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I don’t like racing games. Going round and round in circles bores the hell out of me. It’s also why I can’t stand most sports games. The repetition drops my interest fast. On the other hand, I actually like kart racers. Guess which one Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is.
If you guessed it’s a kart racer, you’re right!
Like Mario Kart, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds focuses on arcade-style gameplay with a healthy dollop of luck, thanks to all the item drops. SEGA’s had time to tweak the formula (this isn’t the first Sonic racing title after all), which means that Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds should be an awesome experience…right?
RIGHT?!
What is Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds?
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a single and multiplayer racing game that can be played online and offline. It is developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA. The game is available on all modern platforms – the PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch consoles.
Our review code was awesomely provided by the super folks over at SEGA. Thanks so much!
For our review of the game, I’ll be running it on the following rigs.
Here are the specs in case you’re wondering:
Desktop 1 –
– MSI B550M Mortar WIFI
– AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with NZXT Kraken X73 RGB Liquid Cooler
– MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim X 24G
– Teamgroup T-Force Dark Z 64GB DDR4 RAM
– Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD
– NZXT C1200 Gold ATX 3.1
– Lian Li LANCOOL III RGB case
Desktop 2 –
– MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
– AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D with Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB cooler
– Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB
– G.SKILL Trident Z5 NEO 32GB DDR5-6400 RAM
– Samsung 990 PRO 2TB SSD
– Corsair RM850x PSU
– Lian Li LANCOOL 207 Digital
Notebook –
MSI Raider GE78 HX 14V
– Intel Core i9 14900HX
– NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
– 32GB DDR5 RAM
– 1TB SSD
The majority of the hardware above has been kindly sponsored by MSI (Desktop 1 and the MSI Raider GE78 HX 14V) and AMD (Desktop 2), and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support!
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a familiar affair. If you’ve played any of the previous racing titles with Sonic (not including Sonic R), you’ll be right at home with this one. There’s not much to differentiate it in terms of new mechanics or major overhauls.
I honestly like it as it is. I don’t go into my kart racers expecting depth and complexity like I do for Gran Turismo or the Forza Motorsport series. I want fast action, hilarious antics and come-from-behind wins!
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds delivers that.
The racing is fast and fluid, without too much to think about. You pick a character (from across the spectrum of Sonic games and media) who falls into one of five different categories – Speed, Acceleration, Handling, Power and Boost. Then you get to choose from five types of vehicles, from the same categories.
The final result of driver and vehicle type will determine your final racing stats.
Combine that with Custom Plates (where you can insert perks like stealing coins off other racers to further tweak your gameplay) and you get a refreshingly flexible racing title with some depth to it.
It’s nothing revolutionary, but it does allow you to tweak your racing experience without being overly technical.
Considering that this might be the first kart racer for some gamers (both young and old) due to the popularity of the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, it’s a great entry point to the series.
Not only do you have series regulars like Sonic and Shadow, but you also have niche characters like Amy Rose and Big the Cat. Even Silver the Hedgehog makes an appearance in this game!
Once ready to roll, you have the option to either play offline or online.
The great news here is that Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds supports up to four players offline via split-screen. Even the PC version has that feature! Just grab a controller for each player and you’re off!
There are three modes of play available.
Grand Prix is a series of races with points awarded based on finishing position. Get to the end of the series and the racer with the most points wins. Simple stuff.
Race Park pits you against teams of AI. It’s meant for multiplayer hijinks but solo play is also possible, you’re just grouped into a team with other AI. You’re going to play it as much as the Grand Prix, even if you’re solo. Why? There are unlockable vehicles you can only unlock by beating the AI Teams that are exclusive to this mode.
The final mode is Time Trials. I honestly found this the best out of the three modes. Here you race against yourself to see if you can beat the times other players have set. Once you’ve completed a race, the game saves a ghost of your vehicle so you can race against yourself and try to beat yourself.
What makes it better is that the game also allows you to download ghosts of other racers and see if you can beat their timing. There’s no item usage (other than boosts) so this is the closest thing Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has to a pure racing mode. If you’ve a need for speed (and can’t stand getting hammered by items in a race), this is the mode for you.
No matter what mode you play, one thing that Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds makes clear to you is that Rivals are front and foremost in the game.
Whether you’re racing in single player in the Grand Prix or even playing the Race Park, you’ll always be assigned a rival to contend against. It makes things feel personal, which gives it an edge over most racing games.
Rivals steadily get better as you progress so it’s always a challenge trying to one-up them. It can make for some nail-biting finales. I’ve had finishers where I placed badly but was happy because my rival came even further back in the pack. As long as I beat my rival, that’s good enough for me. That’s not something I can say for most other racing games out there!
Tracks are pretty tame for the most part, though there are standouts.
The molten lava track, the dinosaur track, the one in the shopping mall and the one in the haunted mansion are my favourites. Tracks usually have multiple routes (on top of shortcuts) and they change dynamically as you race! It’s cool though I wished they went one step further and really shook things up as races evolve.
Maybe do more than just adding new shortcuts and boost pads? While the tracks can evolve, the background rarely do as you race around.
There is a neat twist to the game that lives up to the CrossWorlds in its title though.
You get teleported to a whole new track in the middle of a race! Near the end of the first lap, there’ll always be a portal with two destinations. One portal leads to random location, the other to a predetermined track. The first racer to choose a route determines where everybody goes next. If you’re racing in a Grand Prix, the last track will be a mishmash of the three before, which is super cool!
Every race can be potentially different! Also, like previous entries, you’ll be changing from a car (or hoverboard) to a plane and a boat depending on the track. I wish they added more to the gameplay other than an alternate mode of racing, but perhaps that’s something for the future. Weirdly, while you can customize your car, you can’t change the looks of it while it’s in its boat or plane form.
There’s a downside to the tracks though. More to the point, I’m confused as to why the tracks are so generic. Most are inspired from past Sonic games (such as Market Street and Radical Highway), but why not from other SEGA games?
A race in the night through the crime infested alleys of Wood Oak City from Streets of Rage perhaps? Or a contest of wills in Tokyo-to in the world of Jet Set Radio? Perhaps racing through the woods of Ragol from Phantasy Star Online? Hell, why not bring up some old school love and race through the streets of Guardiana from Shining Force?
With the cross dimensional gameplay featuring right at the crux of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, I’m really (REALLY) disappointed at the lame and boring track selection.
The racing itself is fun, though higher levels will induce a ton of frustration. You really need to master drifting, item usage and aerial tricks to maximize your speed. It’s a juggling act almost, where one move needs to lead smoothly to another for optimal racing. It’s awesome when you’re in the zone…but you’re constantly taken out of it on races with high level Rivals.
They will run nigh flawless races, with item drops that seem almost always give them what they need. I’ve lost countless matches because my Rival came from behind to hit me with stuff to slow or hinder me. Then when I’m in second place, the rest of the AI piles on the pain. I have been hit with items literally one after another, going from 1st to 2nd to 8th (or worse) in the blink of an eye.
It’s malicious and I swear the AI cheats to team up against me. It’s happened enough times for me to go from ‘Maybe I’m unlucky?’ to ‘This is way too much of a coordinated attack to be coincidence.’ Perhaps I am just that unlucky, but I seriously doubt it.
Get your blood pressure medication ready folks, because you’ll need it.
Online, there’s World Match (which has you racing against strangers) or Friend Match, which is self explanatory. I tried a couple of rounds of World Match but they were really hard to get. Matchmaking is up and running but since I’m playing before the game’s even out on Early Access, racers are hard to come by. It took upwards of 15 minutes to get matched up sometimes but I have zero doubts this will improve in the future as the game is launched fully.
Online matches are pretty much the same as the regular ones you can have against the AI. The game’s pretty lag free and I didn’t notice any issues with the network the few times I did get into a race. No rubber banding, no disruptions or disconnects. Everything was smooth and buttery throughout.
Great news for those who’ll be pitting their skills on the world wide web.
One of the best things about the game is that every race completion nets you tickets.
These tickets can be used to unlock vehicle chassis, give to characters to raise friendship levels (which nets you rewards like titles and decals) and even to restart Grand Prix races if you placed too far back to be competitive. Tickets give you incentive to replay the races, along with the promise of unlocking more stuff. It’s a great way to keep people playing and I found myself returning for short bursts just to get some more tickets to spend.
I also really hate the long ass time for items to be useable. The game wastes so much freaking time showing you a roulette of items before finally giving you the item you’re getting. It’s really aggravating because you know an item, any item, can make a difference in a race…but it takes so damn long to get an item, the opportunity to get the biggest bang for your buck usually slips by!
Weirdly, there is slowdown on the vehicle selection screen. When you move to select your vehicle, there are noticeable framerate drops and you can feel the cursor becoming less responsive. I’ve had zero issues in the game proper. Not in offline mode or online mode. Even split-screen was smooth.
The game also doesn’t have any support for FSR or DLSS or XeSS, so your mileage will definitely vary here. I had no issues running the game on 4K on both our review desktops, at max settings. On our notebook review rig, the game ran smoothly on 2560 x 1440 (also on max settings) with no problem as well.
The Bottom Line.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds manages to captivate with its impressive cast and tight gameplay.
While its tracks leave something to be desired, the game does entertain throughout with its Rivals system. Its ticketing mechanic is also to be commended, as it injects goals and longevity into a racing title that could’ve easily fallen into the once and done category.
With a range of DLC drivers and stages (both free and paid) on the horizon, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds seems destined to have some legs for players who love its brand of racing. Whether the AI gets an improvement patch still remains to be seen though, which means that (for the time being at least), high level gameplay can be more frustrating than fun.
That aside, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is still a fun romp through the Sonic universe. Its track selection could’ve been much better, but overall, it’s a great and enjoyable kart racer. That alone is worth its weight in gold.
TLDR:
Super fun racer with good longevity, but higher level Rivals and races tend to be more frustrating than entertaining.
The Good:
- Easy to pick up and play.
- Lots of modes.
- Loads of Sonic characters.
- Tickets encourage players to keep playing to unlock more stuff.
- Some of the music is cool.
The Bad:
- Generic tracks.
- AI can be frustrating with high level Rivals.
- Too long to get an item from boxes.
- Needs more music from SEGA games.
- Random slowdown during vehicle select.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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