Driving Around At The Speed Of Sound
HIGH Excellent handling and a lot of customization.Â
LOW Lack of modes and unbalanced items.
WTF Sega needs to renew an agreement with Ferrari so we can get a new OutRun game.
Despite running faster than any car, Sonic the Hedgehog has quite a background in racing games. From his humble origins in the Sonic Drift titles to the much-beloved Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Segaâs Blue Blur knows his way around a set of wheels. Now, six years after his last racing experience (Team Sonic Racing) Sonic returns to the starting grid with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.Â
As an arcade racing lover and Sonic superfan, the idea of playing a brand new Sonic racer had me excited. What also piqued my interest was the fact that it was being developed by the internal Team Sonic studio (English studio Sumo Digital developed past racers) and would that it would receive contributions from developers of Segaâs Initial D arcade cabinets.Â
The presentation grabbed me right away. Par for the course for any great Sonic title, players are presented with an awesome opening cutscene set to some bombastic pop-rock. The bright aesthetic permeates throughout the menus and gameplay, with characters modeled exceptionally well, and even fully-voiced. I loved how talkative everyone is, with bits of dialogue in the character select screen and the beginning and end of each race. Thereâs also a jukebox full of great songs, including tracks from Sonic Riders and Sonic Frontiers.Â
In motion, CrossWorlds is a visual marvel, and the main gimmick comes from its titular mechanic. Basically, on the second lap of a race, the character in first place sees two portals in front of them and they choose the path they want, transporting them to a new track for that lap, and returning to the main track in time for the third and final lap. This results in a random new world appearing in every race.Â
No matter whatâs chosen, each course has something awesome to look at, whether itâs a herd of dinosaurs running, a mysterious pirate ship shrouded in darkness, or wide-open fields of green grass in the distance. Sure, itâs almost expected that Sonic games feature a vibrant aesthetic and kickass music, but Iâm happy to see Sonic Team didnât slack off with this racing spinoff.Â
However, aesthetics aside, the driving is whatâs key in in racing titles. Â
Played from a third-person perspective, Sonic Racing: Crossworlds is a kart-style racer that sees players control one of 18 characters taken from across the larger Sonic series before competing in a variety of events and courses. Right off the bat the driving is exceptional, with a great sense of speed and weight in all the vehicles.Â
Cars and drivers are separated by different types: Speed, Acceleration, Handling, Power, and Boost. Each offers various strengths and weaknesses and the variety in both default and unlockable of cars is solid. There are also plenty of options to customize vehicles with different parts. Â
Rather than feeling bouncy or floaty like most kart racers, Iâd say this falls in line with something like a pure arcade experience, like Cruisân Blast (owing to the devsâ arcade roots) thanks to the cars feeling heavier than I would have expected. Drifting is responsive, with a meter building up if players can hold their drifts as long as possible. Tricks can also be done while jumping in the air, resulting in a boost when landing.Â
While I enjoyed the driving overall and trying to outmaneuver my opponents on the track, one thing I couldnât enjoy was its use of items. Like Mario Kart or other mascot kart racers, different items can be collected and used offensively or defensively. Theyâre mostly standard stuff like speed boots or items that can be thrown at players.Â
Sadly, most of these feel horribly balanced and seem to break the flow of most races. I get that rubberbanding is the name of arcade titles like this, but I played through some ridiculous instances of the AI catching up at the very last second thanks to a poorly-timed item hitting me.Â
A major surprise of CrossWorlds has been the overwhelming amount of options players have, even before setting foot on a track. Things like the customizable car parts and various combinations of items for use in a race (like offensive weapons or speed boosting gadgets) strategy to what could have been a standard kart racer. For example, my main racer was Tails, who falls under the âaccelerationâ subclass. I centered my build around improved speed, boosting, and drifting.
Another cool thing is the inclusion of rivals. Throughout each of the grand prix modes, a random character will be made the playersâ rival. At the start of the cup, thereâs a cool bit of dialogue between the two, which makes for some humorous interactions for fans of the series. Things like hearing Dr. Eggman complain about being forced to settle for battling Tails instead of Sonic is a nice treat.Â
Speaking of fans, I think absolute best part of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has to be the sheer amount of love for Sonic and Sega as a whole. Courses like Radical Highway are ripped straight from Sonic Adventure 2, complete with the music from the original, and I could have sworn one track is one ginat reference to After Burner. The âstage completeâ music from the mainline Sonic series plays after every race, and the guest characters from other related franchises are cool, with faces appearing from Yakuza, Persona, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Pac-Man coming soon via DLC.
With all of that said, at this point in the review I have to say that I do wish there were more to CrossWorlds than just racing. The main grand prix is enjoyable and the Race Park adds a lot of variety by offering things like events that reward bumping into others for a speed boost or trying to collect the most rings. However, a few more events or some supporting content like minigames or perhaps things taken from Sonicâs long history would go a good way towards making the experience feel richer.
Donât get me wrong, though â while Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds might not dethrone Marioâs racing adventures, itâs a solid racing title in its own right thanks to great handling and an overwhelming amount of options. I would have liked to see a little more supporting the package as a whole, but whatâs here must surely rank among the finest arcade-style racers from the last few years.Â
For those who absolutely gotta go fast, this one is an easy recommendation. Â
Rating: 8.5Â out of 10
Buy Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds â PC â PS â XB â SW
Disclosures: This game is published by Sega and developed by Sonic Team. It is available on PC, XBO, XBX/S, Switch/2, PS4/5. This copy was obtained via the publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 10 hours were spent in single-player, and the game was not completed. No time was spent in multiplayer.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E for Mild Fantasy Violence. According to the site: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB with Mild Fantasy Violence. Also includes In-Game Purchases. This is a kart-racing game in which players compete in whimsical racing events with characters from the Sonic universe. As players race against other drivers, they can use cartoony power-ups (e.g., spike balls, boxing-glove missiles, saw blades) to slow opponentsâ progress and knock them off balance. Being hit by a power-up causes charactersâ karts to blink red and slow down. Characters emit small cries when hitting or being hit by an obstacle (e.g., t-rexes, trucks).
Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.
Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Gamers: There are plenty of visual cues during races. All of these can be adjusted in the menu. Subtitles are present and can be resized. As no audio cues are needed for gameplay, Iâd say this is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped and there is no diagram. On PS5, X is used to accelerate, R2 is used to drift, L1 is used to activate items, and Square is used to look behind.
The post Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.
