for the racer has been released today on Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo, which weighs in at 401.4 MB, lets you play through the game’s first track Dolphin Resort as Sonic the Hedgehog or Jet the Hawk and is currently exclusive to Gold Members, but will likely be available to Silver Members (or Free Members as they’re now called) next week.
Thanks to Yong at the SSMB for the heads up!
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Chart Track has released the UK chart results for last week and with a full week of sales behind them compared to last week, we can now get a good idea of the UK’s response to Sonic Colours and Sonic Free Riders. In the all formats top 40 chart, both versions of Sonic Colours have together risen from 36th to 18th position, while Sonic Free Riders has dropped out of the chart completely after ranking 38th last week with only 4 days of sales behind it.
In the individual formats top 40 chart Sonic Colours placed at the lower 29th position on Wii and 35th on DS. In the top 40 Wii only chart Sonic Colours rose from 11th place to 7th, 2 places higher than popular shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops and 1 rank lower than old rival Mario’s universally acclaimed title Super Mario Galaxy 2. As for the top 40 DS only chart, Sonic Colours climbed from 12th position to 4th, being beaten out of the top 3 by Art Academy in 3rd, New Super Mario Bros. in 2nd and popular puzzler Professor Layton and the Lost Future in 1st.
Sonic Classic Collection has jumped 4 places from 20th position to 16th, proving Sonic’s Mega Drive titles still have sales power today. Finally, Sonic Free Riders has descended in the top 40 Xbox 360 only chart from 16th place to 19th. Other Kinect launch titles in the chart have also dropped positions compared to last week, but still beat out SEGA’s mascot racer.
So, with a full week of sales behind the game, Sonic Colours has shown some positive momentum after last weeks disappointing first 2 days, while Sonic Free Riders hasn’t seen the same benefit of more sales time. Will both games improve from here? Check back next week. Meanwhile, share your thoughts in the comments.
Source: Chart Track
Top 40 All Formats
Top 40 Individual Formats
Top 40 Wii
Top 40 DS
Top 40 Xbox 360
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Chart Track has revealed the UK sales chart rankings for last week and new Sonic releases Sonic Colours and Sonic Free Riders just barely broke into the top 40 all format chart. Released on Friday, Sonic Colours on Wii and DS placed at 36 and Sonic Free Riders, which released on Wednesday for Xbox 360 Kinect placed just two positions below at 38. In the top 40 Wii chart, Sonic Colours climbed higher, but just missed the top 10 at 11th place and didn’t perform any better in the DS top 40 at 12th place. As for Sonic Free Riders, SEGA’s Kinect racer placed 16th, the lowest ranked of the Kinect titles to make the chart, with Kinect Sports being the highest at the number 2 position.
With mostly positive fan and critical reception, this is a bad start for Sonic Colours in the all format department. With a full week of sales behind it in next weeks chart, could the game perform better? Check back next week and we’ll let you know how Sonic Colours and Sonic Free Riders fare.
Source: Chart Track
Top 40 All Formats
Top 40 Wii
Top 40 DS
Top 40 Xbox 360
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm5gOQUWjgQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Xbox 360 Kinect is now available in European territories and one of its launch titles is SEGA’s Sonic Free Riders, the third game in the Sonic Riders series and one that takes full advantage of Kinect’s abilities. To celebrate the European arrival of their first Kinect title, SEGA Europe has put out a new launch trailer with the return of the beautiful people from the earlier trailers to remind you how the game is played. More gameplay footage from the game’s various tracks is included, too.
Have you bought the game today? If so, share your thoughts on it in the comments. If you’re yet to buy it and plan to, Amazon appear to be the cheapest offer in the UK, with a price of £29.93. If you see a cheaper price, let us know.
Source: Sonic City Blognik
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UPDATE: Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat’s voices have been added to the bottom of this article. /UPDATE END
*SPOILERS BEFORE 09:48 IN THE VIDEO*
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXB5Z81UTHg[/youtube]
The English voice actors have just been revealed in the above new video of the story ending in Sonic Free Riders for Xbox 360 Kinect. The full credits sequence is featured in the video from the 09:48 mark and at the 10:54 mark you can see the full English voice cast.
Here’s the full list and large and small screen grabs:
Roger Craig Smith
Kate Higgins
Mike Pollock
Kirk Thornton
Wally Wingert
Cindy Robinson
Karen Strassman
Michelle Ruff
Mike Mycheck
Kent Hampton (Travis Willingham)
Large:
Small:
Kyle Hebert has also announced on his website that he voices Big the Cat in the game, but oddly he’s not in the credits.
If you picked up the new Kinect controller for Xbox 360, there’s a new Sonic the Hedgehog game out now called “Free Riders”. I voice the non-playable character, Big the Cat. I’m very excited to be added to this popular franchise!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64eTZ98r_Ek[/youtube]
The full theme “Free” can also be heard during the credits sequence or you can check it out above.
Big thanks for all this go to BoyleVoices or SonicBoom771 as he goes by in the Sonic community.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES2FJ5D1MCY[/youtube]
Thanks to Aquaslash at the SSMB, we now have Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat’s new voices to listen to. Thanks to SpiritsUnited for the YouTube upload.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV2chnj0-qU[/youtube]
More reviews for SEGA’s first Xbox 360 Kinect title Sonic Free Riders have rolled out to join IGN’s 7.5/10, GameInformer’s 5.75/10 and G4’s 3/5 that we reported about yesterday. GameTrailers put out the above video review, scoring the game 4.5/10. Elsewhere, Kotaku, a site that doesn’t give scores, called the game’s controls broken, but said if SEGA could fix them he would recommend the game. Joystiq put out the game’s lowest scored review yet, with a painful 1/5, but there has been another higher score from the U.S. Official Xbox Magazine that matches IGN’s score of 7.5/10. The main complaint among the reviewers is the controls and how poorly they work, especially the steering. Check out the reviews at the links provided and share your thoughts in our comments section.
In other news, SEGA Japan updated their official Sonic Free Riders website with fifteen more screenshots from the game and two images from later unlocked tracks Final Factory and Metal City. You can check out those screens and images below.
Finally, we have some new gameplay videos from Kotaku, Giant Bomb and GameTrailers:
GameTrailers gameplay video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqMtffhzX0Y[/youtube]
Kotaku gameplay video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDdDFytRjJY[/youtube]
Giant Bomb gameplay video part 1:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKfeENnObTY[/youtube]
Giant Bomb gameplay video part 2:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpUUXQ70fIs[/youtube]
Thanks to SSMB member Woun for the YouTube conversions and for obtaining the images and screenshots.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLJzv9TfQKY[/youtube]
Thanks to a team effort from SSMB members Fantasy the Almiqui and XD375, we have some voice clips of the new voice cast in Sonic Free Riders. Fantasy the Almiquie bought a copy of the game this morning and has already beat the Heroes story and got hear a lot of the cast, but unfortunately hasn’t seen the game’s credits appear yet, so we can get the names of the cast. In order, the clips released are Amy, Sonic, Cream, Vector, Omochao, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, Omochao, Rouge, Omochao. We have another set of clips from the intro movie below too:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_0qLosVY4c[/youtube]
Finally, we’ve got a clip of the Babylon Rogues voices:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4WRZPaCHH0[/youtube]
If you have a copy of the game and can give us the names of the voice actors, please share the list in the comments.
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The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnYBlKuP_9c[/youtube]
Microsoft’s new Kinect sensor for Xbox 360 is hitting U.S. stores shortly and what better way to help grab interest than for Microsoft to show all Xbox 360’s Xbox Live users the launch game line-up in an Inside Xbox video, what could possibly go wrong? Well, it appears the Inside Xbox team haven’t paid too much attention to SEGA’s Sonic Free Riders, because they seem to have it confused with the original Sonic Riders title on Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Gamecube. When Microsoft’s Bridget O’Neill gets to the game at the 02:34 mark, a trailer for Sonic Riders is on display, logo and all. Before the end of the video the Sonic Riders logo (seen below) is shown again and O’Neill refers to the title as Sonic Riders, too.
You have to wonder, how does the company behind the Xbox 360 confuse an original Xbox title with an Xbox 360 game, especially one that’s launching the next day, only on their new Kinect peripheral? Now, I wonder what SEGA would have to say about this comical promotional failure…
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Sonic Free Riders is out for Xbox 360 Kinect in the U.S. tomorrow, so SEGA has given a big update to the game’s official website. Shadow, Silver, Eggman, E-10000G, Metal Sonic, Blaze, Amy, Cream, Rouge and Vector have been added to the characters section with new artwork and profiles, while the tracks section has now been unlocked with Dolphin Resort, Rocky Ridge, Frozen Forest, Metropolis Speedway, Magma Rift and Forgotten Tomb on display. The Final Factory and Metal City tracks revealed in the Achievements list are nowhere to be seen at the moment, but we do get a look at the alternate expert map of each of the tracks, along with an image and description of each one. Finally, SEGA have also added a voice command guide to the site for you to download.
The character artwork is available below:
Source: Sonic Free Riders official U.S./EU website
Thanks to HunterTSF at the SSMB for the heads up and obtaining the artwork!
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkEJUY_VhjE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
A new trailer for Sonic Free Riders has appeared on YouTube user SegaCzech’s channel, which showcases the various multiplayer modes of the game, namely VS Mode, 2 Player Co-op/Tag Mode and Relay Race. The trailer is just like the Introduction and Weapons trailers, in that people show how the game is played, actions and all. Plenty more gameplay footage can also be seen from the variety of tracks the game has to offer.
Elsewhere, IGN has released six more screenshots of the game, which you can view below.
Screenshots source: IGN
Thanks to Woun at the SSMB for the heads up on the screenshots!
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN1XU0ST5J0[/youtube]
IGN has put out the worlds first review of Sonic Free Riders, SEGA’s first Xbox 360 Kinect title. Associate Editor Jack Devries has given the game a 7.5/10, just .5 less than the website gave Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Devries is very positive about the multiplayer aspects of the game, even the new relay and tag modes. The only real complaints expressed are that the game is shallow, isn’t so easy to jump into for casual players. You can check out the video review for yourself in the video above or read the written review at IGN’s website.
Outside of the review, we get a look at more gameplay footage from the various tracks and characters, as well as some of the static cutscenes and voice acting.
Source: IGN
Video review
Written review
Thanks to Doctor Eggman at the SSMB for the heads up!
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpLWHPXaD1E[/youtube]
After two recent appearances at Gamespot, SEGA continues their promoting of Sonic Free Riders with more brief demonstrations of how the game is played at IGN, such as items, jumps, shortcuts, skills and co-op. There’s nothing we haven’t already seen before, apart from some more colour variations of the E-10000 series robots. We do get to hear more Sonic and Tails voice clips from their new voice actors though. Check out the other two videos at the bottom of this article.
Source: IGN
Thanks to Woun at the SSMB for the YouTube conversions!
In other news, JPX Brutality, the Xbox360Achievements.org forum member with an early copy of the game, has shared some more details from the game’s manual.
New details with quotes from the manual include:
– Story Mode/World Grand Prix Mode synopsis.
“If you consider yourself the fastest Extreme Gear rider, why not enter the World Grand Prix and prove it? Riders who enter the Grand Prix will tour around the globe to compete on various courses designed solely for this extreme racing event. The season opener will kick start on a brand new course on Dolphin Resort, so don’t miss your chance to become the undisputed champion of the world. See you all at the starting line with your Board Gear!”
– A shop run by Omochao, where you can buy new parts to customize your Extreme Gear with.
“Access the shop from the Main Menu to purchase additional Extreme Gear and parts with accumulated Rings. Select an item from the list to display details and parameters, then drag the item onto the Cashier panel at the bottom right to purchase”
– Character bios
Sonic the Hedgehog
“Sonic is a hero who loves to live free and does not tolerate any devious deeds. He can be short tempered at times, but is always there for those who are in trouble. He usually travels at supersonic speed on foot, but with his new and advanced Gear, he’ll be cruising even faster in style at the Grand Prix with his teammates Tails and Knuckles.”
Miles “Tails” Prower
“A kid fox with two tails- hence his nickname “Tails.” He loves tinkering with machinery, and has developed various devices to support Sonic’s adventures in the past. All of Team Heroes’ Extreme Gear are built and customized by this brilliant engineer.”
Knuckles the Echidna
“Knuckles is the defender of the giant Master Emerald on the floating island in the sky known as Angel Island. To bring toughness to the track, his Extreme Gear is built to enhance his physical abilities.”
Jet the Hawk
“Jet is the captain of a treasure hunting team known as Babylon Rogues. He is considered the most technically gifted Extreme Gear rider with the ability to accurately read the wind streams. He holds high standards and considers Sonic as an ultimate rival since he is the fastest on land. As a team leader, Jet also dislikes showing any sign of weakness to anyone.”
Wave the Swallow
“Wave is the only gal on the Babylon Rogues, who also happens to be their top mechanic. Being a super achiever, she’s in charge of upgrading all of the Extreme Gear and their airship and even analyzes unknown treasures in her spare time. Although she is older than jet, she faithfully respects and follows him as her leader.”
Storm the Albatross
“Storm is the heavyweight rider of the Babylon Rogues. As his frame indicates, he has enough strength to crush a boulder with little effort. He is scorned by Jet for many of the things he lacks but he is happy to defer to Jet’s leadership and to be his right-hand man.”
Amy Rose
“Amy is always hot on Sonic’s heels as his self-professed girlfriend. With a spark of energy and her trademark item- the Piko Piko hammer, she is ready to track down the blue blur wherever he goes. Hoping Sonic will be racing at the Grand Prix once again, she decides to join the event.”
Dr. Eggman
“An evil scientific genius who is always coming to blows with Sonic and his friends, since he is always scheming for world domination. The question is how this mad scientist will attempt to crash the party this time around.”
Shadow the Hedgehog
“This dark hedgehog boasts running speeds to rival Sonic’s. Though uninterested in the Grand Prix itself, he is eager to test his riding skills and would like to beat Sonic.”
– Specs
Offline: Players 1-2, Co-op 2-4
Online: Multiplayer 2-8, Leaderboards, Voice
No downloadable content feature is listed.
– Kinect specs
KINECT sensor required, Voice enabled, Players 1-2, Co-op 2-4, In-game Avatar, Activity level: Standing/active
JPX Brutality finishes by explaining the various offline and online modes in the manual:
Tag mode is really cool. Its the games version of co-op. You work as a team to win the race and you can combine riders by facing eachother and locking hands. This brings the screen to just one instead of split and you share rings, air, and have increased speed and jump capabilities. Very cool looking. So far this game looks like one of the best actual co-op games for Kinect. You actually interact with eachother instead of just standing in the same screen.
Relay race is also really cool. 2 players race one lap with the other two waiting outside of view and once you get back the the start line your player enters the pit and you trade spots. While in the pit you can pump your arms up and down to collect air to use. This can be done 2 vs 2 or you can can do 4 vs cpu.
For Xbox live you can race online against up to 7 other players. Modes include Quick Match: Quickly search and enter available online races. Custom Match: Use search filters to find online races you wish to enter. Create Match: Create a race and invite other Xbox LIVE players. Xbox LIVE party: Set up an online part to easily connect with up to eight players.
There’s still no picture proof, so we’re still going to have to treat this all as rumour for now.
Source: Xbox360Achievements.org forums
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-nx2-uEP2I[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmBx3hfhygo[/youtube]
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLleSepBWco[/youtube]
A trailer for Xbox 360 Kinect’s U.S. launch on November 4th has hit the net, which showcases the games that will be available on the device’s release date. Sonic Free Riders makes an appearance with some new clips of gameplay footage from a few of the various tracks on offer.
In other news, a retailer error has caused some Kinect games to be delivered to pre-order customers early, but loading one of these games up before launch will request that you download an update to be able to play them. Unfortunately, this update is not available yet and trying to download it will result in you being temporarily locked out of Xbox Live. More on that at Kotaku.
Xbox360achievements.org forum member JPX Brutatility says Gamestop are the retailer in question, because he has received a copy of Sonic Free Riders early from them. JPX Brutality claims he has also ended up being locked out of Xbox Live temporarily for trying to play it early in an attempt to find out what the game’s yet to be revealed Achievements are, but has now offered to share details from the game’s manual instead. One question from Miles Prower CC about the Extreme Gears in the game has been answered so far, revealing that 20 Extreme Gear will be available to purchase from Omochao’s Shop:
“Extreme gear are available in two basic types (board and bike), offering riders a total of 20 gear to choose from, if you unlock and/or purchase them all at Omochao’s Shop. Each Gear has its own characteristics and enhancements, so finding the perfect match for you and your character adds another dimension to the race”
That is the exact quote so to mean it seems like you will be able to choose your board/bike from an option of 10 bikes and 10 boards. So yes he can ride a bike. The motions for the bike are fairly interesting as well. You have to act like you are holding handle bars and tilt them left or right to steer. The graphics are quite hilarious.
No picture proof of the manual and quote has been made provided, so we’re treating the information as rumour for now.
Source: Xbox360achievements.org forums
Thanks to Woun at the SSMB for the heads-up on the trailer and YouTube conversion!
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sMXpEN1MnM[/youtube]
Gamespot has released the latest episode of their On The Spot show and featured in the show is the second part of their Sonic Free Riders final build demonstration that they promised last week. This time SEGA’s Fabian Doehla and a fellow colleague show how the co-operative Tag Mode works, while also showing a new track based in a city at night.
Tag Mode sees you and another player join hands and work together as one, but you are able to separate during a race and change to a split-screen view. If you want to rejoin each other, the further ahead of you can wait at certain points in the track for the other to catch up and sync back up with you. When asked about photo features, Doehla says you’ll be able to take photos of yourself and put them on the in-game billboards. The demonstration also features plenty of voice clips from Sonic and Tails’ new voice actors.
Thanks to Hero of Legend at the SSMB for the YouTube conversion!
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRn689FviJQ[/youtube]
A new trailer for Sonic Free Riders has just been released by SEGA Europe, this time focusing on the game’s various weapons. The trailer shows how to use these items with Kinect, such as the Octo-ink, which allows you to squirt ink at your opponent to obstruct their view, the Soda Rocket, which you shake until it bursts and gives you a speed boost and the Tee Shot, which sees you use a golf club to fire a golf ball at your opponents. Plenty of new footage from the various tracks in the game is also on show and we get to some hear a tiny bit of the new voice acting, too.
Source: Sonic City Blognik
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SEGA has today opened the characters section of the U.S. and European official Sonic Free Riders website, revealing new artwork, small profiles and a new music track from the game. The only characters unlocked at the moment are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Jet, Wave and Storm, but the website states more are “Coming Soon”. Thanks to Gamespot’s exclusive demonstration of the final build, we currently know of 17 characters, which include Metal Sonic, Vector and a blue E-series robot likely called E-10000B that are new entries to the series, so we can expect plenty more profiles to be featured on the site.
Check out the rest of the new artwork below:
Source: Sonic Free Riders U.S. and EU official website
Thanks to Woun at the SSMB for the heads-up!
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACjjO2zaweY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
DualShockers has posted up a video interview with SEGA’s Dan Gallardo where they discuss the publishers first Xbox 360 Kinect title Sonic Free Riders. Nothing is revealed that we didn’t already know, but we do get some assurance that SEGA has treated this game as a full Xbox 360 title and not a quickly put together mini game title. Gallard explains, “It will be online, you’ll get the unlockables, you’ll get the characters, you’ll get the variety of environments, you’ll get everything you expect with a 360 title, all in one.” With all of the game modes, tracks, characters and features shown in the final build of the game on Gamespot’s On The Spot show, it’s no surprise that some hard work has been put into this title.
Apart from the interview, you get to see plenty of new gameplay footage of the Western themed Rocky Ridge track from the Tokyo Game Show demo of the game, complete with huge jumps and minecart steering action.
Source: DualShockers
Thanks to Woun at the SSMB for the YouTube conversion!
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlcArvA644E[/youtube]
As part of their On The Spot show, Gamespot has posted the first of 2 parts of a Daily Demo of Sonic Free Riders, in which SEGA’s Sam Mullen is on board to show off the final build of the game. In this part we get to see various modes available in the menus, including World Grand Prix, Time Attack, Free Race, Tag Race, Relay Race and Tutorials, which Mullen navigates with the recently revealed voice recognition feature.
We’re given a brief tease of the World Grand Prix (story mode), in which we see Eggman ruling the tournament dressed like a king. This mode looks to be played from 4 teams of characters available.
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles
Shadow, Rouge and a new blue E-Series robot, which we assume will be called E-10000B, since he’s blue.
Amy, Cream and Vector
Jet, Wave and Storm
A silhouette of Eggman can also be seen. Maybe this is a final/last story unlockable?
Speaking of characters, we see quite a few new entries to the roster, some you may have seen in yesterdays trailer and others brand new. Shadow, Cream, Rouge, Blaze, Silver and Vector will all be included in the game as playable characters. We get a taste of Wave’s new voice actress at the end of the video, where Sam demos the volcanic themed track shown in screenshots yesterday with her on the returning Hang-On bike.
Gamespots Ricardo Torres says we can expect part 2 of their demo next week, in which they’ll be showing the multiplayer modes of the game, including a new “Date Mode”. We’ll keep an eye out for the demo and bring you all of the new information revealed.
Source: Gamespot.
Thanks to Hero of Legend at the SSMB for the YouTube conversion!
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The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
A SEGA representative has revealed in an interview with Hip Hop Gamer that their first Xbox 360 Kinect title Sonic Free Riders will feature voice recognition. Players who aren’t keen on navigating and making selections in the game’s menus with their hands will be able to use Kinect’s microphone to choose things like their characters, extreme gears and tracks with their voice instead. HipHopGamer himself shares his views from his playtest with Sonic Free Riders throughout the interview in his usual excitable manner and has the most positive opinion seen from the press yet. Accoring to HipHopGamer, the game works really well in terms of controls, so well that he says they’ve nailed it where most Kinect games haven’t.
To see the video interview, head over to Hip Hop Gamer.
In other news, a couple of very short gameplay videos of the Rocky Ridge track have hit YouTube, which give us a look at the minecart section of the stage, where players will need to steer with the lever like you would a real minecart.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZbsDUNbBRc[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30BITG_9tGs[/youtube]
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According to ThemeXbox.com, Sonic Free Riders for Xbox 360’s Kinect will support Avatar Awards. The Awards consist of four different shirts to dress your Avatar with, one Sonic themed, one Jet themed, one themed on the game and one E-10000G themed that confirms the character to be playable, if this information is true of course. We say “if this information is true”, because there are currently no pictures to back these details up right now, but the website has been correct many times before and often gets this information and pictures soon-after before anyone else.
Here’s the full list of Avatar Awards:
Sonic Shirt (Male) – Place 1st on every course with Sonic.
Sonic Shirt (Female) – Place 1st on every course with Sonic.
Jet Shirt (Male) – Place 1st on every course with Jet.
Jet Shirt (Female) – Place 1st on every course with Jet.
Sonic Free Riders Shirt (Male) – Watch the credits in their entirety.
Sonic Free Riders Shirt (Female) – Watch the credits in their entirety.
E-10000 G Shirt (Male) – Place 1st on every course with E-10000 G.
E-10000 G Shirt (Female) – Place 1st on every course with E-10000 G.
If pictures are made available, we’ll be sure to share them.
Source: ThemeXbox.com
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Co-Optimus’ Tally “xelissa” Callahan has posted up details of Sonic Free Riders‘ various game modes she played at SEGA’s recent New York press event. The game will include 5 modes to play, including:
– World Grand Prix (single-player story mode)
– Time Attack (with online leaderboards)
– Free Race (competitive mode which contains Normal Race, Ring Collection, and Damage Survival sub-modes)
– Tag Race (a co-op specific mode)
Players start in splitscreen, but can join hands to fuse boards and power up which increases their speed. The challenge arises in learning how to turn and jump together. Sometimes you are necessarily required to fuse together, other times you must initialize it yourselves.
– Relay Race which can be played in 2-4 player co-op or 2 vs 2 competitive.
It’s a tag-team mechanic, so player 1 does one lap, then jumps out at the end and player 2 jumps in.
Callahan says co-op modes are all local play only and online multiplayer is limited to one player per console at a time.
Source: Co-Optimus
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The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
In an interview with Vandal, Sonic Free Riders Producer Kenjiro Morimoto has confirmed some new details about the game. Since the game was unveiled at E3, there’s been no sight or mention of a story mode, something that has featured in both of the previous Riders titles. Morimoto-san tells Vandal that there will be a story mode in this game and that it is catered to help players improve their skills and take their time with the game.
Morimoto-san also details the amount of players the game will support in its multiplayer modes. Two players can play in versus and 4 players can take part in the games co-op mode. Finally, Morimoto-san reveals the game will contain 16 characters from the Sonic universe, as well as your Xbox 360 Avatars. Whether the character roster will contain guest SEGA characters on top of that total (like with past Riders games) is unknown.
You can check out the interview in full at Vandal, but beware, it’s in Spanish.
Google Translate link
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rm4H09ubiU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCsHiTIij2U&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Two gameplay videos of Sonic Free Riders from the Tokyo Game Show have hit YouTube, courtesy of brucem00n and hamateaonline. In the videos we get to see some multiplayer racing action on the Dolphin Resort track. Not only that, we also get to see a part of the game that we’ve not seen before, an interactive configuration screen. This looks like a brief sequence where players configure the game for their personal use, such as balance and alignment with the Kinect camera. This should come in very handy to introduce players to Kinect. People who watch the sequence closely will spot an appearance from a character previously hinted at on SEGA’s Sonic City Blognik. It’s the one, the only, the robotic Chao, Omochao.
Are you happy to see Omochao return? Let us know in the comments.
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The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
UPDATE 2: SEGA has released clean, hi-resolution versions of the Rocky Ridge screens CVG released earlier, as well as some old Dolphin Resort screens on the Sonic City Blognik. /UPDATE END
UPDATE: CVG has released three high quality, but watermarked screenshots of Rocky Ridge. They also claim Rouge, Shadow and Silver are in the game.
Characters announced so far include Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Shadow and Silver. Sonic Free Riders will also support the use of Avatars.
/UPDATE END
Original article below:
Some photos of Sonic Free Riders‘ have hit the net courtesy of Andriasang, with two of them giving us a glimpse of ‘Rocky Ridge’, a track that SEGA Europe Community Manager ArchangelUK recenty hinted at in an entry at the Blognik and named at the SSMB. The photos were taken at Microsoft’s Media Briefing, which was held in Tokyo recently to promote Kinect and its software line-up in Japan.
One photo shows Knuckles riding a hoverboard through an environment surrounded by tall rocky hills. It’s no wonder where the track got its name eh? The other photo of ‘Rocky Ridge’ sees Tails in the minecart that ArchangelUK mentioned, a section where he said “you actually have to pull a lever left and right to change the points and avoid rockfalls. It looks quite slick actually.”
Andriasang also posted their brief impressions of the demo:
Next, I tried Sonic Free Riders by Sega, which also launches on the same day as the Kinect hardware. My menu experience didn’t go so well here. I was stuck on the menu screen, which appears to require that you make selections by holding your right arm out and sliding diagonally in a relaxed motion. The Sega representative had to step in and make the selection for me because I just wasn’t getting it right despite my efforts to try to imitate his movements.
Sonic Free Riders is a racing game featuring Sonic and his “wonderful” friends. Movement is automatic, just like Crossboard X, so you have to just wave your arms to each side to collect rings and power ups, and make the occasional jump to the next part of the stage.
Many of the elements one expects of a sonic game are in here. When you’re hit, your rings go flying out. You’ll have to shake your hands to get them back. Sonic also has a speed boost. When a power gauge on the lower right side of the screen fills up, you can make Sonic dash forward by moving your left leg forward then swiftly kicking back.
The demo required three laps around the course to reach the goal. I have to admit to being a bit tired after the three laps.
What do you think of the new track? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Andriasang
Kinect impressions
Photos
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SEGA has revealed on its Tokyo Game Show website that their upcoming Xbox 360 Kinect title, Sonic Free Riders will support 2-8 players in its online multiplayer mode. This is 4 players less than Xbox.com originally stated on their website, before the information was quickly removed, but it’s still a good total that most racers support. This is an exciting new feature for the Sonic Riders series, but with the game being restricted to Kinect, will the lobbies remain very busy for long? That will depend on the success of Kinect.
Has this feature gathered your interest in the game? Let us know in the comments.
Source: SEGA’s Tokyo Game Show website
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Sonic Free Riders is a game SEGA’s been keeping close to its chest until recently. Leave it to Sonic City Blognik’s AAUK to finally drop us some info!
– The next track to be revealed has a Wild West theme, including waggon trains and a minecart section (MOAR MINECARTS!) where you actually have to pull a lever left and right to change the points and avoid rockfalls. It looks quite slick actually.
– Someone’s return in the pre-race configuration screen is still gaining momentum!
– Since you guys apparently love anything Roger says as Sonic (e.g. “…consoles…”) here’s another line for you: “Place your hand on Start!”
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The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
