Review: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has released within a few months of Mario Kart World – the first new Mario Kart game in 11 years – and it’s hard to imagine that Sega isn’t feeling some pressure to perform against it. Mario and Sonic are not the bitter rivals they were during the 16-bit generation, but there’s a sense here that Sega is trying to beat Nintendo at their own game.
To get it out of the way: no, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is not as good as Mario Kart World. In fact, the best Sonic racing game is still probably 2012’s Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed (just as the best Mario Kart is still probably 8 Deluxe). But judged on its own merits, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a pretty decent arcade racer, one with a few neat tricks and ideas.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has a familiar set-up: you can partake in four-race Grand Prix events, test yourself in Time Trials, jump online for some quick-play racing, or mess around with a few other gimmicky modes. Grand Prix is, straightforwardly, the game’s main attraction: you race through colourful worlds based on various Sonic titles, drifting around corners to build up boost, collecting items, and hitting the perfect racing line to collect Rings and power up your acceleration.
If your racer goes over a jump, you can tilt the stick to pull stunts, and at various points your car transforms into a boat or plane, which each handle slightly differently. In the second lap of most races, CrossWorlds‘ titular gimmick kicks in: you’re transported to another, fantastical track for a lap. These tracks – which cannot be played otherwise – are a fun addition, usually more frantic and kinetic than the regular tracks, and they mean that no two attempts at the same Grand Prix are ever the same.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds‘ vehicles are enjoyable to control, and tracks are consistently solid – drifting around a corner to build boost, firing off a weapon and overtaking another racer, feels great every time – but there are some odd choices in the game’s design. The “rival” system gives you a single designated foe in each race, which makes the other 10 racers feel somewhat inconsequential, and each Grand Prix ends with you racing one lap of each of the previous three tracks with more points on the line, ensuring that the last race is always the least interesting while carrying the highest stakes. Hitting the edge of a track or falling off punishes you slightly too harshly, and very few weapons have defensive properties, meaning that there’s often no real defense against homing enemy attacks. Online play, too, is parred right back: it’s just online races, with no extra modes or attractions.
If Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has any real depth, it’s in customisation options. There are two ways you can meaningfully plan your racing strategies: building vehicles and equipping gadgets. Putting together a vehicle with a unique look, tweaking it to improve the stats, is enjoyable, but the gadgets are more exciting. You can build several custom loadouts, each with distinct advantages: you can make a car that pulls off boost-building stunts faster while in the air, or which is more likely to get defensive items, or has an easier time collecting rings, to give just three of the 70-odd examples of how gadgets can impact your race.
Within a few hours of play you’ll have unlocked five gadget slots to make use of, although some particularly impactful gadgets may take multiple slots. You’ll also have come to grips with the differences between each vehicle type and character; CrossWorlds really does encourage and reward experimentation. You can switch your gadget load-out between races, matching them to each track, so there’s scope to really tune each outing; in reality, I found that I made a gadget combo I liked and stuck with it for the most part, but mileage may vary. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds currently promises several locked worlds and characters, most of them tied to an optional seasonal pass, which can make playing it at launch feel a bit like you’ve shown up too early for a party that hasn’t started yet. It’ll expand outside of Sonic into the worlds of Persona, Yakuza, and even Spongebob Squarepants – but the game does not feel light on tracks and characters at launch, either, and Sonic fans will appreciate all the Easter eggs and character references they’ve squeezed in.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a distant second to Mario Kart World in most regards, but there’s one way it has the plumber beat – it’s much more accessible. If you do not own a Switch 2, this is the best new game of its type available to you: if you’re craving lovely long slides around corners, funny mascot characters yelling at each other, and lots of fun colourful tracks, this game’s got you covered.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, and all Xbox systems. A PS5 code was provided by the publisher for review. Image via lordsofgaming.net
James O’Connor has been writing about pop culture and games since 2008. He is the author of Untitled Goose Game for Boss Fight Books.
