I am mostly impressed that this patch exists in the first place since reportedly kinect games are extremely difficult to emulate. The guy who did this had to be really dedicated.
@@AztecCroc I would assume you'd still need to playtest it, in which case it'd help to have the Kinect handy to see how certain features work with it and what code to change (and how to change it) to make it work with a controller
This really tells you how dedicated Sonic fans can be with some mods, and fan games or animations out there, ChaosX taking up the challenge of fixing 06, and some madman deciding to fix Free Riders of all things
Out of many infamous Sonic games, Free Riders is the least I would expect a fix, I thought something like a Secret Rings patch would come first, or even a Sonic Boom remake from the fans, than Free Riders, but here we are
@@ayrtonjoga Figured I'd mention it since you brought it up, but there actually exists a Secret Rings remake underway using the P-06 engine, called Project Wildfire (nod to the game's original working title immediately after it was decided that SEGA wanted a separate Sonic game for the Wii since 06 wouldn't run on it). It's nothing revolutionary yet as far as I know, but it has been in the works for some time now, and I personally found it to be a captivating concept.
@@satelliteprime That's awesome to know, Secret Rings nailed many things like the soundtrack, art direction and story, but the biggest issue was the gameplay, so I'm very hopeful for the Project Wildfire
The problem with that is that the suits don’t think the remake games will sell well bc people remember it being bad but I do agree with you about some bad games getting a remake
I'm a big fan of trying to make the best out of a flawed idea, if only to see how far you can take it. Though the worse the game was originally the trickier the situation. How much can you change without essentially creating a new game, what if anything was the value in the first place, etc. Even some seemingly simple changes might upset the whole game's balance if the game was specifically tuned around the original state.
Losing the Kinect really improves the playability of this game. The power of fans to greatly improve these Sonic games, especially such a difficult to emulate game as this is unreal. I'll definitely have to check this out.
Someone needs to create a tutorial for 360 though. Like how do you dump the sonic free rider files exactly? Do you take the sonic free riders game disc, stick it in your PC for microsoft windows, and just have the computer read the game? That is where I get confused is the first part of the tutorials. And so far, there is no real tutorial yet for doing this mod on an actual xbox 360. Something about getting the files off of the CD onto the PC or whatever. Makes no sense.
There’s something to be said about creativity in the hands of passionate individuals who see a different perspective on works of art. Free Riders being the nail in the coffin for the series by the hands of corporate scrutiny, while fans took it to revitalize their vision of what could’ve been. It’s really no secret this IP would’ve been dead in the ground if it weren’t for the fans keeping the imaginary potential alive. But it makes all more infuriating that Sega corporate doesn’t see the same vision as the fans do or used to wield. To that end, a question: Would you take Sonic being his most fun from unofficial support in favor of continued rushed releases from corporate? Or would you trade that in favor of the company finally getting their heads check to produce actual good official games worthy of $60?
Upsettingly, Sega is like the father who abandons a failure, while the child, that being the fans, picks it up and tries to make it something more successful. Even with said child's efforts, the father still neglects it.
The "Sonic Riders" trilogy is the video game equivalent of the original "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" film trilogy. The first instalment is very good and has rightfully been better appreciated as time went on. The second instalment tried to address the concerns and criticisms but ultimately fell short. The third instalment is unapologetically awful and should be avoided at all costs.
actually i saw tmnt 3 on netflix a while ago and while it is definitely the weakest of the original trilogy i actually thought it was pretty solid and not as bad as people say
@@jskywalker58 I'm happy you enjoyed it. When revisiting it, I wanted to see if my teenage self was wrong for calling it boring. After learning that Kevin Eastman, one of the co-creators of TMNT, considers 2 to be the worst, I was motivated to give it one last chance. In the end, I found it to be a poorly produced, unimaginative, and depressing flick that doesn't contribute anything to the target audience's artistic development. And the turtles look like guys in rubber suits rather than organic creatures like in the first film. I was entirely bored, and my brain felt funny after finishing it, as if my intelligence had degraded. Fortunately, I watched the new TMNT film in cinemas, and my brain felt 100% normal afterwards. But continue to enjoy the film; you liked it and I don't want to take that away from you.
I do wish Sega would give this series another go. The series today could be its own Mario Kart with tons of new characters, boards and online multiplayer with cross play. But I’m looking forward to Superstars
@@sacrificiallamb4568I love sonic racing transformed...i should play it it was a few months since i last played it, ive been trying to get through 06' and now im playing unleashed and skylanders so my ps3 time goes to other things😅
Yah I wish they would to. Hoverboards are cool. Problem with this mod is that it seems really confusing to download and install. It says to dump the sonic free riders onto a PC. Like how do you do that. Do you stick the sonic free riders game disc into the microsoft PC computer. Can a PC read xbox 360 games. I dunno. And there are no tutorials yet either.
It utterly frustrates me on how incompetent SEGA was back in 2010 when making this sequel. This spinoff series had potential to be the most unique and versatile way of racing. 13 entire years go by and we've yet to get another Riders title. Instead, we get a traditional kart racer.. & worst of all, we don't even get to see the Babylon Rogues make a return besides the IDW comics and merchandise. The fact that fans have to recreate or build the game from the ground up for it to be a step above the original or even better is pretty embarrassing. People like ChaosX and Rei-san deserve their flowers simply because of the dedication and effort to recreate sonic games and what they SHOULD be.
I know the game was supposed to be played only with kinect, but what did they think of when they did not include at least controller support when they released the game. They would've sold way more copies then. At least now we can play it like we wished we could play it.
Fangames like Triple Trouble: 16-Bit and Fallen Star or madman projects like Free Riders: No Kinect and Project 06... Stuff like this tells me that despite the Sonic franchise and its reputation oftentimes feeling like a disheartening, shattered mirror, in the darkness, there truly is a mote of golden light... A flame that refuses to go out. Just another example of Sonic having the true power of a phoenix. As the lyrics in One Way Dream go: "You and me, we're built on trust; That's why we can always get up! Even if they laugh, we'll never bite the dust!"
The sonic fanbase is very interesting isn't it? They've almost destroyed the sonic franchise multiple times but they’ve also saved it multiple times as well
this is something i keep saying and it still holds true "this fanbase is one of a kind" i will never stop being impressed at what some fans are capable of doing
@@justbny9278 Ken penders almost ruined sonic comics. And the sonic fanbase constantly harassess voice actors for the series. But the fan games, lord have mercy. They are beautiful
wish for sonic riders remake with first sonic riders gameplay, the New and old maps, more characters and gears with custom character and gear creation.
Nice video. Honestly from my experience on Kinect, this game is really nowhere the worst one of them all. You really just gotta play it right since it really works for me lol. It’s great how we have it on PC and console now, it’s really peak fiction 👌
I probably will eventually. I am a sucker for racing games. So I gotta try it out. But getting the patch downloaded seems like a massive pain currently. But I might try it out eventually.
Sonic Fans are seriously wizards, it almost seems like they can do anything with stuff that Sega has abandoned and make them reach their peak potential, me personally I still wish for a 2D Sonic with Chaotix gimmick of a Ring Tether I still find fun, unique and interesting, or just remake the original Chaotix for people to experience and rescue it from its 32X Purgatory.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone eventually just goes "screw it, if there is no Chaotix-remake from Headcannon, then I will simply decomp the original and bring it to PC!" (Like actually, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. A team of fans are recreating Unleashed on 3DS. And a seperate source is working on porting SADX to that system too.)
I like the little detail of how all the female riders for their weight class don't tell us besides cream cuz she's a cinnamon roll. ahhh Free riders is a game of all time. I'm glad that we can all look at this game as something worth a dang now instead of Kinect hell.
Sonic Free Riders is one of the few games that I actually love that everyone hates and it all came down to a taste of liking the Kinect controls or not. I was one of those that loved it even without the patch. Now I'm glad anyone can pick the game up for themselves.
Same here, When i watched his original review for the game, most of the complaints didn't even make any sense. He was playing the game completely wrong on the bodycam, most likely because the game only explains like half of the things and not even very well. This game has flaws and its not a perfect game by any means, but with the right setup and clothes, the game reads pretty much 99% of your movements and the game becomes actually pretty fun!
speaking of not explaining things very well, even the original Sonic Riders didn't have an in-game in-depth tutorial for most its mechanics. i'd wager it's probably on the manual but most of what i learned about it was from searching online@@sush4nz1...74
@@sush4nz1...74im one of those few people that had a blast with free riders, my controls responded 96% of the time and only had minor problems might go back to it again for the achievements.
I played it as a kid and liked it but i couldnt get past the first level you play as Wave thanks to the kinect being the kinect, i played a lot of kinect back in my day and free riders was the least responsive of them all
It was a Dark Age game since it's reception was less than warm.The Dark Age ended when Colors came out since it was the first mainline Sonic game in a while to be received well though this doesn't mean that Sonic Boom or Forces are Dark Age games since they came out after Colors.
Fan projects, games, & mods like this are something that leaves me smiling (as well as baffled towards the amount of detractors & critics who say the bad games need to die off so that we can move on to something better)
I am really impressed! Both to the fact that this patch even exists in the first place, considering to my knowledge that Xbox Kinect games are VERY difficult to emulate. The guy who made this possible had to be not only a very skilled programmer, but also really dedicated to Sonic the Hedgehog and/or racing games!
3:07 I'm someone who actually enjoyed playing Sonic Forces, but I still have to admit there was so much missed potential there. I mean to show Shadow, Chaos, Metal Sonic, and Zavok in an early cutscene and the only bosses you face are Zavok and Metal Sonic is so disappointing so to see that fans would at least make a legit Shadow and Chaos boss battle would be really significant.
SEGA should just hire fans to port/remaster their old games and give them *ALL* the freedom they have as long as they don't step out of line. Maybe then certain games can be looked back upon more fondly rather than negatively.
I'll still die on the hill that Zero Gravity is the most fun to play out of all of them. But this project is a miracle by simple existing, I'll give it that.
Sonic Free Riders is definitely a A tier cant lie but the 2 problems were that were no drifting and doing tricks using buttons but you know what I mean.
Tragic Sonic 06 remade into the PHENOMENAL P06, terrible Sonic Free Riders remade into the great Free Riders with actual controls?? WE NEED SOMEONE TO REMAKE SONIC AND THE SECRET RINGS NOW
Speaking of sonic fan games I just got done playing sonic adventure made on dreams. Mixing the boost formula with the adventure formula should be done officially. Now I’m eagerly awaiting updates on there official Discord!
The SONIC FANGAMES of all things may Actually make it possible to do an Endurance Marathon Playthrough of Every 3D Sonic Game From Adventure to Frontiers and make it palatable without wanting to hate yourself midway through it. Like some people do 'Whole Game Series Marathon Runs' with Kingdom Hearts and Shift with the Spongebob Games
You know the first time i watched your free riders video I wondered if the games only real flaw was the kinect controls the very next day the patch came out
Picking between, i cant do Free Riders if its cutscene PNG's. Free Riders watering the Riders style to just water feels barren. Pleased how theres some content salvaged by the mod kudos the team
Very interesting analysis overal. And it all comes down to the fact that Sonic Riders 1 holds up so well to the Riders franchise. As a kid, I always thought it was so much more intense and exciting to hold down the jump button before a ramp, and letting go of it JUST before the edge...and performing your own tricks, landing it all correctly. it was an adrenaline rush! Compared to Zero Gravity, just tapping a single button, it all goes automatic. I thought it was really lame, and I still think it is. (Plus, on the Wii the controls seemed to be super broken...I was glad I was able to use a cube controller) I did want to pick up Free Riders when it was released, but I didn't have money for a Kinect...but later I saw how broken and static the game seemed. But you say the gameplay felt a bit better than Zero Gravity? that's just really interesting. Then I might give it a try one day.... Thank you for this in depth video!
I've always loved Sonic Riders way more than I'll ever like the Sonic Racing series, it just fits the series and imo, the hoverboards are so much cooler than the car are
If only Sega could release a Sonic Riders Trilogy Collection with all three games remastered & tweaked to be even better, but I won't hold my breath anytime soon.
I've never been invested in the Sonic series beyond playing a handful of them but I always enjoy watching videos critiquing them, pointing out the good and the bad. This channel has always delivered and the Free Riders video made it's point extremely well, it looked absolutely miserable to play. Cool to see someone has redeemed it, the fan community has done some incredible things to help iron out the wrinkles in the various Sonic titles.
I typically like to play racing games just in general to be honest. And sonic riders on gamecube was a blast. But I do like some other sonic games as well. I just remember all the stuff going on with kinect and sonic free riders being a pain. So I avoided it. I kind of want to try it out now though.
Never tried Sonic Free Riders, but damn I really hate that sonic riders was killed. LOVED Sonic Riders, and still liked zero gravity, but damn I just wish that they would keep going with the riders series. I think that I might have preferred that over the team racing game (although racing transformed was fun too)
@@AccelerateHedge Honestly, I liked zero gravity as well. I got a huge kick out of that as well as the first sonic riders game. And hopefully they do a tutorial soon for xbox 360 getting free riders working without kinect. It is just way to confusing for me. Hopefully they bring the series back to. I mean, the sonic all stars racing is also cool. But sonic riders was pretty dope to. It depends on the mood, but in general, I am a sucker for racing games in general. Played crash nitro kart again to. Fun game. But I cannot get the free riders mod to work so far for my 360. I don't understand how to rip the game files onto a PC. Do you just insert the free riders game disc into the microsoft windows PC or what?
The first one really good. Had that Smash Melee feeling Pretending to be a simple game, but having a super high skill gap with some obscure mechanics. If it had reworked the bad and kept the good. It would have made some impact. But it nose dived hard trying to ''innovate'' each time. Having this and F-Zero GX on the gamecube made racing feel like a really cool genre for lots of gamers. Now its all cart racers and simulators. Good review, keep it up =]
Lets go another drop from Js reviews! I was wondering, will you ever do the TMNT movies and the ratchet and clank future series? You are the best when it comes to that
I think the one thing i wish the og riders had was map mods more than anything. The gameplay rverything is there its just you get abit bored of the maps eventually. I wanted more. Dont get me wrong i loved the dx mod but its just the one thing i felt missing. Btw when I say map mods, what I mean is different and new stages not just existing ones redesigned with different visuals like evening races or whatever
5:00 There should be a Pinned comment showing the timecode of that screenshot of the Installation instructions. Why isn't there? Could it happen with this comment? I don't know, but there should be a Pinned comment from someone, anyone showing the timecode of where the instructions are.
As someone whose first Sonic Game EVER was Free Riders (and who actually enjoyed it to an extent), seeing it played with a controller and translated so well is honestly so impressive, and it's nice to see it being enjoyed this way from people who previously hated the game. I kinda wanna play it myself but I don't have a homebrewed xbox or a good PC.
Yah it just seems like such a complicated set up for 360. I mean, you have to dump the CD files. However you do that I have no Idea. I don't think a microsoft windows computer can read a xbox 360 cd game. So that part confuses me. Otherwise I might try it. I could be wrong though. That and a lack of an xbox 360 sonic free riders no kinect for 360 full length tutorial. There is none yet so far.
Fan patches are at their best when they polish something that has something at it's core worth preserving. In the case of 06 for example, the level design and character work.
Riders would've been actually fun and fully redeemable without Kinect? Who would've said? Much kudos to the fans fighting their hardest against the tide to engooden this franchise. It's certainly not an easy feat.
Man if OG Sonic Riders got a remake in the vein of CTR NF where it included reworked tracks of Sonic riders zero gravity… like how CNK tracks were adapted… I’d buy that game in a heartbeat
i remember trying the demo for this out and it being one of the most upsetting things i ever played bc i loved the first 2 riders games and I had been actually anticipating the game bc i liked some of the actually decent working Kinect stuff when i was younger like Adventures, sports, sesame Street, and Star wars
The blame for how these games have been terribly handled since Sonic Heroes can be put on the Sega-Samy integration. Ever since Samy bought a major stake in the company and combined the two, there was less of a need for the games to do well as opposed to the pachinko side of the company in Japan. Recently it seems like Samy has decided to put more resources into the games because they realized that the Sonic franchise can actually make them money if they give Sega the time and resources for the games to come out in good quality. Took them too damn long to realize though, and we lost a great side series because of it.
I'm late to the party in playing with a controller But HOW do you FLY with the Dash rings as a fly type character? I can't seem to keep myself in the air and it's a mandatory mission on team sonics campaign
I’m happy that the Sonic fans have fixed this game by finally letting us play with a controller. Sonic Free Riders is finally free from the Kinect! All these Sonic mods are really making me want to get a gaming PC to try them all.
I am mostly impressed that this patch exists in the first place since reportedly kinect games are extremely difficult to emulate. The guy who did this had to be really dedicated.
I mean, that's because of their Kinect-ness, which this patch removes.
@@AztecCroc I would assume you'd still need to playtest it, in which case it'd help to have the Kinect handy to see how certain features work with it and what code to change (and how to change it) to make it work with a controller
This isn't done through emulation, the game itself is modified to work with a controller. That's why it works on original hardware as well.
Actually, quite literally impossible lol. But now that it's been proven that a patch like this CAN be made, perhaps that won't be the reality forever.
@@AccelerateHedgeyou were the guy who informed me this project existed. You are nice.
This really tells you how dedicated Sonic fans can be with some mods, and fan games or animations out there, ChaosX taking up the challenge of fixing 06, and some madman deciding to fix Free Riders of all things
i wonder what Sega or the social media team are thinking of all this crazy stuff fans are doing rn
@@kaxcommentssomethingREAL If they’re not impressed, we need to find a way to get them more brain cells
Out of many infamous Sonic games, Free Riders is the least I would expect a fix, I thought something like a Secret Rings patch would come first, or even a Sonic Boom remake from the fans, than Free Riders, but here we are
@@ayrtonjoga Figured I'd mention it since you brought it up, but there actually exists a Secret Rings remake underway using the P-06 engine, called Project Wildfire (nod to the game's original working title immediately after it was decided that SEGA wanted a separate Sonic game for the Wii since 06 wouldn't run on it). It's nothing revolutionary yet as far as I know, but it has been in the works for some time now, and I personally found it to be a captivating concept.
@@satelliteprime That's awesome to know, Secret Rings nailed many things like the soundtrack, art direction and story, but the biggest issue was the gameplay, so I'm very hopeful for the Project Wildfire
You know we’ve had so many remakes of games that were already really good… we need more remakes of bad games
i wouldnt trust any big names to remake their games in good shape nowadays
The problem with that is that the suits don’t think the remake games will sell well bc people remember it being bad but I do agree with you about some bad games getting a remake
I'm a big fan of trying to make the best out of a flawed idea, if only to see how far you can take it. Though the worse the game was originally the trickier the situation. How much can you change without essentially creating a new game, what if anything was the value in the first place, etc. Even some seemingly simple changes might upset the whole game's balance if the game was specifically tuned around the original state.
Devil May Cry 2. No explanation further but it desperately needs a better remake because of how really bad it was
@@Pokaroquai The DMC game for people who don't like DMC.
Losing the Kinect really improves the playability of this game. The power of fans to greatly improve these Sonic games, especially such a difficult to emulate game as this is unreal. I'll definitely have to check this out.
Agreed
I remember talking to a friend about the Kinect and said to him that it wasn't designed for precision tracking but works best for full body tracking
Someone needs to create a tutorial for 360 though. Like how do you dump the sonic free rider files exactly? Do you take the sonic free riders game disc, stick it in your PC for microsoft windows, and just have the computer read the game? That is where I get confused is the first part of the tutorials. And so far, there is no real tutorial yet for doing this mod on an actual xbox 360.
Something about getting the files off of the CD onto the PC or whatever. Makes no sense.
There’s something to be said about creativity in the hands of passionate individuals who see a different perspective on works of art. Free Riders being the nail in the coffin for the series by the hands of corporate scrutiny, while fans took it to revitalize their vision of what could’ve been. It’s really no secret this IP would’ve been dead in the ground if it weren’t for the fans keeping the imaginary potential alive. But it makes all more infuriating that Sega corporate doesn’t see the same vision as the fans do or used to wield.
To that end, a question: Would you take Sonic being his most fun from unofficial support in favor of continued rushed releases from corporate? Or would you trade that in favor of the company finally getting their heads check to produce actual good official games worthy of $60?
Upsettingly, Sega is like the father who abandons a failure, while the child, that being the fans, picks it up and tries to make it something more successful. Even with said child's efforts, the father still neglects it.
The "Sonic Riders" trilogy is the video game equivalent of the original "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" film trilogy. The first instalment is very good and has rightfully been better appreciated as time went on. The second instalment tried to address the concerns and criticisms but ultimately fell short. The third instalment is unapologetically awful and should be avoided at all costs.
actually i saw tmnt 3 on netflix a while ago and while it is definitely the weakest of the original trilogy i actually thought it was pretty solid and not as bad as people say
@@jskywalker58
I'm happy you enjoyed it. When revisiting it, I wanted to see if my teenage self was wrong for calling it boring. After learning that Kevin Eastman, one of the co-creators of TMNT, considers 2 to be the worst, I was motivated to give it one last chance.
In the end, I found it to be a poorly produced, unimaginative, and depressing flick that doesn't contribute anything to the target audience's artistic development. And the turtles look like guys in rubber suits rather than organic creatures like in the first film. I was entirely bored, and my brain felt funny after finishing it, as if my intelligence had degraded. Fortunately, I watched the new TMNT film in cinemas, and my brain felt 100% normal afterwards. But continue to enjoy the film; you liked it and I don't want to take that away from you.
i watched TMNT3 a lot as a kid in the 90s and i did and still do enjoy it
@@jskywalker58 facts
@@fictionalmediabully9830 well i wouldn't say i outright enjoyed i just thought it was solid as in averege, not amazing but not awful either.
I do wish Sega would give this series another go. The series today could be its own Mario Kart with tons of new characters, boards and online multiplayer with cross play.
But I’m looking forward to Superstars
They already have a "Mario Kart". They discontinued them before they hit the next console generation. They're great though, I play them regularly.
@@sacrificiallamb4568I love sonic racing transformed...i should play it it was a few months since i last played it, ive been trying to get through 06' and now im playing unleashed and skylanders so my ps3 time goes to other things😅
Yeah. Transformed is still good.@@Roman_the_black_cat Which Skylanders game?
@@sacrificiallamb4568 Trap teams right now, i finished superchargers two month sback roughly.
Im also nuxlocking spyros adventure with my friend
Yah I wish they would to. Hoverboards are cool.
Problem with this mod is that it seems really confusing to download and install. It says to dump the sonic free riders onto a PC. Like how do you do that. Do you stick the sonic free riders game disc into the microsoft PC computer. Can a PC read xbox 360 games. I dunno. And there are no tutorials yet either.
6:23 THERE I AM GARY THERE I AM
Ay nice one! That must feel great 💪
@@JonyPlayz1 Yea lol
It utterly frustrates me on how incompetent SEGA was back in 2010 when making this sequel. This spinoff series had potential to be the most unique and versatile way of racing. 13 entire years go by and we've yet to get another Riders title. Instead, we get a traditional kart racer.. & worst of all, we don't even get to see the Babylon Rogues make a return besides the IDW comics and merchandise. The fact that fans have to recreate or build the game from the ground up for it to be a step above the original or even better is pretty embarrassing. People like ChaosX and Rei-san deserve their flowers simply because of the dedication and effort to recreate sonic games and what they SHOULD be.
2010 is not mid-2010s, lol.
@@lpfan4491 ok
Mid 2010s??
Sega were certainly mid during the 2010s
I know the game was supposed to be played only with kinect, but what did they think of when they did not include at least controller support when they released the game. They would've sold way more copies then. At least now we can play it like we wished we could play it.
Well with not just Sega but any company really will try to go hard with a certain gimmicks and hope people just choose that gimmick
Fangames like Triple Trouble: 16-Bit and Fallen Star or madman projects like Free Riders: No Kinect and Project 06...
Stuff like this tells me that despite the Sonic franchise and its reputation oftentimes feeling like a disheartening, shattered mirror, in the darkness, there truly is a mote of golden light... A flame that refuses to go out.
Just another example of Sonic having the true power of a phoenix.
As the lyrics in One Way Dream go: "You and me, we're built on trust; That's why we can always get up! Even if they laugh, we'll never bite the dust!"
Almost at 200k J, lets go! Congrats!
Gotta love fan projects, so much talented people in this amazing community
The sonic fanbase is very interesting isn't it? They've almost destroyed the sonic franchise multiple times but they’ve also saved it multiple times as well
this is something i keep saying and it still holds true
"this fanbase is one of a kind"
i will never stop being impressed at what some fans are capable of doing
@@kaxcommentssomethingREAL fr
more like sega almost destroyed it, with 06, boom, and ugly movie sonic trailer lol.
How have they almost Destroyed the franchise? Being Weird?
@@justbny9278 Ken penders almost ruined sonic comics. And the sonic fanbase constantly harassess voice actors for the series. But the fan games, lord have mercy. They are beautiful
I love how the listed weight for the female characters is "Secret", with Blaze specifically saying "No comment!"
I have so much nostalgia for this game! The moment I saw the notification I clicked, I want this game with no kinect controls so damn much!
I REALLY REALLY hope that Riders, Zero Grav, and Free (without motion controls of course) get put on modern consoles 😭
Literally praying for a riders 1 remaster
wish for sonic riders remake with first sonic riders gameplay, the New and old maps, more characters and gears with custom character and gear creation.
first project o6 now this?
i love the sonic modding community
I didn't know about Shadow Reloaded. I played the crap out of that game when I was a kid so now I'm excited to try that with a better version.
5:48 Wait a minute! Sonic Can’t Swim!
The Modder said.. “Fine.. I’ll do it myself..”😈
Sonic DisKinected Riders will hopefully grab Sega's attention enough to make an official version, or maybe even a new Riders game.
Still waiting for that "Learning to Love Sonic Frontiers" like you did with Sly 4.
Nice video. Honestly from my experience on Kinect, this game is really nowhere the worst one of them all. You really just gotta play it right since it really works for me lol. It’s great how we have it on PC and console now, it’s really peak fiction 👌
Gotta love the sonic fanmods 2:53 shadow the hedgehog reload might play that later
Its really impressive they got it working with a controller, but its still extremely unlikely I will ever touch this game.
I probably will eventually. I am a sucker for racing games. So I gotta try it out. But getting the patch downloaded seems like a massive pain currently. But I might try it out eventually.
Sonic Fans are seriously wizards, it almost seems like they can do anything with stuff that Sega has abandoned and make them reach their peak potential, me personally I still wish for a 2D Sonic with Chaotix gimmick of a Ring Tether I still find fun, unique and interesting, or just remake the original Chaotix for people to experience and rescue it from its 32X Purgatory.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone eventually just goes "screw it, if there is no Chaotix-remake from Headcannon, then I will simply decomp the original and bring it to PC!"
(Like actually, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. A team of fans are recreating Unleashed on 3DS. And a seperate source is working on porting SADX to that system too.)
The funniest thing about free riders is the fact that it's the only riders game with rail balancing
Now if only Adrenalin Misfits had this.
I like the little detail of how all the female riders for their weight class don't tell us besides cream cuz she's a cinnamon roll. ahhh Free riders is a game of all time. I'm glad that we can all look at this game as something worth a dang now instead of Kinect hell.
2:58
I'll never forget when Sega had a sale for the PC version of Sonic Generations the week of Project Unleashed's release.
Sonic Free Riders is one of the few games that I actually love that everyone hates and it all came down to a taste of liking the Kinect controls or not. I was one of those that loved it even without the patch. Now I'm glad anyone can pick the game up for themselves.
Same here, When i watched his original review for the game, most of the complaints didn't even make any sense. He was playing the game completely wrong on the bodycam, most likely because the game only explains like half of the things and not even very well. This game has flaws and its not a perfect game by any means, but with the right setup and clothes, the game reads pretty much 99% of your movements and the game becomes actually pretty fun!
speaking of not explaining things very well, even the original Sonic Riders didn't have an in-game in-depth tutorial for most its mechanics. i'd wager it's probably on the manual but most of what i learned about it was from searching online@@sush4nz1...74
Idk how anyone even plays it
It NEVER worked for me
I tried to like it but it just didn't let me
@@sush4nz1...74im one of those few people that had a blast with free riders, my controls responded 96% of the time and only had minor problems might go back to it again for the achievements.
I played it as a kid and liked it but i couldnt get past the first level you play as Wave thanks to the kinect being the kinect, i played a lot of kinect back in my day and free riders was the least responsive of them all
I hope whoever was in charge of handling sonic in the 2010's gets actual mental help.
It seems like the worst Dark Age Sonic games(06,Free Riders)can be reworked into something worthwhile and even beautiful.
Isnt free riders a meta era game?
@sonic101official
Yep, it came out in 2010 and was even written by Pontaff. No "dark age" here.
It was a Dark Age game since it's reception was less than warm.The Dark Age ended when Colors came out since it was the first mainline Sonic game in a while to be received well though this doesn't mean that Sonic Boom or Forces are Dark Age games since they came out after Colors.
Now we need someone to Fix Sonic Boom and we are officially the best fangame community out there
@NicCagesGhostRiderFaces that's what we said about Free Riders and look how it turned out
Fan projects, games, & mods like this are something that leaves me smiling (as well as baffled towards the amount of detractors & critics who say the bad games need to die off so that we can move on to something better)
still criminal that such a bad game has such a AMAZING theme song
I like the character interactions but man the controls were bad.
This was another banger video, and I would love to see you go more in depth on Sonic Riders DX and Regravitified!
It went from F-tier to C-tier thanks to this patch. That is good to know that the title is actually enjoyable / playable now.
I am really impressed! Both to the fact that this patch even exists in the first place, considering to my knowledge that Xbox Kinect games are VERY difficult to emulate.
The guy who made this possible had to be not only a very skilled programmer, but also really dedicated to Sonic the Hedgehog and/or racing games!
God, I just *LOVE* the Frutiger Aero aesthetic of the main menu.
ok so either youtube is stalking me or this is my sign to setup my 360 again (great video as always btw)
“Free” earrape bass boosted still plays in my nightmare whenever i hear of this game
IM FALLING FREE IN THE WI-
3:07 I'm someone who actually enjoyed playing Sonic Forces, but I still have to admit there was so much missed potential there. I mean to show Shadow, Chaos, Metal Sonic, and Zavok in an early cutscene and the only bosses you face are Zavok and Metal Sonic is so disappointing so to see that fans would at least make a legit Shadow and Chaos boss battle would be really significant.
The kinects days were wild, imagine if they were as creative about games today as they were 15 years ago
SEGA should just hire fans to port/remaster their old games and give them *ALL* the freedom they have as long as they don't step out of line. Maybe then certain games can be looked back upon more fondly rather than negatively.
Not a bad idea they’re already started with Christian Whitehead doing the 16 Bit Sonic Series might as well do it with other games
@@richardperaza5083 Exactly.
Question J, are you going to Re-Review Sonic Frontiers once the Update 3 DLC roadmap comes out later this year?
Looks that way, yeah.
@@JsReviews👀
I'll still die on the hill that Zero Gravity is the most fun to play out of all of them. But this project is a miracle by simple existing, I'll give it that.
J's, do you plan on revisiting or re-reviewing sonic frontiers when the 3rd update comes?
It's playable now.
Sonic Free Riders is definitely a A tier cant lie but the 2 problems were that were no drifting and doing tricks using buttons but you know what I mean.
Man... Recent modding projects really make me want to upgrade from an i3 laptop.
(Granted it can still play a lot of games just fine.)
At this point I think that sonic boom getting a fan remake isn't far off, and it would be really funny if anything
Well the ai were designed to race people using the worst controls, having the advantage of a controller just baffles the ai.
Tragic Sonic 06 remade into the PHENOMENAL P06, terrible Sonic Free Riders remade into the great Free Riders with actual controls??
WE NEED SOMEONE TO REMAKE SONIC AND THE SECRET RINGS NOW
Remove the motion controls and automatic running and replace them with actual controls while Sonic Boom is irredeemable
Our dream is finally come true to play this game with the controller, God bless these guys.
Speaking of sonic fan games I just got done playing sonic adventure made on dreams. Mixing the boost formula with the adventure formula should be done officially. Now I’m eagerly awaiting updates on there official Discord!
The SONIC FANGAMES of all things may Actually make it possible to do an Endurance Marathon Playthrough of Every 3D Sonic Game From Adventure to Frontiers and make it palatable without wanting to hate yourself midway through it. Like some people do 'Whole Game Series Marathon Runs' with Kingdom Hearts and Shift with the Spongebob Games
You know the first time i watched your free riders video I wondered if the games only real flaw was the kinect controls the very next day the patch came out
The original Sonic riders has a mod community that is constantly balancing the game, and it's even online.
Wow, I was literally earlier today wondering what this game would be like if re-released with standard controller controls.
Picking between, i cant do Free Riders if its cutscene PNG's. Free Riders watering the Riders style to just water feels barren. Pleased how theres some content salvaged by the mod kudos the team
The Sonic modding community truly is incredible
Sonic Mods are the best!!!!
Dear Lord, I hope the same team does this with steel battalion heavy armor.
Very interesting analysis overal. And it all comes down to the fact that Sonic Riders 1 holds up so well to the Riders franchise. As a kid, I always thought it was so much more intense and exciting to hold down the jump button before a ramp, and letting go of it JUST before the edge...and performing your own tricks, landing it all correctly. it was an adrenaline rush! Compared to Zero Gravity, just tapping a single button, it all goes automatic. I thought it was really lame, and I still think it is. (Plus, on the Wii the controls seemed to be super broken...I was glad I was able to use a cube controller)
I did want to pick up Free Riders when it was released, but I didn't have money for a Kinect...but later I saw how broken and static the game seemed. But you say the gameplay felt a bit better than Zero Gravity? that's just really interesting. Then I might give it a try one day....
Thank you for this in depth video!
I've always loved Sonic Riders way more than I'll ever like the Sonic Racing series, it just fits the series and imo, the hoverboards are so much cooler than the car are
Has anyone seen this absolute masterpiece of a review by @ J’s Reviews?
Greatness. We are all witnesses.
I hope you re review frontiers when update 3 drops
If only Sega could release a Sonic Riders Trilogy Collection with all three games remastered & tweaked to be even better, but I won't hold my breath anytime soon.
"So about a year and a half ago-" A YEAR ALREADY!?
I've never been invested in the Sonic series beyond playing a handful of them but I always enjoy watching videos critiquing them, pointing out the good and the bad. This channel has always delivered and the Free Riders video made it's point extremely well, it looked absolutely miserable to play. Cool to see someone has redeemed it, the fan community has done some incredible things to help iron out the wrinkles in the various Sonic titles.
I typically like to play racing games just in general to be honest. And sonic riders on gamecube was a blast. But I do like some other sonic games as well. I just remember all the stuff going on with kinect and sonic free riders being a pain. So I avoided it. I kind of want to try it out now though.
Never tried Sonic Free Riders, but damn I really hate that sonic riders was killed. LOVED Sonic Riders, and still liked zero gravity, but damn I just wish that they would keep going with the riders series. I think that I might have preferred that over the team racing game (although racing transformed was fun too)
Finally, a fellow Zero Gravity enjoyer lol
(Repost cuz typo)
@@AccelerateHedge Honestly, I liked zero gravity as well. I got a huge kick out of that as well as the first sonic riders game.
And hopefully they do a tutorial soon for xbox 360 getting free riders working without kinect. It is just way to confusing for me.
Hopefully they bring the series back to. I mean, the sonic all stars racing is also cool. But sonic riders was pretty dope to. It depends on the mood, but in general, I am a sucker for racing games in general. Played crash nitro kart again to. Fun game. But I cannot get the free riders mod to work so far for my 360. I don't understand how to rip the game files onto a PC. Do you just insert the free riders game disc into the microsoft windows PC or what?
@@qunt100 There are tutorials out there for ripping the disc iirc
The conclusion at the end is extremely important.
It's no wonder Sega is celebrating the fans for the rest of the year through their fast friends initiation
2:49 OH GOD WHAT DID THEY DO TO HIM
THEY BROKE EVERYTHING
The first one really good. Had that Smash Melee feeling
Pretending to be a simple game, but having a super high skill gap with some obscure mechanics.
If it had reworked the bad and kept the good. It would have made some impact. But it nose dived hard trying to ''innovate'' each time.
Having this and F-Zero GX on the gamecube made racing feel like a really cool genre for lots of gamers.
Now its all cart racers and simulators.
Good review, keep it up =]
Zero Gravity is more like Smash Brawl because it was a lot more simplified to make it more appealing to Wii owners
Lets go another drop from Js reviews! I was wondering, will you ever do the TMNT movies and the ratchet and clank future series? You are the best when it comes to that
I think the one thing i wish the og riders had was map mods more than anything. The gameplay rverything is there its just you get abit bored of the maps eventually. I wanted more. Dont get me wrong i loved the dx mod but its just the one thing i felt missing. Btw when I say map mods, what I mean is different and new stages not just existing ones redesigned with different visuals like evening races or whatever
This is exactly my thoughts put in words.
5:00 There should be a Pinned comment showing the timecode of that screenshot of the Installation instructions. Why isn't there? Could it happen with this comment? I don't know, but there should be a Pinned comment from someone, anyone showing the timecode of where the instructions are.
As someone whose first Sonic Game EVER was Free Riders (and who actually enjoyed it to an extent), seeing it played with a controller and translated so well is honestly so impressive, and it's nice to see it being enjoyed this way from people who previously hated the game. I kinda wanna play it myself but I don't have a homebrewed xbox or a good PC.
Yah it just seems like such a complicated set up for 360. I mean, you have to dump the CD files. However you do that I have no Idea. I don't think a microsoft windows computer can read a xbox 360 cd game. So that part confuses me. Otherwise I might try it. I could be wrong though.
That and a lack of an xbox 360 sonic free riders no kinect for 360 full length tutorial. There is none yet so far.
Fan patches are at their best when they polish something that has something at it's core worth preserving. In the case of 06 for example, the level design and character work.
you can all say all you want about the Sonic fanbase, but the modding and fan-game communities are its saving graces.
Riders would've been actually fun and fully redeemable without Kinect? Who would've said?
Much kudos to the fans fighting their hardest against the tide to engooden this franchise. It's certainly not an easy feat.
Man if OG Sonic Riders got a remake in the vein of CTR NF where it included reworked tracks of Sonic riders zero gravity… like how CNK tracks were adapted…
I’d buy that game in a heartbeat
5:50 - Sonic can… swim?
i remember trying the demo for this out and it being one of the most upsetting things i ever played bc i loved the first 2 riders games and I had been actually anticipating the game bc i liked some of the actually decent working Kinect stuff when i was younger like Adventures, sports, sesame Street, and Star wars
Someone do a tutorial on how to get this game on PC because I’d like to play free riders without the xbox
free riders was my second sonic game after generations and to be frank I liked it and enjoyed it.
The blame for how these games have been terribly handled since Sonic Heroes can be put on the Sega-Samy integration. Ever since Samy bought a major stake in the company and combined the two, there was less of a need for the games to do well as opposed to the pachinko side of the company in Japan. Recently it seems like Samy has decided to put more resources into the games because they realized that the Sonic franchise can actually make them money if they give Sega the time and resources for the games to come out in good quality. Took them too damn long to realize though, and we lost a great side series because of it.
YESSSSS FINALLY A PATCH THAT YOU VAN PLAY IT WITH CONTROLLER
J IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope he hits 200K
Sonic fans are maybe one of the most determined people in the gaming landscape. They're really admirable.
You're up next, Rise of Lyric.
A year an a half I feel old
ugh wish the game started like this. please sonic team make a sequel
lmao, i have just seen the first Riders review and remember you praising the trick system, times change it seems😭
I'm late to the party in playing with a controller
But HOW do you FLY with the Dash rings as a fly type character?
I can't seem to keep myself in the air and it's a mandatory mission on team sonics campaign
Press A
Sonic Free Riders is the Fossil Fighters: Frontier of the Sonic spin-offs.
Great video! I would appreciate it if you reviewed more 2 dimensional games.
I’m happy that the Sonic fans have fixed this game by finally letting us play with a controller. Sonic Free Riders is finally free from the Kinect! All these Sonic mods are really making me want to get a gaming PC to try them all.