Sonic the Hedgehog continues to move along in the game industry, using that ever-faithful blast processing to get from point A to point B in a matter of seconds. Sure, his nemesis Shadow the Hedgehog had a bit of a bumpy ride last year with his own lackluster game, but that didn't stop Sonic Team from trying again, this time in the racing arena. For the first time since the old Sega Saturn favorite Sonic R, Sonic Team's heroes and villains are going head-to-head for some fast-paced racing in Sonic Riders, which is shaping up to be pretty good, as I was able to get some hands-on time with the game.

In the game, you choose from a number of characters, both good and evil, who have different abilities that come into play with keeping up in each race. Sonic has super-fast speed bursts that will be quite useful in keeping up with the competition; Tails is able to fly in certain parts of the game, avoiding troublesome debris on the road; and Knuckles can pound his way through traffic, so a car won't put him in a sudden halt. No matter who you choose, though, each character seems to control pretty well.

The game lets you maintain speed one of two ways. You can either earn powerful boost time by doing tricks once you reach certain ramps within the game (sort of like how EA's SSX games did it, or you can ride in a "slipstream" left behind by fellow racers, allowing you to keep up on a frantic pace if you've somehow fallen behind a place. Using both of these together almost guarantees that you won't fall behind, although the two tracks we took part in had enough twists and turns to easily fall back if you didn't use the sharp turning feature with the L1 and R1 buttons.

Sonic Riders features some very nice graphic detail. In one stage, we rampaged through a futuristic city with buildings and structures throughout- sort of a metropolis that was built by Dr. Robotnik himself. The second was a lush tropical jungle with leaves and dangers about, including a ride mid-way through the race on a gigantic flying bug that forces you to keep your balance by frantically rotating the control stick. The graphics don't seem to be a big issue here, even on the PS2, which has seen weak Sonic releases in the past.

The only thing I can see that might throw off some players at this point is the competitive AI. The game seems build for an all-ages audience but, from the demo I played, I noticed that the AI seemed very aggressive. I mean, it's not like I was getting knocked all over the screen, but on a few occasions, I found myself in seventh place, trying to catch up frantically. However, after settling in a little bit with the gameplay and getting a hang of the simple trick system once you get airborne, I found it getting better and better and soon moved up in the ranks. Besides, if racing against the computer isn't your bag, you can always take advantage of the split-screen multiplayer, which looks to be fun.

Sonic Riders is set to arrive later this month across the board for home consoles. We'll be back with a full review and several pairs of burnt-out shoes. Aww, not my Adidas!