


Well, by entering our awesome Christmas competition of course, and winning yourself a PAL copy of four Sonic game released this year. Would you like to learn what we have learned in 2010? ‘How, and where exactly is this going?’ I hear you ask. We’ve also learned that controller-free gaming can be done (somewhat) with a Kinect and that the chaps at Sumo Digital are heroes. If you’ve got the hardware, though, you should definitely take this demo for a spin! You can check it out here.It’s Christmas time! And what have we learned? Well, we’ve learned that Sonic Team can really get their heads down and crack out a decent game when they’re not distracting themselves with fluorescent flying toys or something similar. Unfortunately, it is not terribly well-optimized for lower tier computers like my GPD Win 3, even on low settings, though I was able to get it running on my 1080ti-powered desktop! Unless you have a decently beefy set-up, you probably won’t be able to play this yourself right now. The courses are a blast, naturally, and the Mario & Sonic downhill dream course works pretty well with Riders mechanics!Īs I said earlier, Riders X is a visual stunner. On top of those, there is also a test course. One other is the Dream Racing course from Mario & Sonic 2020. The demo has four courses, three of which are taken from the original Sonic Riders. As near as I can tell, that’s all in Riders X, and implemented well. Knuckles can break through obstacle, Tails can use flight rings, and Sonic…well, he’s supposed to be able to grind on rails, but I should admit I could never figure out how to do that properly. Riders X has speed, power, and flight characters, and just like in the original game, certain elements of a course can only be utilized by one of these character types. Certain elements, like riding the wake of other racers, aren’t in the demo since time attack doesn’t have them. You take tight turns by drifting, and you get a speed boost upon releasing the drift button, which also eats into your gauge. Rings can level up that gauge over the course of the race. Your board runs on a limited air gauge that can be depleted with boosts and refilled at refill stations and through randomized ring boxes. Mechanically, Riders X feels very accurate to what I remember from my time with the first game. Only the time attack, 4 courses, and four characters are currently available, but already it’s easy to tell that this is a faithful recreation of the mechanics of the original. The characters and the courses all have a gorgeous, high-poly HD makeover. Sonic Riders X is essentially a from-the-ground-up remake of the original Sonic Riders and Zero Gravity.
