Game Review: Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed

Developer: Sumo Digital

Publisher: Sega

Genre: Racing

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U (reviewed on), Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita, iOS, PC

 Even though I never owned a Sega Megadrive when I was younger, I used to love Sonic the Hedgehog. I had Sonic bed sheets, lamp shade, curtains, watched the cartoons and read the UK Sonic the Comic for some time, yet I only ever had a single Sonic game, which was arguably the best one: Sonic CD.

Before people think I'm seeking sympathy, I’ll get on with the actual review of the game. Sega’s been in an odd position since they stopped making consoles, always sort of there in the middle distance as they make people excited for the joys of yesteryear making a return before the release of a new Sonic game. Sega’s history is so much broader and more interesting than just its high speed blue rodent and thankfully Sumo Digital stepped in to prove that with this Sega crossover racer.

As the game’s title suggests, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is based on Sega’s many properties with a slight bias towards that hedgehog, letting players take control of Karts driven by Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose and Eggman/Dr Robotnik or if they really must, they can play as characters like AiAi (Super Monkey Ball), Beat (Jet Set Radio), Amigo (Samba de Amigo), Ulala (Space Channel 5), Vyse (Skies of Arcadia) and Joe Musashi (Shinobi). Depending on the platform, there are also exclusive characters such as the Nintendo Miis, Xbox Avatars and even a few of the Team Fortress 2 characters along with spontaneous additions of Wreck-it Ralph from the Disney film of the same name and former Indycar and current NASCAR driver Danica Patrick (likely because she’s the only person to lead the Indy 500 and possess a pair of tits).

So we have the characters and we have the environments covering everything from Panzar Dragoon to Golden Axe to Jet Set Radio mixed in with about five Sonic the Hedgehog based tracks. But next to the mighty Mario Kart, what does Sonic Transformed have that Mario doesn’t? Well, it has three things:

First, each character’s vehicle has three forms that it’ll automatically shift into depending on the track. First is the normal car with the usual abilities to power slide around corners to gain speed boosts and do flips over jumps to gain even more speed boosts. Then you dive off the end of the track and the car will transform into either a plane or a boat depending on the environment ahead. Each form handles differently, with planes rolling, banking and diving all over the place to attack and avoid attacks while boats have to handle dynamic waves though handle slightly sluggishly. The handing over all is very responsive and easy to pick up and enjoy.

Next is the tracks themselves. Think you’ll do three laps over the exact same track? In a number of cases, the tracks will actually change between laps, flooding areas that were dry the previous lap or blowing up bridges and forcing you into the air. Keeping up with the track is every bit as much of a challenge as racing and fending off your opponents.

Speaking of fending off, number three reason. Mario Kart has become a bit bloated with power ups that screw up anyone who dares to lead for more than a minute. While I’m as unhappy about the likes of Bizarre Creations (Project Gotham Racing and Blur) and Black Rock Studio (Split Second) got shut down, what I am pleased about is that the developers there found work with Sumo Digital and brought their expertise and capacity to balance powers to this game. Power ups in Sonic Transformed are balanced almost perfectly, quite similarly to how they were in Blur, with no one item being dominant or capable of ruining someone’s day to the point of being completely uncompetitive. Snow balls can be fired individually or all at once to freeze an opponent, rockets bounce off walls as the Blowfish mine does if it’s fired forwards and rather than the ever annoying ‘leader aimed blue shell’, you can summon a swarm of wasps ahead of the leaders which can be navigated but requires a lot of skill and luck to do so. The power ups aren't perfect though as there’s literally no warning to incoming attacks in a number of cases and the AI takes massive advantage of that fact, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Sonic Transformed supports plenty of options to play, including a career mode which consists of races, head to head matches, drift challenges and running battles with tanks which reward you stars to progress through the career and unlock new characters. There are also Grand Prix, single race and time trial modes a long with online and split screen multi player.

There are four difficulties to play in the career and grand prix modes, with ‘C’ and ‘B’ class being a bit on the easy side while ‘A’ and ‘S’ provide a greater challenge, but sometimes at the expense of feeling a bit cheap. For example, I normally play as Vyse for his speed and reasonable handling, yet on ‘A’ difficulty I've found myself beaten in a straight line by Amy Rose, whose car stats clearly show she has low top speed. I asked a friend of mine who worked on the game’s balance and it turns out I'm a bit of a namby pamby according to him.

The online play on the Wii U version was a bit spotty for me, occasionally dropping connection midway through a race though that could ultimately be down to rural broadband. The split screen player for Wii U however is excellent, giving players not four but five player action with the use of the Gamepad.

Overall, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is a very good, solid game with plenty to see and do. It is disappointing there’s no gallery for environments or music (I could listen to the remixed Golden Axe theme all day), but it is the perfect example to hold up to Nintendo and show them that Mario Kart isn’t the only game worth playing in the Kart genre.

Verdict: Buy!

Images sourced from BRCU Computers, IGN, Sega and Gamexplain