Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformedis a criminally underrated kart racer. The 2012 racing game features not only Sonic the Hedgehog and friends, but also a multitude of famous faces fromSegaand beyond. You had everyone from Ryo Hazuki totheFootball Manager duking it out on a variety of tracks inspired by dozens of different titles. It was a comprehensive love letter to all things Sega, and the company hasn’t reached the same kart racing heights ever since.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds stands a pretty good chance at changing that. In the same year as the excellentMario Kart World, Sonic Team is putting together a racer that not only features all of your favourite multicoloured talking rodents, but also intends to bring in loads of familiar faces from across the Sega universe. So far, we have seenLike a Dragon’s Ichiban Kasuga,Hatsune Miku, and even Steve and a Creeper fromMinecraftadded to the cast. It’s not exaggerating when it comes to the CrossWorld title, but is there a chance of this going too far?
Sonic Racing: CrossWorld’s Crossovers Need To Feel Genuine
There is a balance to be struck in building a roster of characters and stages that feels evenly distributed between classic Sonic characters - of which plenty are already announced - along with an assortment of crossovers, both Sega and otherwise. There are some deep cuts waiting on the Sonic side of things too, with characters like Jet, Silver, Zazz, and Wave all confirmed as playable characters. Joker fromPersona 5is also here. I love how each roster member is outfitted with their own distinct appearance, kart, and even music or tracks in some cases.
Team Sonic Racingwas a passable kart racer, but also incredibly boring in all the ways that would have otherwise helped it stand out.
But there is a notable contrast between filling your kart racing roster with faces from Sega’s past, present, and future and building it around more esoteric crossovers that feel far more geared around promoting other brands. When SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Avatar: The Last Airbender were confirmed as part of the season pass earlier this week, I got a little worried.
It Can’t Risk Becoming Another Nickelodeon Racer
When I first saw the Spongebob track leak for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, I was convinced it was some sort of creative mod for an older game, but this weekend’s Kids Choice Awards all but put that speculation to rest as Spongebob and Patrick were confirmed as playable racers with their own Krabby Patty vehicle and Bikini Bottom track. You don’t need a license to drive a sandwich after all. It looks incredibly fun, and there is a bizarre dissonance to seeing such an iconic cartoon character burn rubber alongside Shadow the Hedgehog.
A single Nickelodeon inclusion like this is all well and good, and considering Spongebob has helmed a number of kart racing titles of his own in the past, it also makes sense. But filling a decent amount of your digital deluxe season pass with similar properties is a bummer. I don’t think I really care about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles drifting around their iconic sewers or Aang and Korra unleashing their Avatar powers on the competition. It feels dry and oddly predictable, ruining the excitement of crossovers in a game where that’s the entire appeal.
The Nickelodeon and DreamWorks kart racers are both pretty mediocre, so if I was Sega, I’d want to put as much distance between their projects and this one as possible.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds doesn’t arrive until late September, so I have to imagine it has a number of guest characters and other post-launch support to announce, and I hope these additions are more imaginative than a very large check from Paramount. I’m hoping the finished product includes more unexpected Sega cameos like Billy Hatcher, Nights, or the entire cast of Virtua Fighter. Heck, throw Segata Sanshiro of Sega Saturn fame in there.
I just don’t want this kart racer filled with potential to eventually be defined by crossovers that long outstayed their welcome, or stop Sega from achieving its true legacy-laden potential.
