Analysis of Sonic Riders' Plot
Transcript
00:00I'm gonna be talking about the cutscenes of Sonic Riders in chronological order.
00:04Storm and Wave come into Jet's office to see the family heirloom on his desk for apparently the first time,
00:10so I guess Jet's father only recently died.
00:14Wave wants to use the heirloom in one of her experiments, and Storm keeps it away from her, saying to remember the teaching of their ancestors.
00:22So their ancestry at the end is foreshadowed, and it's cleverly passed off as Storm being an idiot,
00:29so you don't get suspicious, but you still look back on it and recognize it as foreshadowing. That's pretty well done.
00:36Eggman walks up to Jet and tells him that he wants the Babylon Roads to collect Chaos Emeralds.
00:43I guess he used spy drones to figure out where they are and how to get here.
00:48Eggman tells him what the key to the Babylon Garden is,
00:52but the game has him inexplicably whispered to Jet just for the sake of hiding the reveal from the audience.
00:59He tells him that Sonic is the fastest creature in the world, and Jet insists that in the air, he's not nearly as fast as him.
01:07Even if it's dumb, since it's the airboard that's fast.
01:11After that, Sonic chases after the Babylon Rogues on a road.
01:15He picks up an airboard, having shown no signs that he could use it beforehand,
01:20and instantly ends up being much better at it than the Babylon Rogues,
01:24who have used airboards their entire lives.
01:27As a perfect punishment for this,
01:29Jet knocks Sonic out of the sky and onto the ground, taunting him, and he leaves with Sonic being annoyed and wanting to race him.
01:37This establishes Eggman's incredible threat and legitimate rival to Sonic,
01:41because he loses in the first fight with him, unlike Surge.
01:46To be fair, we just assumed Sonic never used an airboard before because we never saw him use an airboard before.
01:54Sonic's more about being inspirational than a relatable person,
01:58but it's not really inspirational to just be natural talent because you're just that lucky.
02:05Eggman displays a message on a large television that a lot of people in the city can look up at,
02:10and explains that despite being a wanted fugitive that Gunn's searching for,
02:15he's still somehow managed to set up a Grand Prix to find out who's the best of the best with extreme gear.
02:21Like, shouldn't cops go to the Grand Prix? I guess they're too afraid of Eggman. I mean, he does have robots protecting him.
02:30I'd like to point out that Eggman looks terrible in this game.
02:33And he has an infamous line.
02:35Not just a race, but a special race to see who's the fastest!
02:40That had to be an intentional joke because even I couldn't help but laugh at hearing it.
02:44He means the fastest at extreme gear in the world,
02:48but you can't help but wonder if he looked back on what he said later and thought that sounds much better in my head.
02:53Even though the line is badly written, I still love it because it's so hilarious.
02:58By saying these races are no holds barred,
03:01that implies they're just allowed to cheat.
03:04He says that you have to pay a Chaos Emerald to enter the race,
03:08and the Babylon Rogues will be the current contestants,
03:11along with his racer robots to function as the only other possible contestants.
03:16Really, Sonic?
03:18Eggman's asking for Chaos Emeralds and Sonic's so fixated on proving he can surpass Jet that he's gonna give him Chaos Emeralds?
03:25Granted, he's got every right to be confident that it'll stop Eggman from doing anything evil with them.
03:31But still!
03:32There's being reckless and there's being irresponsible.
03:35Sonic and his friends are at a waterfall, and Knuckles wonders what Eggman is really after.
03:41Uh, obviously he's after all the Chaos Emeralds. Why are they overthinking this?
03:47Also, I should have mentioned it before, but the voice acting is pretty terrible.
03:51So Amy arrives and tells Sonic that she joined the racing tournament because it sounded exciting and fun,
03:55and she wanted an excuse to keep her eyes on Sonic.
03:59There's been much worse reasons for the Sonic characters joining a competition that involved Emeralds.
04:05Tails stares at an airboard that he customized himself and says the mark of the Babylon Rogues is on the board.
04:12Even though he customized it himself, and yet he's looking at the mark like he's never seen it before.
04:18He says that the Babylon Rogues lived on a floating island a long time ago and caused their island to be
04:23Why do we care about this exposition right now?
04:27Still, I'd like that to reverse the echidnas.
04:30It's a shame we never saw even one flashback showing the ancient Babylon Rogues civilization.
04:36Is there any point to Tails telling his friends this?
04:40Wouldn't everyone already know about this? So why is he telling them this?
04:44He's an engineer who makes futuristic inventions. Why would he care about old stuff?
04:49If he knows about this because everyone was told about this,
04:53then why don't his friends already know about this?
04:56Then Tails gives Knuckles a technobabble explanation for why the Extreme Gears can float.
05:01Cause he has a supposedly humorous cartoon reaction.
05:05But Sonic and Amy couldn't have understood the explanation either.
05:09So why didn't they react that way?
05:12The answer?
05:13Because Knuckles is being exaggerated into an idiot.
05:16They want to make Knuckles the butt of the joke and not everybody else because he's a chew toy.
05:22I always hate him being used as comedy relief.
05:25Wave shows up. And this is our most infamous scene right here.
05:30You find out in the Babylon Rogues story that she thought to herself that it was a very impressive airboard.
05:37But she still laughs at him.
05:39Why doesn't Tails ever notice that clearly visible bomb?
05:43The fact that she mocks and laughs at him alone doesn't make me hate her.
05:47It's Tails being sad and insecure about it in a later cutscene that does.
05:52It would be even sadder if it was explicitly pointed out that he's upset because she's reminding him of his bullies from before he met Sonic.
05:59Wave just looked at the outside of the board.
06:02How would that tell her anything about how well designed it is?
06:06And none of Tails' friends stand up for him while Wave is there.
06:10That's out of character.
06:12You think Knuckles would lose his temper with her and try to fight her considering what a hothead he's usually portrayed as.
06:18You think Sonic would stand up for his little brother figure.
06:21It makes Tails look like the chew toy.
06:24Friends like that
06:25aren't good friends.
06:28Knuckles even insults Tails.
06:30And tinkering's all he's really good at too.
06:32Like he's been through Sonic Heroes before, so why does he think he's only good at tinkering?
06:38Not only did he see him fly,
06:40he saw him fight Badniks too. And even if this was an alternate universe at the time,
06:45you'd think it would have seen him fight robots before.
06:49You'd think Sonic would insult him for this.
06:52So at the end of the cutscene, all the racers are called to the racing tournament.
06:57Knuckles and Storm have a physical confrontation.
07:00And they end up accidentally attacking one of Eggman's robots.
07:03But for some reason, they're unhappy at hurting the robot.
07:07And even Storm apologizes to him.
07:10That's really bizarre considering that Eggman's robots have such a bad reputation in the world and Knuckles is used to destroying robots.
07:17If he thought of them this way,
07:19how could he handle Sonic Heroes?
07:22Why would they be afraid of consequences from Eggman for this? This is like freaking out because you killed a Badnik.
07:29Why would you care if someone other than him on his team lost?
07:33All of his motivation is determined by
07:36proving that he is superior.
07:38I guess Storm's just an idiot.
07:40Wave calls Storm worthless and says that his skills just suck.
07:44She's pretty shockingly mean.
07:47Storm says that Knuckles must have cheated.
07:49And Wave takes that childishness as them insulting the airboard she made. Huh?
07:55I hate when people just jump to conclusions for no reason.
07:59I feel sorry for Storm here despite finding him an obnoxious character.
08:03Then the sheer force of Storm closing the door and leaving causes the picture of Jet's father to land on him.
08:10I love that.
08:11And now he throws a tantrum about it happening.
08:14So the slapstick has consequences.
08:17We need a lot more slapstick in the cutscenes, not just characters standing around.
08:22Jet is lying lazily in a forest while Wave is pacing back and forth nervously and complaining about Storm taking so long.
08:28Which is a good way of establishing how the two of them usually interact with each other and contrast each other.
08:34Jet somehow manages to fast forward or nag him about being irresponsible.
08:39In retrospect, this didn't literally happen. It's just I'm imagining it.
08:44Because who'd think he would do this again?
08:46This is the kind of humor that I'm glad the series never does.
08:50Jet spots Sonic doing tricks in the air in his training.
08:54Wait, why is Sonic training?
08:56He actually has the humility to think that he needs training. That's a nice change of pace.
09:01And he decides to confront Sonic for fun while the spell on Wave wears off and she complains.
09:08In a way that I find relatable.
09:10Tails goes from being happy to scared in an instant.
09:15Jet decides to taunt Sonic from the top of a tree branch.
09:19Why did Sonic say that about his rival that he's fixated on beating?
09:23I think it's just weird because you expect him to be an egomaniac.
09:27And then you remind yourself that most of the time Sonic's nice in the games.
09:32In fact, whenever I think of Sonic, the first thing I think of is nice guy.
09:36He's never respectful when he's talking about Knuckles.
09:39Tails sadly remembers Wave insulting his airboard and decides to improve it.
09:45On the one hand, I wish he had more scenes like this. Then I'd care about him.
09:49The insecure genius is so much more interesting and sympathetic of the character than the insufferable genius.
09:55It's very unique.
09:57Most of the time he's just non-stop Mr. Exposition Machine. It's really boring.
10:02The problem is this is why Wave made a huge mistake by insulting his airboard.
10:07Not only should it have been obvious, sir, that it wasn't going to make him stop using airboards, so there was no point even bothering.
10:14But insulting him is only going to increase the likelihood of him noticing the bomb.
10:18She motivated him to improve the airboard.
10:22Apparently she put it on just the right side of it.
10:26So Tails says that Wave might be right because she's a really brilliant mecha mechanic.
10:31Mecha mechanic?
10:32I don't even remember building any robots.
10:35Let alone mechas. I associate the word mecha with the stuff Eggman fights Sonic in.
10:41I guess this is awkward translation.
10:44Sonic actually comforts Tails.
10:47Something he really should do in more games instead of barely interacting with him.
10:52Coming off like they're just cops who do nothing but fight Eggman together and barely see each other aside from that.
10:58But his line delivery is so stilted that it ruins it.
11:02Tails' actor also reads the next line awkwardly.
11:06In a tone that doesn't at all match the determination he's trying to show.
11:10But to be fair,
11:11the kind of line that he got is impossible to speak in a natural way.
11:17Jet finds out what the real treasure of the rogues is.
11:21So what's the point of them finding this out early? I mean they would have found it later on anyways.
11:28I didn't know Eggman had a diary.
11:30It just confuses me that he'd have a journal when someone would be so likely to want to read it to get information on him.
11:36You'd think after he saw someone else's diary being read to somebody, it'd be a giant red flag to not do that himself.
11:44Jet was about to give up because he wasn't interested in world domination or advanced technology.
11:49But he was smart enough to listen to Wave when she said that the technology must have value because Eggman wants it.
11:55Her pager beeps in a futuristic setting.
11:58Amy's back in her red dress and says she'll be cheering Sonic on.
12:02I hate how all the emeralds look like they're made of the cheapest glass imaginable. They barely even look like themselves.
12:09They're so thin and transparent.
12:11Jet and Sonic get into a race with each other.
12:15Wave blows up Sonic's airport.
12:18So even though Tails supposedly examined Sonic's board to make sure it was working at 100%,
12:23he still didn't notice the bomb and Sonic lost the race anyways.
12:26They shouldn't have had him say that then.
12:30And Sonic looks absolutely pissed at the result, which I like. It's such a nice change of pace.
12:37It makes me tempted to call him the best rival he's ever had.
12:41Jet holds up the heirloom of his father and all the chaos emeralds start glowing in response to it.
12:46And the Babylon Garden Island rises up from the ground again and returns to the sky.
12:52Jet shows depth because he's amazed at seeing this.
12:56Then Eggman steals the heirloom with a crane and runs off.
12:59Amy jumps onto the machine Eggman uses to get away in an attempt to stop him and gets herself kidnapped instead.
13:06Everyone goes after Eggman, with Tails giving Sonic a new airboard that he made just in case Sonic's board was blown up.
13:13Huh?
13:14I guess what he was expecting was that it malfunctioned. So then why didn't he tell Sonic to use his board for the race?
13:21Well, it didn't show off how smart Wave was that she thought to cheat.
13:26It robbed us of the chance to have a rival of Sonic's win legitimately.
13:30Which would make a lot more sense because he's had a lot more experience than he has.
13:35I mean the point is it wasn't really necessary to have this happen because they're criminals.
13:40They would have tried to take the emeralds and do what they wanted regardless of whether they won.
13:46Jet and Sonic decide to race again, with Sonic saying with terrible acting,
13:51I'll show you what true speed really is.
13:53And not immediately jumping off his board and running.
13:57Everyone arrives on the island.
13:59Storm and Knuckles almost have a fight, with Wave telling Storm that it's not the time for a fight and forget the red mud.
14:06Why can't Sonic just attack the robots himself instead of running from them?
14:11So Sonic wins the race.
14:13And says an extremely memorable ridiculous line.
14:17Eggman threatens Sonic using Amy as a human shield and telling him to stay still.
14:21Sonic actually takes a pragmatic approach and creates a tornado around him to blow him and Amy away.
14:27He lets Jet catch the heirloom.
14:30And Jet says he doesn't need its pity, with stilted lines again.
14:35And Wave's pragmatic again, getting my respect.
14:38Amy actually calls Sonic out on this.
14:41And runs after him with a hammer furiously, which is one of the most infamous parts of her character.
14:47She would have really been justified if she had been injured.
14:50Instead it looks like she's overreacting because she doesn't even have a bruise on her.
14:55She says she won't forgive him this time, but she will.
14:58It's just annoying to see someone who's all talk.
15:01You'd expect his band girl to be fine with this.
15:05Because it's a decision he made.
15:07So the rogues use the heirloom to open the door to find some treasure.
15:11And everyone hears this really lame sounding sound clip that will repeat over and over.
15:19Which comes from a giant robot guardian.
15:22I love Sonic's response to this.
15:24And Sonic and his friends decide to help the Babylon rogues fight it.
15:28How did Eggman even get into the room in the first place?
15:33We didn't see the doors get blown up.
15:35It's not like he said he made himself intangible and able to float.
15:39I have to assume that he opened the doors.
15:42The robot vanishes into thin air and magically leaves the treasure chest behind.
15:46Eggman finds a carpet and at first he's happy because it's ancient and a well-made carpet, so it'll sell for a lot of money.
15:54But then he starts complaining because it's just a carpet.
15:58Where did that come from?
15:59Then it explicably faints.
16:02It's not like Eggman to faint.
16:04Especially not this easily.
16:06Jet and his friends take the carpet, revealing that's actually a flying carpet.
16:11Eggman read what was on the carpet, so why the hell didn't he figure out that it was a flying carpet?
16:17How did Tails figure out that the flying carpet was made of the exact same material as the clearly metallic extreme gear?
16:24I can get that there's only cloth on the outside.
16:27But how can Tails spot that it's no ordinary cloth from just a glance?
16:32And apparently waves spot it too, somehow.
16:36So this world has bird genies, apparently.
16:40It's a strange and unique universe, this Sonic universe, so I don't really mind.
16:46But considering how completely pointless this revelation is, it makes sense that it was completely forgotten about later.
16:52It's not like they can unlock their hidden genie powers and become overpowered.
16:57And if they did, I just wonder why they didn't kill Eggman.
17:00I still can't imagine bird people being genies, though.
17:03Because it's not like genies look like that in Sonic and the Secret Rings.
17:08Jet challenges Sonic to another race.
17:10And Storm complains.
17:12Bickering with her inexplicably.
17:15The rogues never seem to get along and just bicker for no reason.
17:18It makes me wonder why they're working together other than complete obligation.
17:23If you're gonna have your characters bicker, have them argue about things that are reasonable most of the time.
17:28Like calling each other out on their flaws and legitimately bad decisions.
17:32Everyone flies away.
17:34This is one of the last few Sonic plots I consider a good plot.
17:38It actually makes me feel something. Makes me feel sorry for Tails when he gets bullied by Wave.
17:44The cutscenes have a good sense of humor and lots of interesting things happening in them to keep you engaged.
17:48And the cutscene presentation is excellent.
17:51I think I'd prefer the plot of Zero Gravity, though. All I'm thinking at the end of it is...
17:57That was it? I mean, that's pretty underwhelming. It was literally just a race.
18:02It is a racing game, but if you're gonna introduce a bunch of new characters,
18:06they deserve a more interesting plot than just they race each other for a racing tournament.
18:11I wish the rogues were able to fly without airboards.
18:15I know it'd be redundant, but it would have come in handy if they ever lost their airboards or they ran out of fuel.
18:20What's the point of making them birds? Just have them grow wings out of their arms like Medley.