Now Playing: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

I was a little on the fence about picking up Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds at release, mostly because of the price. But I did pick it up and . . . yeah, I still think the price is too steep and has likely limited sales. That’s a guess on my part, but I feel like a lower RRP would have encouraged more people to buy at release, rather than wait for a sale.

Pricing aside, CrossWorlds is a pretty great racing game. As I said in my BETA impressions post, I don’t feel the, uh, ‘feel’ of driving in CrossWorlds is quite as good as in Transformed, even after sinking over 20 hours into the game. The handling doesn’t feel quite as good. The drifting is a little more ‘rigid’.

And I still feel that the races – particularly the online races – are too heavily influenced by item usage / spam leading to some very chaotic encounters where it feels like chance plays a bigger factor in your final position in a race than skill. Luck is always going to be a factor in a kart racer like this, but it’s all about the balance. Right now, the balance between chance and skill still isn’t quite right. They certainly need to make a few tweaks to various items – and perhaps, as I said in my BETA post – a reduction in item availability.

But, those problems aside, CrossWorlds is a very enjoyable and replayable kart racer. I’ve actually put more time into CrossWorlds already than I ever did into Transformed. There are eight Grand Prix to play, each with 3 tracks, in addition to 15 CrossWorlds (the chosen or randomly selected second lap of every race).

You have multiple ‘speeds’ (difficulty) to choose from, as well as a ‘rivals’ system with its own separate difficulty setting. You even have a fun ‘mirror’ version of all the Grand Prix. Beyond the main GP modes you have the ‘Race Park’ which offers a selection of themed, team based races and, once again, ‘rivals’ to challenge. And then we have the Time Trial mode which offers different speed settings and ranks to clear. And all of these modes offer rewards you can unlock as you progress and complete various challenges.

This progression of challenges and rewards, along with the fun kart customisation, give CrossWorlds (at least for me) more replay value than Transformed. You’re not done with the game once you’ve cleared all the courses because there’s always more to unlock.

There are multiple kart types to pick from, each of which has multiple parts that you can mix and match to fine tune your kart stats. Each character also has their own specific stats so you can put together a combination of character and kart that’s entirely focused on boosting a specific skill – speed, for example – or choose a combo that offers a more balanced approach.

 

Your karts aren’t just customisable in terms of parts but also visuals, with an extensive selection of art and colour choices. And then we have the ‘Gadgets’ which provide even more ways to customise your racing experience, more replay value in terms of experimentation with different gadget combos – and even more chaotic racing!

Gadgets are modifiers that can be used to mix up all sorts of things from kart stats, to item frequency / effectiveness, to speed boosts related to specific skills (ring collection / drifting). With a full ‘licence’ you can have up to 6 slots for gadgets, but some gadgets can take up to 3 slots each, so there’s a balancing act between more or less gadgets, and what kind of modifiers you want based on how you prefer to race.

Do you focus on speed or acceleration? Do you want a kart that boosts as fast as possible? There’s always a trade off, however and it’s also important to build your gadget set up around the kind of kart and character you’ve chosen.

In terms of visuals, sound and performance, I can’t really complain. The game is very polished, runs totally smoothly and although some online match making can be a bit slow, I’ve only experienced a single disconnect in all my hours of play. The game is bright, colourful, with catchy music and even though things can get pretty chaotic at times, it’s still pretty easy to read what’s going on.

The only thing I’m really not a fan of so far are the themed ‘festivals’. These run over just 3 days and offer a selection of rewards if you engage in the team based online festival races. Although it’s not too hard to unlock everything on offer it still forces you to play and grind through these races if you don’t want to miss out.

It might be they’ll cycle through these festivals regularly, giving you a chance to claim any rewards you missed but at the time of writing, that’s not been confirmed. They also lock you out of regular online racing during these festivals so if you enjoy that and don’t care about the festival stuff, you’re shit out of luck.

Overall, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is an excellent kart racer with plenty of content to keep you busy and plenty of replay value. There’s certainly room for improvement in terms of balancing, and I do think the festival system needs more work but as a package, CrossWorlds delivers a great experience. I still think at its current RRP it’s a little overpriced, so maybe wait for a sale, eh?

8/10