Sonic Free Riders

Until they manage to learn how (something other developers seemed to have understood rather quickly), SEGA isn't allowed to put another Kinect game on the market...but we all know that's not how it works, am I right?

A nice and content filled concept gets completely spoiled by the bad implementation of Kinect controls.

Lousy controls hinder almost every attempt Sonic Free Riders makes at being a fun racing game.

One could theoretically get better at playing Sonic Free Riders, but the rewards for mastery pale before the spastic mess of a game you have to deal with.

Sonic Free Riders has a lot of good ideas, but none that are brought to fruition what serves as the ultimate experience.

Sonic Free Rider aims those who are the most dedicated and aren't afraid to see all their efforts leading to nothing. Indeed, this game got nothing else new than a high level of frustration.

Sonic Free Riders has some interesting ideas, but fails with its horrible controls. And what use is a racing games with sloppy controls?

There's some fun to be had in the Time Trial mode, but only because you don't have to struggle with the inadequacy of the rest of the game. Online play may eventually offer some fun as well, but right now it doesn't seem to work.

The only reason to buy Sonic Free Riders would be if it was actually free. And even then, only if you just really liked the box.

The third chapter of the Sonic Riders series is an epic fail because of one of the worst control system in the entire Kinect line-up.

Sonic Free Riders can offer some real fun when everything comes together and works properly but those instances are rare and the rest of the time the game can be very frustrating. The lack of content also makes it quite a steep purchase.

And it's a testimony to their patience and kind-heartedness that they didn't punch us in the face for wasting an evening of their precious, finite life.

Tragically, it doesn't actually seem to work. [Jan 2011]

Wrong control system. [Feb 2011, p.108]

With ring collecting and extreme gear upgrades, this should have been a fun racing game for Kinect; instead, it's an unresponsive mess that flat out doesn't work. Did no one test this game and see that it's broken?

A messy control system. [Issue#67, p.88]

If it's not clear by now, I'm not recommending that anyone get suckered into purchasing Sonic Free Riders. It's very clear that Sega did little QA on the final product before shipping it to meet the Kinect launch date and the end product is an absolutely mess.

The good Kinect games can be really entertaining, the bad ones where the motion controls doesn't work like intended is horrible. Sonic Free Riders falls is a game in the later catergory, and is a completely broken game. Really. Avoid at any cost.

The two worst games I've played this year have both been on Kinect, and Sonic Free Riders - you might not be surprised to learn - is one of them. Avoid.

During this Christmas season, please don't take the chance and inflict Sonic Free Riders upon unsuspecting players as gifts. Christmas morning should be about joy, not pain and tears.

The voice acting and sound effects are over the top to the point of aggravation.

Unless you're obsessed with all things Sonic, or you simply must own every Kinect title, stay away from Sonic Free Riders.

To its credit, the game is colorful.

But perhaps the most tragic thing here is that despite a critical drubbing for each game this series has made exactly the same mistakes every time.

The worst defect a video game can have, is to be so poorly designed and/or implemented that it becomes unplayable. Which is the case of Sonic Free Riders, a perfect example of an opportunistic product, a rehash of an older title repackaged to take advantage of Kinect's launch window. Movement caption is poor, the environments are confusing, the menus probably are the work of the devil himself... to sum it up, this surfing experience was more of a nightmare than the dream we'd all love to play thanks to Back to Future 2.