Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (BETA)

As a big fan of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed I was eager to give Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds a spin to see how it compared. As far as a BETA goes, this was very polished and smooth and I didn’t encounter any issues when playing online. The game looks great. It’s bright, colourful, but pretty easy to read even amidst the chaos. And ‘chaotic’ is how I’d best describe playing CrossWorlds.

Item spam is pretty crazy when playing online or with harder AI settings, and this BETA didn’t even give us access to the top tier AI difficulties. Item effects are popping off all around you practically from start to finish. That . . . might need to be a little toned down, because right now, it feels like item usage / management is actually far more important than the actual driving.

It’s not unusual to be leading a race and go from 1st to 12th and then back again all within the space of ten seconds or so because of items being used against you, only for you to use them back and regain your position. Transformed spaced out item pick ups far more and only let you carry one at a time so their usage had to be more considered, whereas CrossWorlds lets you carry two and pick ups are found on nearly every turn.

Handling is pretty good, but you need to make sure you turn off any drive-assists. Drifting feels a little more . . . rigid, I guess, than in Transformed, but it’s something you learn to manage. I actually downloaded Transformed again and played through a few tracks to better compare and . . . yeah, I think I do prefer the handling in Transformed, but there’s not a lot in it, and they’re both fun.

I also really liked Transformed for the Sega nostalgia angle and whilst I’m sure CrossWorlds will delve into Sega history for various racers and tracks, the game is set up to do what so many big and successful live service games do these days – crossover IP. They’re already announced Minecraft, SpongeBob SquarePants and Pac-Man. It’s a clever way to expand the appeal of your game and open the door to all kinds of other crossovers regardless of platform.

The ‘gimmick’ I guess of CrossWorlds is how you seamlessly switch between tracks during a race. It does help keep things fresh because you never know what track you’ll be racing on for the next lap. Visually, CrossWorlds looks great and runs flawlessly, at least from what I experienced. I also like the vehicle customisation and the gadgets that provide various modifiers to play with.

Overall, although I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this BETA I do feel, frankly, like I could just go back and play Transformed again because I’m more interested in the Sega stuff than this other IP and also because I think the item / race balance is far better. I like to feel that my driving skill is what ultimately wins a race, not how lucky / unlucky I am when it comes to items.

I’m also not sold on the price which feels a tad steep, but I guess it’s not that unusual these days. So yeah, I’m kind of on the fence with this one, but we’ll see how it shakes out and what new content they add. And also if they find a better balance when it comes to driving skill versus item usage because it’s a little too messy right now.