Sonic Racing CrossWorlds — Network test impressions

Sonic racers have a long history starting on the Game Gear with the formerly Japanese exclusive Sonic Drift before racing on foot with his friends in Sonic R, hopping onto some Extreme Gear with Sonic Riders, back to on foot racing with Sonic Rivals, and finally sitting back in the driver seat for the All-Stars Racing games. Each flavor of Sonic racing game has something to set it apart, but much like the mainline games, you were always getting something new and different.

That brings us to Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, Sega’s attempt to bring the blue blur and friends back to the track in a high speed, item filled slobberknocker. With a teaser at last year’s Game Awards, and formally revealed in a recent trailer at Sony’s State of Play, we got access to the Closed Network Test. The test is only for the weekend of this post, but if you’re interested in it and want to know what’s on offer and what we think, look no further.

This is, of course, a work in progress build of the game. Quite literally - it’s not finished. Any thoughts we have of the Closed Network Test may not reflect on the full game so keep that in mind! We’ll cover the full game once it launches, but for now our impressions will hopefully give you an idea of what to expect from the general online experience.

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds’s Network Test offers a small selection of racers and tracks, with teases of “so many more” to come. We know more of the characters on offer thanks to the reveal trailer showing a lot more than what we have playable here, but for a test lineup, this is decent. Blaze is absent and that makes me heated on a personal level but oh well, Cream will have to suffice. We have Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Eggman, Omega, Cream, and Zazz.

Characters have unique stats so you can pick your favorites, but they may not fit your playstyle. I’ve had a much more consistent enjoyment with picking Sonic and Shadow because they have the best speed and acceleration stats. Knuckles has more Power by default, but what does that even mean in a racing game? There is a manual you can access on the game’s website, but there wasn’t any explanation for what Power even does. Most of my online experience devolved into rooms of Sonic, Shadow, and the occasional friend or frenemy. I’ve seen Omega maybe two or three times and the occasional Zazz player but this game is a bit off balance since your character choice determines your baseline stats.

Returning from Team Sonic Racing is car customization, but in Sonic Racing CrossWorlds that’s cranked up to eleven. There are more parts and colors than before and they make slight adjustments to your stats, maybe only a point or two. There may be more options than before but they feel a bit superfluous. For better or worse, most of these changes are cosmetic in nature so rest easy knowing you don’t have to min-max car building to be good at the game.

There’s a small selection of tracks and Worlds to Cross into. There are distinct tracks and the “CrossWorlds” are exclusively for the second laps of race tracks. Six main tracks ranging from Metal Harbor from Sonic Adventure 2, to the unique tracks like Rainbow Gardens and five crossworlds from Sky Road to Lava Cave. Every track is stunning and the game holds a consistent framerate. When you’re warping from Ocean View to Roulette Road and back to Ocean View, it’s a visual spectacle. Variety is the name of the game here and the tracks themselves are fun, though the amount of sharp turns could be eased up.

There’s also Gadgets, equippables that offer various bonuses from increased Ring grab range to increasing the speed your drift boost gauge fills. This is a fun idea, but with the limited selection and only six slots available, it didn’t make a massive difference in how I played. Perhaps I need to experiment more, but they felt more like bonuses and less like they were changing how the race went. But then you talk about items and I don’t know what happened here, these need fixing.

This is probably the one thing I would say is straight up not enjoyable about Sonic Racing CrossWorlds. Items in this game are extremely plentiful and very powerful. Every racer can carry two items, three if you have the right Gadget, and all of them are aggressive. Rocket Punches are fast and can target opponents, Monster Trucks crush everyone they touch, saw blades home in and cut your car in half for a short time, Dark Chao gives everyone in the race two items at random, and a lot more. It’s incredibly hectic as items never let up and because of the somewhat narrow track design, you don’t get a lot of time to react or room to maneuver. Rocket Punch, King Boom Boo, Monster Truck, Drill, sawblade, dear god, please stop. I just want to play a racing game.

The best comparison I could make is Mario Kart Wii’s notorious Blue Shell issue but exacerbated for every item in the game and for every racer. You’re never going a single lap without getting hit five or six times minimum. It was recently revealed that the team behind the Initial D arcade games helped on developing Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, and you can kind of feel that as the entire game is about pulling off solid drifting but whoever designed the item balance needs to go back to the drawing board. The amount of items bombarding the player is set to such an obnoxious amount that this is borderline not fun. I feel like I’m either barely winning by luck or losing terribly because I got crushed or smacked by thirty things in one lap.

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is a solid racer with good drift mechanics, decent track design, stylish visuals, cool customization options, a fun roster, and OH GOD ANOTHER ITEM, HELP! The game has some of the highest highs and some of the lowest lows in any Sonic racing game. The skill ceiling isn’t high, but the chaotic items aren’t exactly a good balance for a high speed racer. There's just too much for the player to keep track of. Drifting, rings, custom cars, gadgets, ramps, boosts, other racers, walls, warps, a thousand items, and "so many more." If they make enough tweaks before release and deliver on the content, this could easily be the best racing game in the Sonic series.