Sonic Riders - Ice Factory

Here's the Babylon counterpart, the Ice Factory. Most of the Babylon stages take place at some other time of day than the Heroes stages, though there's no way to tell for sure here, as the Egg Factory is completely indoors. Instead, it seems that Eggman's robot manufactory has frozen up somehow (Eggman is certainly not happy about this), which makes for an even tougher course than the white-hot Egg Factory. This is the longest racetrack in the game, and the Replay gets cut off because it can only go up to 3 minutes 30 seconds, including the introduction.

This is where the Babylon stages start to diverge from the Heroes stages in layout. Everything up to the the second jump is similar, but from then on, it's all new material. At least until you get back to the final hairpin turn. In addition, the surface is pretty slick here, and steering can be a bit more difficult than usual.

The character I'm using here is Storm the Albatross, the third and last member of the Babylon Rogues. He's got a deep gruff voice and isn't too bright, but he's really powerful. He can't fly, despite him being waterfowl, I suppose because he's so heavy. His goggles make him look like Batou from Ghost in the Shell. He's a Power character, which means he can knock down small obstacles and not slow down, but this stage has the advantage for Speed characters. That's why I have him use the Broom, which, for reasons I can't explain, allows the boarder to grind on rails regardless of the character type.

Amy's performance in this race is an example of the cruelty the computer players can inflict upon you. She catches up real fast AND nabs the 100-Ring monitor, instantly upgrading her to Level 3 abilities (faster, better turning, better recovery, and more powerful attacks). It's very tough to get into this game because the computer players use every tactic against you from the start, and if you're not aware of everything from the get-go, they'll punish you.