I've only played Sonic Riders Zero Gravity, but from as far as I can see, they both suffer from the issues. The controls are unorthodox and you basically have to guess how to play the game, that's not intuitive.
But as a Sonic game it seems to be one of only a few games where you can actually move fast but still have enough time to react to obstacles.
I felt like a bunch of the tracks were poorly lit and led to confusion as to where I'm going next, shortly followed by a head-on collision. At that point, you've already lost the race. Again this is from my experiences with Zero Gravity. The music is forgettable and generic "in dah future" music. While a lot of Sonic games seem to be based somewhere in the future, the music is at least themed and catchy. One of the few things in the Sonic series which most often hold up, the soundtrack, but the music you played in the review just seemed so bland in comparison.
The multi-player in Zero gravity was also quite baffling, my 2 cents from what i remember, or 2 pence
Oh good, Lion King for the Genesis...
