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The opening minutes of Sonic Racing CrossWorlds present players with the purest distillation of Sonic you could find. The cheesy, bombastic rock music is a perfect accompaniment to an opening cutscene full of character, which will have fans gearing up to slam the accelerator. However, despite this initial thrill, the first thing players will be greeted by is a painfully slow tutorial which, in its glacial explanation of the title’s basic mechanics, draws comparisons with the karting adventures of a certain famous plumber.
Sega’s rivalry with Nintendo was once legendary, and CrossWorlds, despite its ambitions, never escapes the reality of this contest. That said, when held in contrast with Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ promise shines brighter. With a range of three-lap Grand Prix options and the promise of post-launch support, Sega has also shown a willingness to take on Nintendo’s challenge, and has done so with modest but palpable success.
Sonic boom
There is a mechanical elegance at the heart of Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, which, true to any competent karting experience, is easy to learn and difficult to master. Those seeking mastery will contend with the usual drifting mechanics, power-ups, and shortcut memorisation that one might expect from the genre.
True to form, the starting roster of potential kart racers is a safe and strange mix of Sonic characters. Matching the Sonic franchise’s sense of drama, you can select a rival competitor who will prove to be your nemesis across Sonic Racing Crossworlds’ range of races. This adds a welcome sense of personality to proceedings, which will sit well with fans of the franchise. You can adjust difficulty levels for your rivalry, too, offering a gentle form of agency for players.
However, those less at home in Sonic’s colourful, zany world may find the rival system grating due to the sheer abundance of dialogue. Do you really want Shadow to snark at you every time he overtakes? If the answer is ‘no’ or even a tentative ‘maybe’, then you may find the rival system to be a double-edged sword.
The Goomba in the room
Once you take to the tracks themselves, you’ll find that they come in two flavours: iconic areas directly appropriated from mainline Sonic titles or reincarnations of tracks from previous Sonic racing games. While glorious and distinctive, the title’s novel approach to three-lap races has you change tracks each race by jumping through a magic ring – so far, so Sonic. While this offers a welcome variety, it does make appreciating these bombastic, nostalgia-filled tracks more difficult.
Despite the genuine novelty on display, the figure of a certain be-hatted plumber looms large over Sega’s project. The three-lap format, drifting mechanics, and pool of novelty items and power-ups all mirror the Mario Kart formula. CrossWorlds’ red and green punching gloves function almost exactly like red and green shells from Mario Kart. The shared color scheme eliminates any claim that these parallels might be mere coincidence..
The lack of content is especially conspicuous by comparison. While Sonic Racing CrossWorlds might appear to match Mario Kart World on Grand Prix, with both having eight, in reality, Mario Kart World has 16 when you include the Rallies for the knockout tour mode. Sonic’s thinner number of Grand Prix races is disappointing by comparison. That said, despite the greater breadth of experiences offered by Mario Kart, due to its smoother track design, Sonic Racing CrossWorld feels a cut above Mario Kart World overall, promising a more focused, if narrower, experience.
A paltry sum
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds offers little in the way of unlocks. The major unlocks consist of ‘Speeds’, the last two Grand Prix contests, and only one unlockable character. There are also Gadgets to unlock, which can be equipped to your gadget plate to provide small advantages to the player. Though once you max out the Gadget plate and unlock Super Sonic by defeating all 24 rivals, earning all Kart parts and Gadgets is the only incentive to race.
The title’s main avenue of replayability comes from its multiplayer appeal. Alone, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds’ grinds feel shallow and insubstantial. Earning new Gadgets is a pleasant novelty, but it cannot stand as a source of long-term appeal. Sonic Racing CrossWorlds thrives in local or online multiplayer, where the fractal chaos of player interaction ensures a novel experience every time. Plus, fluid online functionality and crossplay ensure a level of versatility and accessibility that is uncommon in the karting genre.
There is also ‘Friendship Mode’, though it’s initially locked until after you complete the initial six Grand Prix. Friendship mode lets you pay tickets to specific Sonic characters to let you get stickers and eventually a single skin variant. This is an obvious attempt to pad out the game with more content, and it shows. The ticket requirements for individual characters are absurdly high, and players will find little reason to see Friendship Mode to completion.
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds delivers on a lot of what Sonic fans like myself love about this series. There is sufficient competence on display in the driving, track design, and character design to ensure that those looking for a robust Sonic racing game will not be disappointed. While the game shines in online and offline multiplayer, those looking for a rewarding solo grind will find little more than padding. This, combined with the relatively small number of Grand Prix races on offer, prevents Sonic Racing CrossWorlds from zooming to true greatness.
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