Racing games are plentiful across various platforms and franchises. Mario Kart is to Nintendo what Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is to SEGA, and if you’re a Sonic fan, you will be eating well with the latest racing game from the franchise. I was able to go hands-on with the game for an hour at Summer Game Fest, and can confidently say that if you are looking for a new competitive game to play with friends or at parties, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will fit the bill.
The world of Sonic is decades old, so there is absolutely a ton of content to pull from in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. There will be 23 starting racers, 45 original vehicles, 70 tools to upgrade or change them, 24 tracks and 15 crossworlds, but more on that later. Obviously, I played as Sonic to start, but I also played as Cream and Cheese because nothing could possibly be cuter.
I will admit, I am not a die-hard Sonic player, so many of the characters are unknown to me, but with 23 to start, and more to come through season passes and updates, I am sure there are characters for everyone. They have even announced Minecraft characters, bringing Steve, Alex, and Creeper, and characters from Like a Dragon, Persona and more.
“If you are looking for a new competitive game to play with friends or at parties, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will fit the bill.”
Jumping into the game, I was first able to customize my vehicle, referred to in-game as a machine. Machines fall into several categories: speed, acceleration, handling, power and boost. After choosing a starter machine, I could begin customizing it. This went beyond just picking a style or colour. Cosmetically, I could add stickers, place them wherever I wanted, and even adjust their size.
More notably, there are gadgets you could use which take up 1-3 slots. You have three slots in total, but the more powerful a gadget is, the more slots it takes. These can affect things like how many items you can hold, how your speed works, what kind of items you get, ring characteristics, changes to your drifting and more. You can really design your machine to suit your playstyle, including stacking up item bonuses, or even boosts to things you don’t excel at—it’s me, and it’s drifting.
Once my machine was all decked out, I jumped into my first Grand Prix. There were a few to choose from, but of course, I had to go with the one that included Rainbow Garden—definitely not Rainbow Road, which was paired with two other tracks. The Grand Prix consists of three races and follows standard arcade racing formulas for the most part.
I raced against multiple NPCs, and I’ll be honest—there was a bit of a learning curve, and I was pretty terrible at first. However, by the third race, I started to get the hang of drifting—it’s surprisingly important in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Once I was in the swing of things, I began placing better, which made me want to keep playing.
Items in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds are very similar to other racing games, including those in the Sonic series. There are shields to protect you, Wisps that do various things like boost, and Rocket Punches. This time around, there are also things like Monster Truck, which allow you to smash through your opponents. Learning their names and how to use them all to my advantage would certainly take more than the hour I was allotted, however.
“Anyone who loves arcade-style racing or great party games will get a kick out of what Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is bringing to the table.”
Where I think Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is really interesting is in its “crossworlds” mechanic. Essentially, throughout the race, the player in first place will hit a Travel Ring. When this happens, the entire race will be transported elsewhere, machines and all. This means you could be teleported to completely different terrain, and even different vehicles to match it.
For instance, moving from a car on a normal track to an aircraft for an aerial track. It certainly keeps you on your toes. I wasn’t as skilled at flying mechanics as I am at others, so it could make or break a race if I got tossed in like that. Transporting from ground to hovercraft to flying can really change the way Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds plays!
Playing the game at Summer Game Fest 2025 was a blast, but I can tell there is a lot more to Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds than I was able to grasp in my short playthrough. Not only fans of SEGA and Sonic—and Minecraft— but anyone who loves arcade-style racing or great party games will get a kick out of what Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is bringing to the table.
- READY, SET, WARP! Race across 24 tracks and warp to 15 CrossWorlds with Travel Rings, a unique gameplay mechanic that transports the iconic characters from the Sonic and SEGA universes into new dimensions. Use unpredictability to your advantage as you change the landscape of each race!
- RACE WITH THE BEST! Choose from 23 iconic Sonic characters, the largest roster of any Sonic racing game!
