Sonic Riders released to mixed reviews from critics, but was a commercial success and was later re-released under the GameCube and PlayStation 2 bestseller lines.

[8][9] Characters can also perform a Boost, which will give them a sudden burst of speed at the cost of a significant amount of air.

[12][14] Players can spend the rings they acquire at the in-game shop to purchase new Extreme Gear, each of which possesses unique statistics and properties.

Doctor Eggman arrives and claims he can use the Chaos Emeralds to make Babylon Garden rise, asking for the Rogues' help in retrieving them.

The next day, the three heroes see Eggman on a digital billboard advertising an Extreme Gear race known as the EX World Grand Prix; participants must offer a Chaos Emerald to enter, with the winner being awarded all seven.

Jet uses the Chaos Emeralds to make Babylon Garden appear, hoping to discover the legendary treasure of the Babylonians.

Team Sonic follow them inside, where they encounter the Babylon Guardian, a giant creature tasked with protecting the treasure.

[29][18] Yuda also did not want to make a conventional racing game, instead desiring a dynamic, unique style of gameplay that would allow the player to perform tricks.

[18][31] A Game Boy Advance (GBA) version, alternatively known as Sonic Extreme was developed by Backbone Entertainment over the span of three months but never released.

[34] Yuda said the music was written to be "fast paced and give you that heart pounding feeling you should have during a high-speed race".

[34] Sonic Riders was announced in the September 2005 issue of Famitsu,[35] before being showcased at the Tokyo Game Show later that month.

[36][37][38] Prerelease reception to Sonic Riders was generally positive, albeit with some criticism towards its loose controls; Mike Jackson wrote for Official Nntendo Magazine "There's no doubt that if the handling is tightened up, this will be a very cool racer.

[39] NGC Magazine was more positive about the game, comparing it favorably to SSX (2000) and considering it a more fun experience than Kirby's Air Ride (2003, which they scored 51%).

[40] IGN noted some pop-in on the PS2 demo, but that both it and the GameCube versions were otherwise identical, also stating "what we saw of Sonic Riders suggests that a fun, original racer awaits.

[50] IGN was more conflicted: they praised the graphical effects and backgrounds, but were critical of the blocky geometry and blurry textures and thought it was not as pretty as competing games.

[51] Eurogamer thought the premise showed promise and worked well as races started, but found it ultimately became messy, complicated, and convoluted.

IGN wrote "Sonic Team has done a solid job of delivering on speed and anarchy" and cited the pace as making races unpredictable and fun.

[12] Eurogamer thought the speed was exciting and wrote it reminded them of the original Sega Genesis Sonic games.

GamesRadar+ called it "almost impossible... Clipping a corner or bumping into a wall can bring your 200mph screamfest to a complete halt",[51] and Eurogamer wrote it was the game's biggest flaw.

IGN believed it was an improvement from the series' previous game Shadow the Hedgehog and would be fun for Sonic fans, but was nonetheless found its design choices questionable and felt it simply existed to cash in on the popularity of snowboarding game franchises like SSX.

"[51] Sonic Riders was a commercial success; upon release, the GameCube version was the second best-selling game for the system, remaining among the top 10 until June 2006.

[62] The GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions were later branded as part of the Player's Choice and Greatest Hits budget lines.

[68] A third game, Sonic Free Riders, was released as a launch title for the Xbox 360's Kinect peripheral on November 4, 2010, with the gameplay once again altered to have players use motion controls to move around the board; critical reception to Free Riders was poor, primarily due to the unreliability of said motion controls.

[69][70] Despite their generally negative reception from critics,[12][13] the Babylon Rogues have made sporadic appearances across the Sonic series.

[73] In May 2011, an unfinished sports game titled Sonic Extreme leaked online from an Xbox development kit.

[74][75] The tech demo has Sonic and Shadow skating around in a single level filled with ramps,[76] similar to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series by Activision.

[77][78] It was developed by Vision Scape Interactive in May 2003, who produced the cutscenes for Sonic Heroes (2003)[77] and had been pitched to Yuji Naka in the hopes of creating a full game.