Sonic: Now a Speedster on Wheels
I was a little cynical when I first read about Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing. I enjoy kart racing games, but Sonic’s previous racing title, Sonic Riders, did not set a good precedent. Does All Stars Racing redeem Sega’s racing genre? Let’s check it out.
Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Kart racing
Console(s): PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, iPhone
The verdict: All Stars Racing is a fun, exciting romp that has issues and borders on a little too imitative at times, but the racing is entertaining and the game races well against competitors of its genre.
When Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing was announced, comparisons to Mario Kart were inevitable. Developer Sumo Digital had the pressure of creating a solid contender next to Mario Kart Wii on top of a slew of other racing games such as ModNation. Thankfully, All Stars Racing uses the familiar kart racing formula and refines it, even if it is rough around the edges.
One sign that All Stars Racing is a well-designed tribute to Sega’s history is the memorable list of characters you have available. The more mainstream Sega mascots include Sonic, Tails, and Eggman from the Sonic series, AiAi from Super Monkey Ball, and Amigo from Samba de Amigo. If you’re feeling nostalgic, other Sega mascots run the gauntlet from the Master System’s Alex Kidd to the Dreamcast’s Ryo Hazuki of Shenmue fame. Then there are just the flat out obscure, like Zobio and Zobiko, from The House of the Dead: EX, a game which wasn’t even released outside of Japan.
Gearing up
Most of these characters are fun choices, and for good measure the game tosses in a few system-exclusives. Banjo and Kazooie and the Xbox 360 Avatar make an appearance in the 360 version, and the Mii guest stars on the Wii. If there’s a problem with the roster, it’s that it leans a little too heavily on Sonic; namely Sonic characters we don’t like. Amy and Big are annoying enough, but what the hell is Shadow doing here? It’s a minor quip, but it’s worth remembering that characters like Amy, Big, and Shadow are why the Sonic franchise is viewed with such cynicism these days.
Gameplay is fast-paced cartoony kart-racing, and it’s easy to get into. All Stars Racing is imitative rather than innovative but uses a familiar kart racing formula in good ways. The controls are tight, simplistic, and easy to learn: You’ll spend most of your time simply accelerating and using the drift button, but the easy controls make accessible to newcomers but still challenging to racing veterans. One oddity to get used to is there’s no actual brake button, and if you want to slow down you’re limited to the drift. I can see how this works in that it keeps everything fast paced, but it may take some getting used to. Thankfully you won’t find yourself consciously wishing for a brake button most of the time.
Ready…set…
The stages where you’ll be doing all of this high octane racing are beautifully designed and some of them are literal nostalgia trips. Environments such as the beach and casino levels from Sonic are crisp, vibrant, and a ton of fun. As with characters the 24 tracks run through the Sonic franchise, Super Monkey Ball, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, and The House of the Dead among others. Stages are all nicely varied and include lots of jumps, twists, Sonic loops, and shortcuts, but some of them have a lot of abruptly sharp turns that goes against the design philosophy emphasizing streamlined courses that compensate for the lack of a break button. Racing tracks have a lot of variation both in difficulty in appearance, and manage to strike to a nice balance of looking bright and chaotic without becoming so overwhelming that it’s impossible to tell where you’re going.
There are definitely signs that All Stars Racing lacks polish. A familiar feature of the game is power-ups on the track that you can use either to your advantage or against your enemies; speed boosts, auto-lock missiles, a shield bubble, usual stuff, but none of it is really that creative. Each character has a super move if they fall behind which really just gives them a huge speed burst and the ability to plow through opposing racers, similar to the Invincible Star or Chain Chomp effect in Mario Kart. One agitation that just should have been left out altogether is the grating racing commentary, which offers endlessly repeated and unfunny quips.
Race again!
As far as racing games go, All Stars Racing manages to include a sizeable amount of replay value. Single player offers what kart racing veterans are probably used to: Grand prix, several missions, single races, and time trials. Again, nothing particularly stands out about these but they’re all fun and functional. Racing scores you currency which can be used to purchase new racers and levels. The game is generous enough with the currency that you won’t have to endlessly grind races in order to unlock more content, and it’s nice to see incentives for playing without making things inaccessible to casual audiences.
The biggest disappointment is that online options are fairly meager as far as racers go. Offline racing capabilities is nice to see, but online you can only do single races. The system itself is problematic, since you’ll spend a lot of time just finding a match, and what may encourage players to stay in offline territory is occasional lag spikes that occur when things get busy. This is especially pronounced in crucial, neck and neck moments where you have to pray that the connection behaves itself.
Conclusion
Sonic & Sega: All Stars Racing feels a bit like Dissidia: Final Fantasy in its presentation. A lot of nostalgia and fan service delivered in an effective package. All Stars Racing may not be as deep or innovative as other racers, but it manages to be an effective title in its own right when compared to heavyweight Mario Kart Wii. All Stars Racing has issues and borders on a little too imitative at times, but the racing is fun and colorful.
Disclaimer: This review has been reposted from my blog at http://redmage.gamerlimit.com/
