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8.0
The Good
Right balance of characters from all walks of Sega's universe * Some original, yet creative power-ups * Flawless implementation of power-ups * Each vehicle handles distinctively different * Tracks have good presentation
The Bad
Track design is a hit and miss affair * Cheap A.I. on Advanced difficulty * General lack of options in single-player and online multiplayer
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There haven’t been many character racers on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Correction: There wasn’t any character racer at all. If you wanted some good kart racing fun, the only option was to own a Nintendo console or handheld to play the genre-defining Mario Kart. Thankfully, Sumo Digital has expanded our options and we now have another competent character racer in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Being the only character racer on the Xbox 360 and PS3, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is by default the best – but perhaps more interesting is the question of how Sega’s racer stacks up against the venerable Mario Kart.
There’s a reason why there aren’t as many developers who are willing to do character racers as there are for games in other genres. Part of the challenge of producing a respectable character racer is the need to source for a significant number of recognizable characters to make up the driver rooster. Few companies can get away with slotting in more than a dozen characters which they can actually claim to be well-known and well-liked – and Nintendo is one of them. Sega is another one. Thanks to its fabled history, creating a racer that revolves around characters in Sega’s universe is easy. Everyone would be familiar with Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow, Tails and Doctor Eggman, but fans of other Sega franchises would be glad to know that AiAi from Super Monkey Ball, Amigo from Samba de Amigo, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, as well as Jacky Bryant and Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter are playable too. More obscure ones like Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone, and Zobio and Zobiko from House of the Dead: EX are included as well. Like Mario Kart, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is a celebration of all things that represent the company and anyone looking for a good character racer would find Sega’s racer to have just like the right balance of characters from all walks of Sega’s universe to satisfy. Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is part nostalgia, part fan service – and it fulfils its role finely.
While the idea of being able to race as your favorite Sega character is fun, the core racing action makes up most of what makes a good character racer. On the surface, the designs which constitute Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing look like they have been plugged out directly from Mario Kart. There’s ample evidence of this. If you hit the engines in a specific amount of time before flag off, you get a speed boost off the starting point. In addition, temporary speed boosts can be earned by drifting around the tracks. These mechanics introduce a mild level of strategy to the races. Look into Mario Kart, however, and you will discover the same mechanics. It’s obvious that Sumo Digital looked at what makes Mario Kart tick and ported over the same philosophies to Sega’s racer. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is poor. Instead, it shows how Sega’s racer could benefit greatly from building on tried-and-tested formulas. Then there’re the familiar power-ups, and tracks designed with well-thought ramps and hidden shortcuts. This could easily have been Mario Kart on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Dig deeper, however, and you’re bound to notice some big differences. The fact is that Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing IS better than Mario Kart in some aspects. Unfortunately, this is marred by some flaws in track designs and the palpable lack of options in the single-player and online multiplayer experiences.
Character racers are enjoyable because there are power-ups. It’s a genre where everyone can immediately get into without being intimidated by racers with superior driving skills. Despite that, there’s an equal amount of focus on both driving skills and luck; a right combination of capable driving and the attainment of the right power-up at the right time can often win players a race. Having said that, a great level of thought must go into the design of power-ups so that these power-ups are able to level the playing field for newbies, giving them chances to upset the odds and go into pole position, yet remain unobtrusive enough so that accomplished drivers don’t feel as if they have been conned of a win. Mario Kart did it almost perfectly – and it’s only natural for Sega’s racer to draw references from the best in the genre. Players familiar with the power-ups in Mario Kart would find a few comparable ones in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, but there’s admirable effort put into designing some original, yet creative power-ups. These include a manually-detonated bomb and a star that turns the opponent’s screen upside down. More impressive is the presence of a unique power-up for each character. These unique power-ups range from AiAi rolling multiple huge bowling balls around the track to Amigo getting all racers into a line using his music to Doctor Eggman hurling explosive eggs around him. There’s a ton of originality and reimagination displayed here.
The implementation of power-ups in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is surprisingly robust – and I dare say that this is one aspect where Sega’s racer triumphs over Mario Kart. In the later, players leading races often get defensive power-ups like banana skins and fake item boxes while players lagging behind often get offensive power-ups like red turtle shells, mushrooms for speed boosts, and the invincibility stars. In other words, it’s really easy for leading players to lose a race because they get power-ups which have next to no chances of altering the race results while players who are lagging behind are often presented with opportunities to grab the top 3 positions because they get power-ups which are stronger. The result is a largely predictable power-up element. In Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, however, the power-ups generated are entirely random, meaning both leading players and players lagging behind receive an equal shot at getting both defensive and offensive power-ups. This makes for more unpredictable results and a greatly increased level of intensity.
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In a game where drifting around and driving into power-up coins are all the rage, I wouldn’t expect much of a difference between the vehicles of each racer. At first glance, the fact that each character only has one vehicle may seem limiting especially when drawn into comparison with Mario Kart, which has a generous number of vehicles for each character. Get into the game, try out different characters, and you would quickly that Sumo Digital has done an excellent job at fine tuning each vehicle such that each ride handles distinctively different from each other. Here is an arcadey racer with a dash of simulation – it’s a cross that serves to complement each other to great effect. Tails’ airplane glides longer in the air after doing a jump and is noticeably floaty when on the ground while the plump Banjo Kazooie has a faster ride, though his weight makes the vehicle’s handling more of a chore. Sonic has the conventional all-round vehicle, striking a perfect balance between speed, acceleration and handling. There’re many subtle details which went into creating just the right vehicle for each character.
The track design, on the other hand, is a hit and miss affair, though they succeed in dishing out a fair amount of dazzle and whistles in their presentation. There are few perfect tracks between the 24 routes and even the better ones have some flaws which make races more of a frustration than an enjoyment. While I have to admit that drifting and gaining speed boosts in the process is fun, it’s one thing to create the drifting element as a skill and another thing to enforce drifting. It’s certain that drifting does add more depth to the races, but it no longer becomes an enjoyable tactical element when you’re being forced to drift on certain tracks. Having track designs built on the foundation of drifting robs the player the freedom of how he or she wants to race and all in all, it feels as if the game was trying too hard to advertise its drifting feature. The problem doesn’t end.
Some of the tracks, especially those taken from the Super Monkey Ball universe, are relatively disorientating and can be unforgiving at times. Due in part to the color palette and limited draw distance, it can be difficult to tell a turn from far. This is further exacerbated by tracks based on Super Monkey Ball, most of which are suspended in the air and any mistake made could cause your vehicle to drop off the edge. On multiple playthroughs, it could also be noticed that the game becomes cheap when you start playing on Advanced difficulty. Environmental hazards like falling dinosaur heads, rolling eggs and balloons would often get in your way and some are even impossible to dodge. It all adds up to a very annoying experience on some tracks.
On the single-player front, there is the grand prix and mission mode. The former consists of 6 cups with 4 tracks each, covering all the tracks available in the game. The grand prix mode can be completed in 2 hours, but Expert and Advanced difficulty levels could extend the single-player experience. The mission mode consists of objective-based tasks which you must complete within a set amount of time. Between shooting targets using the boxing glove power-up and driving through time gates and collecting coins, there’s enough variety in the 64 missions for you to keep the game disc in the console. Online multiplayer is covered by single races – and only single races. It’s surprising that much of the content is concentrated in local multiplayer. Via split-screen, players can compete in various battle modes in addition to single races. I couldn’t find the chance to try out local multiplayer though. It’s disappointing that these battle modes aren’t options in single-player or online multiplayer.
Final comments
Xbox 360 and PS3 owners finally have a character racer. And it’s a respectably good one. Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is a surprisingly solid experience that delivers all the thrills of character racing to gamers who don’t own a Nintendo console or handheld. Featuring characters from all walks of Sega’s universe, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is a competent racer that is better than Mario Kart in some aspects. The implementation of the power-ups is flawless and each vehicle handles differently, adding some form of simulation to an otherwise arcadey racer. Some weak track designs, cheap A.I. on higher difficulties and a general lack of options in single-player and online multiplayer hamper Sega’s racer from toppling Mario Kart.
There’s a reason why there aren’t as many developers who are willing to do character racers as there are for games in other genres. Part of the challenge of producing a respectable character racer is the need to source for a significant number of recognizable characters to make up the driver rooster. Few companies can get away with slotting in more than a dozen characters which they can actually claim to be well-known and well-liked – and Nintendo is one of them. Sega is another one. Thanks to its fabled history, creating a racer that revolves around characters in Sega’s universe is easy. Everyone would be familiar with Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow, Tails and Doctor Eggman, but fans of other Sega franchises would be glad to know that AiAi from Super Monkey Ball, Amigo from Samba de Amigo, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, as well as Jacky Bryant and Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter are playable too. More obscure ones like Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone, and Zobio and Zobiko from House of the Dead: EX are included as well. Like Mario Kart, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is a celebration of all things that represent the company and anyone looking for a good character racer would find Sega’s racer to have just like the right balance of characters from all walks of Sega’s universe to satisfy. Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is part nostalgia, part fan service – and it fulfils its role finely.
While the idea of being able to race as your favorite Sega character is fun, the core racing action makes up most of what makes a good character racer. On the surface, the designs which constitute Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing look like they have been plugged out directly from Mario Kart. There’s ample evidence of this. If you hit the engines in a specific amount of time before flag off, you get a speed boost off the starting point. In addition, temporary speed boosts can be earned by drifting around the tracks. These mechanics introduce a mild level of strategy to the races. Look into Mario Kart, however, and you will discover the same mechanics. It’s obvious that Sumo Digital looked at what makes Mario Kart tick and ported over the same philosophies to Sega’s racer. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is poor. Instead, it shows how Sega’s racer could benefit greatly from building on tried-and-tested formulas. Then there’re the familiar power-ups, and tracks designed with well-thought ramps and hidden shortcuts. This could easily have been Mario Kart on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Dig deeper, however, and you’re bound to notice some big differences. The fact is that Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing IS better than Mario Kart in some aspects. Unfortunately, this is marred by some flaws in track designs and the palpable lack of options in the single-player and online multiplayer experiences.
Character racers are enjoyable because there are power-ups. It’s a genre where everyone can immediately get into without being intimidated by racers with superior driving skills. Despite that, there’s an equal amount of focus on both driving skills and luck; a right combination of capable driving and the attainment of the right power-up at the right time can often win players a race. Having said that, a great level of thought must go into the design of power-ups so that these power-ups are able to level the playing field for newbies, giving them chances to upset the odds and go into pole position, yet remain unobtrusive enough so that accomplished drivers don’t feel as if they have been conned of a win. Mario Kart did it almost perfectly – and it’s only natural for Sega’s racer to draw references from the best in the genre. Players familiar with the power-ups in Mario Kart would find a few comparable ones in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, but there’s admirable effort put into designing some original, yet creative power-ups. These include a manually-detonated bomb and a star that turns the opponent’s screen upside down. More impressive is the presence of a unique power-up for each character. These unique power-ups range from AiAi rolling multiple huge bowling balls around the track to Amigo getting all racers into a line using his music to Doctor Eggman hurling explosive eggs around him. There’s a ton of originality and reimagination displayed here.
The implementation of power-ups in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is surprisingly robust – and I dare say that this is one aspect where Sega’s racer triumphs over Mario Kart. In the later, players leading races often get defensive power-ups like banana skins and fake item boxes while players lagging behind often get offensive power-ups like red turtle shells, mushrooms for speed boosts, and the invincibility stars. In other words, it’s really easy for leading players to lose a race because they get power-ups which have next to no chances of altering the race results while players who are lagging behind are often presented with opportunities to grab the top 3 positions because they get power-ups which are stronger. The result is a largely predictable power-up element. In Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, however, the power-ups generated are entirely random, meaning both leading players and players lagging behind receive an equal shot at getting both defensive and offensive power-ups. This makes for more unpredictable results and a greatly increased level of intensity.
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In a game where drifting around and driving into power-up coins are all the rage, I wouldn’t expect much of a difference between the vehicles of each racer. At first glance, the fact that each character only has one vehicle may seem limiting especially when drawn into comparison with Mario Kart, which has a generous number of vehicles for each character. Get into the game, try out different characters, and you would quickly that Sumo Digital has done an excellent job at fine tuning each vehicle such that each ride handles distinctively different from each other. Here is an arcadey racer with a dash of simulation – it’s a cross that serves to complement each other to great effect. Tails’ airplane glides longer in the air after doing a jump and is noticeably floaty when on the ground while the plump Banjo Kazooie has a faster ride, though his weight makes the vehicle’s handling more of a chore. Sonic has the conventional all-round vehicle, striking a perfect balance between speed, acceleration and handling. There’re many subtle details which went into creating just the right vehicle for each character.
The track design, on the other hand, is a hit and miss affair, though they succeed in dishing out a fair amount of dazzle and whistles in their presentation. There are few perfect tracks between the 24 routes and even the better ones have some flaws which make races more of a frustration than an enjoyment. While I have to admit that drifting and gaining speed boosts in the process is fun, it’s one thing to create the drifting element as a skill and another thing to enforce drifting. It’s certain that drifting does add more depth to the races, but it no longer becomes an enjoyable tactical element when you’re being forced to drift on certain tracks. Having track designs built on the foundation of drifting robs the player the freedom of how he or she wants to race and all in all, it feels as if the game was trying too hard to advertise its drifting feature. The problem doesn’t end.
Some of the tracks, especially those taken from the Super Monkey Ball universe, are relatively disorientating and can be unforgiving at times. Due in part to the color palette and limited draw distance, it can be difficult to tell a turn from far. This is further exacerbated by tracks based on Super Monkey Ball, most of which are suspended in the air and any mistake made could cause your vehicle to drop off the edge. On multiple playthroughs, it could also be noticed that the game becomes cheap when you start playing on Advanced difficulty. Environmental hazards like falling dinosaur heads, rolling eggs and balloons would often get in your way and some are even impossible to dodge. It all adds up to a very annoying experience on some tracks.
On the single-player front, there is the grand prix and mission mode. The former consists of 6 cups with 4 tracks each, covering all the tracks available in the game. The grand prix mode can be completed in 2 hours, but Expert and Advanced difficulty levels could extend the single-player experience. The mission mode consists of objective-based tasks which you must complete within a set amount of time. Between shooting targets using the boxing glove power-up and driving through time gates and collecting coins, there’s enough variety in the 64 missions for you to keep the game disc in the console. Online multiplayer is covered by single races – and only single races. It’s surprising that much of the content is concentrated in local multiplayer. Via split-screen, players can compete in various battle modes in addition to single races. I couldn’t find the chance to try out local multiplayer though. It’s disappointing that these battle modes aren’t options in single-player or online multiplayer.
Final comments
Xbox 360 and PS3 owners finally have a character racer. And it’s a respectably good one. Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is a surprisingly solid experience that delivers all the thrills of character racing to gamers who don’t own a Nintendo console or handheld. Featuring characters from all walks of Sega’s universe, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is a competent racer that is better than Mario Kart in some aspects. The implementation of the power-ups is flawless and each vehicle handles differently, adding some form of simulation to an otherwise arcadey racer. Some weak track designs, cheap A.I. on higher difficulties and a general lack of options in single-player and online multiplayer hamper Sega’s racer from toppling Mario Kart.
1 comment:
No doubt is impressive game. Thanks for sharing with us.
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