Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity has started the race that will ultimately be won by Mario Kart on the Wii, but is this Sega title worth trying out in the meantime? Well lets find out already.

The game begins as strange meteorites fall to earth and start making all the robots go crazy, Tails gives one to Sonic and no sooner is this done, an army of robots try to take our band of heroes out. Following the attack, our heroes fall to their doom, only to be saved by a strange power emanating from the meteorite. Using these powers, Sonic slows time and then the game starts in full.  

Sonic Riders has a unique approach to the racing genre, as it is all story based. Initially you can only choose from the Hero’s team, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as they race around trying to solve a new mystery. Once you have completed their chapter, you unlock the Babylon’s team story. Finish this and then you are able to race each track for the World Championship. 

Disappointingly, generic robot opposition populates the first few races, but after a while you will start to see some more familiar faces from the Sonic stories like Dr Eggman and Amy.

Each race or story consists of 3 laps around a fast paced circuit. Along the way you have coins to collect which upgrade your board during the race, the speed is notched up to full here, so fast that at points you are unable to make corners and have to use a gravity special move, this will slow down time, allowing you to aim in the direction of the corner, when it wears off, you boost back to normal and out of a precarious hairpin. Also at certain points the speed is taken to ridiculous levels, however in these parts you are not really controlling the character, like other 3D sonic titles, you hit a zip panel and you are taken on a wild ride on some loops or a grind pole.

During the story mode you have no selection of who to race as, you just play as the storyline dictates, in fact the story mode takes a different approach to the character based racing genre. Instead of power ups  like classic pick-em-ups and boxes you now have gears. Each character has 3 gears to obtain, to open these up you need to gather coins scattered all over the course. The gears allow your board to gain specific power ups, firstly there is the speed boost, then there will be a physical change, Sonic can grind, tails can hover at certain parts and Knuckles board transforms into a cycle. Not only do the boards change, but each team member has the power of the meteorite to use, this allows you to speed up on straights and also slow time to take some of the harder corners. These power ups are almost pointless, but impressive to use none the less.

There is also an online mode, however before you get excited, this is only for logging times and sharing ghost data to race against, a bit disappointing, however it is better than nothing. 

There are 3 modes of control to choose from, horizontal, baton style and also using the classic gamepad. The controls are one of the major problems with this title, many of you will want to use the Wii-mote, however the angle you have to tilt to steer your character is severe and after all of this usually the character barely moves, leaving you bouncing off the walls on more than one occasion. 

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is a good attempt but unfortunately it does fall short on quite a few things, the controls being the main culprit. If you are a Sonic fan then you may enjoy this, but otherwise you may want to wait until you get your hands on Mario Kart.