Sonic Riders made me wish for a hoverboard in real life

gamepur.com:

As a 5th grader in late 2005, I was still fawning over images of Sonic the Hedgehog in every video game magazine I could get my hands on at Publix. By then, I had already played Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Advance 3, and Shadow the Hedgehog on top of watching Sonic X every Sunday morning — some broadcast networks in South Florida aired the 4Kids TV block a day after other states. Thereby, I was already accustomed to graphical style and gameplay changes across all of Sonic media. When I flipped to a story about Sonic Riders in Nintendo Power or GamePro (I forgot which gaming magazine it was now), I saw changes in not just the official artwork for Sonic and the gang, but also the mode of transportation. Far better than go-karts, the gang rode hoverboards, which were called Extreme Gear in the game.

About a week or so after Sonic Riders released in the spring of 2006, my friend Nicky asked his mom for the GameCube version of the game on the car ride to school. She delivered. Once he started playing it after school, he called me up and said, “Cristina, you gotta see this! It’s awesome!” I ran over to his house down the street and saw he wasn’t kidding. The anime opening for Sonic Riders was killer, the storyline blew me away, and the gameplay was unlike anything I — or rather, we — have ever seen in Mario Kart, SSX Tricky, and the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games combined.

Sonic Riders retained some of the gameplay elements from Sonic Heroes. Obstacles and shortcut gimmicks are tailored to each character’s type (Speed, Flight and Power). Racers level up every 30 Rings, giving them more air in their hoverboards and making their road rage attacks more powerful every level. The only difference was the graphics, with the