Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is the latest racing spin-off title under the Sonic the Hedgehog series, ditching the “Team” from the title to put the focus back into a purer kart racing experience for all to enjoy.
Off the burning heels of Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds proves that the blue blur can still go toe-to-toe with Nintendo’s finest, giving players a robust and fun-to-play kart racer that sets the standard for future efforts. Featuring 23 playable characters and 24 main tracks, not including 15 Crossworld gimmick levels, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, even without its promised free DLC, has a ton of content to keep players busy.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds feels like a return to form for the Sonic Racing series, giving fans of Sonic the Hedgehog a more pure feeling Kart racer experience when compared to Sonic’s last Tag Team efforts. Thankfully, for those who liked the team-focused races of the prior game, CrossWorlds features a robust Race Park mode. Race Park mode features plenty of tag team options for party play, which encourages players to work together while playing aggressively against the opposing players in a bid for more rings, granting teams a significant speed boost.
Changing tracks back to the main game, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ main gimmick revolves around stages that bleed into each other, à la Paramount-style Ring portals, which in practice result in some very cool and interesting set pieces during every race. Race tracks in the game run the gamut of iconic levels from the Adventure games, Sonic Heroes, Colors and even All Stars and both Sonic Frontiers and Shadow Generations. In other words, if you’re a fan of modern Sonic games, you’ll feel right at home with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds‘ selection of tracks.
“Off the burning heels of Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds proves that the blue blur can still go toe-to-toe with Nintendo’s finest…”
Despite the variety of levels made available to the player, there are aspects of some stages within Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds that feel somewhat contrived, specifically stages like the Sonic Colors Mall. Instead of feeling like a level inspired by said game, it feels like a shameless copy of Mario Kart’s Coconut Mall. Similarly, the haunted pirate ship level present in the game feels a little too close to the ship graveyard in Mario Kart World.
Even still, there is a lot to enjoy in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and racing through tracks that can shift into completely different levels on the fly is a truly fun and interesting gimmick that keeps races feeling fast and frenetic. Item pick-up and power-ups also feel much more substantial than previous games, as particle effects and other over-the-top elements add to the already often overstimulating kaleidoscope of colours that fill the screen as karts fly by.
Unfortunately, despite the undeniable charm, items still feel somewhat generic, unable to match the iconic nature of what other kart racers have in stock. Even as a big Sonic fan, it took me a few hours to fully grasp just what I was throwing at other racers during matches, which early on felt akin to the “Random Bullshit Go” Moon Knight meme, which, in truth, was fun in its own right.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds features both traditional karts and the return of hoverboards, which haven’t been seen since Sonic Riders, making for an exciting addition to a modern Sonic racing game. Furthermore, both karts and boards are fully customizable, featuring interchangeable parts, decals, and colour schemes that allow players to craft their kart or board of choice. On the topic of decals, like its upcoming DLC roster of third-party cartoon characters, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds features some rather unique brand inclusions, such as ASUS, Alienware, Hi-Chew, and even Beyblade, which ultimately gives CrossWorlds even more personality.
Outside of the karts and hoverboards, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds offers some fairly robust customization options for your overall stats, including the ability to unlock modifiers that improve the overall handling of your vehicle, such as negating the effect of losing rings when you hit obstacles, or even starting with your choice of power-up in a race. Certain characters also have unlockable skins, although it seems to be limited to specific heroes, such as Sage.
The differences in kart and hoverboard styles, paired with the characters themselves, all contribute to a diverse feeling racer where your choices seem to matter beyond cosmetics. They impart each player with a distinct weight and feel that can mean the difference between a win and a loss.
“Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds feels like a return to form for the Sonic Racing series, giving fans of Sonic the Hedgehog a more pure feeling Kart racer.”
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds features an interesting rivals mechanic, where the player is assigned a specific character during cups or single events that must be beaten in order to unlock bonus tickets, which then can be spent to unlock customization gear, the ability to redo races during a cup, and even a special character once players have beaten every rival character in the game.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds features an impressive soundtrack with tracks inspired by many a Sonic game, including the theme to Sonic R, one of the most nostalgic throwbacks when it comes to Sonic and Racing. On the topic of sound design, although most of the downloadable content is still unavailable to me during the review window for CrossWorlds, I can say that Hatsune Miku is indeed playable and is fully voiced. This includes a cute rendition of the main game theme song upon completing a race. Hopefully, the same can be said about the other upcoming characters that SEGA has the rights to.
Finally, in terms of performance, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds utilizes Unreal Engine 5, which, at least on PlayStation 5 Pro, runs consistently at 60fps, with only the slightest hitch on occasion during transitional scenes during races, but nothing that impedes playability or immersion. With the promise of cross-play support, it will be interesting to see how CrossWorlds translates to other platforms upon release.
Ultimately, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a solid kart racer and the best in the series since Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. If I had to nitpick, I do wish the base roster would include more SEGA properties, such as Super Monkey Ball and Shenmue, or even recent hits like the Shinobi reboot or the upcoming Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi sequel.
- 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!
