Sonic Riders[a] is a racing video game developed by Sonic Team and Now Production and published by Sega for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. In the game, the player controls characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series on hoverboards and competes against opponents—either controlled by computers or other players—in races and battles. The game was released in February 2006 in Japan and North America, with a European release following the next month and a Windows version at the end of the year. A Game Boy Advance version developed by Backbone Entertainment was canceled.