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Sonic Riders is a 2006 racing video game for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in which the player controls characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series on hoverboards. In the game's 16 tracks, the player competes against characters—either controlled by computers or other players—in story and battle modes. It was developed by Sonic Team and Now Production, published by Sega, and released worldwide in February 2006 in Japan and North America. It was released in Europe the following month and for Microsoft Windows at the end of the year.

Development
Sonic Riders was developed by Sonic Team and Now Production for the GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in commemoration of the Sonic series' 15th anniversary. The game was directed by Kenjiro Morimoto and produced by Takashi Yuda. Hiroshi Miyamoto wrote the script and designed the levels; Kenichi Koshida was the programmer; Yuji Uekawa and Hideaki Moria were the artists; and series co-creator Yuji Naka was the executive producer. Sonic Riders was the last Sonic game that Naka was involved with; he resigned to form his own company, Prope, shortly after its release to focus on original games. Yuda said Naka provided input at the beginning of development and additional advice as the game progressed. The game features animated cutscenes by Production I.G and runs at 60 frames per second.

The game was the series' first racing game since Travellers' Tales developed Sonic R in 1997. According to Yuda, in the years after Sonic R's release, Sonic Team received many requests from fans for another Sonic racer. Though he enjoyed the game, Yuda believed Sonic Team, "who knows Sonic best", should make another game that was superior to any previous Sonic racing game. Yuda also did not want to make a conventional racing game, instead desiring a dynamic, unique style of gameplay that would allow the player to perform tricks. Being able to do this in a car was illogical; Sonic Team noted that surfing and snowboarding were more flexible. As the concept had a heavy emphasis on air, hoverboards were chosen since they could work in any environment and still be fun to use.

Sonic Riders was primarily designed to appeal to fans of Sonic and extreme sports games, while the multiplayer modes were included for casual gamers. Yuda has said Sonic Team did not take any influences from prior Sonic games. In an interview, Yuda was asked about the similarities between the hoverboarding and the opening level of Sonic Adventure 2, in which Sonic rides a snowboard. Yuda responded that they wanted to create a truly new experience that was unlike anything else from other Sonic games. The characters were chosen based on how relevant to the game's story they would be. The game's bird antagonists, the Babylon Rogues, were created because Sonic Team wanted to include "Air Pirates" as Sonic's rivals. Levels were designed to be "crazy" but still feature classic Sonic elements.

The game's musical score was composed by Tomonori Sawada, Fumie Kumatani, and Kenichi Tokoi. Two vocal themes were written for the game and performed by the artist Runblebee, "Sonic Speed Riders" (written by Sawada) and "Catch Me If You Can" (written by Runblebee). Yuda said the music was written to be "fast paced and give you that heart pounding feeling you should have during a high-speed race". A soundtrack album, Sonic Riders Original Soundtrack "Speedbeats Grand Prix", was released in March 2006.

Sonic Riders was announced on September 7, 2005, before being showcased at the Tokyo Game Show later that month. The console versions were released in North America on February 21, 2006, Japan on February 23, 2006, Europe on March 17, 2006, and Australia on March 23, 2006. The Windows version was released in late 2006.

A Game Boy Advance (GBA) version of Sonic Riders was also in production at Sega of America, developed by Backbone Entertainment. According to artist Keith Erickson, it used an Out Run-style game engine and was supposed to launch at the same time as the other versions. Sega of Japan learned of this version and requested that Backbone add more 3D elements but keep it on the same production schedule. This would have required the engine to be completely rewritten, something Backbone considered impossible, so Sega canceled it.

Reception
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Sonic Riders received "mixed or average" reviews. Throughout 2006, the game sold 930,000 copies. The GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions were later branded as part of the Player's Choice and Greatest Hits budget lines, indicating strong sales.

The game's presentation received mixed reactions from reviewers. GameSpot thought the visuals were well-produced and praised the brightly colored levels and character models, but noted frame rate drops and thought the environments looked "kind of drab and muddy" when the gameplay slowed down. GameSpy agreed and cited the graphics as one of the best parts of the game. IGN was more conflicted: they praised the graphical effects and backgrounds, but were critical of the blocky geometry and blurry textures and thought it was not as pretty as competing games. Nintendo World Report (NWR) also called the graphics inconsistent. Of the game's music, IGN and GameSpot agreed it was just generic Sonic melodies, but IGN wrote the game had "a few surprisingly ambient and worldly tracks that ... better fit with the themes of the different locales." NWR called the soundtrack fitting.

Reviewers criticized or had little praise for the core gameplay and controls. GamesRadar+ derided the loose, floaty physics engine, writing it caused cheap deaths. Eurogamer thought the premise showed promise and worked well as races started, but found it ultimately became messy, complicated, and convoluted. IGN lamented that the game was "neither a full-fledged racer or an engaging snowboarder, but a shallow compromise of both." They also found the hoverboards were technically pointless when considering that Sonic is fast on his own. GameSpy described the gameplay design of racing, attacking opponents, and performing tricks as inconsistent: "Most games quickly prioritize these actions for you based on results," they wrote, "but Sonic Riders seems to yield similar results no matter what".

Still, the game's sense of speed was generally praised. IGN wrote "Sonic Team has done a solid job of delivering on speed and anarchy" and cited the pace as making races unpredictable and fun. GameSpot agreed and described the turbulence-riding as inventive. Eurogamer thought the speed was exciting and wrote it reminded them of the original Sega Genesis Sonic games. GamePro was more critical, agreeing with Eurogamer the speed was exciting but feeling that it made the game feel "more like a surreal rollercoaster ride than a game". Difficulty maintaining speed was noted by many reviewers. GamesRadar+ called it "almost impossible... Clipping a corner or bumping into a wall can bring your 200mph screamfest to a complete halt", and Eurogamer wrote it was the game's biggest flaw. The pitstop system was especially criticized; GameSpy wrote it made no sense for a Sonic game, and GameSpot said it sucked the fun out of Sonic Riders.

Overall, reviewers deemed Sonic Riders a mediocre entry in the Sonic franchise. IGN believed it was an improvement from the series' previous game Shadow the Hedgehog and would be fun for Sonic fans, but was nonetheless found its design choices questionable and felt it simply existed to cash in on the popularity of snowboarding game franchises like SSX. GameSpot said the game was occasionally entertaining but suffered from lackluster gameplay, and GamesRadar+ thought it proved that the once iconic Sonic franchise "has now become a dumping ground for half-baked games."