REVIEW

Team Sonic Racing Review

by Rob Pritchard, June 6th, 2019

For over fifteen years, Sumo Digital have proven time and again to be one of the most proficient developers that focus on the racing genre. Their previous portfolio includes entries in the Outrun series, various iterations of the Colin McRae franchise and the recent crossover that is Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Instead of creating a third entry in the All-Stars racing series, Sumo Digital have opted to create a separate title, under the name of Team Sonic Racing. Can Sonic and his cast of animal friends create an enjoyable karting experience, or is the lack of additional franchises the straw that breaks the echidna’s back?

After being invited to take part in a racing tournament by a morally ambiguous tanuki named Dodon Pa, Sonic the Hedgehog, along with his friends, rivals and enemies decide to take part in order to discover the being’s true intentions. The storyline won’t win awards for its originality or intellectual complexity, but it is a highly enjoyable affair with the usual corny antics and pun filled dialogue that is similar to the kind that has been seen in the critically acclaimed Sonic Boom cartoon series.

Team Sonic Racing uses the same engine as All Stars Racing Transformed, albeit with some slight mechanic adjustments and an upgrade to sixty frames per second on all platforms aside from the Nintendo Switch. There doesn’t appear to be any slowdown present during races, which was one of the few complaints that could be said of its predecessor. The loading times between menus and races can be quite long, but mercifully, restarting a race from the pause menu is a nearly instantaneous affair.

The biggest change from the other games is that the plane flying and boat sailing sections from Transformed have been removed, in lieu of introducing new Team mechanics that allow you to work with your human or computer-controlled allies. Each team consists of three racers, which are classified into Speed, Technique and Power categories respectively. In case you are wondering, the cast for Speed racers include Sonic, Shadow and Blaze the Cat, the Technique racers include Tails, Chao and Silver and the Power racer lineup includes Knuckles, Zavok from Sonic Lost World and the evil genius that is Dr Eggman. Needless to say, the available cast will cater for everyone’s needs, particularly if you are a fan of the lesser known characters such as Big the Cat and Vector the Crocodile.

Teams can share collected Wisp shaped powerups and gain additional acceleration by driving behind their slipstream trail as you race around each circuit. The team aspect is entertaining, particularly when you are able to use the Team Ultimate move to gain invincibility and increased speed for a short time. The only negative aspect is that you cannot mix and match characters out of their respective teams, so if you chose Tails from Team Sonic, you will be stuck with the other two members, Sonic and Knuckles, as your partners in racing crime. If you are one of the many gamers that enjoys the challenges of a single player campaign mode, then the Team Adventure mode will be the cherry on your digital cake. It is filled with seven chapters of races, survival battles and traffic attacks that will be familiar to Transformed players, as well as all new stages such as Ring Challenge, Team Grand Prix and Daredevil, where you drift by star posts without hitting them to extend your time counter.

Outside of the story driven Team Adventure mode, where you must discover the true loyalty of Dodon Pa, there are a host of additional modes to be enjoyed. The Garage allows you to interchange different parts and colour schemes for your karts, which can be earned by exchanging tokens earned during races for Kinder Surprise style Mod Pods. Each kart has a multitude of different options to unlock, all of which can dramatically alter the appearance or racing performance of your kart. Each part has a rarer gold plated equivalent, which is all well and good for gamers that want to unlock every additional option, but it is often better to mix and match rare and common parts for a visually appealing vehicle.

The online and local multiplayer modes in the game are relatively straightforward and seem to work without any problems such as latency issues or errors in the online lobbies. One of the most memorable parts of a Sonic title is usually the soundtrack, and in this case, Team Sonic Racing does not disappoint. The new music composed by in house SEGA band Crush 40, along with new arrangements of previous tracks from older Sonic titles provide everything that fans of the franchise have come to expect, particularly the title track Green Light Ride, and the remix of Bingo Highway from Sonic Heroes.

Overall, Team Sonic Racing is an entertaining kart racer that does everything it sets out to accomplish. The new team-based gameplay mechanics are a fun way to mix up the usual racing formula, and the Team Adventure mode is a short, yet entertaining set of challenges spliced with a humorous exploration of the characters and themes of the Sonic universe. If you have been looking for an enjoyable racing game that won’t hurt your wallet, Team Sonic Racing could be exactly the game that you been searching for.