Developer Sumo Digital has shamelessly aped the Nintendo Mario Kart formula for Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, but when crafting a mascot kart racer, perhaps there is no shame in learning from the best.
Featuring a cast of characters throughout Sega’s history, including Sonic, Ryo Hazuki, Alex Kidd, Billy Hatcher, Ulala and Beat, as well as appropriately themed courses and music, All-Stars Racing is rife with great references and personality. It’s a real treat to see all these great characters in one package. The Xbox 360 version also includes Banjo and Kazooie, as well as your Xbox Live Avatar, and in the Wii version, players can race as their Mii.
Most of the track designs are excellent, and have the right twists, turns and obstacles for a fun race. The weapon selection is a little on the generic side; punching gloves and rockets and traffic cones, but the weapons work well on a functional level, even if they do lack personality. The All-Star power up, though, grants a unique ability for each character, and it’s a nice surprise to witness each new All-Star move. In addition to the weapons, races are won by effectively drifting and performing aerial stunts to gain speed boosts.
There’s not much to complain about here. There’s plenty to unlock, online and split screen multiplayer, as well as a mission mode, which has specific objectives to complete during races. All-Stars Racing has personality in spades, and charm to spare. It’s great fun alone, or with friends, and I’d say it even goes toe-to-toe with modern incarnations of Mario Kart.
The 360, PS3 and PC versions of the game are largely the same, save for exclusive characters on the 360, and remarkably, the Wii version is quite similar to its bigger cousins, feature for feature. There is also a DS version of the game, although it does play a bit differently from the console versions.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing was reviewed using the Xbox 360 version.
Man that game rocks, in our store we played it tons when there was no work to do!
I really want this games but i have to save up my money for all the games coming out this fall!!!!!