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The fact that we never got another Sonic Riders game because of Sonic Free Riders still makes me upset to this day. The series had so much potential but this game killed it and the sad fact is that SEGA will never return to Sonic Riders because of it.
Imagine if they rereleased Sonic Free but without the Kinect and/or released a new Sonic Riders game. It will probably never happen but I can still dream damnit.
@@jlev1028 What you just said is the sad truth. It’s the reason why Sonic Adventure fans haven’t gotten an Adventure styled game in 15 years and it’s the same reason why Sonic Riders will never make a return. It’s something I had to accept as a Sonic fan. This Sonic Colors/Classic Sonic nostalgia era is never ending.
This was the beginning of the end for me. Honestly, this was the game that made me disappointed in the franchise for the first time ever. Seriously, I'm one of the people that LIKED playing Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic Next-Gen(in some degree). Not only was I upset about the voice changes, but it was the first time that all the characters personalities started to change for the worst. And it showed that Sonic Games were starting to get bad even if Colors and Generations were good games. They slowly started to get rid of all of Sonic's friends and have him do everything. Not to mention, Free Riders kinda killed the Riders series. We seriously need a new Riders game to make up for this. I kinda missed the Babylon Rogues.
I think the friend problem actually started in unleashed, i also think that the games before this one were much worse than the games we have now, before this game sonic games were either masterpieces or horrible, now they are meh at worse and great at best
@@ryko1478 Yeah. Unleased did start the whole Solo Sonic thing. The first time it happened, I didn't think it would have continued for so long. It's been over a decade now.
“the first time all the characters’ personalities changed for the worst” I mean, Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) did a pretty huge disservice to its titular character and 06 gave Sonic the personality of cardboard for 95% of the game; but they overcorrected those mistakes and Free Riders started a trend that lasted nearly a decade which, might I add, was for a game NOT written by Pontaff
I hate how the story is such a massive downgrade from the first two Riders games, and how the characters were flanderised so badly (which sadly was the start of a trend), but if it wasn't for the Kinnect controls I would've accepted this as at least a decent racing game with just bad writing. Sadly, the Kinnect being necessary kills it. If Sega ever bring back Riders and Zero G, I wouldn't mind if they also bring back this but with normal controls.
Sonic Genesis is arguably worse, but honestly it and free riders are around the same level along with Rise of Lyric. At least Shadow, 06, Secret Rings, and Forces can be fun in places. They're all about D tier on J's ranking system. Those other games previously mentioned are all firmly in F tier IMO. As for the other boom games, they're not bad. Just REALLY boring. Like Chibi Robo Zip Lash but maybe not quite as bad.
Looking good my man. "Sega's behind it, now we know it's good." Heh. Ouch. Just like when Headcannon anounced they only did the porting of Sonic 3 K, Sega themselves are responsible for the full Sonic origins package, every Sonic fan immediatly lost 60% of their optimism for that game. Poor Sega. They got a lot to make up for. Man, I wish someone would port the racetracks of Free Riders to the fanmade Sonic Riders game. The tracks look awesome, but no way I'm gonna get a Kinect. The Wii Mote is the best functioning of all these devices and even THAT thing I despise to hell and back. Yugh, I hated this whole remote stick phase of gaming, outside of House of the Dead and other Rail shooters, I never enjoyed a single game with these controlls. And hey, credit to Sonic Free Riders, it's a great way to excersize! Screaming in frustration, grabbing the console and throwing it out the window is a great way to burn some calories.
It's a shame that to really define a veteran Sonic fan is our optimisim in SEGA but... here we are. We want the best for Sonic but SEGA keeps letting us down and it downright hurts. Sometimes people think were overly negative and while it can be true, I can't blame em when their once beloved series is missing the mark when they could be competent. But yeah 100% Free riders stages are nice. If they literally made an update or something for controller support we could at least admire the tracks in a more positive light.
Wait, why "poor SEGA?" I have no pity for them, they did this to themselves. Especially with all the times they've lied about how going forward they're going to focus on quality, only to then rush out another stinker.
I didn't lose any optimism for that game (yet) because unless they ported the Taxman versions poorly, somehow, it'll still be a compilation of quality ports.
It's always baffled me how SEGA thought to develop this game specifically for the clunky, motion based tech. This really was a weird phase in gaming, because I can't imagine how anyone could think the motions for proper play are comfortable, or encouraging. Like yeah, players are totally going to love awkwardly pivoting and tilting for rudimentary functions.
It was a phase where the idea of development seemed more important than practicality, kind of like those periods in gaming history where they want games first and foremost to look as good as possible form a graphical perspective, and the gameplay was secondary. Basically they went "wouldn't it be amazing if we could play videogames without the need of a controller, but with our actual bodies? Imagine the immersion!"; an idea they wanted to put on people's heads without them asking if it would actually feel good to play like that.
It was kind of like the 3do and sega cd and all that shit. it was all about the bits, graphics, and that sweet motion video fmv bullshit tech companies were trying out. And of course, it didn't do super well either. With this gen in particular, it was all about motion control this. Motion control that. And it's like, man. No one cares. Just make decent games. And let that be it. Some games were accurate enough at least. Like wii sports, specifically tennis and bowling. Those were ok. But I definitely think that the tech was way to experimental and rushed beyond belief. Even alot of nintendo's games this era, people argue would have been better with traditional controls. At some times, zelda skyward sword was great. Other times, I wanted to throw the remote out the window. Any time companies focus on extreme gaming gimicks, without even really allowing any other way of playing the game. It usually just fails miserably. I mean, the 3do era and sega cd, they had other problems to. Like the 3do price tag and really not having any games with an identity to them at all. I think atari fell into the same trap. These companies needed characters like mario or sonic, or master chief or whatever, to establish long running franchises with. Everything was just to cookie cutter on those systems to. But the gimmicks didn't help. That is the first thing I think of when I think xbox is master chief. Like the original exclusive franchise on xbox for hardcore gamers. I don't think of anything when I am thinking of the 3do. I just think of it as this FMV gimmick console that costs to much. With the kinect device, the tech was just still incredibly young. When it comes to FMV, I mean, we have come along way. Every single game nowadays has some sort of FMV cut scenes that do well. Some even are interactive as well. And maybe, someday, motion control based gaming will actually be perfect to. Who knows. I mean, I never thought that the VR oculus headsets would start doing well, but they are doing decent. I think if sonic free riders actually bloody worked, and the controls didn't fail, and it felt like riding a real hover board. Then it would be a kick ass game. It is just so clunky and gimmicky instead. Kind of a shame really. I actually want to try it out personally. But control is the best way to describe any game ever made. And if you don't feel like you are in control, then the game sucks. Alot of old games are like that back in the old days to. Where the controls are crippled so badly, and that is why they suck. You can't screw up the controls in a game and have it sell and do well and get great reviews.
To quote another TH-camr on this game. “Cause you know if getting my a** kicked wasn’t enough, I love to be out of breath and feel like I’m about to have a f***ing stroke while I’m playing a video game”
Just looking at the footage is bringing painful memories back. TL;DR, NEVER play this game in a small room with other people in there with you. My older cousin regretted that choice when he played it, when I was six years, turning seven, and the game was out for a month. Hope you recover from playing this travesty for this great video.
I realize that a lot of developers got screwed over by Microsoft removing the Kinect's internal processor, but even if the motion controls DID work, the game itself still wouldn't be that good.
Because Sega has shit ideas of what motions do and don't work and made them unnecessarily laggy. Plus all the nonstandard parts, especially out of nowhere, and the requirement to be in your character's favored stance to use the grind rails.
Man, in hindsight I feel really bad for my parents. I played this game in my room upstairs, on thin squeaky floorboards. They probably heard me doing those stupid full-on squat jumps for hours while they were trying to watch TV downstairs lmao
You should get a Nobel Peace Prize because I'm pretty sure you're the first person who ever bothered to complete this game and you did it for our amusement. Not all heroes wear capes, some wear sweat-filled sleeveless shirts.
@@jaretco6423 I’m assuming other than me of course. That said, he was big back when he was still active. Big part of my middle school years. There has to be someone else that knows.
@@jaretco6423 it was mental health problems, an abusive relationship against him fueling said problems, and betrayal from known friends to my knowledge. Beyond that, I have no clue.
You and SomeCallMeJhonny both decided to show footage of you two playing the game from the Kinect. That’s dedication, but in Johnny’s case it’s fun to watch him lose his mind😂😂
@@jdawson7877 Why when they have opposing views on Adventure 2, '06 and Black Knight? (Unleashed, too, but some of the reasons Johnny bashes it for are off.) But now that you mention it, J does kind of sound like a younger Johnny.
I was really blinded as a Kid with this game. This was the first game I got when we had gotten a Kinect, and I do, believe it or not, recall having fun playing Free Riders, but then again, I was just a kid. Pretty sure those memories will be tainted to death if I tried this game again lmao.
I had the same thing happen to me playing Shadow the hedgehog for the first time, I had fun playing the game casually. Then I tried actually completing that game and I instantly changed my mind
@@HordikaNate3821 Shadow is fun if a little annoying due to the slippery Heroes physics when just doing a neutral playthrough. It goes down the shitter once you try to get into the mission structure. You know, the main gimmick of the game
@@chanlaman2565 not too mention the story doesn't function around the main gimmick at all. I think I liked it in the first place because it was Shadow's game and it had a shitton of content.
@@HordikaNate3821 True. Although personally, Shadow the Hedgehog isn't the worst thing in the world, but it definitely is held back from the story progression system and how it butched Shadow's character development and arc in the Adventure Games and Heroes. If you could look past that, I think as a completely standalone game, it's decent at the very least. That's just my two cents.
This just shows that the kinect (while a nice concept imo) is just plain flawed. And that’s saying from someone who’s owned one. Perhaps if it was a set of four cameras detecting the front, back, left, and right side of your body it could’ve functioned better.
This review basically summed up my own feelings on this game. I remembered when Sonic Free Riders was first announced I watch commercials of it on TV and on TH-cam, thinking it looked kind of promising, and wanting a Kinect to play it...only to find out that the whole game as an experience was awful. But the game did teach me a lesson in not believing everything you see in a commercial, and yeah, it's a shame that this was the game that automatically killed off the Sonic Riders series, when the spin-off series did show some potential to improve itself. And you know thinking about this game again made me take a look back on Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric inception, thinking about SEGAs' reasoning in wanting to release the game in the state it was in, deciding to make an exclusivity deal with a console manufacturer cause of this assumed belief that trend/gimmick = automatic success and more profits $, and not seeming to care on quality control for their product they were trying push out. Looking back at Sonic Free Riders to Sonic Boom they're almost one in same only difference is one is spin-off on an established main series and the other was an implied poorly handled reboot that tarnished the franchise reputation. Sonic Free Riders should've been a possible sign that SEGA never learned anything following up with making an exclusivity deal with Nintendo and giving us Sonic Lost World and Sonic Boom.
Sonic Lost World didn't fail because it was on Wii U. In fact, it barelly even used any of the Wii U's gimmicks. The problem was the god awful story and the game trying WAY to hard to be Mario, namely the New Super Mario Bros games (which were widely hated even back then) and Mario Galaxy with the worst parts of 64 and Sunshine thrown in for good measure. SEGA tried REALLY hard to make the Deadly 6 Sonic's version of the Koopalings but failed miserably due to at that point the Koopalings were vehetimately hated due to overuse and the Deadly 6 were already FAR worse than the already bad Koopalings both in design and in personality. Then they tried to shove Zavok into literally every single game and spinoff afterwards and it got annoying FAST. Lost World could have been good as a more faithful adaptation of 2D Sonic to 3D Sonic with a larger focus on platforming and physics than speed, but failed massively by trying way to hard to be like Mario.
@@krimsonkatt Sorry for the late response, but yeah I can somewhat agree with your reasons stated as to why Sonic Lost World failed. I mean it can be debated that the gameplay mechanics could've worked if thought out properly instead of trying to copy the Super Mario series and yeah I do agree it could also be argued that if SEGA focused more on the story/core identity of Sonic the game would've been received a little better. And as for the Deadly Six, yeah I'll just say I'm just not a big fan of them or Zavok either, and I heard that there are some fans of the characters which I personally don't get their appeal or their....whatever and I do hate the fact SEGA still tries to force them in everything like in the Mario & Sonic crossovers or spin-offs and Main-line games including the comics. However, I think my point still stands that SEGA made the game at first an exclusive for the Wii U with their belief that teaming up with Nintendo = automatic success, and yeah I know Sonic Colors was also at first exclusive to the Wii when it first released back then and sold pretty well but later on that sort of contradicted everything with the release of Sonic Generations the also sold extremely well, but following up in the future with the release of Sonic Colors: Ultimate it was shown and proven the game was a buggy and glitchy mess but SEGA decided to release it in the state it was in cause of profits $ and the delusion of it automatically selling well. Continuing on my point of the exclusivity stuff, instead of needing to focus on making their games multi-platform which sort of made up of their entire fan-base/market, they have instead went with wanting to appeal to more of the Nintendo crowd which was met with mixed results and the release of Boom cost the main franchise losing a bit of its Dignity in some fans including new-comers eyes and became more of a joke with how it's now being handle.
I remember when this game came out, a lot of people started to ask Sega to release a patch to add standard controller support. Sega's response: No! Maybe in the future, some fan mods the game and adds it.
The "dramatics" of the story really got me laughing watching this one. But in all seriousness...Man. This game REALLY makes Secret Rings look like child's play. I LOVE the Riders design and aesthetic for this franchise. But it's an utter shame this is the note everything's left on here. 06 is considered a tragedy. Unleashed and Black Knight are heavily UNDERRATED and OVERHATED titles. But this is a different ballgame entirely.
Black Knight is a masterpiece and no one can tell me otherwise. I've had that opinion since I've first played in in 2011 as a kid and I stand by it. Sonic with a sword is so badass, no idea why the idea got so much hate. Easily the best Sonic game and arguably the last one with a good story/good writing.
Not going to lie, If this game didn't have motion controls, this game looks like it would be a lot of fun. Plus, I never played the game but I know of it's infamous legacy.
Honestly, I disagree. This game was made with motion controls that actually worked in mind. Without those motion controls, you’d have to rework the entire game to make it not barebones.
@@landontrahan5770ironically somewhere like made a version that has basically a kinetic patch where you play with the controller and J reviewed it he said it’s far better but not amazing
This game is so fundamentally broken and awful that it makes Sonic 06 and Rise of Lyric look masterpieces. If a game can make you physically sore and ill, than you know it's complete shit.
The only Sonic Riders game I played was the original (I couldn’t beat a single race, but it was cool anyways), and I plan to keep it that way… wish they re-released the original though.
I actually beat the game and unlocked everything, Super Sonic gave me a boost of motivation to keep going because he lessens the strain especially when pulling tricks, he'll instantly launch off ramps and pull off high ranks just by moving towards it during his Super Sonic Boost but it isn't infinite, you need to gather Rings to keep it going but the draining isn't rapid af, it's still pretty rapid but not insanely.
There are people who love Shadow, there are people who love 06, there are people who love Forces, and there are even people who blindly defend Boom, but no Sonic fan likes Free Riders.
I heard about this game over a decade ago when AngryJoe reviewed it, he tore it to shreds. That alone convinced me this game was trash. But to hear J rant about how physically draining AND how it was the worst game he's ever played (even worse than SAC) showed me how irredeemably bad it is. Between Free Riders and Rise of Lyric got me thinking if weren't the fact that Sonic is SEGA's mascot, who knows what would've happened to the franchise in 2010's.
@@jaretco6423 Bullshit. Unleashed is better than both of them combined, heck, Generations and mostly Colors are mid, because their bad points are more than their good ones. For Gens: The levels were too short and even for Modern Sonic the 2D sucked, had very good boss fights though. For Colors 2 3rds of the Game are bad, it KILLED the idea of Sonic having a serious plot and it spawned the second worst gimmick in the Sonic franchise (first is SA2 Knuckles if you consider it a gimmick). Also, SA1 is great and Sonic 3 & Knuckles is one of the best 2D platformers ever made.
@@jaretco6423 The Werehog's only negative is that sometimes the platforming is garbage, and what you said about the Sun and moon medals is correct, the first time I played the Day stages I agreed on what you said, but unleashed is BOT a "Love on first playthrough" games. I played some day stages at least 10 times to start liking them, now I love them
@@jaretco6423 Colors' levels are long and tedious and straight up unfair at times(with some exceptions), Generations has Classic Sonic, which is so tedious it's comparable to SA2 Knuckles and Sonic Heroes, yet you complain about the Werehog being tedious? The Werehog's combat is great, fun with satisfying combos and QTEs.
@@jaretco6423 When you talk about Classic Sonic's core design and controls you don't EVER call them "some weird physic controls". These were Classic Sonic's fundamentals in these games, without them it's just a tedious mess, I mean, look at Sonic 4, ESPECIALLY Episode 1. Also, just because it's shorter doesn't mean it's less tedious. Colors has some of the most boring platforming in the series. But there are also other Sonic games better than Generations and especially Colors like Sonic Adventure (not the DX version because it's an example of how to NOT do a remaster) and Sonic 3 & Knuckles (preferably with Sonic 3 Angel Island Revisited), these are some very good Sonic games.
"So I could say I fully completed the story mode of Sonic Fucking Free Riders!" Props on that! I'm sadly hoping to say that some day as well. Did you manage to get (or even go for) all the achievements as well?
I probably had one of the most exceptional experiences with this game, encountering very little of those issues plaguing this video and actually having fun (though I did spend an absurd amount of time adjusting the camera to fit me at a specific distance, and reading the game manual, an old habit of mine that definitely saved me some frustration), but the inconsistency from person to person just shows how unreliable the Kinect was in the first place. And even then, several systems like the side switching and menu navigation are just an hindrance no matter which way you look at it. Even at its best, it's objectively the worst Riders by a wide margin, and I can't fault anyone for having a horrid time with anything involving the Kinect.
Worse than Sonic '06, Sonic Labyrinth, and Sonic Boom? :O In all honestly, I used to have Sonic Free Riders and I wanted to like it (and I haven't played the previous Rider games) but the controls never really worked with me, getting banged into walls while turning. But the theme song, like in every other Sonic game, is quite the banger (pun intended) _IIIIIIII'm falling Freeeeee in the wiiiiiind! In the wiiiiiiind!_ I especially love Crush 40's cover of "Free"
@aquatic Honestly, thinking about it, Sonic Free Riders might be my least favorite Sonic game. I had zero enjoyment out of it while Sonic '06, well, as bad as Sonic '06 also is, I used to like that game to a certain extent in addition to the frustrating moments it had.
(Any NEW thing for the console) Sega: "oOo! Lez pUt sAniC tHerE!" (Almost always fails) Sega: (surprised pikachu face) Oh dry meta era, how much I HATE you...
When did SEGA ever exploit gimmicks for Sonic besides this one and MAYBE Lost World 3D? And then gyro was used in nearly every game on 3DS including good ones like Kirby and Zelda. Lost World on Wii U barelly even used any game pad gimmicks (and even then they were optional) and Rise of Lyric used absolutely none. The games were still bad, but saying all of them were gimmicky is false.
Now, if they ever decide to release a trilogy of Sonic Riders, they can rework the controls to be controller compatible. I really want that, Just because... I never played this game, and I'd like to. From what I see, it looks super clean and the gimmicks that they added in the game like poles, skydiving and Swimming makes it a little more interesting.
Sega: "Wow people didn't like Sonic Free Riders? It must be because fans don't like riders games, and NOT because of the shitty controls. Let's can the whole series and do Mario kart knockoffs instead. And while we're at it, let's also do a Mario Galaxy knockoff!"
I remember playing this with my cousin and it took us like 10 minutes to even play the game mainly because the character select was hard to pick. And when we did play we would always hit walls so we would only play for for 20 minutes and get off. So great game 10/10 would play again!
The only memory I have of this game was on Christmas Day and my uncle went to go test it out in my living room. He went to go kick back and I was going behind him and I got kicked in the stomach flying into the Christmas tree.
The worst part about this game is that even the title outright lied. This game was, in fact, *not* free. This game wastedhours of this man’s life and, in return, gave to him immense pain, agony, misery, severely exhausted bones, and an absolutely barebones story to go with it all And the worse than worst part is that this game is so asstastic that I wouldn’t even play it if it WAS free. I wouldn’t play it if someone paid ME; why would you want to play a game that has a high chance of literally just not functioning correctly on top of being that physically demanding??
I am pretty sure Free meant like you have freedom with Extreme Gear because any character can use a Skill Gear Part, even Eggman as the Air Ride Skill can be applied on a Bike he uses and can fly, previous games dont let you fly in the air with Eggman on any Extreme Gear, he is legit bound to the ground and yes I remember the Grind Part was available but look it's been many years since I've played so I might be remembering wrong about that but the Air Ride Part thing is true.
this is your best review simply because we get to see you in your truest form. its your real feelings before you can edit a script to be more concise. your immediate reaction to anything in game is the realest anyone can be.
This right here. This game. This godawful game is the reason I thought Sonic in general was terrible for nearly 9 years. It nearly singlehandedly killed my entire interest in the franchise. Thank god I rediscovered Unleashed because I wouldn't be writing this comment without it. Screw you, Sonic Free Riders.
"To turn on the bike you must raise your left arm straight in the air and lower your right arm straight down to turn left..." As a biker that gave me physical pain
I’ve done a playthrough with this game recently and one thing people have to realize and especially as a Sonic fan, you have to go back and replay titles you disliked when you were younger because you never know how much of an impact it can really make. This game actually is fun when you’re around an open space. Controls are very responsive and the overall game itself is pretty slept on. There could’ve been other elements from previous games but Sonic Team had to work with what they had considering that it was on the Kinect. Many can agree if this game released on all platforms it could’ve easily been a great sequel.
I wanted this game SO bad when I was a kid. I loved the other two sonic riders games and I couldn’t fathom not having the new one, but I wasn’t about to ask my parents for a Kinect just so I could play this game. I have never played the game and I’m glad I never did cause it seems like I didn’t miss anything. Hopefully one day they can bring this series back and just leave it at regular controls with no motion control gimmicks. I’d love to all of the characters available to play and have a lot of boards or items to customize with
The fact Sega didn't remaster the original Sonic Riders with online multi-player is a crime. It's literally my favorite racing game especially over Mario Kart. This is literally perfect for a Sonic Racing game. I never liked any of the other Sonic racing games. Riders is the one and only Sonic racing game I will always play.
@@mjc0961 I never seen his face before this video. Only his voice. Frankly I only watch his Sonic videos and sometimes others Which video did he show face before?
@@modmaker7617 He does show himself in videos from time to time for skits, but the one I think is most prominent is his finale video for his DCAU retrospective where it's mainly him doing Ace Attorney IRL.
Fun fact, 2 songs in this game use the same samples as 2 Xenoblade songs, more specifically the guitar part of Riki’s theme from 1, and New L.A’s “I can’t hear you I can’t see you” from X
Man I used to love this game for seemingly no reason, and I was a BEAST at it. I was good enough and found it enjoyable enough that I probably beat it several times, but only on one run did I do the unthinkable; I got the chaos emeralds "board". Idk how many people who played and knew about it, and I feel like far fewer would ever put themselves through the torture that it took to get it. In order to get the chaos emeralds board and achieve Super Sonic you needed to have an S rank on EVERY MISSION from EVERY TEAM including the final race. I don't know why I did it, but younger me felt very accomplished to have done that, since it took a metric assload of effort and time. The reward for doing all of this was effectively guaranteeing that I'd place first in every race I ever entered with the emeralds. The board itself is just Sonic's basic board, but once you hit 50 rings you automatically transform. This transformation alone doesn't do much until you kick which drops your board completely in favor of ripping through the track by essentially cheating and flying through it on your own. I had never felt cooler in my entire life and I now realize how much time I completely wasted. If you stuck me in front of the game today and told me to get the emeralds again I'd promptly refuse. Edit: After checking myself I now realize that the transformation happens at 30 rings and not 50 like I thought.
This game will forever be my biggest guilty pleasure, I genuinely had fun playing this when I was younger. Also to clarify I played tons of Kinect games, so I was kinda in tune with the Kinect.
As of today, I have finally got the chance to buy the game for 20$, and I had just as much fun as I did about 12 years ago, after I found the sweet spot for Kinect calibration, it was pretty easy to control surprisingly, it requires a lot more exaggerated movement than I thought.
I haven't played SaC but from what I have see it doesn't look as plain boring as Nexus, I HATE that game, definetly skipping it in this year's marathon
i find reviews for this game funny because back when i played it it actually worked perfectly and i never had any problems controlling it making it the best game haha
Honestly, the moral of the story is doing motion controls right can lead to an experience like no other. Do them wrong, and we have to set 3 dumpsters on fire.
Am I the only one that doesn’t hate this game and doesn’t find it "unplayable" at all? This is a cardio item for the console, and you can use the Kinect Tuner to fix the issues not working. If you’re in a room that has too much big stuff in the way, you’re fucked and you’ll need to do it into a bigger room with more spaces with nothing in the way.
I remember when I got this game as I was obsessed with sonic as a kid and my dad and I got a Kinect awhile prior and I still remember beating the magma level after hours of trying and my legs were so sore I was in bed for hours
Now you see why Angry Joe hated this game. Its one of the worst games he's ever played. It almost drove him insane. Why haven't you gone insane? Fascinating.
That's why as developer you need to make several way to play the game, especially if your game is developing a new way to play something. Your idea might be revolutionary in some way, but don't forget there's a chance that your new "mechanic" might be have error in many way, so just make the "traditional" way option just in case your new mechanic gonna be annoying for some player.
I really love the first two Riders games so it's sad that the series died because of the 3rd entry deciding to go full gimmicky with motion controls. The gravity stuff in Zero Gravity functioned mostly well and didn't affect you physicaly.
This mess of a game really makes Team Sonic Racing look like a gem. Like yeah Team Sonic Racing is a strict downgrade over Transformed but at least TSR has it's fun moments. Free Riders has none of that. Even 06 and StH at least tried but failed yet I respect those games.
You know...I honestly didn't think Free Riders was THAT bad and I get kinda annoyed by how dramatic people get about this particular title. Take a step back and realize what it is: a thrown together Kinect game. NOT a mainline, decently budgeted Sonic game. MS probably threw SEGA some money and said "make a thing for us". In the realm of Kinect games? This was one of the more playable non-dancing ones. Konami made a similar game called Adrenaline Misfits and it's much worse. So are...most Kinect games. Heck even in the realm of Sonic Riders, I like this a LOT more than Zero Gravity (but nowhere even remotely close to the original which is one of my all time favorite Sonic games). This was a Kinect game first, and a Sonic Riders game second.
I remember hearing something back then about the kinect not picking up commands from people with darker skin tones that well so maybe that might have something to do with the control issues. I'm black and while I remember it controlling okay in the menu's, the gameplay itself felt a like a 70/30 toss up on whether certain actions worked.
@@schemar17 I don't remember the specifics of it, I just remember someone pointing it out on here once. I always just assumed it had something to due with how the Kinect probably working like a camera in that you need good lighting to get a good shot of the subject.
It's this game that makes me want the hate for Sonic '06 to die already. Yes, the story wasn't the best, and the gameplay was glitchy, but it was at least still playable! Free Riders? Hell no.
3:05 But that originality goes right out the window when you remember the eye toy that was on the PS2. They just made a better version of that, And before you say that the connect camera sucks, two words: DANCE CENTRAL.
The first all-stars racing didn't come out in 2010, there is no way! This must be why it was so devastating for me when I heard a different VA for Sonic in the same year. That change was so drastic that I thought it was temporary.
I really wish Sonic Free Riders has a console port. That means it will also be playable on the PS3 like Sonic '06 or Sonic Unleashed, since not everybody has an XBOX 360.
Kinect menus were infuriating, our Xbox came with a Kinect, do we obviously got Kinect games to play, but we didn't play any of them much because the menus were frustrating to navigate, and as kids, we wouldn't even really want to play the games anymore when we actually got to the playing, and then on top of that, we were both really skinny, and I was chronically ill, and easily fatigued, so then accessibility became an issue, the Kinect just kind of feels like it generally sucked, like with the Wii, a lot of the movement controls weren't nearly as physically taxing, just swinging or shaking the wiimote
I really wanted this when I was younger as it looked really cool, I really liked the idea of Kinect when I was younger and even got one a few years ago. It was actually a lot of fun trying other Kinect games but I never got to try this one. Kinda glad about that now because it seems really, really bad 😂
When I was trying to play Ring Fit Adventure in my apartment, my roommate said something along the lines of "oh, this is a single family house kind of game." That's all I can think of whenever I see any game that requires jumping. Imagine being the downstairs neighbors of some family whose kids got this -_- RIP to all us urban folks
I wouldn't say it's the worst Sonic game of all time by a long stretch. Yeah sure, the Kinnect controls showed serious shortcomings and the tech needed alot more work, but overall I really enjoyed this game once I got used to it. Was pretty fun, even if the controls would frustratingly desert you at exactly the wrong times.
@@jaretco6423 I'll probably get lambasted for saying this, but I really don't care: - Sonic CD The reason I've chosen this one is simply because the level design is so frustrating that at no point I ever felt the game was fun to play and never got beyond the second level before switching it off and that happened time after time after time of playing it no matter how many years later I'd go back to it. Sonic Free Riders was actually as fun as it was frustrating and at least kept me coming back to play it for a sustained period of time, I actually got pretty good at it. Just my opinion.
@@jaretco6423 Yeah, I never wanted to play a Sonic game to build up speed to hit obstacles that were designed on purpose to be just high enough so you can't can't clear them and completely stop your momentum dead in its tracks. But apparently that's fine, because you can now go and explore the awkward level design at some pointless snail's pace to get items you could have got travelling at 10 times the speed if only the level design was cleverer and got you there in a more thrilling and exciting fashion. I started life with the first Sonic and that game to me was way more impressive than Sonic CD and I can always go back to play it. I think the development team at the time tried to foolishly answer the Super Mario World critics by turning Sonic into something it was never meant to be, just didn't work for me, Sonic is NOT designed to be an exploration game. As for soundtracks, nothing Sonic CD did got anywhere near Sonic 3, or even Sonic 2 for me. Doesn't matter which part of the world you want to pluck a version from. Again, just my opinion.
as someone who played this as a kid, he is 100% right that it is physically demanding to play. This was one of the only Sonic games I had. it was that and '06.
Alright hear me out. Might be the only one but, Before i was also thinking that its a bad game and always ignored it, but one of my friends had the game and just talking about it to me and just really having fun with it with the controls working great for him. So he pretty much convinced me to get it for my birthday, and when i got it, i did not regret it. I really had so much fun and the controls work really good for me, a lot of repayable stuff, i honestly didn't know why there are so many complains how it doesn’t work for u guys after i played it tbh.
Hi, I'm the friend who convinced him :) and I'm not here to gang up with you against people but just to put my point here too, I got this game just to see if it was really that bad and omg I never was so happy for being wrong. The controls are learnable, the story is not offensively bad (like Sonic Forces), it has a lot of replayability, best combination of game mechanics from previous games, a blast of a soundtrack, very well functional online mode (way better than Sonic Transformed believe it or not...), good voice acting, good number of characters and tracks, and just a lot of other positive points that nobody cares because blame the Kinect for all the problems is much easier :), it just makes me sad that nobody else sees what I see in this game and I really wish it had more fans...
Looking up other comments here, it seems like a TON of issues is down to the calibrations one must make of the Kinect before you really start playing, and whether one has the proper amount of space and correct lightning in the room... but quite frankly- a game where you have to make THAT much effort before you even start playing on CONSOLE, where the whole point is to be as easy to get started as possible (and a game that is clearly NOT telling you what it is you must do in-game before you start), is a game that deserves its bad reputation. As unfair as it may feel to have so many reviews where people do not even know how to play it, having that ignorance coloring their perceptions of it, the fact they *made* it so difficult and obtuse to know how to play it in the first place just makes it so I can't have any sympathy for the game. It expects too much, explains too little and gets the reception it deserves.
This could have been really fun if they kept it simple and arcadey, and focused on making the controls more reliable and comfortable. It would be a great workout game.
Thanks to Bespoke Post for sponsoring this video! New subscribers get 20% off their first box - go to bespokepost.com/JSR20 and enter code JSR20 at checkout.
@@matheusgamer157 thanks 😂
@@noaht2005 you're welcome,my friend!
Anyone want to hear him talk about Bat-Man again? Just me?
Are you going to review the sonic movies?
opinion invalid sonic riders = good game (just mad you cant master it)
I’m just saying that Sega definitely missed out by not releasing this on the Wii with Balance Board support
TRUE FOR SO LONG I THOUGT THIS WAS ON WII BALANCE BOARD THEN WHEN I HEARD IT WAS ACTUALLY ON THE KINECT I LOST MY MIND CAUSE OF HOW STUPID THAT WAS
How would the trick system work on that. And the hand movements for punching and stuff
@@lordadz1615 Maybe the Wii remote and nunchucks.
@@FixyFlow hmm but if we are having to use that I feel like the use of the board would just be pointless in a way since it has an analog for movement.
that sounds like an unironically better gameplay experience
The fact that we never got another Sonic Riders game because of Sonic Free Riders still makes me upset to this day. The series had so much potential but this game killed it and the sad fact is that SEGA will never return to Sonic Riders because of it.
I’m really hoping the remasters will include the series…maybe then they’d revive it
Imagine if they rereleased Sonic Free but without the Kinect and/or released a new Sonic Riders game. It will probably never happen but I can still dream damnit.
@@jlev1028 What you just said is the sad truth. It’s the reason why Sonic Adventure fans haven’t gotten an Adventure styled game in 15 years and it’s the same reason why Sonic Riders will never make a return. It’s something I had to accept as a Sonic fan. This Sonic Colors/Classic Sonic nostalgia era is never ending.
@@jlev1028 the sad truth
@@CosmicLiveProd did you even see what the next sonic game is
Game's basically unplayable. That's kind of the end of it.
Yeah, sometimes that's all that needs to be said lol
@@JsReviews yup
@@JsReviews J's Ratios
@@JsReviews 1:35 to Begin the video.
@@JsReviews could you review the sonic movies?
This was the beginning of the end for me. Honestly, this was the game that made me disappointed in the franchise for the first time ever. Seriously, I'm one of the people that LIKED playing Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic Next-Gen(in some degree). Not only was I upset about the voice changes, but it was the first time that all the characters personalities started to change for the worst. And it showed that Sonic Games were starting to get bad even if Colors and Generations were good games. They slowly started to get rid of all of Sonic's friends and have him do everything. Not to mention, Free Riders kinda killed the Riders series. We seriously need a new Riders game to make up for this. I kinda missed the Babylon Rogues.
Oh yeah. This game came out in 2010 which is when this whole Meta/Colors era started, this game started the downfall of the Sonic series
I think the friend problem actually started in unleashed, i also think that the games before this one were much worse than the games we have now, before this game sonic games were either masterpieces or horrible, now they are meh at worse and great at best
@@ryko1478 Yeah. Unleased did start the whole Solo Sonic thing. The first time it happened, I didn't think it would have continued for so long. It's been over a decade now.
@@rickyronny4019 Yeah. That's for sure.
“the first time all the characters’ personalities changed for the worst”
I mean, Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) did a pretty huge disservice to its titular character and 06 gave Sonic the personality of cardboard for 95% of the game; but they overcorrected those mistakes and Free Riders started a trend that lasted nearly a decade which, might I add, was for a game NOT written by Pontaff
I hate how the story is such a massive downgrade from the first two Riders games, and how the characters were flanderised so badly (which sadly was the start of a trend), but if it wasn't for the Kinnect controls I would've accepted this as at least a decent racing game with just bad writing. Sadly, the Kinnect being necessary kills it. If Sega ever bring back Riders and Zero G, I wouldn't mind if they also bring back this but with normal controls.
"Worst sonic game of all time"
When a franchise includes 06 and some of the Boom games, that worst game must be supremely awful.
I’m convinced J’s never played Sonic Genesis on the GBA
Sonic Genesis is arguably worse, but honestly it and free riders are around the same level along with Rise of Lyric. At least Shadow, 06, Secret Rings, and Forces can be fun in places. They're all about D tier on J's ranking system. Those other games previously mentioned are all firmly in F tier IMO. As for the other boom games, they're not bad. Just REALLY boring. Like Chibi Robo Zip Lash but maybe not quite as bad.
@@cloudshines812 The words of someone who didn't watch his video on the GBA Sonic games
@@ProtectorOfMemes I forgot sorry lol
Boom is worse
Well to be fair, ANY game that causes physical pain to the player is bound to be one of the worst games of all time
I dunno, the Eye Toy games were pretty good imo
Also no, the Wii & its library doesn't count, you don't hurt yourself with it, you hurt people in the room, which is hilarious
@@zaneheaston8254 true 😏
@@zaneheaston8254 that or breaking something else instead.
@@swinelias Gee, you think maybe that's why the wrist strap exists?
Looking good my man.
"Sega's behind it, now we know it's good."
Heh. Ouch. Just like when Headcannon anounced they only did the porting of Sonic 3 K, Sega themselves are responsible for the full Sonic origins package, every Sonic fan immediatly lost 60% of their optimism for that game. Poor Sega. They got a lot to make up for.
Man, I wish someone would port the racetracks of Free Riders to the fanmade Sonic Riders game. The tracks look awesome, but no way I'm gonna get a Kinect.
The Wii Mote is the best functioning of all these devices and even THAT thing I despise to hell and back. Yugh, I hated this whole remote stick phase of gaming, outside of House of the Dead and other Rail shooters, I never enjoyed a single game with these controlls.
And hey, credit to Sonic Free Riders, it's a great way to excersize! Screaming in frustration, grabbing the console and throwing it out the window is a great way to burn some calories.
It's a shame that to really define a veteran Sonic fan is our optimisim in SEGA but... here we are. We want the best for Sonic but SEGA keeps letting us down and it downright hurts. Sometimes people think were overly negative and while it can be true, I can't blame em when their once beloved series is missing the mark when they could be competent. But yeah 100% Free riders stages are nice. If they literally made an update or something for controller support we could at least admire the tracks in a more positive light.
Vector: "Money! Money!"
Ironically, Sega would actually have a pretty good track record, if not for Sonic the Hedgehog.
Wait, why "poor SEGA?" I have no pity for them, they did this to themselves.
Especially with all the times they've lied about how going forward they're going to focus on quality, only to then rush out another stinker.
I didn't lose any optimism for that game (yet) because unless they ported the Taxman versions poorly, somehow, it'll still be a compilation of quality ports.
It's always baffled me how SEGA thought to develop this game specifically for the clunky, motion based tech. This really was a weird phase in gaming, because I can't imagine how anyone could think the motions for proper play are comfortable, or encouraging. Like yeah, players are totally going to love awkwardly pivoting and tilting for rudimentary functions.
It was a phase where the idea of development seemed more important than practicality, kind of like those periods in gaming history where they want games first and foremost to look as good as possible form a graphical perspective, and the gameplay was secondary.
Basically they went "wouldn't it be amazing if we could play videogames without the need of a controller, but with our actual bodies? Imagine the immersion!"; an idea they wanted to put on people's heads without them asking if it would actually feel good to play like that.
It was kind of like the 3do and sega cd and all that shit. it was all about the bits, graphics, and that sweet motion video fmv bullshit tech companies were trying out. And of course, it didn't do super well either.
With this gen in particular, it was all about motion control this. Motion control that. And it's like, man. No one cares. Just make decent games. And let that be it.
Some games were accurate enough at least. Like wii sports, specifically tennis and bowling. Those were ok. But I definitely think that the tech was way to experimental and rushed beyond belief. Even alot of nintendo's games this era, people argue would have been better with traditional controls. At some times, zelda skyward sword was great. Other times, I wanted to throw the remote out the window.
Any time companies focus on extreme gaming gimicks, without even really allowing any other way of playing the game. It usually just fails miserably.
I mean, the 3do era and sega cd, they had other problems to. Like the 3do price tag and really not having any games with an identity to them at all. I think atari fell into the same trap. These companies needed characters like mario or sonic, or master chief or whatever, to establish long running franchises with. Everything was just to cookie cutter on those systems to. But the gimmicks didn't help. That is the first thing I think of when I think xbox is master chief. Like the original exclusive franchise on xbox for hardcore gamers. I don't think of anything when I am thinking of the 3do. I just think of it as this FMV gimmick console that costs to much.
With the kinect device, the tech was just still incredibly young. When it comes to FMV, I mean, we have come along way. Every single game nowadays has some sort of FMV cut scenes that do well. Some even are interactive as well. And maybe, someday, motion control based gaming will actually be perfect to. Who knows. I mean, I never thought that the VR oculus headsets would start doing well, but they are doing decent.
I think if sonic free riders actually bloody worked, and the controls didn't fail, and it felt like riding a real hover board. Then it would be a kick ass game. It is just so clunky and gimmicky instead. Kind of a shame really. I actually want to try it out personally. But control is the best way to describe any game ever made. And if you don't feel like you are in control, then the game sucks. Alot of old games are like that back in the old days to. Where the controls are crippled so badly, and that is why they suck. You can't screw up the controls in a game and have it sell and do well and get great reviews.
To quote another TH-camr on this game. “Cause you know if getting my a** kicked wasn’t enough, I love to be out of breath and feel like I’m about to have a f***ing stroke while I’m playing a video game”
@@jlev1028 Micheal.
Just looking at the footage is bringing painful memories back.
TL;DR, NEVER play this game in a small room with other people in there with you. My older cousin regretted that choice when he played it, when I was six years, turning seven, and the game was out for a month.
Hope you recover from playing this travesty for this great video.
I realize that a lot of developers got screwed over by Microsoft removing the Kinect's internal processor, but even if the motion controls DID work, the game itself still wouldn't be that good.
Because Sega has shit ideas of what motions do and don't work and made them unnecessarily laggy. Plus all the nonstandard parts, especially out of nowhere, and the requirement to be in your character's favored stance to use the grind rails.
Man, in hindsight I feel really bad for my parents. I played this game in my room upstairs, on thin squeaky floorboards. They probably heard me doing those stupid full-on squat jumps for hours while they were trying to watch TV downstairs lmao
You should get a Nobel Peace Prize because I'm pretty sure you're the first person who ever bothered to complete this game and you did it for our amusement.
Not all heroes wear capes, some wear sweat-filled sleeveless shirts.
No- that’s Cobanermani456 with his let’s play.
@@jaretco6423 I’m assuming other than me of course. That said, he was big back when he was still active. Big part of my middle school years. There has to be someone else that knows.
@@jaretco6423 it was mental health problems, an abusive relationship against him fueling said problems, and betrayal from known friends to my knowledge. Beyond that, I have no clue.
You and SomeCallMeJhonny both decided to show footage of you two playing the game from the Kinect. That’s dedication, but in Johnny’s case it’s fun to watch him lose his mind😂😂
speaking of jhonny am i the only one thinks he and j reviews sound really similar
@@jdawson7877 For the longest I thought they were The same person just new account
@@jdawson7877 Probably, because they sound nothing alike.
@@jdawson7877 Why when they have opposing views on Adventure 2, '06 and Black Knight? (Unleashed, too, but some of the reasons Johnny bashes it for are off.) But now that you mention it, J does kind of sound like a younger Johnny.
And it's also fun to hear J acknowledge how much of an undignified dork he looks and sounds like trying to play Free Riders.
When a game is upstaged by Secret Agent Clank you know you have something on your hands.
I was really blinded as a Kid with this game. This was the first game I got when we had gotten a Kinect, and I do, believe it or not, recall having fun playing Free Riders, but then again, I was just a kid. Pretty sure those memories will be tainted to death if I tried this game again lmao.
I had the same thing happen to me playing Shadow the hedgehog for the first time, I had fun playing the game casually. Then I tried actually completing that game and I instantly changed my mind
@@HordikaNate3821 Shadow is fun if a little annoying due to the slippery Heroes physics when just doing a neutral playthrough. It goes down the shitter once you try to get into the mission structure. You know, the main gimmick of the game
@@chanlaman2565 not too mention the story doesn't function around the main gimmick at all. I think I liked it in the first place because it was Shadow's game and it had a shitton of content.
@@HordikaNate3821 True. Although personally, Shadow the Hedgehog isn't the worst thing in the world, but it definitely is held back from the story progression system and how it butched Shadow's character development and arc in the Adventure Games and Heroes. If you could look past that, I think as a completely standalone game, it's decent at the very least. That's just my two cents.
@@RC32Smiths01 Yeah to each their own, I had more fun with 06 then I did with Shadow
Im so glad you had the punching problem on the Knuckles mission, thats literally the mission that killed my run forever as a kid.
This just shows that the kinect (while a nice concept imo) is just plain flawed. And that’s saying from someone who’s owned one. Perhaps if it was a set of four cameras detecting the front, back, left, and right side of your body it could’ve functioned better.
I used it well enough lol it loses track if you zoom about sometimes
The Xbox One Kinect works pretty well. The 360 Kinect was a bit too early for the tech to function
Not even the Wii's Motion Controls wasn't this bad.
This review basically summed up my own feelings on this game. I remembered when Sonic Free Riders was first announced I watch commercials of it on TV and on TH-cam, thinking it looked kind of promising, and wanting a Kinect to play it...only to find out that the whole game as an experience was awful. But the game did teach me a lesson in not believing everything you see in a commercial, and yeah, it's a shame that this was the game that automatically killed off the Sonic Riders series, when the spin-off series did show some potential to improve itself. And you know thinking about this game again made me take a look back on Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric inception, thinking about SEGAs' reasoning in wanting to release the game in the state it was in, deciding to make an exclusivity deal with a console manufacturer cause of this assumed belief that trend/gimmick = automatic success and more profits $, and not seeming to care on quality control for their product they were trying push out. Looking back at Sonic Free Riders to Sonic Boom they're almost one in same only difference is one is spin-off on an established main series and the other was an implied poorly handled reboot that tarnished the franchise reputation. Sonic Free Riders should've been a possible sign that SEGA never learned anything following up with making an exclusivity deal with Nintendo and giving us Sonic Lost World and Sonic Boom.
Sonic Lost World didn't fail because it was on Wii U. In fact, it barelly even used any of the Wii U's gimmicks. The problem was the god awful story and the game trying WAY to hard to be Mario, namely the New Super Mario Bros games (which were widely hated even back then) and Mario Galaxy with the worst parts of 64 and Sunshine thrown in for good measure. SEGA tried REALLY hard to make the Deadly 6 Sonic's version of the Koopalings but failed miserably due to at that point the Koopalings were vehetimately hated due to overuse and the Deadly 6 were already FAR worse than the already bad Koopalings both in design and in personality. Then they tried to shove Zavok into literally every single game and spinoff afterwards and it got annoying FAST. Lost World could have been good as a more faithful adaptation of 2D Sonic to 3D Sonic with a larger focus on platforming and physics than speed, but failed massively by trying way to hard to be like Mario.
@@krimsonkatt Sorry for the late response, but yeah I can somewhat agree with your reasons stated as to why Sonic Lost World failed. I mean it can be debated that the gameplay mechanics could've worked if thought out properly instead of trying to copy the Super Mario series and yeah I do agree it could also be argued that if SEGA focused more on the story/core identity of Sonic the game would've been received a little better. And as for the Deadly Six, yeah I'll just say I'm just not a big fan of them or Zavok either, and I heard that there are some fans of the characters which I personally don't get their appeal or their....whatever and I do hate the fact SEGA still tries to force them in everything like in the Mario & Sonic crossovers or spin-offs and Main-line games including the comics. However, I think my point still stands that SEGA made the game at first an exclusive for the Wii U with their belief that teaming up with Nintendo = automatic success, and yeah I know Sonic Colors was also at first exclusive to the Wii when it first released back then and sold pretty well but later on that sort of contradicted everything with the release of Sonic Generations the also sold extremely well, but following up in the future with the release of Sonic Colors: Ultimate it was shown and proven the game was a buggy and glitchy mess but SEGA decided to release it in the state it was in cause of profits $ and the delusion of it automatically selling well. Continuing on my point of the exclusivity stuff, instead of needing to focus on making their games multi-platform which sort of made up of their entire fan-base/market, they have instead went with wanting to appeal to more of the Nintendo crowd which was met with mixed results and the release of Boom cost the main franchise losing a bit of its Dignity in some fans including new-comers eyes and became more of a joke with how it's now being handle.
I remember when this game came out, a lot of people started to ask Sega to release a patch to add standard controller support.
Sega's response: No!
Maybe in the future, some fan mods the game and adds it.
The "dramatics" of the story really got me laughing watching this one.
But in all seriousness...Man. This game REALLY makes Secret Rings look like child's play.
I LOVE the Riders design and aesthetic for this franchise. But it's an utter shame this is the note everything's left on here.
06 is considered a tragedy. Unleashed and Black Knight are heavily UNDERRATED and OVERHATED titles. But this is a different ballgame entirely.
Black Knight is a masterpiece and no one can tell me otherwise. I've had that opinion since I've first played in in 2011 as a kid and I stand by it. Sonic with a sword is so badass, no idea why the idea got so much hate. Easily the best Sonic game and arguably the last one with a good story/good writing.
@@krimsonkatt not really Amy was a jerk in Black Knight
@@krimsonkatt sonic with a sword is the coolest thing ever and i'm tired of pretending it's not
I’d play free riders over secret rings any day
@@markofthewolvessucks8930 no?
"It is magma, magma.... MAGMA.. OH GOD DAMN'IT!! IT'S MAGMA"
This sums up the game without playing it..
Not going to lie, If this game didn't have motion controls, this game looks like it would be a lot of fun. Plus, I never played the game but I know of it's infamous legacy.
Honestly, I disagree. This game was made with motion controls that actually worked in mind. Without those motion controls, you’d have to rework the entire game to make it not barebones.
@@Mojo1356 I respect your opinion.
@@landontrahan5770ironically somewhere like made a version that has basically a kinetic patch where you play with the controller and J reviewed it he said it’s far better but not amazing
The turning sensitivity is based on the furthest you bend during the preparation stage before each race
This game is so fundamentally broken and awful that it makes Sonic 06 and Rise of Lyric look masterpieces. If a game can make you physically sore and ill, than you know it's complete shit.
The only Sonic Riders game I played was the original (I couldn’t beat a single race, but it was cool anyways), and I plan to keep it that way… wish they re-released the original though.
I like how even the game was aware of how dumb the story was 😂
No cap my first Sonic game that got me into the franchise (I enjoyed it)
You poor, poor soul.
Do you go to the gym every Friday my guy
@@sonicelimario2892 Never went to a gym in my life and look exactly like it
@TrunksZ World 06 was my second Sonic game and I loved it as well
I actually beat the game and unlocked everything, Super Sonic gave me a boost of motivation to keep going because he lessens the strain especially when pulling tricks, he'll instantly launch off ramps and pull off high ranks just by moving towards it during his Super Sonic Boost but it isn't infinite, you need to gather Rings to keep it going but the draining isn't rapid af, it's still pretty rapid but not insanely.
There are people who love Shadow, there are people who love 06, there are people who love Forces, and there are even people who blindly defend Boom, but no Sonic fan likes Free Riders.
Lies, I love Free Riders but not cause script or voice acting (minus Super Sonic because his voice is the best).
@@artistanthony1007 I don’t believe that you’ve ever played the game.
I love the first one. I have fond memories playing that game
I heard about this game over a decade ago when AngryJoe reviewed it, he tore it to shreds. That alone convinced me this game was trash. But to hear J rant about how physically draining AND how it was the worst game he's ever played (even worse than SAC) showed me how irredeemably bad it is. Between Free Riders and Rise of Lyric got me thinking if weren't the fact that Sonic is SEGA's mascot, who knows what would've happened to the franchise in 2010's.
@@jaretco6423 You couldn't be more incorrect, what a naïve statement.
@@jaretco6423 Bullshit. Unleashed is better than both of them combined, heck, Generations and mostly Colors are mid, because their bad points are more than their good ones. For Gens: The levels were too short and even for Modern Sonic the 2D sucked, had very good boss fights though. For Colors 2 3rds of the Game are bad, it KILLED the idea of Sonic having a serious plot and it spawned the second worst gimmick in the Sonic franchise (first is SA2 Knuckles if you consider it a gimmick). Also, SA1 is great and Sonic 3 & Knuckles is one of the best 2D platformers ever made.
@@jaretco6423 The Werehog's only negative is that sometimes the platforming is garbage, and what you said about the Sun and moon medals is correct, the first time I played the Day stages I agreed on what you said, but unleashed is BOT a "Love on first playthrough" games. I played some day stages at least 10 times to start liking them, now I love them
@@jaretco6423 Colors' levels are long and tedious and straight up unfair at times(with some exceptions), Generations has Classic Sonic, which is so tedious it's comparable to SA2 Knuckles and Sonic Heroes, yet you complain about the Werehog being tedious? The Werehog's combat is great, fun with satisfying combos and QTEs.
@@jaretco6423 When you talk about Classic Sonic's core design and controls you don't EVER call them "some weird physic controls". These were Classic Sonic's fundamentals in these games, without them it's just a tedious mess, I mean, look at Sonic 4, ESPECIALLY Episode 1. Also, just because it's shorter doesn't mean it's less tedious. Colors has some of the most boring platforming in the series. But there are also other Sonic games better than Generations and especially Colors like Sonic Adventure (not the DX version because it's an example of how to NOT do a remaster) and Sonic 3 & Knuckles (preferably with Sonic 3 Angel Island Revisited), these are some very good Sonic games.
Did you know IGN gave this a 7/10?
That’s higher than both unleashed and the previous riders games
That's been the subject of conversation within the Discord server for J's Patrons at one point, and yes, those who saw it were baffled.
@@ProtectorOfMemes I’m really glad that free riders is a game where the entire fan base collectively agrees and calls it terrible
They're ratings for games never make any sense, Shark tale the game has the same score as Free Riders I think
Common IGN L
@@Wildcatt1999 IGN also gave Black Knight an abysmal 3.9 score
"So I could say I fully completed the story mode of Sonic Fucking Free Riders!" Props on that! I'm sadly hoping to say that some day as well. Did you manage to get (or even go for) all the achievements as well?
Hey, the timing of this is perfect. I just re-watched the other Sonic Riders videos recently, so this worked out great.
Same
I probably had one of the most exceptional experiences with this game, encountering very little of those issues plaguing this video and actually having fun (though I did spend an absurd amount of time adjusting the camera to fit me at a specific distance, and reading the game manual, an old habit of mine that definitely saved me some frustration), but the inconsistency from person to person just shows how unreliable the Kinect was in the first place. And even then, several systems like the side switching and menu navigation are just an hindrance no matter which way you look at it. Even at its best, it's objectively the worst Riders by a wide margin, and I can't fault anyone for having a horrid time with anything involving the Kinect.
I was wondering about this, how would a properly calibrated kinnect would play like
Same, I enjoyed every moment of it as a kid. I dont remember any non-responsiveness at all.
Worse than Sonic '06, Sonic Labyrinth, and Sonic Boom? :O
In all honestly, I used to have Sonic Free Riders and I wanted to like it (and I haven't played the previous Rider games) but the controls never really worked with me, getting banged into walls while turning. But the theme song, like in every other Sonic game, is quite the banger (pun intended)
_IIIIIIII'm falling Freeeeee in the wiiiiiind! In the wiiiiiiind!_
I especially love Crush 40's cover of "Free"
@aquatic Honestly, thinking about it, Sonic Free Riders might be my least favorite Sonic game. I had zero enjoyment out of it while Sonic '06, well, as bad as Sonic '06 also is, I used to like that game to a certain extent in addition to the frustrating moments it had.
8:55 IS THAT SONIC SWIMMING?
They had only one job, and failed it successfully in all ways possible
(Any NEW thing for the console)
Sega: "oOo! Lez pUt sAniC tHerE!"
(Almost always fails)
Sega: (surprised pikachu face)
Oh dry meta era, how much I HATE you...
When did SEGA ever exploit gimmicks for Sonic besides this one and MAYBE Lost World 3D? And then gyro was used in nearly every game on 3DS including good ones like Kirby and Zelda. Lost World on Wii U barelly even used any game pad gimmicks (and even then they were optional) and Rise of Lyric used absolutely none. The games were still bad, but saying all of them were gimmicky is false.
Now, if they ever decide to release a trilogy of Sonic Riders, they can rework the controls to be controller compatible. I really want that, Just because... I never played this game, and I'd like to. From what I see, it looks super clean and the gimmicks that they added in the game like poles, skydiving and Swimming makes it a little more interesting.
the game would have to be rebuilt from the ground up to support controller
@@Sydney_Angelyt Not necessarily.
@@cliffturbo2146 yes necessarily
@@Sydney_Angelyt Okay, both.
Sega: "Wow people didn't like Sonic Free Riders? It must be because fans don't like riders games, and NOT because of the shitty controls. Let's can the whole series and do Mario kart knockoffs instead. And while we're at it, let's also do a Mario Galaxy knockoff!"
I remember playing this with my cousin and it took us like 10 minutes to even play the game mainly because the character select was hard to pick. And when we did play we would always hit walls so we would only play for for 20 minutes and get off. So great game 10/10 would play again!
The only memory I have of this game was on Christmas Day and my uncle went to go test it out in my living room. He went to go kick back and I was going behind him and I got kicked in the stomach flying into the Christmas tree.
😭😭😭😭😭
That…that’s just _comedically_ sad.
The worst part about this game is that even the title outright lied. This game was, in fact, *not* free. This game wastedhours of this man’s life and, in return, gave to him immense pain, agony, misery, severely exhausted bones, and an absolutely barebones story to go with it all
And the worse than worst part is that this game is so asstastic that I wouldn’t even play it if it WAS free. I wouldn’t play it if someone paid ME; why would you want to play a game that has a high chance of literally just not functioning correctly on top of being that physically demanding??
You seriously couldn’t tell that free meant free movement?
I am pretty sure Free meant like you have freedom with Extreme Gear because any character can use a Skill Gear Part, even Eggman as the Air Ride Skill can be applied on a Bike he uses and can fly, previous games dont let you fly in the air with Eggman on any Extreme Gear, he is legit bound to the ground and yes I remember the Grind Part was available but look it's been many years since I've played so I might be remembering wrong about that but the Air Ride Part thing is true.
this is your best review simply because we get to see you in your truest form. its your real feelings before you can edit a script to be more concise. your immediate reaction to anything in game is the realest anyone can be.
This right here. This game. This godawful game is the reason I thought Sonic in general was terrible for nearly 9 years. It nearly singlehandedly killed my entire interest in the franchise. Thank god I rediscovered Unleashed because I wouldn't be writing this comment without it. Screw you, Sonic Free Riders.
"To turn on the bike you must raise your left arm straight in the air and lower your right arm straight down to turn left..."
As a biker that gave me physical pain
I’ve done a playthrough with this game recently and one thing people have to realize and especially as a Sonic fan, you have to go back and replay titles you disliked when you were younger because you never know how much of an impact it can really make. This game actually is fun when you’re around an open space. Controls are very responsive and the overall game itself is pretty slept on. There could’ve been other elements from previous games but Sonic Team had to work with what they had considering that it was on the Kinect. Many can agree if this game released on all platforms it could’ve easily been a great sequel.
I wanted this game SO bad when I was a kid. I loved the other two sonic riders games and I couldn’t fathom not having the new one, but I wasn’t about to ask my parents for a Kinect just so I could play this game. I have never played the game and I’m glad I never did cause it seems like I didn’t miss anything. Hopefully one day they can bring this series back and just leave it at regular controls with no motion control gimmicks. I’d love to all of the characters available to play and have a lot of boards or items to customize with
i feel that if they removed some gimmicks and allowed the use of an actual controller the game coulda been good
The fact Sega didn't remaster the original Sonic Riders with online multi-player is a crime. It's literally my favorite racing game especially over Mario Kart. This is literally perfect for a Sonic Racing game. I never liked any of the other Sonic racing games. Riders is the one and only Sonic racing game I will always play.
Let's all agree that we all imagined J way differently than what he actually looks like.
He seems to have lost a lot of weight that's pretty sweet
@@momentaryretrospect5967
Sonic Free Riders isn't a game but a fitness endurance test. While J passed with flying colours.
This isn't the first time he's shown himself in videos, so he looked exactly as I expected, which is the same as other times he's been on screen. 🤷♂️
@@mjc0961
I never seen his face before this video. Only his voice. Frankly I only watch his Sonic videos and sometimes others
Which video did he show face before?
@@modmaker7617 He does show himself in videos from time to time for skits, but the one I think is most prominent is his finale video for his DCAU retrospective where it's mainly him doing Ace Attorney IRL.
Fun fact, 2 songs in this game use the same samples as 2 Xenoblade songs, more specifically the guitar part of Riki’s theme from 1, and New L.A’s “I can’t hear you I can’t see you” from X
Seeing you in live action is so entertaining.😂
Love your review.🙂
Man I used to love this game for seemingly no reason, and I was a BEAST at it. I was good enough and found it enjoyable enough that I probably beat it several times, but only on one run did I do the unthinkable; I got the chaos emeralds "board". Idk how many people who played and knew about it, and I feel like far fewer would ever put themselves through the torture that it took to get it.
In order to get the chaos emeralds board and achieve Super Sonic you needed to have an S rank on EVERY MISSION from EVERY TEAM including the final race. I don't know why I did it, but younger me felt very accomplished to have done that, since it took a metric assload of effort and time. The reward for doing all of this was effectively guaranteeing that I'd place first in every race I ever entered with the emeralds.
The board itself is just Sonic's basic board, but once you hit 50 rings you automatically transform. This transformation alone doesn't do much until you kick which drops your board completely in favor of ripping through the track by essentially cheating and flying through it on your own. I had never felt cooler in my entire life and I now realize how much time I completely wasted. If you stuck me in front of the game today and told me to get the emeralds again I'd promptly refuse.
Edit: After checking myself I now realize that the transformation happens at 30 rings and not 50 like I thought.
Actually I remember you can slipstream & pickup fast speeds without the Gear Part and have Unlimited Air which lets you endlessly charge jumps.
This game will forever be my biggest guilty pleasure, I genuinely had fun playing this when I was younger.
Also to clarify I played tons of Kinect games, so I was kinda in tune with the Kinect.
As of today, I have finally got the chance to buy the game for 20$, and I had just as much fun as I did about 12 years ago, after I found the sweet spot for Kinect calibration, it was pretty easy to control surprisingly, it requires a lot more exaggerated movement than I thought.
I’d never think secret agent clank would take j’s spot as “worst game he’s ever played”
I haven't played SaC but from what I have see it doesn't look as plain boring as Nexus, I HATE that game, definetly skipping it in this year's marathon
It really is horrendous. It’s honestly such a laughingstock that it pains me to even hear it!s name
3:12
Funny you say that because the Kinect is basically a more fleshed out PS2 EyeToy
i find reviews for this game funny because back when i played it it actually worked perfectly and i never had any problems controlling it making it the best game haha
Honestly, the moral of the story is doing motion controls right can lead to an experience like no other. Do them wrong, and we have to set 3 dumpsters on fire.
Is anyone gonna talk about how this game has probably, the worst plot and voice acting I've ever seen?
Sonic Labirynth had a worse plot. And as for voice acting I've seen way worse
Am I the only one that doesn’t hate this game and doesn’t find it "unplayable" at all? This is a cardio item for the console, and you can use the Kinect Tuner to fix the issues not working. If you’re in a room that has too much big stuff in the way, you’re fucked and you’ll need to do it into a bigger room with more spaces with nothing in the way.
Low key i actually enjoyed this you must had some ruff times trying to play this if you didn't like it 🤣
I remember when I got this game as I was obsessed with sonic as a kid and my dad and I got a Kinect awhile prior and I still remember beating the magma level after hours of trying and my legs were so sore I was in bed for hours
Now you see why Angry Joe hated this game. Its one of the worst games he's ever played. It almost drove him insane. Why haven't you gone insane? Fascinating.
That's why as developer you need to make several way to play the game, especially if your game is developing a new way to play something. Your idea might be revolutionary in some way, but don't forget there's a chance that your new "mechanic" might be have error in many way, so just make the "traditional" way option just in case your new mechanic gonna be annoying for some player.
I really love the first two Riders games so it's sad that the series died because of the 3rd entry deciding to go full gimmicky with motion controls.
The gravity stuff in Zero Gravity functioned mostly well and didn't affect you physicaly.
This mess of a game really makes Team Sonic Racing look like a gem. Like yeah Team Sonic Racing is a strict downgrade over Transformed but at least TSR has it's fun moments. Free Riders has none of that. Even 06 and StH at least tried but failed yet I respect those games.
Speed running this game must be hell
This seems like more of a work out than actual game
You know...I honestly didn't think Free Riders was THAT bad and I get kinda annoyed by how dramatic people get about this particular title. Take a step back and realize what it is: a thrown together Kinect game. NOT a mainline, decently budgeted Sonic game. MS probably threw SEGA some money and said "make a thing for us". In the realm of Kinect games? This was one of the more playable non-dancing ones. Konami made a similar game called Adrenaline Misfits and it's much worse. So are...most Kinect games. Heck even in the realm of Sonic Riders, I like this a LOT more than Zero Gravity (but nowhere even remotely close to the original which is one of my all time favorite Sonic games). This was a Kinect game first, and a Sonic Riders game second.
Did you lose like... A ton of weight? Lookin good Jay!
All of this could've been avoided back then if Sonic Free Riders was *PLAYED with a controller!*
Damn, even worse than Boom? Lol
You can see how J's smile slowly fades away on the footage
I always thought you were a skinny white guy with glasses 😂
Sega could of made a 4th sonic riders without using motion controls but picture a 4th sonic riders game with VR
J getting the sponsors, love to see it.
I remember hearing something back then about the kinect not picking up commands from people with darker skin tones that well so maybe that might have something to do with the control issues. I'm black and while I remember it controlling okay in the menu's, the gameplay itself felt a like a 70/30 toss up on whether certain actions worked.
Why doesn't it work with darker skin tones?
@@schemar17 I don't remember the specifics of it, I just remember someone pointing it out on here once. I always just assumed it had something to due with how the Kinect probably working like a camera in that you need good lighting to get a good shot of the subject.
It's this game that makes me want the hate for Sonic '06 to die already. Yes, the story wasn't the best, and the gameplay was glitchy, but it was at least still playable! Free Riders? Hell no.
Free Riders was 50/50 for me or 30/70, something like that.
3:05 But that originality goes right out the window when you remember the eye toy that was on the PS2. They just made a better version of that, And before you say that the connect camera sucks, two words: DANCE CENTRAL.
The first all-stars racing didn't come out in 2010, there is no way! This must be why it was so devastating for me when I heard a different VA for Sonic in the same year. That change was so drastic that I thought it was temporary.
I really wish Sonic Free Riders has a console port. That means it will also be playable on the PS3 like Sonic '06 or Sonic Unleashed, since not everybody has an XBOX 360.
Honestly, I played this game again to break out nostalgia and... I honestly rarely experienced those control issues. So I had fun.
Wow
i dunno man, this sounds fake :/
same, i also had no control issues
Hello, 911? Send an ambulance for a copium overdose.
@@SN64YT Nono, I legitimately mean it. I didn’t have that much of an issue with the controls.
Kinect menus were infuriating, our Xbox came with a Kinect, do we obviously got Kinect games to play, but we didn't play any of them much because the menus were frustrating to navigate, and as kids, we wouldn't even really want to play the games anymore when we actually got to the playing, and then on top of that, we were both really skinny, and I was chronically ill, and easily fatigued, so then accessibility became an issue, the Kinect just kind of feels like it generally sucked, like with the Wii, a lot of the movement controls weren't nearly as physically taxing, just swinging or shaking the wiimote
Spitting straight facts as usual, I see.
A Wii version with Balance Board compatibility would’ve been WAY more bearable than this trash.
Have you ever considered reviewing the Kingdom Hearts franchise ?
Wait so are we going to ignore that SONIC WAS SWIMMING 8:53
I really wanted this when I was younger as it looked really cool, I really liked the idea of Kinect when I was younger and even got one a few years ago. It was actually a lot of fun trying other Kinect games but I never got to try this one. Kinda glad about that now because it seems really, really bad 😂
It’s pretty good I still play and it’s not hard
When I was trying to play Ring Fit Adventure in my apartment, my roommate said something along the lines of "oh, this is a single family house kind of game." That's all I can think of whenever I see any game that requires jumping. Imagine being the downstairs neighbors of some family whose kids got this -_- RIP to all us urban folks
This game was just straight up broken. They could’ve done better with motion controls and a controller
0:00 wait, you're a PERSON?! I thought you were literally the letter "J"!
I wouldn't say it's the worst Sonic game of all time by a long stretch.
Yeah sure, the Kinnect controls showed serious shortcomings and the tech needed alot more work, but overall I really enjoyed this game once I got used to it.
Was pretty fun, even if the controls would frustratingly desert you at exactly the wrong times.
@@jaretco6423 I'll probably get lambasted for saying this, but I really don't care: -
Sonic CD
The reason I've chosen this one is simply because the level design is so frustrating that at no point I ever felt the game was fun to play and never got beyond the second level before switching it off and that happened time after time after time of playing it no matter how many years later I'd go back to it.
Sonic Free Riders was actually as fun as it was frustrating and at least kept me coming back to play it for a sustained period of time, I actually got pretty good at it.
Just my opinion.
@@jaretco6423 Yeah, I never wanted to play a Sonic game to build up speed to hit obstacles that were designed on purpose to be just high enough so you can't can't clear them and completely stop your momentum dead in its tracks. But apparently that's fine, because you can now go and explore the awkward level design at some pointless snail's pace to get items you could have got travelling at 10 times the speed if only the level design was cleverer and got you there in a more thrilling and exciting fashion.
I started life with the first Sonic and that game to me was way more impressive than Sonic CD and I can always go back to play it. I think the development team at the time tried to foolishly answer the Super Mario World critics by turning Sonic into something it was never meant to be, just didn't work for me, Sonic is NOT designed to be an exploration game.
As for soundtracks, nothing Sonic CD did got anywhere near Sonic 3, or even Sonic 2 for me. Doesn't matter which part of the world you want to pluck a version from.
Again, just my opinion.
as someone who played this as a kid, he is 100% right that it is physically demanding to play. This was one of the only Sonic games I had. it was that and '06.
Alright hear me out. Might be the only one but, Before i was also thinking that its a bad game and always ignored it, but one of my friends had the game and just talking about it to me and just really having fun with it with the controls working great for him. So he pretty much convinced me to get it for my birthday, and when i got it, i did not regret it. I really had so much fun and the controls work really good for me, a lot of repayable stuff, i honestly didn't know why there are so many complains how it doesn’t work for u guys after i played it tbh.
Hi, I'm the friend who convinced him :) and I'm not here to gang up with you against people but just to put my point here too, I got this game just to see if it was really that bad and omg I never was so happy for being wrong. The controls are learnable, the story is not offensively bad (like Sonic Forces), it has a lot of replayability, best combination of game mechanics from previous games, a blast of a soundtrack, very well functional online mode (way better than Sonic Transformed believe it or not...), good voice acting, good number of characters and tracks, and just a lot of other positive points that nobody cares because blame the Kinect for all the problems is much easier :), it just makes me sad that nobody else sees what I see in this game and I really wish it had more fans...
Looking up other comments here, it seems like a TON of issues is down to the calibrations one must make of the Kinect before you really start playing, and whether one has the proper amount of space and correct lightning in the room... but quite frankly- a game where you have to make THAT much effort before you even start playing on CONSOLE, where the whole point is to be as easy to get started as possible (and a game that is clearly NOT telling you what it is you must do in-game before you start), is a game that deserves its bad reputation.
As unfair as it may feel to have so many reviews where people do not even know how to play it, having that ignorance coloring their perceptions of it, the fact they *made* it so difficult and obtuse to know how to play it in the first place just makes it so I can't have any sympathy for the game. It expects too much, explains too little and gets the reception it deserves.
This could have been really fun if they kept it simple and arcadey, and focused on making the controls more reliable and comfortable. It would be a great workout game.
Skill issue
Only the realest gamer kings walk out of beating the worst video games ever made with a bathrobe ready for a shower.
Ugh, I wanted this for my birthday and I ended up hating this game so badly.
I even went for the extra mile and did 100% completion.
Oof, I feel bad for you
o7 This man is a truly brave soldier
I hope your recovery from the pain was swift