Admittedly I was hoping that this game would be a good one after the Shadow game and I will say it was an improvement. A while after it's release, I picked the game up and I have to say, this game is fun.

The story is that Dr. Eggman has started up an EX World Grand Prix - not long before, a certain green hawk by the name of Jet had stolen a Chaos Emerald with his two team-mates Wave and Storm. Sonic recognizes Jet on the list for people participating and decides to the enter the tournament himself, with his trusty friends Tails and Knuckles by his side. The only characters you can use when you first get this game are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Jet, Storm, Wave and Amy (Amy cannot be played during Story Mode) though completing the stories in Story Mode and missions in Mission Mode unlock more characters including Shadow, Rouge, Cream and Eggman.

Long story short, you race against seven opponents on a track with three laps that need completing for Free Mode and Story Mode. There are two stories in Story Mode - beating the Hero Story unlocks the Babylon Story in which you play as Jet and his two cohorts. It starts off fairly easy - you need to come in at least third place in the first few races, but then it gets a little tougher, requiring you to come in first place to get to the next part of the story. You unlock tracks as you go along, with there being five tracks per story at first, though as you progress through the story, you unlock four more tracks (two per story). Getting Gold Medals on the tournaments in Free Mode unlocks two bonus courses.

There is also an additional Mission Mode which features five missions per track, some being more difficult than others. Certain requirements need to be fulfilled during these missions, such as grinding on a certain amount of grind rails, getting a certain score by pulling tricks or collecting a certain amount of parts - which can later be used to unlock more Extreme Gear. You can either get Bronze, Silver or Gold Medals in these missions, with Gold obviously being the best. Completing Storm's and Wave's Missions unlocks Jet's Missions, and getting Gold Medals for every mission unlocks three non-Sonic characters to use.

There is also an Extreme Gear shop where you can buy more air boards, meaning you will have a better variety. Some of the boards have different abilities and play to the strengths of the three different types of character (speed, power and flight) - some of which even adding an ability. For example, Access enables non-flight type characters to fly, while Omnipotence grants all three abilities to any type of character, though air cannot be charged up when flying, grinding or hitting things. However, to buy these boards, you need to collect Rings. Collecting Rings is fairly easy in any race, though you can only collect 100 Rings per race unless using the Gambler successfully.

For people new to this game, the controls are a little difficult to master at first, but with practice they do become a little easier. Boosting can also prove to be annoying, since it is often helpful to speed ahead but it uses up a lot of your air. The fact that this game can prove difficult on occasion (especially getting Gold Medals on Mission Mode) and the bad voice acting make up for the negative points regarding this game.

Despite that though, Riders is a good and somewhat challenging game which I think Sonic fans may enjoy and possibly some fans of racing games may like.