Few genres of video game take me back to my childhood quite so much as kart racers. Like most people of my dusty old generation, most of my youth was spent throwing shells at family and friends alike to try and win the Mushroom Cup. This year saw the huge event of the first brand new Mario Kart entry in over a decade, coinciding with the launch of the Switch 2 and ensuring sales that’d take the gaming world by storm. Despite this though another kart racer has unexpectedly stolen my heart this year. A rival from the past has burst onto the scene with a spectacular game that I don’t want to stop playing: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
On the surface Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds shares a lot of DNA with Mario Kart. A selection of colourful Sonic characters all fighting for first place in a race where weapon usage is encouraged. This isn’t Sonic’s first foray into racing though, and as such he has a few tricks up his non-existent sleeves.
The main hook of this fast paced racing game are the titular CrossWorlds. Each race you’ll compete in is a three lap affair, but on the second lap you’ll be teleported to another world for a totally different racing experience. One minute you’re speeding up Radical Highway from Sonic Adventure 2, the next you’re dodging fireballs from a massive dragon. The third lap will take you back to normality in the form of the course you started on, ensuring you get a chance to become familiar with it on repeated races. It’s a really fun way to ensure that no two Grand Prix tournaments are the same, and the immediate visual switch when you drive through the portal to a new world is breath-taking.
The other exciting gimmick of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is that mid race you’ll often switch your vehicle on the fly. When racing in your standard car you can drift to boost in a familiar and satisfying way, but when you swap to a boat you’ll have this ability swapped for a charge jump you can use to avoid hazards and perform tricks. The plane lets you drift again but in four potential directions, which takes some getting used to but is a hell of a lot of fun.
Even without these interesting elements though, the kart racing itself in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds just feels great. The array of weapons is fantastic too, enabling epic comebacks without feeling too unfair, and the drift mechanic has a handy meter you can use to keep track of the boost you’re building. By combining the right teleportation weapon (a Wisp from Sonic Colors of course) and some perfect drifting I was able to sneak from sixth place to first in the last stretch of a particularly tough race, and it felt sensational.
This moment of victory was made even better because it enabled me to beat my rival. Perhaps the coolest element of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, the rival mechanic takes that oh so familiar feeling of hatred you have for a particular foe in a Mario Kart game, and makes it official. Your rival will always be on your tail, will aim all their weapons at you, and trash talks at you constantly. Nothing feels better than crushing them with your racing skills, whether it’s the sickly sweet Cream the Rabbit or the ever villainous Eggman.
For my first few hours with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds I stuck to taking on the Grand Prix mode, so I’d get to experience all the tracks and grab some gold for my trophy cabinet. These were a lot of fun, especially as each Grand Prix features three different tracks and then a fourth race where you’ll drive your way through one lap of each of them. This is only one way to play Sonic Racing though, and the other modes have plenty of rewards on offer too.
The time trial mode will appeal to more serious racing fans, and beating top times will unlock extra music from the Sonic series for the jukebox that you can also play while you race. There’s also a theme park mode which pits you against full teams of rivals, with various rulesets that switch things up. You can make all weapons super for example for maximum chaos, or compete to collect the most rings instead of rushing to the goal. You’ll get new karts if you do this, and you’ll need them if you want to compete with the harder difficulty levels or against the world online.
There is a ton of customisation to play around with in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, be it by choosing the right character or kart to suit your playstyle or by using the right gadgets. Your gadget board enables you to select a range of perks that’ll make you even tougher to beat on the track, and they come in all shapes and sizes. My favourites were a gadget that granted me two boosts when I started the race, another that made my spiky ball weapons massive and harder to dodge, and a few stat boosts for good measure. By racing more you’ll unlock more slots for gadgets too, so no matter how you play early on you’ll be rewarded with this handy upgrade.
There are just too many neat little aspects of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds to talk about them all. Like the five hidden medals each track contains. The sheer amount of difficulties and mirror modes available to play through, and that after mastering this you can play online against randoms or your friends. There’s also currency you collect that you can spend on different cosmetics or to replay a race in a Grand Prix that goes badly. Even just the amount of characters is impressive, from Big the Cat to Hatsune Miku. Even before SpongeBob and Joker from Persona 5 arrive later this year the roster is stacked with anyone and everyone from the Sonic franchise and beyond.
It’s pretty hard to think of flaws in this modern kart racing classic. I think the biggest issue I had with the game as a whole was how it doesn’t always feel particularly Sonic-themed, especially in some of the earlier stages. Whereas Mario Kart, for example, couldn’t feel more rooted in the Mario universe, Sonic Racing just sort of throws you into miscellaneous themed worlds. Especially later in the game there are more Sonic specific stages (like The White Space from Shadow Generations) but early on there’s a lack of mechanical crabs and springs with stars on them. The other biggest annoyance is the repeated voice lines, which are pretty painful. Hearing Big the Cat say “oops” every time I pressed a button got old fast, and you’d just think this would be noticed by somebody along the development chain.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds isn’t just the best racing game I’ve played all year, it’s the best racing game I’ve played in ages. The racing is frantic and fun, the variety of characters and weapons is impressive, and the amount of content is simply wild. If you go into this kart racer expecting it to struggle against its peers then you’re in for a shock, because Sonic and company are now in a league of their own.
