And, er, again a bit like Mario Kart, there's the tactic of riding turbulence (perhaps SEGA and Nintendo needn't swap after all).

Again a bit like F-Zero, you have the option of boosting using your air - banking on getting power-ups later on to replenish it. To make things a bit more interesting, cornering at speed is a bit trickier than simply turning like Mario Kart, you're using a shoulder button to manage the arc, releasing it at a particular point to take advantage of a boost. and speed around levels based on familiar SEGA game environments on a sort of hover-board, picking up stocks of 'air' fuel at F-Zero-style pitstops and through power-ups. You take control of one of the usual SEGA gang - Sonic, Tails (gnnrnrngh), Robotnik, Amy, etc. So then, Sonic Riders is a chance to try and make up for this, and crucially doesn't involve either running or soiling (or karts). But that's entirely forgetting Sonic Drift, a game that didn't so much 'soil' the Sonic name as 'squat over it following an eight-hour binge on laxative vindaloo'. The one that immediately leaps to mind (largely thanks to the inimitable caterwauling of the lady-vocalist on all the Richard Jacques stuff that accompanies it) is Sonic R, which took the rubbish idea of 'a running game' and made it even worse by adding the important feature of 'where you can't turn'. OutRun by Nintendo? Where you have to 'impress' Princess or, worse, Toad?Īnyway, SEGA's had a pretty bad time of it with these character-driven racing games. After all, the other side doesn't bear thinking about. Instead of cursing stupid Princess Peach/Daisy/WHICH-IS-IT we'd be cursing stupid Amy, instead of invincibility stars we'd have invincibility sparkly-firework-boxes, instead of pushing your friend in the lava we'd have smacking Tails' stupid head against the cobbles over and over and over and over and over and over and over ten out of ten.

Imagine how different things would be if it had been Sonic and not Mario thrust into that kingmaking kart if SEGA and Nintendo 'swapped' driving stuffs.

Sonic riders pc version steam