Rumor: Natal-compatible 'Sonic Free Riders' coming to XBLA [update: it's retail]

by David Hinkle on Jun 2nd 2010 4:30PM

Update: Sega has announced that Sonic Free Riders is, in fact, a full retail title.

On Sunday, June 13, Microsoft will host its Project Natal event -- you know, the gala event with Cirque du Soleil? We're betting we'll get details on launch price and date for Project Natal (not to mention its real name) there, but ahead of that event we've got some interesting news on an upcoming Natal title, care of our Joystiq Superspy™.

We're told that Sega is preparing an Xbox Live Arcade game for Project Natal, titled Sonic Free Riders. As you may have guessed, it's a motion-compatible entry in Sega's racing series. Players will supposedly steer an on-screen avatar via bodily movement, and will acquire weapons by reaching out toward the screen, and attack other racers by motioning towards them.

It all sounds very intuitive, but will it be fun? We'll let you know in a few weeks when we touch down in L.A. for E3 2010.

Tags: e3-2010, microsoft, project-natal, racing, sega, sonic-free-riders, xbox, Xbox-360, xbox-live, xbox-live-arcade

Reader Comments (46)

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk19/Threddd/KevinButler.gif

Haha, awesome.

Also, if Microsoft wants this thing to be anywhere near successful, it should stay away from the Sonic franchise (in its current form) by any means necessary...

Hey that guy behind Kevin is holding 2 dildos

@xombie213

Are you missing a couple from your collection?

Yea. I need them for your girl since you can't satisfy her, she asked me to buy them for her.

The idea is cool but I really need to see more on Natal. We've heard so much good yet haven't heard much about it's limitations. A lot of games we've heard about aren't worth the $150 price point to me. Can't wait for E3 to hopefully see more.

It can show you the bottom of an avatars shoe, ergo it has no limitations

But only if you wait for your avatar to stop flailing around first.

I agree....I need to see a lot more from this....at least with Move we pretty much know how it will work....I mean th Wii isn't exactly the same but it's close

Bam! There it is!!..

-_-;

Didn't we feel some sort of optimism following the Sonic 4 announcement?

And wasn't that optimism dashed to pieces when we saw gameplay footage of it?

And if you had a shred of optimism left, wasn't it complete irradiated by the announcement of Sonic Colours?

Am I the only who has played the sonic advance games for the gameboy advance that came out in the earlier half of the 2000's? Those were awesome. Sonic wasn't in a slump for as long as many people think.

Really though, what more can they do with sonic in 2d? I've loved Sonic since I was a child, but honestly it just feels like a one trick pony to me. Once you have played a few of the games it seems like you have played them all.

Sonic 4 has to be epic and I mean EPIC for me to drop some cash on it. My opinion and my 2 cents

@Gibbeynator: Actually, I'm still quite pleased with the Sonic 4 footage. Looks like old Sonic... Good Sonic.

@ Mr Esc.

Sonic Unleashed was, to use the correct British terminology, "bollocks". Two thirds of it were utter shit, the remaining non-werehog segments were shit cunningly concealed as a Sonic the Hedgehog game.

It was a wise move of Sega to release Sonic 4 on XBLA, because there is no way I would touch it if it were on disc.

Dear MS,

I don't give a rats ass about Natal or "new age" sonic games. Speed up the development of Sonic 4 and Sonic Adventure. Release them both on a retail disc for $60. I will pre-order and pay for it.

signed,
me.

Dear Carpe,

Sega makes Sonic games. Not Microsoft.

Love,

How do you not know this?

I meant Natal in general, hence the MS tag. I figure they could force Sega to do whatever they wish at this point anyways. Obviously I'm aware of the fact that sega develops sonic games.

And yes I would pay $60 for that. SA is one of my favorite games of all time and remains the only reason my DC is hooked up to my living room tv.

Love the downvotes lol. Y'all must either love Natal or not appreciate Sonic Adventure. Oh well.

@CarpeD1em500

Or think your comments sound like a 3rd grader writing an essay on how Crayola needs to invent more colors.

" I figure they could force Sega to do whatever they wish at this point anyways."

And how do you figure that? This isn't IW and Activision we're talking about. Sega makes games for all platforms, therefore MS would have no right to "MAKE" them do anything.

Advice:

Think before you comment. If you're unaware of "FACTS" then look them up before posting. You make yourself sound like a moron.

"Love the downvotes lol. Y'all must either love Natal or not appreciate Sonic Adventure. Oh well."

Comments like these won't do anything but add more fade to the thread, so just stop.

I hope this is true, just because I want to see some guy on stage try to hype that up.

I want to see people get in balls in their homes (or on stage) and roll around to play the game. Oh, and I want to see them try to walk afterwards too!

WHY???

*Cautious* I actually quite enjoyed sonic riders, mainly for splitscreen.

Then you'll absolutely love Modnation Racers! Me and my bro have been playing splitscreen ONLINE for days! It really is crazy that no other racing game has been able to pull splitscreen online games off like this...

Preaching to the choir.

Sounds very eyetoy.

Really. Sounds a lot like Antigrav or even some bits of Sega's own eyetoy games.

If all MS's skeletal tracking tech will enable is those same kinds of move/punch/kick type games, it'll have been an awful lot of fancy tech investment for an awfully incremental experience vs eyetoy. We'll see though.

My first reaction to this was also to think of Antigrav for the EyeToy.

This does sound like Antigrav. Which is great, 'cause I loved Antigrav! If this is basically a version of Antigrav that works in low-light conditions, it'll make buying Natal entirely worth it.

If Microsoft doesn't find a way to deliver a shooter that puts us "in the game" with Natal, it will be a failure. These hoverboard racing gimmicks are nice... but you know what we really want...

I wouldn't mind looking like a douche riding a hoverboard, as long as it isn't a sonic game.

Actually, I think MS needs to stay away from shooters on Natal. It's probably possible, but I just don't see it being done well, especially not at launch.

Can't wait for this event. Let's see what this Natal thing has going for it. Tired of the hype behind it.

Seriously, do we really need another motion-controlled Sonic game?

*glares at Sonic & The Secret Rings*

Aye. No secret rings bashing will be tolerated here.

The game was definitely at its best with the Sega nostalgia stages. Those had some good music, and great features.

It's official. Natal is a $150 Eyetoy.
http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/en/c/c5/EyeToy_Antigrav.jpg

win

Because two terrible Sonic Riders games weren't enough, Sega's going for the hat-trick!

And this time you'll need an expensive peripheral to see how bad it is for yourself.

That's where the magic of YouTube comes in!

Wow. This sounds like...not much fun, really.

http://autofire372.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/failboat.jpg

So it's like Tony Hawk RIDE, but worse in every way. Sounds like a recipe for success!

I would love to hear the elevator pitch for this that got it approved. Love to.

The thing that seems to be overlooked is this is a 10-15 dollar XBLA game not a full blown release. This could be strategy of Microsoft going forward is to create a place on XBLA for these mini game collection instead of flooding the retail space with these type of games. It is less risk for the publishers and the retailers if they go this route.

Rumor: Natal-compatible 'Sonic Free Riders' coming to XBLA [update: it's retail]

Reader Comments (46)

Posted: Jun 2nd 2010 4:36PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Jun 2nd 2010 4:39PM Wiizer said

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Posted: Jun 2nd 2010 4:49PM Grey said

Posted: Jun 2nd 2010 5:04PM Grand Kerfuffle said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2010 6:28AM AGBear said

Posted: Jun 2nd 2010 4:44PM CarpeD1em500 said

Posted: Jun 2nd 2010 5:06PM Bubbameister33 said

Posted: Jun 2nd 2010 5:28PM CarpeD1em500 said

Posted: Jun 2nd 2010 9:11PM CarpeD1em500 said

Posted: Jun 3rd 2010 12:47AM OzCueball said

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