An All-Time Classic
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is one of the greatest videogames of all time. It’s easy to pick up, hard to master, and even harder to put down. It’s a package bursting with creativity and passion.
Super Sonic Racing
If you couldn’t tell by the title and cover, this is a kart racing game. This game stands out by being less luck-based and more skill-based then the average kart racer. Drivers can drift to earn three different levels of boost. The longer the drift, the longer the boost. These drifts can be chained with each other, and together with knowledge on how best to navigate the course, you can reach some truly blazing speeds. But don’t worry, if you fall behind, you can use items to help you catch up including the powerful All-Star Move.
There are quite a few modes that you can sink your teeth into. Of course, there are the standard Single Race, Grand Prix, and Time Trial modes. But along with that, the game has you doing missions in a mode with 64 unique challenges. The game also has a bevy of split-screen and online multiplayer modes including an Elimination mode and multiple types of Battle Modes such as King of the Hill and Capture the Chao.
SEGA Celebration
The game has a roster of 20 characters (plus a handful of console-specific and DLC characters) each with their own unique vehicle and stat spread. While it leans heavy on SEGA’s flagship Sonic the Hedgehog, the roster pulls from the company’s vast catalog of franchises including Super Monkey Ball, Jet Set Radio, Virtua Fighter, and even Alex Kidd.
Every character in the game has their own personal vehicle some of which come from their original games. Each of the game’s 24 tightly constructed tracks take great inspiration from various SEGA games. There are even achievement-style challenges that reference the company’s vast catalog.
But the adoration for the history of SEGA is most evident in the most remarkable feature of the game: the game’s trademark All-Star Moves. An All-Star Move is a special item unique to each character they can use when lagging behind the other racers. It, without exception, is also a callback to the character’s history in some way. For example, in Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, the titular character rolls around giant eggs which can be used for defeating enemies and overcoming various obstacles. For his All-Star Move in this game, Billy Hatcher summons a giant egg that he rolls on top of that can trample the other drivers.
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is one of the greatest videogames of all time. This game’s mechanics leave oodles of room for skill mastery while simultaneously being fairly approachable for inexperienced players. And it’s a celebration of SEGA’s history through and through.
The game is available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and PC.
Steam Link: Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing on Steam (steampowered.com)