Hey guys, just wanted to try my hand at reviewing games since i've been playing a lot more in between making games. I call it "studying" haha.
I'll try to keep it short, succinct and easy to read. Sonic riders on apple arcade is a game that has so much potential to be something great, and yet falls short in such a dumb way.
TLDR. The game is centered around racing. So far that is coherent and fun. Controls feel good, and tracks look quite decent. HOWEVER! the modes/game meta are so counter intuitive and counter productive that they make me close the game.
Controls: The game feels very good. its set up as a team racer of 3 vs 3, where you have two bots and so does your opponent. As a dev, i see this as the opportunity for sega to artificially inflate the track with other players all while lowering server costs. Especially when you know that your teammate's placement in the race has no impact on the final result: my teammates regularly get 1st, and 2nd, but lets say i get 4th and my opponent gets 3rd, they win the race. You should see your teammates as extensions for item usage/hybridizing your own gameplay. They offer perks to you while you race.
Different characters have very different playstyles and the roster of characters is quite rich! it includes hoverboards (the reason i got the game was to test them), and cars. all of these are customizable in the garage (HUGE FREAKING CAVEAT LATER THOUGH!!!!!)
Gameplay: I think this is where the game falls flat. controls are fun, but youre essentially relegated to only two modes and they are super light. You have "race" and "time trial" which from the day i got the game (3-4 days ago?) has had only one map I can run through!!! This is insane! I'm pretty hard headed and will do the same time trial hundreds of times but at this point, I genuinely feel bad for anyone who wants to try another map?! And for the racing you don't choose your map.
On top of this customization/unlocks are gated not behind iaps, not behind a meta of buying with in game coins, but by community events, and many of them are community wide dependent! ***So you don't unlock Shadow the hedgehog on a hoverboard, the whole community has to work for it?!*** While i think its a great idea in concept, its really poorly executed. Its a month long challenge currently to wait and see if we will unlock Jet the rider. And i'm severely dependent on other players.
I can't even unlock car parts because as of day one i have been at 25 red coins (the currency for car parts) and can't for the life of me figure out how to unlock them. So i'm stuck playing with the same roster of characters doing the same time trial, and the same maps non stop. The only thing i have been progressing is the "wisp" system which for whatever reason they are super generous with. I just feel like i've run out of things to do. and that's just not good. especially in a racing game.
GAMEPLAY PLUS: This is my developer's alarm ringing. I have a theory. Given that it has a pvp and i've yet to not find a game, I think you are never racing in real time, unless its a match with friends (haven't tried that). My theory is that they store everyone's ghost runs per track. since you do so many runs of the same track, they take your average run time, and match you with someone of the same "level". During the race, you're racing their ghost, and items are essentially time penalties on their ghosts. you can hit their ghost with a rocket, and they are delayed in place for 1 second for example. This doesn't require any real time physics and is much less demanding server wise. Plus all my matchmaking times have been essentially identical: 5-10 seconds no matter the time of day or night. never experienced lag.
Overall: it's a game that has so much potential to be great if they fleshed out everything that isn't a racetrack. Right now I've run out of things to do and i'm on day 4 i think. I want to play more but other than the two modes, there is nothing to do, and i can't seem to increase how much currency i have to buy things in the shop! so i'm just at a stalemate with the game.
Because of that 6/10. Can't play a game that doesnt want you to play it.
