Team Sonic Racing Review

While Mario Kart and Crash are hitting the nitrous, Sonic stalls on the starting line.

team sonic racing
Sega

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (Copy provided by Sega)

Sadly, for as much as Team Sonic Racing should be the refined, perfected execution of a formula the past games have been experimenting with for years, this latest iteration comes up short. It’s very hard to escape the feeling that with Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled being announced and released in half a year, Sega have scrambled to reheat the leftovers from the immaculate main course that was Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed, resulting in something that is “Kart Racing 101”, but without any of the pull outside of that.

Because what Sega WERE building towards was something truly special.

They looked to be moving away from the almost 30 year-old blueprint laid down by Mario Kart in 1992, and into a multi-vehicle extravaganza where races took place across land, sea and air, all while characters from your favourite Sega games yelled their most well-known catchphrases.

Then you look at Team Sonic Racing… and none of that has been capitalised on.

Team Sonic Racing
Sega

We’re instead solely back to ground vehicles, fairly basic power-ups and a roster consisting entirely of Sonic characters.

Now, I’m a fairly huge Sonic fan, but even I’ll admit that outside of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, the world has never REALLY cared about Chao, Shadow, Amy, Big the Cat etc. It’s a thoroughly NICE lineup if you’re a hardcore devotee of Sonic media, but next to Mario Kart’s rundown of all-things Nintendo and Crash Bandicoot’s stronger lineup where even Fake Crash is recognisable as a nostalgic favourite, it falls short.

Where Team Sonic DOES iterate in a very cool way gameplay-wise, is teamwork. Results from races are shaken up as actual placement doesn’t necessarily mean you come out on top. See, you’re always racing with two partners, and it’s your combined positions that result in points totted up to reveal the overall victor.

Sega have put in some cool mechanics here too: You can boost off a partner, restore their top speed after a power-up has connected - you can trade or request items, and even stay in their slipstream to charge a boost that’ll catapult you further ahead.

These are all fantastic, innovative ideas that come into their own online, promoting a sense of voiceless, natural teamwork that should be championed alongside Apex Legends’ ping system.

Sadly though… that’s where the outright positives end.

Cont.

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Gaming Editor
Gaming Editor

WhatCulture's Head of Gaming.