Sonic Racing CrossWorlds - Review
When it comes to what Mario does best, Sonic is always trying to keep pace with the mustachioed plumber. In both platformers and kart racers, it is arguable that Mario is more often than not the king of the genre. The latest Sonic racer from Sonic Team sees Mario Kart’s “world” and raises it with its own multiversal “CrossWorlds.” After the lacklustre Team Sonic Racing, I am glad to report that CrossWorlds is a bold new entry and a contender for best kart racer of this generation.
The game immediately sets itself apart from Mario Kart by having all the racers enter a travel ring after the first lap that takes them to another world to complete a track in. If you have played Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, the way you jump from world to world operates very similarly. One moment you are racing around an ancient temple, the next lap you are speeding through the ocean by the beach, then in the final lap you are sent back to the original world you started in.
Because of this mechanic, it is difficult to experience the same race twice as it is very rarely the same track you experience. Not knowing where the race will take you at the outset of each race gives you a sense of anticipation that is tough to emulate and makes CrossWorlds stand out from its competition.
An aspect that makes a comeback is vehicle transformations from Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. When the track naturally aims for the sky, your car turns into a plane, and when it approaches a body of water, it transforms into a boat. The entire process is very seamless and adds to the constantly shifting nature of the races.
An aspect that took me a minute to get my head around is the customisation feature of the vehicles. You can swap the front, rear, and wheels of each vehicle. This is not just tied to the one vehicle, you can customise the car, boat, and plane individually to your own tastes. Beyond this, you can earn gadgets that give you modifiers that give you a range of boosts, from earning more of a certain item, to faster drifting, and more.
All of these various aspects reward experimenting. If you are more of a conservative driver that needs better handling, you can build your vehicles to cater to that. If you are more of a speedster used to taking corners and drifting, you can build it to cater to that as well. Kart racers are not usually this customisable, so it can be a tad overwhelming at first. Once you are deep in the system, it becomes much clearer and easier to navigate.
As a kart racer, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds relies a lot on drifting around corners. The on-screen display pulls up a bar that fills up as you drift, filling up the bar three times offers the largest boost. It is intuitive enough for beginners to understand the drifting system.
Each grand prix offers your chosen character a rival. If you defeat them in the overall standings, you get extra rewards on top of any winnings you get from your grand prix results. It does not add a lot of depth to the races on its own but gives you an extra incentive to race well amongst all the other chaos the game throws at you. There is nothing like racing just behind your rival and overtaking them in the last section of a race.
Rewards offered to you come in the form of Donpa Tickets. You can use these tickets to further unlock parts and cosmetics. As is the case with a lot of these types of systems, it can take a lot of time to unlock everything. If you are particularly after a set with specific statistics, it may take quite a few rounds in grand prix to get there.
On top of the typical Grand Prix mode comes other typical racer modes. These include Time Trial, which does what it says on the tin, although you can win new music tracks by beating certain times. There is another mode called Race Park that includes team and individual-based multiplayer modes. These multiplayer modes offer a small variety of games you can play, although nothing as entertaining as the main grand prix mode.
Part of the appeal of CrossWorlds is not just the ability to race in different worlds in the races, you can also race as different characters from other Sonic media, as well as franchises outside of the Sonic universe. The first load of characters I unlocked were Tails Nine and Rusty Rose from the Netflix produced Sonic Prime show. Beyond this, free CrossWorlds racers include Hatsune Miku, Joker from Persona 5 and Ichiban Kasuga from Like a Dragon. The CrossWorlds website promises ten more free racers, which are likely going to be from other SEGA published franchises. In order to race as characters from outside of the SEGA universe, you will have to pony up for the season pass.
Every character included comes with their own themed vehicles that match their personality and colour scheme. Going into the amount of detail the game does for each character, even outside the Sonic universe, makes the game feel like a wonderful labour of love.
The game runs at a constant sixty frames per second. I played this on the Pro model, so I am not sure if the base PS5 has any hiccups around the travel rings. I personally did not experience any slowdown during my time with the game, which is a tremendous feat. The tracks feel vibrant and colourful, though some lacked a bit of personality to them. The mall track in particular looks and plays a lot like Coconut Mall from Mario Kart Wii which felt a bit dubious.
Overall, I have had a mostly positive experience playing CrossWorlds, though it is worth mentioning some of the minor things that did not gel with me during my experience. The item system works for what it needs to, but items never feel like they have the appropriate ‘oomph’ you would expect from using them. Newcomers can expect to take some time to get used to what each item actually does.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is the best Sonic Racing game yet. Racing between worlds offers constant excitement, and the customisation aspect gives the game a lot more depth than other kart racers. The roster is great and robust and exactly what you would expect from Sonic Team. It is a shame that the item system does not hit like it should, but if you can get past that, you have the best kart racing game available on PlayStation.
The Score
8.0
Review code provided by Sega
The Pros
Clever CrossWorlds mechanic keeps tracks fresh and unpredictable.
Smooth transformations and deep vehicle customization options
Large, eclectic roster with fun crossover characters
The Cons
Item balance is uneven and sometimes underwhelming.
Progression system can feel grindy.
