Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity | Nintendo Wii

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Race by changing the rules of gravity

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity sends Sonic and his rivals onto hovering Extreme Gear, where a good racing line can suddenly run up a wall or turn into a headlong dive through the course. The sequel builds its races around collecting and spending Gravity Points, making jumps, shortcuts and sharp corners parts of the same system. You are still trying to reach the finish ahead of the other riders, but ordinary steering is only the beginning. Learning when to change gravity, which route suits your gear and where to rebuild your resources gives each familiar track more to work with.

The story begins after mysterious meteorites fall around the world and MeteorTech security robots start behaving dangerously. Sonic's encounter with one of the stones introduces the power that reshapes the racing. His team and Jet's Babylon Rogues approach the mystery from different sides, with the Heroes and Babylon story routes revealing overlapping events. Races move those stories forward between animated scenes, giving the competition a continuing adventure around it. Sonic and Jet's rivalry fits the format naturally: both groups want answers, and their preferred way of getting ahead involves a very fast piece of equipment.

Turns, dives and changing gear

Gravity Control changes the way you approach a difficult bend. Instead of relying only on a long conventional turn, you can slow the action and redirect your momentum toward the next stretch. On suitable sections, the same gravity-focused design opens routes over surfaces that would normally be barriers. That makes course recognition valuable. A wall beside the track may be more useful than the lane straight ahead, while a turn that first seemed awkward becomes a place to plan a deliberate change of direction. These are moves to learn and time, rather than effects that simply play themselves.

Gravity Dive spends your accumulated power on a burst of forward movement. Objects caught in its effect become opportunities to sustain the attack on the course, changing how you read the space in front of your rider. A crowded stretch can offer something different from an empty straight. Jumps and tricks help build the Gravity Points needed for these actions, so airborne sections feed back into your ability to take the next corner or launch another dive. The useful question is not just whether a move looks spectacular, but whether using it here leaves you prepared for the section that follows.

Rings support another layer of decisions through Gear Change. The equipment you select has its own parts and abilities, and collecting enough rings during a race lets you activate changes to how it performs. Different gear can alter your riding style or provide access to particular actions and routes. This means equipment selection matters beyond choosing a board's appearance. A route that suits one setup may be less useful with another, and learning a course includes noticing the ring lines that help your chosen setup develop. Gear obtained through the shop and unlocks gives you more combinations to investigate.

The controls deserve a little practice because Zero Gravity asks you to coordinate more than acceleration and steering. Its tutorial introduces the racing actions, including timed jumps, gravity moves and the way equipment changes work. The Wii Remote provides a tilt-based steering option, while the Wii release also supports a GameCube controller on hardware with the required controller connection. Whichever supported setup you choose, becoming comfortable with the different actions makes the course easier to read. A few practice runs can be more useful than trying to force an unfamiliar gravity turn during a close race.

Explore the courses and bring in rivals

The tracks combine futuristic buildings, industrial spaces and more elaborate themed environments with rails, alternate paths and large changes in height. That setting suits a racer in which the surface beneath your feet is negotiable. Animated story scenes provide one style of spectacle, while the races keep your attention on approaching bends, jumps and objects. Replaying a course is an opportunity to connect those details into a cleaner sequence. A run that initially consisted of reacting to obstacles can become a planned route through useful ring pickups, a well-timed jump and a gravity-assisted change of direction.

Story play is joined by racing options such as Free Race, World Grand Prix and Time Attack. Those modes give you different reasons to return to the same courses: a quick contest, a longer sequence of races or a focused attempt to improve a time. Survival activities change the emphasis further, with battle, relay and ball-based variations alongside the standard racing. Local competition supports up to four players, so the equipment and route choices can become part of a contest with people in the same room. The variety lets you move between learning a course alone and putting that knowledge against another rider.

The Wii game's original Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection features included online rankings and ghost-data exchange. Nintendo discontinued that service on May 20, 2014, so those official online features are no longer available. The racing and local multiplayer described here are the remaining focus of the physical Wii game. Zero Gravity is particularly distinctive when you want a racer built around learning unusual movement systems: rings develop your gear, tricks replenish a resource, and a carefully chosen gravity move can connect the two into a much stronger lap.