Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds hands-on preview

We’ve all played plenty of kart-racers, right? From Diddy Kong to Garfield, Star Wars to Action Girlz; if there's an IP, there’s a racing game. So, how do you stand out in a sphere full of choices? You pick a lane, and you stick with it. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds took an idea and sped through the Ring Gates to an interesting and high-speed game, full of customization and fun ways to play each map.

For context, my favorite kart-racer of all time is Diddy Kong Racing on the Nintendo 64, and the reason it was my favorite is because of the many ways you can play the game. Some characters are faster, some tougher, and some are like Banjo who is my favorite character, but not very good. Maps were interesting, and depending on what your goals were, changed the challenge of it. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds gives me nostalgia for this vibe of a game, while also providing a lot of new and exciting ways to play.

During my hands-on preview, I was able to customize my kart and play three Grand Prix. Let’s dive in on each aspect.

Customization is fully on you as the player. You can be as in-depth as you want, or not worry about it in the slightest. While we only had so many unlocked during the preview, there is a gallery full of characters of all across the Sonic-verse and more! I chose one of my two favorite Sonic characters, Tails. Moving onto the karts, I found one that had the best synergy with Tails and went from there.

You can customize almost every aspect of the kart from front to back, each piece adding stats to the kart such as handling, speed, etc. You can also customize the color scheme and add decals. This adds a lot of individuality to online cross-play as everyone will have their own karts to show off.

Gameplay is very fast, which feels great considering Sonic goes fast outside of his kart regardless. While playing the Grand Prix (the mode I played during this preview) you have multiple goals: winning the race, collecting red rings, and then finding the fastest route for the final race of the Prix.

Winning the race isn’t easy; I was always on edge at the harder difficulty levels. As the title suggests, you’ll be crossing worlds each lap with the player currently in first place being rewarded with dictating which ring gate the race will go through. Some of these gates can be extremely scary to go through as you’ll need to dodge terrain at the very beginning for some maps, like the lava map with the dragons (which you can see in the video). When you’re flying, it sometimes felt a little Star Warsy with how you’re pulling up to avoid asteroids and flaming dragons.

Your kart will change shape depending on the terrain and power ups. As you’re driving normally, your kart drives normally. Flying form alphas insane levels of mobility but make sure you’re hitting those speed boosts. Boat form doesn’t drift, but you can jump to reach items and avoid attacks or the world itself. You also have abilities that can make your kart into a monster truck and you can run over people.

Alongside that is a rival system where characters will become your nemesis for that Grand Prix, and will even have voice lines reacting to when they get ahead of you or vice versa. I had Jet the Hawk, Amy, and Shadow as rivals for my three Prix. Amy and Shadow were also special upgraded rivals you can choose. It was a choice each time between a normal rival and then a harder one. Choosing the harder option leads to more rewards.

Collecting the Red Rings was one of my favorite aspects of the races. This feature forces you to be alert for the multiple paths you can take to make sure you’re snagging them. As you’ll be able to tell how many you have collected in each map, it’s something my brain will want to complete for each Grand Prix. Each ring you get gives you more tickets for you to purchase items in the shop for your kart, so it’s fun and has purpose in the grand scheme of things.

These rings are not always easy to find either, especially because you only do two laps on the main track each lap, making it so every lap counts for you. It’s a fun way to get people like me to explore the maps more thoroughly instead of just finding the fastest path and never changing like I do with some other kart racers.

At the end of the three races, you’ll get to the final race, which is one lap from every map you’ve done from the Prix. This race won’t have red rings to collect, so your goal is to just use all the secret paths you’ve found to get through the fastest. If you get first, not only do you get the 15 points from winning, you get three extra points on top which will put you ahead if you’re behind by the last race.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds feels amazing to play with fun tracks, multiple ways to play, and plenty of customization. The recently announced additional characters of Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga, and Joker will make things fun and interesting. Then, at Summer Game Fest, the team showed off the Minecraft DLC which will add Steve, tracks, and more!