Sonic Riders/YMMV

• Broken Base: While the Riders series has gotten scathing reviews from older fans who claim it strays too far from the canon and traditional Sonic titles, there is a large section of the fandom that embraces these games for what they are (fast paced racing titles with little plot), and enjoy them because of that.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: "I'm Still a Believer" (no relation to the song "I'm a Believer").
• Dork Age: Free Riders is one for the 2010 releases.
• Evil Is Sexy: Wave, somewhat.
• Fridge Brilliance: Metropolis Speedway may be a very accurate portrayal of how a city in the future would look like. While transportation would adapt with the times, the general urban structure and architectural style of a major metropolitan area will likely remain largely unchanged, in whatever style was popular when the city had expanded to those areas. This is particularly true in western Europe, where citizens take pride in their old-fashioned appearance. Also note that roads meant for automobiles exist in this city whereas Future City does not, despite them being largely unused. In addition, this city has had to build upwards--one area of the course shows an outdoors shopping district with at least six floors stacked on top of each other, and the city has a dark lower area obscured by the very tall skyscrapers above, much like in Blade Runner and The Fifth Element.
  • A minor example that takes lots of digging to find, but in Sonic racing games people usually complain that Sonic's riding on/in something since he's supposed to be super fast already. If you start a race in Zero Gravity, going backwards (insead of forwards which is what you're supposed to do)far enough and then running forward will make the thing that measures your speed stop at a certain point, showing the character's maximum speed. Sonic's (and I'm pretty sure all the other characters' as well) is 150 MPH, Extreme Gear goes faster than that. So (in game at least) Extreme Gear actually does go faster than Sonic, justifying him using it for traveling.
    • As for him using it during races, you wouldn't run in a sack race, Sonic wouldn't run in a car race. Or in this case, he doesn't run in an Extreme Gear race unless he has to, and then he doesn't move at full speed.
    • Sonic is the kind of guy who likes to have fun and play by the rules. He sees no reason to cheat and use his supernatural abilities.
• Fridge Logic: Team Heroes is able to beat legendary professionals after riding for a week at the most.
  • Crimson Tower has no crimson in it.
• Memetic Mutation: "Even without wings, I can still fly!"
• Most Annoying Sound: GAAAAAINIIIIING MOMENTUM!
  • Here I go! Here I go! Here I go!
• Nausea Fuel: Literally. There have been complaints about Sonic Free Riders' controls causing motion sickness.
• Nightmare Fuel: Digital Dimension, due to the fact that it has both a hell area and a heaven area, the latter of which is accessed by a glowing portal. The hell area is complete with wailing, a red sky, and skeletal hands. In a mission Storm even says he's scared of the place.
  • You can destroy traffic in 80s Boulevard with gravity manipulation. If there are any semis in the area, their cabs will instantly explode, driver and all, leaving just an isolated trailer.
• The Scrappy: Omochao, the announcer for the original game and has returned in Sonic Free Riders. He is voiced by Laura Bailey in the latter, who gives it her all, making this a possible Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.