Sonic Riders / YMMV

Awesome Animation: The first game's opening animation is quite a sight to behold. Even better, it was made by Production I.G (Famous for such animes like FLCL, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Attack on Titan among others).
Awesome Music: The first game theme: "Sonic Speed Riders" by Runblebee is a great techno track that fits the mood nicely.
Best Level Ever: Sega Carnival. It's a museum featuring cameos from Sega's vast library of series, even obscure ones including Alex Kidd.
Critical Backlash: While the Riders series has gotten scathing reviews from older fans who claim it strays too far from the canon and traditional Sonic titles, there is a large section of the fandom that embraces these games for what they are (fast paced racing titles with little plot), and enjoy them because of that.
Evil Is Cool: Several Extreme Gear were made by Robotnik Corp. I wonder who that could be?
Fan Nickname: The Babylon Guardian is known as "Angelus the Gatekeeper" by fans, due to an Urban Legend that it was its official name in the Japanese version (which was not the case). This became an Ascended Meme, however, in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), where the Babylon Guardian calls itself Angelus when it first appears.
First Installment Wins: The original Sonic Riders is generally considered the best of the three games. Zero Gravity is polarizing, and Free Riders is generally considered the worst.
Fridge Brilliance: In the opening scene, it appears that Sonic is able to pick up any old gear and become an Instant Expert, able to keep up with Jet. But Sonic doesn't pick up any old gear, he picks up Storm's Babylon Standard Type-S gear, a gear that's been custom built to be incredibly sturdy and stable to handle Storm's bulk and clumsiness when he's in motion. Sonic was able to adapt to it so easily and pull off the maneuvers he does because of how safe and controllable the Type-S was made to be.
Game-Breaker: Aiai with the High Booster can completely outstrip everyone on almost every track.
Genius Bonus: The Kutta–Joukowski theorem that Tails mentions when asked about how gears work is a real theorem relating to aerodynamics.
Last Lousy Point: In the form of unlockable characters in the first game, with E-10000G and E-10000R being acquired by having the game on for 20 hours and 50 hours respectively. No one would blame you for just letting the game idle on the menu since that'll suffice.
Memetic Mutation:
- "Even without wings, I can still fly!"^Explanation
- "Not just any race, but a special race to see who's the fastest!"^Explanation
Narm: Jet getting inexplicably catapulted off of his Extreme Gear after losing to Sonic in the race on Babylon Garden.
Nightmare Fuel:
- Digital Dimension, due to the fact that it has both a hell area and a heaven area, the latter of which is accessed by a glowing portal. The hell area is complete with wailing, a red sky, and skeletal hands. In a mission, Storm even says he's scared of the place.
- You can destroy traffic in 80s Boulevard with gravity manipulation. If there are any semis in the area, their cabs will instantly explode, driver and all, leaving just an isolated trailer.
Older Than They Think: Digital Dimension is a racetrack known for it's concept of switching between Heaven and Hell, something that was done Jet Moto 2 years earlier with it's Nebulous track.
The Scrappy: Omochao, who appears as the announcer for the original game as well as in Sonic Free Riders. The original game fortunately has an option to turn him off.
Scrappy Mechanic:
- The air gauge was a massive point of contention among critics, almost single-handedly leading to its middling critical reception. Outlets like Electronic Gaming Monthly and IGN praised the sensation of speed and graphics, but felt the constant need to keep the air gauge filled was a nuisance, often interrupting the flow of gameplay and bringing the game to a resource-managing halt.
- Many fans of the first game can attest to the outrageous abuse their analog sticks and thumbs took from all the analog stick spinning they had to do in numerous tracks.
Self-Imposed Challenge:
- In Zero Gravity, it is entirely possible to win a race as Super Sonic without ever actually becoming Super Sonic, due to the fact that without any Rings, Super Sonic is treated as Sonic on foot, who, despite having a far lower top speed than most Extreme Gear, is capable of accessing any Spring shortcut that would normally require a Boost item. This also works on the handful of other boards that eat Rings to use.
- The same feat can be performed in the original Sonic Riders by using either a ring eating gear or by turning off all items and pit-stops and equipping a gear that's incapable of replenishing its air through normal means(The Cannonball skates work best for this) and then burning off all your air using tornadoes and drifts. Depending on the level and character type matching, some races can be won VERY handily on foot.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In Free Riders, Metal Sonic reuses his plan from Sonic Heroes by copying data from the other racers in order to become the perfect racer. This could've been an opportunity to transform him into Metal Overlord again for a final boss on a similar scale to the previous two games. Unfortunately, no such transformation occurs, and it's just a simple one-on-one race.
Vindicated by History: The Sonic Riders games were divisive at the time, coming out during an Audience-Alienating Era, and the third game Sonic Free Riders ended up killing the sub-series with its mandatory Kinect controls. However, as time went on, the first two games has been getting a lot more love and praise for its unique concept of a racing game that didn't copy Mario Kart, with many fans now considering Sonic Riders and its sequel Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity among the best Sonic games from the mid-2000s Audience-Alienating Era, with several fans wanting a fourth installment, or at least an updated port of the first two games.

YMMV / Sonic Riders

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