7.12.2012

After my purchase of the Wii U and a 30 minute go of ZombiU, I felt I might have misjudged my investment considerably.I then unwrapped Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed, put it in the Wii U (Game Update..... 15 minutes later....) and watched a bright dazzling animated video of the Sega universe springing to life in all sorts of racing action. Oh Boy was my initial thought, I had previously read a review that scored Sonic 6/10 and couldn't understand why the negativity until this visual assault played out and I felt that all the quality was on the intro and not on the game.Firstly let me say that Sumo Digital have done a fantastic job in making an underrated experience into something that really has helped define my Wii U.I love SONIC! There the cats out the bag or maybe the hedgehog... I dunno what has happened but as a 33 year old I should be too old for these games supposedly.There is a rare quality about Sonic Racing Transformed that reminds me of Mario Kart or F-Zero, it has an amazing sense of fun, challenge and replay value, something that plenty of racing games lack. Lets be honest this isn't any GT5 or Forza experience, this is about fun, bloody hard power me up fun and it delivers it in bucket loads.Playing the game gives you various options, a world tour mode to play through various tracks with different challenges, cups each being made up of 4 tracks and versus. Okay sounds straight forward and it is. The game can be played with the GamePad, Controller Pro, Wiimote (and various Wiimote accessories if you wish), my preference so far is the Controller Pro, using the GamePad sometimes causes me to be distracted about what is being shown on the screen (a map, unless you've sent the game to the Gamepad (swipe down)). The Controller Pro being lighter feels comfortable for a good long play session.Anyway so as a few people have said the game supports 5 players, the 5th Player (or primary) always uses the GamePad, but the best thing about the 5 players is you can take all 5 of you online and do a Online 10 player race and the Wii U handles this all pretty well, granted there are moments of slow down but the truth is it's not bad enough to stop the fun and if anything it reminds me of Mario Kart 64 when 4 people use to play that and it appeared to grind to a halt, but the Wii U is managing 10 players, 5 people sitting on floors and chairs in the same room as me, 2 displays thanks to my GamePad and we are laughing, cursing and enjoying what a game is suppose to do, entertain us.So lets now take my 4 friends away and strip the experience back to just me, billy no mates all of a sudden. Playing by yourself isn't what it's cracked up to be usually and there are occasions that you could be caught out or in trouble for doing so, but we are talking video games here. Anyway Sonic remains addictive and challenging thanks in part to a unique levelling up which happens when you play the game, every used character gets experience points which once you've reached a certain amount unlocks a different characteristic, for example Knuckles (my preferred character) his default driving style is more average speed, but better handling. The first unlocked enhancement, up'd the handling all the way up but reduced my top speed, the second unlock changed that by upper the speed, reducing boost and lowering handling. Basically it gives you the opportunity to tweak a character style to suit you all the more. It's great it keeps making me do the same tracks with the different styles to see if I can up my lap time etc... sad defo, fun most certainly.The next thing is the graphics, there is so much going on that your eyes will want to bleed, blood really will want to run out of them as you try to take in every bit of detail as you hurtle along and shift your vision from your racer to the background, to the changing environment, to the hazards to the other racers, to the short cuts it goes on and on and on and every lap is different for the majority of tracks and you really need to just see this game shift... however (the big HOWEVER) it does get ahead of itself and sometimes as mentioned about the 5 player session can SLoOOOOooooW down, nothing major but you're not sure if it's because your going so fast that everything around you is slow or just the fact that all that screen candy is actually causing the Wii U to cry a little itself... THIS IS NOT A REASON NOT TO GET THIS GAME THOUGH.Summary TimeThis is NOT Mario Kart and for once I actually think that's a great thing, Sega and Sumo have done a great job at creating a game that is accessible to players young and old, with a great learning curve and challenge if you want to push it and a solid online component that just helps to propel the game up there with the great racing classics to me. For Wii U owners this really is a must and if you want to add me my Nintendo ID is mightyhorace now start those engines please!

1.5.2015

This game is the sequel to the already great Sonic All-star racing. Just like the other game it features a lot of characters from the sega games and tracks that mimic the levels found in those games. For a start I'd like to say that this game does run great on the ps3 and the waiting times aren't long for loading but I have already run into a problem with one track. Burning Depths track (from Burning Rangers) is quite graphically hungry and although one play of the track seems to work fine, if I chose to replay the track again and again trying to complete a mission the sound of the music would disappear leaving only sound effects and the whole game itself would then suffer lag and sound issues which don't get fixed until I restart the whole program.This however is the only problem I've had and it's really not a big one as long as you don't replay over and over without cutting back to the main menu.Just like in the original racer each of the characters has their own car to race in. There are some differences in the characters available this time around though. Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Shadow, Tails, Beat, Ulala, B.D.Joe, Amigo and Alex Kidd are still here, the other racers from the original have been replaced with others. Some of the characters are unlockable and others appear ready to play like MeeMee and Ralph from Wreck it ralph.The big difference in this game to the original is the transformations. Cars can now change into planes or boats depending on where they are on the track. The transformations are really smooth and it really makes the game more fun. It also means there's more interesting tracks such as all the flying on the NIGHTS track.There are different game modes, a career mode which is just for one player and is where you unlock bonus characters and other usual game modes such as cups where you play 4 tracks to try and come first, time trials and also other modes that involve other players. There are also options to connect online with your game to compete with others.The game includes a licence which you can see to track your progress of the game and also unlock achievements. these achievement badges can then be used as stickers on your licence. The game has a lot of achievments though and if you are a single player like me you'll never unlock them all as plenty of them are based on playing multi-player races.The game has some great features, the tracks are great and I think the transforming element really improves the game but now for the bad...The BAD:This game doesn't let you listen to music in an options mode as most sonic games do. In fact the original game had a section where you could listen to tracks and read about characters but all that is gone.The game's funny commentator is gone replaced by a single voice that just calls out what power-up you've got such as 'Swarm!' if you've got the swarm of wasps. This bothered me a bit as I loved the original game's commentator, thought it made the game more funny especially if you started going the wrong way.The game still doesn't let you replay your race which is sometimes really funny to do.The slow down bug in Burning Depths that I've mentioned before. It's not a terrible bug but I don't like having to restart the program every time I want to play that level a few times.Not all the characters come with each version. I find it annoying that you have to select which version (ps3/xbox 360/PC, etc) you want to get certain characters, no doubt a ploy by sega to get more sales but it's just a little annoying.I won't say any more bad about this game. The gameplay is really great and feels tougher to win than the original which is great for replay value I also love Gilius and his 'vehicle'! The career mode called world tour is also very long and a lot of fun to slowly unlock characters. You can't select the music you want for each track anymore but this doesn't bother me. Another great new feature I forgot to add which adds a little excitement to the game and helps you win missions is also the slot machine. Wnen you earn coins around the track you can play the slot machine. It costs 5 coins a spin but if you score 3 in a row you're given a bonus start item, anything from starting with a full boost to being given a glove to use at the start.This limited edition also comes with bonus items to download, there is an Outrun Track and also Metal Sonic. Although this is a great bonus, for offline gamers like me it's another thing I've been denied :(For all the faults though this game is great, and runs a lot smoother than the original. I'd recommend this game to Sonic fans and anyone who wants a fun racing game that's not serious on realism. A great buy!

22.7.2018

*I bought the limited edition however I'm an offline gamer so I can't download any of the extra content, so the game I have is basically this one:This game is the sequel to the already great Sonic All-star racing. Just like the other game it features a lot of characters from the sega games and tracks that mimic the levels found in those games. For a start I'd like to say that this game does run great on the ps3 and the waiting times aren't long for loading but I have already run into a problem with one track. Burning Depths track (from Burning Rangers) is quite graphically hungry and although one play of the track seems to work fine,if I chose to replay the track again and again trying to complete a mission the sound of the music would disappear leaving only sound effects and the whole game itself would then suffer lag and sound issues which don't get fixed until I restart the whole program. This however is the only problem I've had and it's really not a big one as long as you don't replay over and over without cutting back to the main menu.Just like in the original racer each of the characters has their own car to race in. There are some differences in the characters available this time around though. Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Shadow, Tails, Beat, Ulala, B.D.Joe, Amigo and Alex Kidd are still here, the other racers from the original have been replaced with others. Some of the characters are unlockable and others appear ready to play like MeeMee and Ralph from Wreck it ralph.The big difference in this game to the original is the transformations. Cars can now change into planes or boats depending on where they are on the track. The transformations are really smooth and it really makes the game more fun. It also means there's more interesting tracks such as all the flying on the NIGHTS track.There are different game modes, a career mode which is just for one player and is where you unlock bonus characters and other usual game modes such as cups where you play 4 tracks to try and come first, time trials and also other modes that involve other players. There are also options to connect online with your game to compete with others.The game includes a licence which you can see to track your progress of the game and also unlock achievements. these achievement badges can then be used as stickers on your licence. The game has a lot of achievments though and if you are a single player like me you'll never unlock them all as plenty of them are based on playing multi-player races.The game has some great features, the tracks are great and I think the transforming element really improves the game but now for the bad...The BAD:This game doesn't let you listen to music in an options mode as most sonic games do. In fact the original game had a section where you could listen to tracks and read about characters but all that is gone.The game's funny commentator is gone replaced by a single voice that just calls out what power-up you've got such as 'Swarm!' if you've got the swarm of wasps. This bothered me a bit as I loved the original game's commentator, thought it made the game more funny especially if you started going the wrong way.The game still doesn't let you replay your race which is sometimes really funny to do.The slow down bug in Burning Depths that I've mentioned before. It's not a terrible bug but I don't like having to restart the program every time I want to play that level a few times.Not all the characters come with each version. I find it annoying that you have to select which version (ps3/xbox 360/PC, etc) you want to get certain characters, no doubt a ploy by Sega to get more sales but it's just a little annoying.I won't say any more bad about this game. The gameplay is really great and feels tougher to win than the original which is great for replay value I also love Gilius and his 'vehicle'! The career mode called world tour is also very long and a lot of fun to slowly unlock characters. You can't select the music you want for each track anymore but this doesn't bother me. Another great new feature I forgot to add which adds a little excitement to the game and helps you win missions is also the slot machine. When you earn coins around the track you can play the slot machine. It costs 5 coins a spin but if you score 3 in a row you're given a bonus start item, anything from starting with a full boost to being given a glove to use at the start.For all the faults though this game is great, and runs a lot smoother than the original. I'd recommend this game to Sonic fans and anyone who wants a fun racing game that's not serious on realism. A great buy!

24.11.2012

This is a fun, colourful kart racer that's easy to pick up and difficult to master. It references many years of Sega's history and is enjoyable to play alone or with friends.It's safe to say it takes plenty of inspiration from the Mario Kart series, but it does enough things differently to have a personality of it's own.The problem is, the original "Sonic and Sega Allstars Racing" was a little bit more polished. Therefore if you haven't played it already, I'd recommend picking that one up first at a much cheaper price. For fans of the original, this is a decent return for the series but it's not an essential purchase as the new changes aren't exciting enough to make this game throughlydesirable.No doubt the biggest new feature is the ability to transform into a boat or a plane at predetermined points in a track. Sometimes this is incredibly fun, with certain tracks containing exciting boat or plane sequences.. such as hitting a large tidal wave or narrowly flying in between buildings. However it can often be a detriment, with tight confusing cave sections highlighting the generally sludgy boat controls or confusing aerial sections that can sometimes leave you lost. Some of the tracks are absolutely fantastic though and you'll really get a kick out of them first run through. The problem is, the game has these fantastic moments that honestly just don't happen often enough. Many of the tracks are generic and uninteresting while others can give the illusion of multiple shortcuts only for you to swiftly find out that it's just a wall or a drop off of the track.The new career mode takes over the previous challenge mode and is generally a lot less varied. You earn stars for completing events and this unlocks multiple pathways to other events, which sounds interesting, but really acts as a glorified menu. The events only contain a few different types and you might find yourself just wanting to play normal races to progress. The Sega miles system has been removed and instead of 'buying' unlockables, they now have to be obtained through the career. Personally I much preferred the old system which rewarded playing in all modes. The various stats menus have also been removed, leaving this game to be completely streamlined throughout.One of the biggest faults of the original and this game is the rather uninspiring power-ups. Even though most kart racer weapons only mimic their Mario counterparts, they still all feel a bit weak and unexciting. They even scrapped all of the power-ups from the original game, which seems rather odd seeing as their replacements are similar in function. All star moves have been kept, but they're much less varied this time around and that makes them much less exciting to use.I can't help be disappointed with 'Transformed' overall, not because it's a bad game, but because it could and should have been much better. It changes or removes many things that were good about the original, has a fairly uninspired career mode and has wildly varying quality in track design. The new boat and plane sections can occasionally be great but it's a shame that often they're just not. This is still a fun game, it's still worth playing, but it's completely overshadowed by the game that came before it.

30.1.2013

I bought this after downloading the demo from Xbox Live and falling in love with it. The game came and I quickly became addicted to it. It is such a brilliant game that prides itself on being crazy, fast, frantic and fun. The game has a lot of content for its price, it has multiple game modes to play such as Ring race, Battle Race, Boost Challenges, Drift Challenges and more! When you finish the World Tour (which is basically a structured tournament where you progress through the game earning stars for winning races which you use to unlock new races, characters and modifications for your vehicles) you will also have grand prixs to complete which are mini tournaments and will have time attack challenges,online multiplayer and more.The game has four difficulties however only 3 are available at first, the most difficult one (expert) is unlocked later in the game and will prove to be a real challenge. The difficulty in this game is no push over, you may go straight in at medium and will find out that the AI is much more competent than most games. This is no issue though as you can simply play on easy if you find this a little daunting and I'm sure once you pick up the basics of the game you will be doing great. The harder difficulties are actually really challenging too but are fantastically rewarding as completing races on higher difficulties will not only eventually unlock more achievements but will also give you more stars which will help you progress through the world tour to unlock more stages, modifications for characters cars and get more characters too.The track design is brilliant, each offering its own design and pacing. Some maps are close and tight whereas some are huge and have fantastic track transformations where huge parts of the tracks transform and your vehicle will instantly change from being a car to a boat or plane and then back again when the track changes again. As you progress through the world tour you unlock more and more maps and you will see how each one differs in design and difficulty, some have been designed very unforgivingly with very tight corners to ensure you use your drift feature efficiently and overall it makes for some very fun and crazy races.Playing with other people locally on the same Xbox via split screen is extremely fun, if you have more than one controller it is brilliant playing with other people in the house and makes for some pretty fun and memorable gaming and family moments. This game is basically for everyone, whether you're a child, someone who doesn't play games very often, a casual gamer or a hardcore gamer like myself. This game is very accessible, you can simply pick it up and get the hang of it pretty quick so it is something the whole family will enjoy especially playing with up to 4 people on the same console. Also to anyone who may be a fan of Mario Kart and want a new kart racer or don't currently own a Nintendo system then I do suggest looking into this, while not a Mario Kart clone this is probably the best and closest game you will ever get to Nintendos fantastic Mario Kart series.Overall, very good game. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

30.11.2012

I very rarely rate anything 5 stars. Not because I find the game poor, but because the 5 star rating should only be awarded to games that truly excel in their class. I believe SASRT to be one such game. Now I know how much people love Mario Kart, and I know there are people out there who would scoff at the very notion of another game being able to hold it's own against Nintendo's karting champion, but believe me when I say that this game is great fun. Some people might not enjoy it as much as other kart racers and that's fine, everyone's entitled to their opinion. But I do believe that even the most hardcore Mario fan will find it hard not to crack a smile every now and again while playing this game.Everything just works and works great in this game.

19.6.2013

As a follow up to the original Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing (the `Sega' has now disappeared in the title, not a great loss though), Transformed does everything you want a sequel to do and is a generally fun game throughout.The gameplay follows the now familiar video game karting template, established by the original Mario Kart all those years ago. You race whilst collecting power ups which can take the form of weapons or other items which will either aid your progress or hamper your opponents.Unlike Mario Kart, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed doesn't punish you for leading a race. You are still given access to the same power ups as the rest of the field and in addition,

1.12.2012

I bought this game not expecting much, hoping to find something that could sate my desire for a new Mario Kart. I was pleasantly surprised. The character's will appeal to any longer term SEGA fans and for the most part seem a fun, diverse and relatively balance bunch. The game has elements that feel Mario Kart-esque, as do most kart games. There's the familiar corner drift boosting and an array of bizarre picks ups that can be used to inflict pain upon your fellow racers. It also put me in mind of Diddy Kong racing, back on the N64 with the land, sea and air elements. It's very fast paced and suitably challenging.I would note aside these comparisons it's certainly a game in it's own right,

20.3.2016

This is a fantastic racing game that offers a ton of cars/karts and tracks to choose from! My son's current favourite party game is Cars 2 that has an offline 4 player split screen mode that makes for a lot of fun when his friends come round. However, it was getting a bit boring playing the same game most of the time (the other 4 player game being Rayman) so I looked into what other 4 player games there were available for the PS3. With a bit of luck I chanced upon this game which I bought digitally from the PlayStation store as it is cheaper there, plus they throw in the bonus Outrun track and Metal Sonic car for free!The gameplay is fun and the tracks highly varied - to the extent that no 2 laps are the same - as you are transforming automatically to car,

26.6.2013

Sonic Racing has evolved over the years into something that just abouts jostles for the Mario Kart crown where kart racers are concerned. This latest offering is more than a match for the mighty MK, with a solid roster, gorgeous visuals, crazy, interactive courses and plenty of SEGA fan service.The roster is extensive enough, if a little odd at times (Wreck-It Ralph is in there, for some reason - I did read somewhere the justification for this, but I can't recall. Anyhow, his helicopter rocks. I digress...).The premise is great. It's racing, but not only in cars - also boats and planes. Well, water and air vehicles, anyway. There's a terrific variety amongst the different vehicles in terms of how they handle and perform.

7.9.2015

Having bought this after Mario Kart 8 was released, this game had an impossibly high bar to reach. Simply put, Mario Kart 8, in my opinion, is the best racing game every made, for lots of reasons. But after some playing, this game shocked me with a few things that put it right up there - not that far from MK8, in my estimation!First, the name - or rather part of it - Sonic All-Stars Racing TRANSFORMED - is quite key here, since you flip between car, boat, and plane numerous times during a race. The transformation appears a big gimmicky to begin with, but given the incredible tracks, you soon find it's necessary. Just to note also that you don't manually control the transformation,

29.7.2014

I am a huge fan of anything to do with Sonic and Sega; and I'm a lover of racing games. I knew this would be sort of along the lines of Mario Kart as a competitor in the market. However this surpassed my expectations. Although there aren't many tracks there are loads of characters to unlock and the on-line play is by far the best part of the game. The career modes such as Grand Prix and World Tour are how characters are tracks are unlocked and is quite fun by itself. There are three ranks; A B and C which determine how easy the CPU opponents are to beat. A being hardest and aiming for first place and C being easiest aiming for third place. A rank gives the player three stars if first place,

28.7.2013

Bought this game recently and I'm glad to say I was pleasantly suprised. It's very fast paced and the courses are really great. When I first put it on I have to admit, I was terrible. From playing mario kart a lot on the wii, it was a big change as it is a lot more fast paced and the tracks look a lot better. It didn't take long to get used to it though, and I can place well now. Unlike mario kart, the computers are good and give you a good race, even on the medium setting. A lot of characters to choose from with their own strengths e.g. sonic is good for speed of course. The fact the cars can change into boats and planes is also really run and adds a bit of variety too it.

3.2.2014

Yet again, i'm writing a review after originally playing a demo and not liking it. What was I thinking! Once you get use to the controls and transforming from a car to a boat to a plane, this game is sheer enjoyment. The graphics are pure Sega (SEEEEGAAAA!) brought to us by Nintendo, which makes them even better, they offer pure joy. The races are addictive, coming 3rd is never quite enough and you always want to try to better yourself for Second, if not First.There are four modes, the main mode: the incredible world tour, you take legendary All Stars characters and have to come 3rd to progress onto the next race and eventually complete the game. Throughout the game,

20.12.2012

This game is an arcade racer, set in the world Sega games and full of characters and settings from their games. The game has something different to the norm though in that your vehicles transform from land to sea to air modes throughout races, adding a nice twist and a huge amount of fun.I got the WiiU version as I wanted to expand my collection and also because I wanted one of the games that has off-screen play. I love this feature, I can be sitting at my TV playing the game and rather than having to switch off when the family want the telly I simply swipe down on the gamepad screen and the game transfers to that screen and I can take the game with me.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail