Upgrades to customise your vehicle (cont.)

One confirmed difference, however, is that depending on the upgrades, hidden routes will be uncovered, such as being able to glide over a gap into a secret tunnel that has been unreachable without the upgrade. Hopefully there will be a fair distribution of shortcuts for each upgrade and class, so as to avoid players hoarding the one 'great' upgrade and ignoring the rest.

Characters and worlds

Sega has revealed that there will be eight worlds with two tracks a piece, adding up to 16 playable tracks. Currently, four worlds have been named, these being Crimson Crater, Aquatic Capital, Megalo Station and Botanical Garden. Each world will have its own theme to keep the action and visuals fresh. Likewise, there will be 18 characters, but at press time, only eight names have been confirmed, those being Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, Storm the Albatross and NiGHTS (of NiGHTS into Dreams fame). Like the world, the selection of characters will also help keep the game fresh.

Controls and multiplayer

As far as the Wii controls go, very little has been said - indeed there appears to be no official word on how the game will handle on Nintendo's plucky box of tricks. This will no doubt change when Sega allows outsiders to play test the game. Until the official confirmation, there are only rumours going around, suggesting that the 1 button will activate the Gravity Dive and that shaking the Wii Remote will make characters grind.

On the multiplayer front, three modes have been revealed, these being Free Race, World Grand Prix and Survival mode. Each one of these modes supports up to four players. As far as online multiplaying goes, Wii owners will be able to download ghost data of other players to race against (you will basically race against an opponent whose performance has been recorded by some other player). Unless something more is announced later down the line, it looks as if there will be no real-time online multiplayer.

Final words

For a game that's due to be out in Japan in January 2008 and North America in February, very little has been shown to the public, save for a brief trailer at the Leipzig Games Convention in September. No doubt Sega will release a flurry of information between now and the eventual release date, including more details on the Wii's controls.

As it stands, it's very much up in the air as to whether Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity will improve on its predecessor. The gravity controls could enhance the game beyond our wildest dreams, but they could also turn out to be nothing special. For now, however, with the vehicle customisation and track exploration, this has the potential to be a surprise hit for Sega.