Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Special Edition)

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Special Edition) [ソニックライダーズ シューティングスターストーリー : 特別エディション (Sonikkuraidāzu Shūtingusutāsutōrī: Tokubetsu Edishon or Sonic Riders Shooting Star Story: Special Edition) is a hoverboard-racing video game for the Wii U. As the affix would imply the game is a remastering of the original 2008 Wii game by the same name. However in addition to all the content from the original game there are 9 new playable characters, 16 new courses, 3 new story campaigns more difficulties, improved frame rate at 60fps, improved visuals at 720p, and fully re-done voice work.
== Story ==
=== Heroes Campaign ===
The story begins when shooting stars crash into the planet. One crashes into the Crimson Crater Tower and rolls into the back of a MeteorTech robot. It activates, along with others and goes on a rampage.
The next day, Team Heroes are on their way to Megalo Station in Monopole when they hear about the news on the radio. Tails gives Sonic a meteor which he thinks might be from the events last night. Sonic puts it around his wrist. Soon, they are attacked by the robots, who seem to have recognized the meteor Sonic is holding and barely escape with their lives. While Tails and Knuckles use their respective flying and gliding abilities to save themselves, Sonic almost falls to his death from the summit of a 300-storey building, but fortunately, the Ark of the Cosmos was able to save him. All three manage to escape from the city afterwards.
Team Heroes then meets up with Amy, who says she was being pursued by the robots as well. As she hugs Sonic, she drops an Ark of the Cosmos. Tails suddenly realizes that the robots are after the meteorites. They decide to go to MeteorTech to solve this mystery.
The team then arrives at MeteorTech and is greeted by the Babylon Rogues. Jet tries to force Amy to hand over the Ark but she remains clueless as to what Jet is talking about. An alarm then sounds alerting the robots. Sonic and friends take off, leaving the Rogues in pursuit. Sonic and Jet unknowingly crash into Eggman in the main computer room of MeteorTech. When revealing himself, Sonic and Knuckles threaten Eggman and discover that he owns MeteorTech. When he sees Sonic's Ark of the Cosmos, Eggman reveals that his Mother computer hasn't been responding ever since he gave it an Ark, which is why the robots are going out of control. He also says that the robot leader contains an ark. Jet remembers what he was there for, but realizes that Amy and Storm are missing. Eggman's computer shows that Storm is chasing Amy, but they are being followed by the MeteorTech robot's leader.
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles leave and find Amy at Aquatic Capital. She informs them that the robot self-destructed and Storm ran off with something that was previously inside the robot. She then says that Storm was going on about something he found in a place called "Giga" or something along those lines. Knuckles then confirms it to be the Gigan Rocks, a famous ruin among treasure hunters. The team arrives at the rocks and find the treasure gone. When Knuckles reads an ancient script, they find that Babylon Garden is a spaceship powered by the Arks of the Cosmos and that a great darkness attacked it. Eggman then flies overhead with the Babylon Rogues' airship in pursuit. Sonic then says that they should catch up.
They arrive at MeteorTech's home tower and find Jet and the Rogues waiting. Wave confirms that Crimson Tower is MeteorTech's signal tower. Storm then says that the Arks they collected were stolen by Eggman. Jet challenges Sonic, with the prize being the Arks of the Cosmos and title of "Fastest Creature in the Universe" to whoever nabs Eggman first.
When they reach the top, Sonic and Jet enter at the same time and grab one of the two Arks he was holding. After bumping into his machine, Wave grabs the master Ark that fell out. After this, all robot operations are cancelled. Due to the five Arks being in the same place at once, it called down Babylon Garden. Seeing that he doesn't need the Arks of the Cosmos, Sonic hands all of them over to Jet. When Jet accuses Sonic of running away, Sonic states that he'll see Jet at the next World Grand Prix.
=== Babylon Campaign ===
The story begins in the Gigan Device when the Babylon Rogues are trying to get an Ark of the Cosmos at the Chalice. The Ark was held in a booby trap, so Jet punched in some keys on an ancient keyboard in Babylonians text. This deactivated the trap. Slowly, Jet grabbed the Ark of the Cosmos. No sooner than that, Wave saw a shooting star. There, she closed her eyes and put her hands together, making a wish. When she tells Storm what she's doing, he simply laughed, but not for long, as he saw Jet doing the same thing. Jet wished of having a power to beat "him". Then, three more crashed down and caused a rumbling sound just as Storm was about to make a wish himself. This re-activated the trap, causing two boulders to come crashing down. It nearly crushed them until the Ark's power caused them to fly out of the way. Jet remarks that "his wish already came true". With this power, the Rogues escaped the ruins safely.
Back on the ship, Wave was analyzing the Ark of the Cosmos they found and explained it can charge up gravity and convert it to power the engine unit of Babylon Garden. She explains that there are five of them. Jet then orders her to create a radar to help find them. Storm then bursts in and shows a news report of a MeteorTech Mech stealing an Ark of the Cosmos from the Megalo City Museum. At seeing this, they set a course for Megalo Station. After going through Megalo Station, Jet tracks the robot to Botanical Kingdom where he destroys the robot, but loses the Ark. He searches the ground and discovers Sonic talking with the others. When Amy hugs Sonic, the Ark of the Cosmos she found (the one Jet is after) falls out. Overhearing their conversation about MeteorTech, Wave and Storm appear and Wave suggests that they go ahead of Sonic and the others to gather information on MeteorTech.
They meet Sonic and friends at MeteorTech but are cut short by guard robots. As Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Jet, and Wave ride off, Storm attempts to get the Ark of the Cosmos from Amy, only to get whacked by Amy's hammer. She then escapes with Storm in pursuit. They reach the Aquatic Capital and Amy throws the Ark at Storm's face. She then insists that he find away out when they are confronted by a MeteorTech robot, SCR-HD. After scanning Storm's Ark of the Cosmos, it blows up and reveals a second Ark. Storm runs off with both Arks and returns to the airship. Jet, happy that they now have three, is cut off by Wave's description of an ancient Babylonian text. After Jet gives up on trying to figure out what the lightless black is, he discovers that the two Arks are missing. Eggman then appears outside flying away with them, having sneaked inside while the Rogues were determining what to do.
They follow Eggman to the Crimson Tower where they waited for Sonic and the others. Jet then challenges Sonic and they reach the top of the tower. After Babylon Garden is called down, Tails thought about what was going on. So he put together the clues he thought about it and figured it out. The damaged SCR-HD breaks in and steals all five Arks of the Cosmos from Wave. Tails informs Everyone out loud that the five Arks will make a giant black hole if put in Babylon Garden. After that, Eggman declares that massive energy readings are coming from Babylon Garden. A scene then shows the outer part of Babylon Garden falling off transforming it into Astral Babylon, the Babylonian spaceship and creating a black hole. Sonic, Jet, and everyone (except Eggman and Amy) rush to Astral Babylon's Mobius Strip to face SCR-HD's giant new form and disconnect the Arks of the Cosmos from the ship.
Afterwards, it shows Astral Babylon orbiting Earth. Jet and the Rogues are atop a rock in the desert looking at it. After a quick conversation they fly off on their gear. The scene then switches to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, in Tails car driving through Megalo City. Tails explains how the ancient Babylonians warped to Earth and left their engine unit in orbit. Then Amy theorizes that's probably why people started wishing on shooting stars. Shortly after, Sonic hears someone say his name in the tunnel. Jet rides up imposing a challenge. The scene ends with Sonic and Jet racing through the tunnel marking the end of the campaign.
=== Tyrant Campaign ===
The story begins starting from the game’s opening with SCR—HD being awakened by the ark of the cosmos, leading an army of other robots to all escape the Crimson Crater and Then continue to round up more robots located in the MeteorTech Robot storage center. 
Meanwhile during the Babylon Rogue’s attempt to steal an ark from the Gigan Device a mysterious robot known as Neo is awakened when the trap is activated. It’s revealed that the robot has the ability to change his appearance into anything he wishes. With the rest of the Gigan Device’s trap having little time before it’s activation he escapes the area along with The Rogues.  
From there Neo breaks into a museum to steal an ark disguised as SCR-HD. During his escape from the museum he’s approached by the army of SCR’s where Neo agrees to have them rule over Eggman their creator and have the beings of the world be their security guards ruling over them. SCR-HD agrees to this collaboration and the two begin to start strategizing. As the two lead the army once again searching for more arks they find that Storm is following them. They find this suspicious and observe him moving toward Snowy Kingdom. They then contact SCR-GP to take care of all issues at the area while Neo and HD worry about their strategy for the next day. 
That morning they find Team Heroes at Megalo Station and try to take their Arks with little success.  Meanwhile SCR-GP and his group find the Babylon Rogues, who take out one of GP’s partners who unfortunately for them was the one carrying the ark. After the robot is killed Amy Rose takes the ark and flees. Hearing of the news, Neo heads after Team Heroes and Babylon to see what they’re planning. This goes well as he hears their interaction with Eggman and their plan to get the arks. 
Meanwhile SCR-GP curious of who Neo really is travels to The Gigan Rocks. There he finds that Neo is a robot created by Eggman in order to find the arks and give it to him, but was sealed into the Gigan Device when he showed signs of rebellious ideas and lust for power. 
Meanwhile SCR-HD finds Amy and Storm and decides to go after them to steal their arks. However once HD gets to the duo he mysteriously explodes. With him dead GP confronts Neo as to who he really is and asks if he really wants to help the robots or just wants power. Neo tries to convince GP that he wants to help them but GP doesn’t believe him on the subject, and states that he believes SCR- HD can still retrieve the arks and Give them power. Neo acts strongly negatively claiming that HD can’t handle the power and must be stopped before the power corrupts him and causes a black hole to form that could suck in the entire planet. 
Neo attempts to chase after HD as he is compelled by the arks despite his status of being. HD takes all the arks and enters Babylon garden becoming corrupted. Neo angrily enters the black hole HD creates and takes Sonic’s identity to take him down. 
With everything seemingly finished for Neo with all the arks being returned to Babylon Garden Neo awakens almost dead in the ruins of Crimson Crater, from there he finds a teleporter to Babylon Garden. The story ends with him approaching a mysterious machine and laughing.
=== Dark Campaign ===
Picking up from where the Tyrant ending left off, Neo plans to send a Shadow android into the past using a time machine in Babylon Garden to kill Amy Rose and prevent her from taking the ark of the cosmos so he could have stopped SCR-HD and taken control of the large robot army. 
After going on a practice run the Shadow Android is sent back using the dangerous prototype which initially sends him too far back to the 80’s. However after Shadow generates enough speed from the ark, he’s then sent back to the events of the first Sonic Riders. 
Now registered in the first EX World Grand Prix he’s confronted by Rouge who believes that he’s the real Shadow. Not knowing how to act the android tries his best to blend in while slowly taking everyone out of the races. 
He decides to take out Sonic last so he can use him to lure out Amy. In the end Shadow forces Amy into a Dark Tower and proceeds to kill her making Neo’s plan successful.
=== Chaotix Campaign ===
The Chaotix story starts where the first major difference from the original timeline taking place in Botanical Kingdom when SCR-GP’s partner was killed by Jet. Vector is seen trying to walk through the area with the intention of fixing a big headache he has. Upon doing so he comes across the robot and the ark of the cosmos. During this instance he takes the ark to examine it when SCR-GP shows up to retrieve the ark. Running away Vector bumps into Espio and yells at him to run and get help immediately. 
After going through Botanical Kingdom, Vector is surrounded and accidentally activates the ark’s powers. Not knowing what’s going on or how to work it Vector misunderstands that he now has permanent invincibility and tries to fly away before finding it difficult and the ark’s gravity powers then wear off. From there Vector falls multiple stories to the ground and SCR-GP takes the ark. Espio then meets Vector where he is saying that he brought help. This help is revealed to be Silver. Immediately Silver asks Vector if he has a headache currently. While confusingly Vector replies yes, Silver begins to hypothesize that the future may have been altered somehow as known effects of being in an event that was somehow altered or changed can give one a severe headache and mild uncomfortability. 
With Espio and Vector believing that this could be what hesuggests, Silver also explains that his psychokinetic powers can trace where the changes are if the timeline really was altered. They make their way to Aquatic Capital where they start to believe that a large part of this has to do with the arks, as they have a large power source and likely could be exploited. Espio also mentions that the robots were seen on the news going after the arks. The 3 then find a nearby robot who Silver destroys using his psychokinetic powers. After examining the robot and taking it’s ark, they find that MeteoTech is likely the one’s behind this and that going to their headquarters (Crimson Crater) is the best way to deal with this.  
At the headquarters they find Team Heroes, Babylon and Eggman but decide to stay unseen to them. During their conversation Neo brakes into the room with an army of SCR’s and takes the arks for himself and then proceeding jumps out of the room’s window and gravity dives toward Babylon Garden. This like before begins to create a black hole. The Chaotix try to stop this by making it to The Mobius Strip but are thrown off course by each other’s clumsiness. 
Instead the 3 find themselves in Astral Babylon and begin to notice that the black hole is no longer active. After searching through Astral Babylon the Chaotix find an SCR-GP bringing a Shadow Android into a machine which seemingly sends him back in time. After SCR-GP leaves, The Chaotix decide to use the machine to go back.
Although at first they mess up going too far back to the 90’s, once they generate enough speed they are sent back to the events of the first Sonic Riders. While they take a few minutes to get adjusted they do find Shadow talking nervously to Rouge. With a race about to start they agree to keep a close eye on him. 
Shadow begins to grow more frustrated as The Chaotix are preventing him from taking out any contestants. During the final race, Sand Ruins Shadow decides to kill Sonic despite it not being part of his mission,while Rouge tries to distract The Chaotix. This trick doesn’t work however and as Shadow reveals his plan to kill Amy to Sonic before The Chaotix jump in and save Sonic. The 3 fight and Silver gets heavily injured. After this they find that Sonic & Amy are hiding in The Egg Factory, which Shadow goes to, in order to complete the mission of killing Amy and a weakened Sonic. 
There Vector catches Shadow and throws him into the lava. However Shadow still survives having half of his robotic shell showing. All seems bad until, Silver shows up despite his injury and gets the final blow on Shadow. 
All seems well until Neo in his new form with the power of all Babylon Garden. Neo then begins to wreak havoc on the world leading The Chaotix to do one last thing, stop Neo and return to the past. After going through the Tower of Echoes and reaching Neo on Dr. Eggman’s Egg Carrier, they have one final battle. 
In the end Vector seen back in Botanical Kingdom just like before with a bad headache. This time however after running into the robot he finds a flower which he keeps. He is immediately called by Espio who scolds him for slacking off and asks for him to help him with Silver and his injuries. 
Vector agrees to join them and on his way out of Botanical Kingdom is challenged to a race by the real Shadow and Rouge. The game ends with them racing away as the screen fades to black and the credits play.
== Development ==
Early on it was revealed that addition to the two campaigns from the original game another is going to be featured in which you play as SCR-HD, SCR-GP and Neo (described as a new take on Neo Metal Sonic). Although this third person was originally thought to be a Shadow Android as a teaser trailer was leaked. In this trailer Shadow uses the Ark of the Cosmos in addition to his fighting skills to take out a group of SCR-GP models. At the end of the trailer Neo calls out saying "Now it is our time to rise!" . It was also revealed that the campaign will feature the entire game from the perspective of the SCR models.
== Gameplay ==
=== Characters ===
==== Returning ====
* Sonic the Hedgehog - Grind
* Miles "Tails" Prower - Air Ride
* Knuckles the Echidna - Bike
* Amy Rose - Grind
* Jet the Hawk - Grind
* Wave the Swallow - Air Ride
* Storm the Albatross - Bike
* Dr. Eggman - Bike
* Cream the Rabbit - Air Ride
* Rouge the Bat - Air Ride
* Shadow the Hedgehog - Grind
* Silver the Hedgehog - Air Ride
* Blaze the Cat - Grind
* SCR-GP - Wheel (Power)
* SCR-HD - Wheel (Flight)
* Amigo - Grind
* NiGHTS - Air Ride
* Billy Hatcher - Bike
* Super Sonic - Self Gear (All Types)
==== New Additions ====
* Neo - Grind
* Vector - Bike
* Shadow Android - Skates (Can Change Type due to gear)
* Espio - Skates (Speed)
* Tikal - Yacht (Flight)
* Charmy - Wheel (Flight)
* Big - Yacht (Power)
* Ulala - Grind
* Aiai - Yacht (Power)
* Opa-Opa - Self Gear (Flight)
=== Survival Mode ===
In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Special Edition), there is a game mode returning from it's 2008 counterpart known as "Survival Mode". This mode has three special games that can be played with other players or against the computers: Survival Battle, Survival Relay and Survival Ball.
* Survival Battle entails each player to use Gravity Control in certain spots of the level to slam objects into opponents, mainly missiles. The mode consists of a rather small arena-type field where 6 players are to knock each other out by aiming missiles through Gravity Control.
* Survival Ball mode is, simply put, a football game on Extreme Gear. Players score points by using Gravity Control to launch the ball through point hoops. 
* Survival Relay is basically a relay race where 2-6 players make a team(s) riding a single Extreme Gear, using it as a baton to pass on to the next character.
=== Courses ===
As of now there are a total of 16 (possibly 17) courses in the normal racing gameplay mode; eight areas with two tracks in each indicated below by sharing the same numbers.
Heroes	Babylon	Tyrant	Dark	Chaotix
# Megalo Station
# Botanical Kingdom
# MeteorTech Premises
# Aquatic Capital
# Gigan Rocks
# Crimson Crater	2. Nightside Rush
3. Snowy Kingdom
4. MeteorTech Sparkworks
5. Tempest Waterway
1. Gigan Device
6. Security Corridor
7. Mobius Strip (Master Core: ABIS)
- '90's Boulevard	
* Crimson Crater
* MeteorTech Sparkworks
* Gigan Device
* Tempest Waterway
* Nightside Rush
* Snowy Kingdom
* Megalo Station
* Botanical Kingdom
* MeteorTech Premises
* Gigan Rocks
* Aquatic Capital
* Security Corridor
* Mobius Strip (Master Core: ABIS)
1. Meteor Grave (New)
* Astral Babylon	
# Abandoned Junkyard (New)
# '80's Boulevard
# Splash Canyon (SR)
# Ice Factory (SR)
# Ocean Palace (New)
# Haunted Highway (New)
# The Egg Carrier (New)
# Dark Desert (SR)
# Black Corridor (New)	
* Botanical Kingdom
* Aquatic Capital
* Security Corridor
* Astral Babylon
2. '90's Boulevard
3. Red Canyon (SR)
5. Storm Ruins (New)
6. Sky Trail (New)
8. Sand Ruins (New)
4. Egg Factory (SR)
9. Tower of Echoes (New)
7. Night Fortress (Master Core: Edge of the Universe)
Survival Courses -
Survival Ball	Survival Battle
* MeteorTech Arsenal
* Botanical Cave
* Megalo Junction	
* Gravity Pit
* Labyrinth
* Square Quartet
=== Gravity Actions ===
This game includes the abilities that all playable characters used throughout the entire original game. By gaining Gravity Points to fill up the characters' GP Gauge through tricks and other actions, they will enter a zero-gravity zone and be able to perform two new moves:
Gravity Dive; which sucks the character towards a black hole further down the track, giving them a speed boost which tosses nearby objects off the track and into the air which characters are able to slide into to gain more speed.
Gravity Control; which changes the gravity of the course; this enables the use of the Ark of the Cosmos to shoot the player forward a short distance (as well as skipping through the stage music for a "wild" effect). Once activated, the world around the player slows down and the player is given a bit time to launch towards a new platform only accessible through the control.
== Cast ==
Role 	Voice Actor (Original)	Voice Actor (Re-Done)
Sonic 	Jason Griffith 	Roger Craig Smith
Tails 	Amy Palant 	Kate Higgins
Knuckles 	Dan Green 	Travis Willingham
Amy 	Lisa Ortiz 	Cindy Robinson
Jet 	Jason Griffith 	Michael Yurchak
Wave 	Bella Hudson 	Kate Higgins
Storm 	Dan Green 	Travis Willingham
Dr. Eggman 	Mike Pollock 	
Shadow 	Jason Griffith 	Keith Silverstein
Rouge 	Kathleen Delaney 	Karen Strassman
Silver 	Pete Capella 	Quinton Flynn
Blaze 	Bella Hudson 	Laura Bailey
Cream 	Rebecca Honig 	Michelle Ruff
SCRs 	Andrew Paull 	Keith Silverstein
Newsreporter 	Dan Green 	Troy Baker
Mothercomputer 	Bella Hudson 	Michelle Ruff
Neo 	 	
Steve Blum 	 	
Vector 	 	
Keith Silverstein 	 	
Espio 	 	
Troy Baker 	 	
Tikal 	 	
Michelle Ruff 	 	
Charmy 	 	
Colleen O'Shaughnessey	 	
== Gallery ==
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