Following the release of Team Sonic Racing has been something of a roller coaster ride.
At first, I was excited at the prospect of a new Sega racing game from Sumo Digital.
I adored Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed to the point where I actually prefer it over
Mario Kart 8.
But then gameplay details started releasing and nothing clicked for me.
The team dynamic seemed like a weird choice and the game just didn’t look as fast or
fun as the previous Sumo Digital games.
And yet, now that the game has arrived, the mechanics I once scoffed at feel right.
This is a quality racer in its own right, full of unique ideas that just work.
The main conceit of Team Sonic Racing is just that.
Sonic and his friends are on teams as they race together across 21 different tracks.
And winning is entirely dependent on how well your team cooperates with one another.
While you still want to finish in a top position, you also need to help your teammates along
the way.
It’s possible to finish in first but still lose if the rest of your team straggled behind.
And that was the major oddity for me.
I want to win.
Why should I be punished if the rest of my team isn’t up to snuff?
But Team Sonic Racing has enough incentives to go along with this idea that the team mechanics
became my favorite part of the game.
There are multiple ways to support your team during a race.
The first is the skimboost, which is when a yellow trail appears behind a teammate during
the race.
By following that trail, it’s possible to get a slight speed boost.
This also ties into the slingshot maneuver where you can use the skimboost to catch up
then leave the trail in order to get a temporary boost of speed, launching you ahead.
And this can then immediately be used by the teammate that gave the initial boost, potentially
allowing the entire team of three to consistently launch each other ahead.
Even better is that if one member of the team is spun out, another can give them an immediate
boost if they pass by close enough.
There’s a lot of give and take between a team.
And this is even emphasized with the item boxes.
If you pick one up, you can offer it to another member of your team.
To further reward this teamwork, sometimes these items will be randomly upgraded to include
multiple Wisps, making them even more potent.
By performing all of these team actions, a Team Ultimate meter fills.
Once it’s ready, your team can unleash their Ultimate which not only grants a huge burst
of speed but invulnerability as well.
And if the team can time this activation together, it lasts even longer.
Unfortunately, this is all but impossible to do effectively with a team of AI, but they
handle the other aspects of teamwork well enough.
And in fact, I found myself not only trying to get first, but push my teammates ahead
in any way possible.
The better they did, the better rank I would get.
And it’s that sense of teamwork that really drew me in to the game’s mechanics.
All of a sudden I had to pay attention to more than just my own position.
I needed to be aware of where my teammates were and help them get ahead as best as I
could.
Filling up the Team Ultimate and using it at just the right time is extremely rewarding,
especially when managing a come-from behind win.
Working together just naturally feels good, and it provides the game an identity that’s
all it’s own beyond Sonic and friends in a kart racer.
That said, there is more to Team Sonic Racing than just the team aspect.
Characters come in three types: Speed, Technique, and Power.
Speed types obviously have a greater focus on their speed stat, but they also have the
ability to create a Radial Burst around their car when boosting.
This can potentially destroy any items coming their way though I could never effectively
pull it off.
Still, it could be potent in the right hands.
Next are Technique types that have a lower top speed but fantastic acceleration and handling
in addition to their ability to drive over any surface without experiencing slowdown.
Finally, there’s the Power type which has poor acceleration, but the best defense and
boost potential.
They also have the ability to break through objects in their way which includes opening
up new shortcuts on the racetrack.
Each one is fun in their own right, but I found myself drawn to the Technique types
due to their great handling.
But even if there’s a character you like that doesn’t handle like you want, there
are mods to help with that.
After every race, coins are awarded that can then be spent, gacha-style, for a random mod
for one of the characters.
This not only changes the look of the character’s car, but its stats as well.
So if you wanted to slow down Sonic in order to have better handling, it’s possible.
Now because of the random rewards, it might take a while to get the specific mod for the
character you want, which can certainly be annoying.
That said, the coins are plentiful and it didn’t take long for me to build up a surplus.
In addition to the car mods, there are different customization options that can be obtained
through these Mod Pods such as paint kits, horn sounds, and vinyls.
Every color and aspect of each car’s appearance can be changed to make something uniquely
yours.
While it’s not something that appeals to me personally, the sheer amount of options
are appreciated.
Mod Pods can also contain bonus boxes that grant temporary bonuses during a race such
as starting with a specific Wisp, charging drift boosts faster, or granting immunity
to slowdown surfaces.
It’s not much, but it’s potentially enough to give you the edge in a race.
Finally, there’s the Wisps, which serve as the game’s items.
Each one fills a familiar roll such as bombs, speed boosts, traps, and rockets, but there
are unique ideas as well.
Quake can create rock formations, Laser has to be focused on a racer in order to wipe
them out, and Void can suck up item boxes, rings, and even slow down other racers.
There are even Wisps that are exclusive to certain racer types that can then be passed
between a team.
Together, they create a ton of variety that keeps things chaotic but never felt unfair.
There’s nothing equivalent to the Blue Shell, yet I never had an issue catching up to first
place.
It all feels more skill-based, much like the items in All-Star Racing Transformed.
All of this is built on top of a racing engine that feels good.
Each kart is responsive and the different stats of that kart can be felt immediately
when switching from one to another.
Drift boosts are simple to pull off and responsive while tricks can be performed in the air for
another boost when landing.
Even the initial speed burst at the beginning of a race feels good as its based on the timing
of the countdown.
The races themselves can certainly be intense, especially on higher difficulties where the
speed is increased, but it feels good to get a handle on your favorite racer, the tracks,
and the best strategies as you try to win.
That just leaves the different modes in Team Sonic Racing.
On the single player side, the main attraction is the new story mode.
A mysterious Tanuki named Dodon Pa invites Sonic and his friends to race, which they
do under heavy suspicion.
Nobody really trusts Dodon Pa, but Sonic really wants to race and, hey, they’ve got nothing
better to do.
It’s completely silly, but in all the right ways.
The characters only appear as cutouts, but every line of dialog is spoken which helps
sell the interactions.
The characters also talk and react throughout each race which would elicit the occasional
chuckle.
But if it ever becomes annoying, they can be turned off in the options.
In the same way, the cutscenes are completely optional and can be skipped without a second
thought, allowing players to focus on the actual challenges.
These range from single races and grand prixs to more individual challenges that help improve
your racing skills.
Daredevil has you driving as close to Star Posts as possible to maximize points, Ring
Challenges have you collecting as many rings as possible in a time limit, Eggpawn Assault
has you destroying as many Eggpawns as possible, and there’s many more, all akin to All-Stars
Racing Transformed.
But like that game, these challenges can also be extremely brutal.
You’ll get better, but the frustration I felt sometimes killed a lot of the fun.
In addition, the only real reward is more cosmetic options for your cars.
So if you don’t care about that, there’s not huge point in completing them.
That said, it is a meaty mode that will take several hours to finish, let alone complete
entirely if you so choose.
Otherwise, single player consists of the typical grand prixs, single races, and time attacks.
While the story mode has set teams, these modes allow characters to be mixed and matched
in any way.
Not only that, but there’s the option to race without the team mechanics in a more
traditional racer.
But without the teamwork aspect, the game just didn’t feel as fun and getting hit
by Wisps felt way more brutal than before.
The game doesn’t quite click in the same way without the team mechanics.
There’s also online races to to enjoy which come in both casual and ranked as well as
teams and solo.
While my first few races were a little spotty as the person I played with kept disconnecting,
eventually I had no issues playing online.
The connection seemed solid with no hints of slowdown or the odd quirks of slow connections
and the gameplay was rock solid.
There are unique modes as well such as a king of the hill mode, dodging lightning, or limiting
items to a single Wisp type.
While this sounds like it would change up the races significantly, the goals and the
way you raced pretty much stayed the same.
Even King of the Hill, where teams competed over who could stay in first the longest didn’t
change much.
They’re still a good time, but mainly because the main teamwork is fun
If there’s one big takeaway from Team Sonic Racing, it’s that it is absolutely gorgeous.
The amount of detail put into every single track is fantastic.
There are plenty of callbacks to the Sonic series and the tracks all contain shortcuts
to find as well as different route options to take which alternately feature boost pads,
rings, or items, making it more of a choice of what you need at the time.
Not only that, but the tracks aren’t afraid to get wacky with their designs as some have
the racers go upside-down or along the side of a wall.
It’s never made as big of a deal as in Mario Kart 8, but I appreciated how each track felt
unique.
Despite this polish, there were times where graphical glitches would occur, most notably
during the car customization.
It’s nothing terrible, more of a distraction than anything else, and the races were always
smooth.
But then there’s the music.
My god, it is absolutely brilliant.
Every single track pops and is filled with that fun Sonic vibe.
The remixes are all near perfect with some that shouldn’t work, but absolutely do.
Sonic games are almost always praised for their soundtracks and this might be one of
the best in the entire series.
Team Sonic Racing is a surprise of a game for me.
I didn’t expect much of it, yet the systems at play all work well.
It never excited me to the same degree as All-Star Racing Transformed, but the team
dynamic keeps it unique, especially when directly compared with Mario Kart 8.
I don’t think it surpasses that game either although there’s more single player content
to enjoy.
Meanwhile, the multiplayer is different enough to check it out, but the multiple mode don’t
really change the races in a truly significant way.
It’s not something as different as a battle mode for example.
Still, I liked it a lot and feel that those looking for a solid Sonic racer will find
plenty to enjoy in the game.
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things gaming.