Sonic Free Riders

Players control the board by standing with their feet parallel to the screen, like they're on a snowboard. Bending at the waist makes the board turn. This is honestly what takes the most amount of time to perfect because my body naturally wanted me to turn like I was riding a snowboard. Players can activate boost by kicking their leg out like they're on a skateboard. Crouching and jumping straight into the air makes the rider do tricks off the jumps. Each weapon has a specific motion control as well. The bomb is thrown like a football, the bowling ball is bowled, etc. Rings are scattered on the course, and as players collect them their board will level up, increasing in speed as the race progresses. Getting hit with weapons causes players to lose some rings, which can level down the board.

Sonic Free Riders also features bikes, which players control by standing facing the screen and holding their arms out like they're gripping handlebars. Kicking out still activates boost and all the items control the same. I found the bikes to be tiring on my arms, but on the plus side I was totally able to play the game while sitting on a stool.

The motion controls all worked just fine as long as I was doing exactly what I needed to. Simple things like not throwing with the same arm that the on screen character was using would cause it not to work. It was a bit frustrating at first, like having a game tell me I didn't press the X button in quite the right way. But once I got into the groove and retrained myself to play the game the way it was telling me to, it all became a lot more fluid and easy. I've played the previous Sonic Riders games, and this is definitely the most fun I've had with the series. It brought back fond memories of playing Top Skater in the arcades.
Free Riders' story mode is broken up in a variety of missions. Each team has their own set of missions, though they're all very similar to each other. They're sort of extended tutorials. Players learn the various skills the rider has before building up to full races. It's broken up in a way that works for this game. Instead of just doing race after race I got to do more specific challenges between them, like collecting rings, or using the special moves.