It’s Certainly a Crossover, But How is the Crossing Itself?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/72198/sonic-racing-crossworlds-hands-on-preview-gamescom-2025
When SEGA announced Sonic Racing Crossworlds I was a tad skeptical. The last iteration of Sonic Racing, Team Sonic Racing, really didn’t impress me all that much. As the karting/racing genre seems to be heating up this year, with Mario Kart World, Kirby Air Riders and yes even Garfield Kart 2, what will set Sonic Racing: Crossworlds apart? Turns out that the ‘’break glass in case of emergency’ trick this time is to invite literally every IP holder to send in a racer. But is that enough to keep up with the competition?
So yes, Sonic Racing: Crossworlds is another SEGA-branded kart racer. Sonic may have the starring role, and a lot of the playable racers are from the Sonic series, but characters like Steve and Alex from Minecraft, Spongebob Squarepants, Ichiban Kasuga (Like a Dragon), Pac-Man and even Hatsune Miku herself are playable racers, albeit some of them as DLC through a season pass. While the tracks themselves are still designed after a lot of different SEGA series and games, the real gimmick during the races are the crossworlds. At the end of the first lap, the lead driver can pick one of two rings, each one taking the race to a whole different racetrack. After a lap on that chosen track you’ll be returned on the original track to finish out the race. It sounds super gimmicky, but I actually found it to be quite refreshing. It could be that your machine, a kart or a hoverboard, might be better suited for that lap in-between and can be used to gain some distance between you and the competition. Especially as one of the two rings shows a determined preview of the track, while the other ring is random. If you’re in first place that gives you something to consider right as you enter the second lap. What ties into this is that at the beginning of a grand prix you are given a dedicated rival that you’re racing against through the different tracks. Silver had it out for Hatsune Miku this time around. The final track of a grand prix is actually a mix-up of the earlier three tracks, which is actually quite cool as you’ll already be familiar with these tracks for a final competition that gives more points if you finish first.
Aside from the tracks the gameplay itself is pretty decent. Perhaps it was this particular demo and the NPC’s were set to a higher level, but I did feel that the game was very aggressive compared to Mario Kart. Mario Kart can be pretty chaotic and challenging, but here I was bombarded with items, I’d easily drive into other racers or simply get out of bounds quickly. The vehicles feel a bit sluggish, not uncontrollable, but rather like they have some weight to them, which becomes noticeable especially when drifting around corners. When drifting, you can get up to a three-level boost, which is really required to gain speed on the track. Before starting the race you can select and customize certain capabilities of your machine. I preferred one that would make my vehicle spin during the drift, so that other racers would get knocked over if they drove into my kart. But there’s a lot of options available for those who want to collect rings, prefer to take specific flying shortcuts or feel the need to play more aggressively.
One of the new modes I got to play was Race Park, which took place on a map with different challenges. Race Park comes recommended in multiplayer as you’ll be facing off against a team during the race. The goal is to participate in multiple challenges and score high enough that you’ll beat the rival team. These challenges could be a regular race, or a race with very strong items, or one where you’d need to perform the most tricks, or gain the highest speed. The best comparison would be like a party mode where the rules are a little bit mixed up and I can see how this would work well for a multiplayer setting. Finally there’s also a time trial mode, where you can race against ghosts for the best time. Pretty standard, but glad to see it included. One final remark is that while the game was demoed on a PlayStation 5 Pro, I did see quite a number of visual bugs and slight performance hiccups in the menus. Nothing gamebreaking, but for a game that aims to have a consistent framerate, I am raising an eyebrow to see how this will perform on Nintendo Switch.
Sonic Racing Crossworlds is really trying its hardest to make it stand out among the crowd. Their approach for using crossovers with other brands and characters will probably do wonders for the marketing, but for me it also rings a bit hollow. Yes, it’s kind of funny that Hatsune Miku can get smacked by a boxing glove fired off by Dr. Eggman. But once that novelty wears off, it turns into a technically competent kart racer, stuck in a pool of other technically competent kart racers. I did really like that Crossworld mechanic during the races, which helps to combat the feeling of repetition. I also do hope that the multiplayer modes will offer a few more interesting ways to compete against friends. I need a lot more time to understand the finer details of how the karts and hoverboards perform, to really pinpoint what does and does not work in Sonic Racing: Crossworld. I’m cautiously optimistic, but also afraid that my attention may get shifted elsewhere in the karting space too quickly.
Topic: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (Hands-On Preview) - Gamescom 2025 (Read 30 times)
