It feels that SEGA, at some point, lost their confidence in Sonic. But now, with the release of Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, SEGA have their confidence back in spades. I, as well as many others, were disappointed with Mario Kart World, feeling that it’s open-world format lacks in content and detracts from the fun that a true kart racer like Mario Kart 8 provided. Crossworlds satisfies this desire and sets a new standard for kart racing, introducing new ideas to the table that enhance the experience rather than hinder it.
Sonic Racing: Crossworlds’ single-player campaign features 8 Grand Prix across 24 tracks, with some fan-favourite locales like Seaside Hill, Rooftop Run and Radical Highway making a return as courses. These are all awesome to see again, but not nearly as exciting as the variety of locations that make their Sonic series debut here. Sights like Rainbow Garden’s multicoloured flowerbeds and Chao Park’s rollercoasters and ferris wheels make for some amazing backdrops as you race across land, sea and air at the speed of sound.
The game’s titular world-crossing mechanic is the absolute highlight, teleporting all 12 racers to a different track for the second lap of every race, making every course entirely unpredictable. These 15 "crossworlds" ramp up the excitement to the max, both through the layout of the roads as well as the unique obstacles they present. Dragon Road has players speed down the backs of giant wooden dragons before dumping them into the water, dodging the barrages of flaming feathers shot at them by the Dark Gaia Phoenix. Meanwhile, Steampunk City requires racers to steer clear of the paths of giant trains while drifting across a series of massive cogs and soaring through the air, dodging the rising smoke from the trains’ engines.
Even after returning to the main track for the third lap of each race, Crossworlds refuses to bore its players, with every track featuring changes after players return from the chosen crossworld. For example, the once-dormant exhibits of Wonder Museum come to life on the final lap, with dinosaur skeletons chomping at racers and ancient statues firing lasers at the path. The game manages to innovate so heavily on the kart racing formula without disrupting the tried and true three-lap structure that almost every good kart racer is built upon.
In an attempt to further spice up the Grand Prix formula, Crossworlds’ single player features a Rival mechanic, where one of the 23 characters from the base game’s roster is designated as a high-difficulty opponent to provide an increased challenge. Every character has two unique interactions with each member of the base roster that take place as pre-match banter. Every character gets a chance to let their personality shine through, whether it be through Jet the Hawk’s brutal roasts, Silver the Hedgehog providing characters with insights into the future or E-123 Omega just being absolutely ruthless.
Not only does Crossworlds’ roster blow Team Sonic Racing’s measly selection of 15 characters out of the water, but the game also promises to deliver a number of new characters throughout the coming year in both free and paid DLC. These vary from SEGA IPs such as Persona and Yakuza to entirely unexpected collabs including Megaman, Spongebob and Minecraft. Sonic games rarely receive much content or support after release, but the fact that SEGA are in this one for the long run is exciting to see, and I can’t wait to see what new characters come to Crossworlds next.
For all my praise of this game, there are of course some minor issues. The online matchmaking can be unstable at times. The item balancing is slightly unfair. And it still feels like the game needs some finishing touches applied, with some animations looking stiff and post-launch characters missing voice lines. But I’d be lying if I said this isn’t the most addictive racing game I’ve played in a long while. Mario has had the upper hand for a number of years now, but when it comes to this year’s selection of racers, Sonic takes gold.