Team Sonic Racing Review
Sonic’s karts have always had a relative weightlessness to them; a conscious decision to get away from the drift-heavy fare of Mario or the chunky, momentous cornering of Crash. While you might have grown to love this sensation as it prioritises responsiveness and you commanding your kart back to the intended line, personally it doesn’t hold up when the competition feels so engaging and immediately gratifying.
Team Sonic’s physics just don’t come together in a way that makes you feel the energy of controlling this little fireball of a character driving a souped-up ride around spaghetti-loop tracks or vicious chicanes.
It was a feeling you could forgive when past game had three separate physics models for each vehicle type, but here races start to feel repetitive, and fast.
This repetition extends to the unlocks too, as Team Sonic Racing of course has a blind-box loot system. Thankfully there are no microtransactions, but you unlock coins to purchase Mod Pods through races and activities, containing random parts to bolt onto your ride or replace entire chunks of their chassis.
Customisation affects handling, acceleration, top speed etc. too, but to be honest, it was always in such miniscule ways, I didn’t feel the need to really chase anything down. Double that lack of drive with a roster I don’t actively WANT to pimp out, and you’re left with a feeling of “Yeah… sure… I could play more, I guess?”
It doesn't help when your menu options are ostensibly Team Adventure (a "story mode" where static cutouts of characters talk to one another before you race), plus split-screen local and online multiplayer. This lack of player motivation only snowballs, and that’s a massive shame when everything should be so playable; so candy-coloured and inviting.
There is clearly, CLEARLY a way to do a “Mario Kart with Sega characters” that would tick millions of boxes, and then some. Racers ranging from Ryu Hayabusa to Jet Set Radio’s Beat, all coming with their own rides and even paths through levels, depending on class-specific abilities.
Sumo Digital clearly have great ideas up their sleeves when it comes to modernising the kart racing genre, they’re just lacking that quintessential cohesive whole that brings everything together.
Here’s to the next race.