Metacritic Rating of 59, May Fall Further
Joystiq, Kotaku and other major media outlets have so far outweighed the positive IGN review for Sonic Free Riders, releasing a barrage of negativity that includes, in our estimation, the lowest single rating for a Sonic title since the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog.
That received a zero rating from one outlet. In comparison , this game fared better. Joystiq.com rated SFR one star out of five, the equivalent of a 20 percent rating. Writer Randy Nelson said this of the Kinect exclusive, mostly critical of the game’s iffy controls and constant calibration:
The result is the equivalent of patting your head while rubbing your stomach while riding a unicycle. At best it’s clumsy and frustrating, at worst you’ll simply end up screeching to a halt unintentionally. This will happen, or you’ll hit something, and the computer-controlled racers will go zipping by, blissfully unhindered by the same control scheme as you. Lucky devils.
The Kotaku review wasn’t much better. Scores aren’t rewarded by the site, but one can tell editor-in-chief Brian Crecente was also frustrated by SFR’s setup. But he hinted an update to tighten up controls could warrant a recommendation:
Sonic Free Riders is the most broken of the Kinect games I’ve played and that includes a half-dozen titles. It’s unfortunate, because another strong action racing game would be a nice addition to Kinect’s game library. If Sega can somehow fix the control issues I’d be the first to recommend picking up this game. Until then don’t waste your time or money.
A lengthy gameplay video of Magma Rift attached to the review appeared to justify Crecente’s message.
Those, pared with a 5.75 score by Game Informer presently have SFR sitting at a 59 Metacritic ranking. An additional 7.5 ranking from the Official XBOX Magazine has stopped the bleeding so far.
More media reviews will surely pour in over the coming days and weeks, so we will get a better idea of SFR’s judgment. Right now, it’s not looking good.
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Sonic free riders is the second lowest rating Sonic game and Sonic 4 wasn’t what I expected, and here I thought this year is the best year for Sonic.
SEGA need to work harder if they want the rating of Sonic games be 80+
But hey, we still got Colors for Wii and DS, hopefully they’ll make it up to us and break the Sonic cycle.
Told everyone that Sonic Free Riders shall fail because of Kinect
Most of these reviewers only talk about the controls. And Kinect gets more responsive as you play.
Reviewers should hold off until their Kinects start working at their full potential.
I think the problem is that, for some of these reviews, they *are* playing at their full potential. Understand that major media outlets have had Kinect and review copies of games for some time now. To my understanding, however, Microsoft embargoed any media reviews of any media titles until launch day. Of course, IGN was the exception, and we prolly know why now; that review is shaping up to be the most positive out of the bunch.
-T
Tristan Oliver: Does this mean if it was played with a controller instead ones body this game could have done better?
I dunno, I got Sonic Free Riders, and I played it a bit today. While wonky, it’s not as bad as these reviewers have suggested — and while everyone is entitled to their opinions, it seems like they really didn’t try to get used to the controls. I got third place on my very first try (and felt damn good about myself), with my Kinect having JUST been set up. I don’t know what Joystiq’s doing wrong.
That said, I would not object to a patch to smooth out the controlling.
Well, you work with what you got.
Unfortunately what you got is a device that navigates menus and plays pad-free DDR.
It sure sounds like it, doesn’t it SonicR? There have been a small smattering of fans within the community hoping for a controller option with this. Maybe down the road, depending on how this or the whole of Kinect does, they could get their wish.
-T
Tristan Oliver : That would be nice.
Don’t act surprised guys. Hopefully Sonic Colors will be the game that we’ve been waiting for. If not, then apparently SEGA will always just be SEGA.
It has a Metacritic score of 59…based on four reviews. Wait for more reviews to come before making it look bad.
@Tristan
Well, if you look at IGN’s review and the gameplay they show, then at Kotaku’s, I think it’s more of a matter of either they didn’t play their Kinect enough, or they just suck. REALLY bad.
Wow, amazing how IGN gave this and Sonic 4 good reviews and everyone else hates this and Sonic 4 to an extent. Anyone else smelling a bribe? (har har har!)
@JMack, you really think it’s going to be that much better?
I had already expected this.
When is IGN going to review Sonic Colors? That’s what I’m waiting for.
I’ll keep an eye out for GameTrailers’ review. They did a sort of “medley” gameplay and so far from the beginning it looks like they were just getting into it, and by the end they sort of understand the game a bit more.
It’s about getting the hang of the controls. This game can’t be as bad as Zero Gravity. That game was a disaster no matter what controller you had.
Sonic Free Riders may be bad because of the -controls-. Since it’s a kinect game, the game needs to be played a bit more to understand why the controls are like that. I believe, putting a controller on their hands will get them play it just as much as Sonic Riders 1 which in my opinion was the best out of the bunch. I still think Free Riders deserve a controller patch and Kinnect optional. *le sigh*
After playing it at a friends, I couldn’t disagree more. Saying that the controls don’t work isn’t much of an opinion, because the controls only won’t work if you don’t know how to play correctly.
@Felipe
What game were you playing? I play ZG with a Wiimote and have zero problems with control, and playing with a GC controller feels exactly the same as the original Riders. Zero Gravity wasn’t a ‘disaster’ by any stretch of the imagination. The only minor hitches were the changes of a few mechanics, the removal of boosting/ traditional attacking (probably the only reason the original trumps the sequel) and the altering of the trick system (requiring timing rather than directional inputs/button holds).
Hm, seems like my original thoughts on this game (and Kinect) may have been on point after all. Well the vastly conflicting reviews just mean I need to play it to really find out what it’s like.
They need to just stop making Sonic racing games in that vein in general and stick to what worked, like All Stars. Not necessarily because one is better than the other. But I feel like overall, it’s what people want more (or at least in regards to a Sonic racing game).
HOW BOUT A SURFING GAME?!
RIDE THE WAVE, SONIC!! inb4 rule 34
GameTrailers’ reviews out. Don’t know what the score is, I’m still waiting for it to load.
Another gimmicky Sonic game, another failure.
move along folks
@Serpx
Not really. I was never interested in this title…I’m just saying before people go saying “Metacritic gave it a 59, it sucks BAAHHHHH!!!” it’s only based on 4 reviews so far. Two sites like the game and two sites don’t.
@PreStalnic
So you think Sega bribed IGN to make Sonic 4 look good? Well, Sega must have bribed alot of other sites because Sonic 4 is definitely LIKED more than it’s HATED. It’s in the 70′s range on GameRankings and Metacritic on all three systems, which means (though it needs improvement) it’s an enjoyable game.
Yipes, 4.5 from GT.
If it means anything, G4TV gave it a 3/5. The written review says it’s very enjoyable…when it works. They said it works 80% of the time. Is that enough to give this game so much hate?
I secretly hoped this game would fail. I more openly hope the Kinect fails. I’m not surprised, nor disappointed.
I’m not shocked at this, but not because of the game itself. The game could have been polished gold and I still think it would have had trouble. The issues with Kinect are Microsofts worst kept secret; even the developers couldn’t get the thing to work at major conventions, which is a good indicator that all’s not well. I also can’t imagine it’s all that great trying to program for the launch date of buggy hardware that oftentimes won’t even work properly.
With any luck, Kinect will be the 32X of this generation and just die off before too awful long, because it sounds like another rushed-to-market disaster by Microsoft.
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-sonic-free-riders/17-3461/
So is Sega going to de-list this game in a month?
@ChaoticFox
Low key I think I want Kinect to fail too, and PS Move, just so it can A. Prove the Wii’s uniqueness, and B. Microsoft and Sony both in the beginning said that the Wii wouldn’t work, and dag near everybody labeled it “the underdog” because it lacked/lacks graphics. But the Wii came out on top…now they wanna copy…and their technology is still inferior to the Wii.
Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing and Super Smash Bros Brawl are the only two awesome games with Sonic in it in quite a some time… I´m not going to buy Sonic Colours because I currently don´t have a Wii, but I hope it´s better than Unleashed to stop this curse.
@Rundas
“Told everyone that Sonic Free Riders shall fail because of Kinect”
Ignorant statement.
It’s not because of Kinect, and you had nothing to base your judgment over other than how Sonic Team have done.
@@ChaoticFox Low key I think I want Kinect to fail too, and PS Move, just so it can A. Prove the Wii’s uniqueness.
Uniqueness as in what exactly? it’s old tech with gamecube graphics.
@EEE
Uniqueness as in motion controls before everybody jumped on that bandwagon. They chose to go for something nobody else had done before, rather than focusing on OMG HARDWARE like EVERYONE ELSE.
That’s not rocket science. I can’t believe you even had to ask.
@ChaoticFox
Good looking out
@EEE
“it’s old tech with gamecube graphics.”
And yet it’s still one of the highest selling game consoles of all time. When will you people understand…GAMEPLAY COMES FIRST. People play games to have FUN. I’d rather play a SUPER FUN GAME with NES graphics, than an EXCELLENT LOOKING GAME that is NOT FUN.
@Jmack
I agree, but the thing is that the Wii doesn’t receive the same 3rd party treatment 360 and PS3 get. Sure 1st party games on the Wii are GREAT, but pretty almost every other game is shovelware. Which is why I bought a ps3 after a while, I still play my Wii though and can’t wait for Sonic Colors to come out ^_^
@Lettman8520
I can agree with that…not every third party game on the Wii is shovelware…actually I know there’s more than 15 great 3rd party games on the Wii.