27.5.2010

People love to have something to compare it to, it happens everywhere and for a long time. How many times do we hear `The Next Leona Lewis' when talking about The X Factor? It's the same with the gaming industry; when Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing first came out, practically all reviews put it up against the long standing Mario Kart, due to its colourful characters and crossover of long time favourites. But is Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing the Mario Kart clone that everyone makes it out to be?Starting with the visuals the game doesn't use the `fuzzy film' effect that plagued Mario Kart Wii, judging purely on the Playstation 3 version the visuals are crisp, colourful, bright and streams beautifully.There are no slowdowns or jumps in quality, all characters are designed nicely and there's a great amount of detail gone into each race track. Sure the PS3 version doesn't offer a spectacular HD experience and some human faces look a little too fake but the quality is still far above the average. Music also hits a high note; being very well composed, full of energy and cheery to keep with the spirit of the game. Although they do have tunes from previous Sega games, most of it is post-2000 (so no retro Sonic tunes I'm afraid). Voice acting is decent and give personality to the various racers where needed. The game also has a commentator that lets the player know what's going on in the race, admittedly at times he can be annoying but he does have some funny one-liners that will make you chuckle one you get into the light hearted nature of the title. Controls are also reliable, again using the PS3 as reference, all buttons work precisely as they should with no delay between analog stick turning and the character turning itself.The game is divided into single and multiple player, and then provided are cup games, mission mode and shopping. The cups are formed of 4 races, 8 players must race against each other to come first and accumulate points at the end of each one, the player with the highest points gets the Gold Cup. But it's not just a case of turning corners and driving through waterfalls, not only do you need to master the `drift' technique to get around tough corners and accumulate the drift effect to gain a speed boost at the end, but you'll also need to make use of items scattered across the race in capsules to make the race difficult for the competition or help you regain you lead. This includes Sonic speed shoes to give your car a quick boost, bombs to litter the track and KO gloves to knock out other players. The more cynical readers will be groaning right now demanding to know what's the difference between this and the highly regarded Mario Kart. Yes, the KO gloves behave like green shells, the speed shoes are mushrooms and bombs are the more lethal fake question mark crystals. But Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing does have its own unique palette to work with, such as rainbows the obstruct the players view with bright colours (seriously, it's the most annoying during Samba De Amigo's races where everything is already vibrant) and the mega horn that obnoxiously blows in nearby player's ears to throw them off their game, it's great fun to do!On top of this the game is equally balanced between skill and luck, something I cannot say to most of the Mario Kart series. Mario Kart Wii's increase of 8 racers to 12 and new items created a game that made the most skilled players questioned their abilities when they can avoid every pit stop and use every short cut, only to get hit by a banana coming out of nowhere and come last! Earlier entries (apart from, arguably, Double Dash!!) aren't much better with racers springing out of nowhere or being a full lap ahead of you before the first lap is finished. For Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing however, if you come last it's almost always due to your poor driving or lack of effectively using items. This makes the game fair, and therefore, fun! The progressive difficulty settings are set properly and computer controlled racers won't pull a `rubber band AI' on you. To tie it in the races are wacky with plenty of background animation going on to keep the players amused, the commentator pulls a one-liner every now and then to keep the atmosphere up-beat, and the game is just...enjoyable. There's little else you need from a mascot racing game that's meant to be played for a short period of time or with friends.Another point to give to Sonic Racing is the flow of the game; you know in Mario Kart when you fall off the track it takes a good 5 - 10 seconds for you character to be put back on the track and get going again? All Stars Racing doesn't suffer from that, as soon as you fall off, blink and you're back in the race. This works much better with the fast flow of the racing genre and doesn't create a situation where you're fed up of seeing the same animation of the character being carried back to the race over and over again.Outside of grand prix you can also do time trials, race single tracks if desired, play online and local for multiplayer, and missions. The mission section has 50 different trials for the player to take on, ok it's more like 7 tasks repeated over and over again just with different characters or tracks involved but that's still a fair amount to keep you busy. Missions include collecting items relevant to the racer, using items to defeat an opponent, drift challenges and knockout - where you must race against the clock and come first as every 20 seconds the person in last will be knocked out - challenging and quite tense at times! The missions get harder as you go on, you also get to play every character and race available in the game, so you'll be given a tour of the title whilst challenging your skills to the limits. In addition, unlike the missions in Superstars Tennis, they're actually relevant to the characters and use the racing control system, unlike one incident in Superstars Tennis where Sonic's ring collecting mini game didn't even use a tennis racket!All Stars Racing features characters and multiple references across the majority of Sega games; from the ever popular Sonic to the lesser known Alex Kidd and Beat from Jet Set Radio. Like most racing games, all character have their strengths and weaknesses, some are easier to drive and others have heavy vehicles in tow. You'll also get a good variety of characters on bikes, hovercrafts as well as cars, although you can't unlock or purchase any alternative rides for them. On top of this, making a return from Sega Superstars Tennis, each character has an All-Star move; usually unleashed if the racer is doing badly in the game the character will suddenly activate their special ability that will knock opponents out, speed up considerably, slow others down - it varies from character to character, making races interesting and fun to try out all the characters to see who fits your driving style best.The tracks themselves are modifications of popular levels from Sega games; you'll be leaving people in the dust at Curien Castle, marking tire tracks in Casino Park and so on. The variety in tracks though is a lot to be desired, come on Sega, do we REALLY need 3 varieties of Sonic's Casino tracks? They all contain bright lights, the money sign and Casino chips in, what's the difference? Couldn't you have us speeding down Scrap Brain Zone, or cruising by Lava Reef Zone? Considering how many Sonic games they have been it seems like a wasted opportunity here. The same goes for the character selection; I know `Sonic' is in the title of the game and he's Sega flagship series, but 7 Sonic characters? I would've been quite happy to replace Big the Cat with a much more appreciated and familiar face, such as Gilius from Golden Axe.At the end of a long day of racing, you can then hit the shops. At the end of each race and mission you collect Sega Miles, you get these simply by completing a race but you can gather more if you perform tricks and other things in the game. Sega Miles are used to purchase new racers, tracks and music to play in the game, the maximum you've collect also goes on your `license', allowing you to compare your score with mates. On top of this, Xbox and Wii users have their own exclusive character to use (e.g. the Mii can be implemented into the Wii edition) and downloadable content is available, including Metal Sonic as a racer and Final Egg as a track. More is said to be on the way, so plenty to keep you coming back every now and then.Whether it's trying to be a Mario Kart clone or not doesn't matter, the bottom line is that Sonic and Sega All Starts Racing is FUN. A factor that game programmers seem to forget nowadays. Sure it's not perfect but there's a lot of fun, mayhem and wackiness to go round, so take it for a spin if you gotten all you can from the racing games in your current collection

5.3.2010

Here be my quick down and dirty review of Sonic and Sega All Star Racing. There's no story to concentrate on really so this'll just be a point by point good and bad of the gameplay, graphics and sound. Hope it proves usefully to you!THE GOOD:* - Sharp and colourful graphics that represent each characters world and style very well.* - Nice modes which include your usual grand prix and single race efforts and the less than ordinary mission mode. All Great stuff. All of these modes will reap you some fat virtual monies and money = prizes in the way of new tracks and some of your favourite old and new Sega mascots such as Ryo and Alex Kidd!* - Controls are well thought out and minimalist and afford you great control when tearing up the track.Cornering utilises a "Double Dash" style drift system that just rolls of the thumbs and into the game with little to no hassle.* - characters each have their own powers as well as a bunch of powers that are universal to all the characters such as rolling bombs and turbos. Character specific powers come in the form of Super Sonic and Super Shadow tearing up the track to Ai Ai, of monkey ball fame, blazing around, friends in tow, in a big old monkey ball crushing his opponents.* - Great respect has been paid to long time fans of Sega franchises with authentic animations and voices and music ripped from original games and jazzed up. Not to mention a fine old line up of characters past and present, common and uncommon. The whole thing is a great little package for retro fans when coupled with the likes of Megadrive Collection (and Sega Superstar Tennis to a lesser extent.)* - Online is good - not great - but a welcome addition.* - Tracks are mad and highly inventive sucking every bit of inspiration from their source material and most importantly the frame rate is solid as a rock for 99.9 percent of the time making the entire thing a joy to whiz around on.* - Cool looking vehicles and lots of varied modes of transport from planes and motorbikes to F1 inspired beauties and even monster trucks. Most people will find a character/vehicle to suit their personal racing style and have a blast taking it online for a furious competition.THE NOT SO GOOD:* - It's more than a touch on the easy side - if you've beaten anything like Mario Kart DS or the modern Outrun incarnations you'll kick this in the pants quick smart.* - One or two of the tracks are less well thought out than the other but they are in the vast minority.* - Without Mario Kart this would never have been the same game and feels like a bit of a rip off - however it's shed the blue shells and trimmed some of the fat that the later Marion Karts have garnered. A lot of people will find fault with all the similarities, personally I say there's enough room in the world for more than one contender to the casual racer crown. Also the most important thing is that it may be a bit of a rip off but it's not a cheap one by any means.* - More serious racer fans will find much to like but it may not have the depth of it's contemporaries but this is a "Kart" game and that goes without saying.* - The commentator is not only outdated but also super cheesy. Off you go, sirCONCLUSION:A smart and well thought out Kart racer with so many nods to gems from Sega's illustrious past and not so illustrious (in my personal opinion) present that fans will find it hard not to love it to pieces. Worth a rental for anyone who's a little unsure and well worth a buy to fans of Sega and the genre alike.

19.6.2011

EDIT: I'm adding to my original review as I feel I didn't add enough information about the game (see below for my original review). Installing the game is described below, I have in on Vista but it might work on newer operating systems too. The installation doesn't need any online connection but you will need the disc in the drive to play the game. The game is pretty simple and I won't go into too much detail but there's a lot to play and a lot of unlockable content. There's a mode to learn the basic controls and then you can start the game.It's a typical kart type racing game with Sonic and other characters from various Sega games competing in a race. There are three types of vehicles to control,bikes, cars and flying vehicles and each character has a unique attack that helps speed them along the track. There's plenty of fun items to pick up along the way to help speed you through the game, things like boxing gloves and rockets to throw at others as well as lots of others.The main thing I love about this game is just how fun it is. You collect Sega miles every time you play and these can be used to unlock new characters and music to play while racing. There's lots of characters you can play as in the end and as well as a tournaemt style mode to play where you try to finish in first place there's also a challenge mode where you try to beat lots of different types of challenges, like collecting things, or taking out the boss in an arena with attack items. The only downside I found to completing this mode and making top rank in all of them is that I didn't get anything at the end, there was no final thing to unlock which felt annoying after spending so much time playing through the extra challenges. However this game is still really fun to play.There aren't any issues with playing the game, except for the important one about the graphics card needing to be double what they recommend (I'd recommend a 1GB card at least) and apart from a couple of tracks being choppy for a just a few seconds around one area, the rest of the game plays perfectly and is a lot of fun to replay.Original review:This is a great game for anyone who loves Sonic or racing. The game runs great on my PC but only after I had upgraded my 512MB graphics card to a 1GB card. Before then I could still play the game but only with all the graphics settings on minimum. In case anyone wants to know I have a quad core PC with 3GB RAM and windows vista. I didn't need a dedicated sound card though as I have very good on board sound.As for the game itself, it's really a lot of fun and very addictive. I love the items you pick up throughout the race as it makes a difference to whether you win or lose a race. And the race commentator makes me laugh, especially when I start driving the wrong way.Probably the most disappointing part of the game is having completed every mision at AAA rank and completed all the challenges you DON'T unlock any special track or receive anything other than personal pride, which was kind of annoying as well as disappointing. But that's the only part of this game that for me disappoints.I would recommend this game to anyone just be aware of the specs!

4.3.2010

I don't wish for any angry comments, but for me, this game actually tops Mario Kart. The tracks are better, the characters are funnier, and there are no blue shells. I have been playing this with my girlfriend, who can't play Mario Kart Wii at all, but we were evenly matched when racing in this, with her winning in a best-of-5 match.I've played through all of the GP cups and aside from a bit of jittery framerate on 2 or 3 of the courses (there's around 20-25 or so in the game) it plays so fast and so smooth (I can't comment on the Xbox 360, Wii or DS versions, but my girlfriend will be getting the DS version soon), and the characters are all really balanced. I've found Knuckles is the best to race with due to his handling,

24.10.2018

Further on then than some children can administer to and adults well need refining of more so, the party finishing up a little better agape than with the strain towards other kinds of advancing games and in inspections leading the way with less widened appeals their littler fancying the trial and tribulations furthering themselves in proceedings feel-good with gambling forces amass.The limitless lengths you can go to in each aspect and easiereness analysing realities driving with their styles though in gathering yourself for every play has you coming to dip in and grab some time or pursue the higher achievements. Whence the game can be played on and on if you grade your abilities at middling levels for the distant,

8.1.2011

I bought this for my 4 year old son because he has Mario Kart which he enjoys and finds easy to play. This game is great and I would say is just as good as MK. It is pretty much the same to play control wise although you have to press 2 instaed of A for selecting characters and tracks. You can pick from a good range of characters to race including Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Billy Hatcher and Amy. There are lots of different tracks although like MK you start off with some and then have to unlock the rest. The difference with this game is that you don't have to win certain races to unlock things and instead you get money each time you complete a race even if you lose and you use this money to buy things.

14.3.2010

I recently got this game and really looked forward to playing it, but UNLIKE what it says on the back it is NOT compatible with windows 7, I have however seen it run properly on a windows Vista, so if you plan on getting this and you have windows 7, save your money as it ISNT compatible, it wont evan run in compatibility mode! I know it's not my pc as the spec's are quite suitable;CPU: AMD Phennom x4 9500GPU: Geforce (pny) 9800GT 512mbOS: Windows 7 (32 bit)Ram: 4Gigs DDR2 800mhzSC: Creative Xtreame audioPSU: 570 WattI've tried everything, I even checked for update driver's for my Graphics card but still wont work... A shame really.Edit!I came back to this game after installing windows 8 a few month's back,

28.2.2010

Based on some comparisons with Mario Kart...Pros:-Lots of things to unlock, such as characters, courses & music tracks using the 'shopping' mode where you collect & earn 'miles' as tokens to purchase these things by racing etc-Many other modes such as battles & missions, as well as time trial & all the other jazz you'd expect-Online Play-Unique All-Star moves for each character which make them more individual compared with Mario Kart-The Sega wheel is an added bonus & makes the game kinda more realistic & fun-If you love speed, this game is for you! Very fast paced feeling compared with Mario Kart which seems a bit too slow sometimes. The drifting makes this game also I feel-Great graphics & themed courses-Opa Opa is in the game!!!

8.1.2013

I went round a friend's house the other night to play some Halo Anniversary and Black Ops 2. I am not joking we had more fun playing this.I went in with low expectations, I mean come on, It's just a Mario Kart clone right? Well, it actually holds it's own to tell you the truth. Once you have the drifting technique nailed (just hold the brake when turning and continue to slide to earn boost) it's a lot of fun. The levels are so bright, colourful and sometimes wacky bonkers.The soundtrack is crazy good - those guys at Sega know how to lay down some pumpin' tunes! I kid, but it's actually pretty solid, not your usual generic game music.I have a soft spot in my heart for Sonic from the countless hours I spent with him on my Mega Drive.

7.10.2011

Sonic and sega all stars is a fresh and innovative introduction to he ps3 kart racing genre perhaps as far as i remember the only one... the characters are very fluid, have a minimum story and very good visuals. Anyone like myself who has grown up playing sega games would be aware of the characters present in the game especially sonic, dr eggman the arch nemesis, alex kidd, ryo and many more.. what i really like was the different racing tracks inspired the by game the house of the dead there actually are levels of dr curiens mansions, brings back excitingv and positive memories. even for the newer generation people who arent familiar with sonic or the sega characters the game is quite good i must say .

9.3.2016

Having just more or less completed Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS I was looking for a similar game. I first looked at the 3DS version of this game but was concerned as some reviews mentioned glitches in the gaming. I decided to go with this older version in the end as this didn't seem to have the same problem.My first thoughts were that the graphics weren't all that great but I soon got used to them and this should be expected really as it is a somewhat dated game now. There are different racing modes you can choose from, grand prix, time trials and missions. The missions are cool as you have to complete various requirements within each game, for example, collecting as many coins as possible.

20.7.2011

Like all the reviews I have read, I agree it is a lot like Mario Karting. This isn't a bad thing though! cause I loved Mario Karting, as my 3 yr old son can play it too, he can set it all up himself too.Now 2 things I agree with.First... The graphics on Sonic are breathtaking, the way the tracks can go upside down and everything is brilliant, very vibrant colours and lots of different types of tracks (ice kingdom, jungle, psychedelic) really is very good.and Second, the thing that bugs me a little about mario karting is that if you crash etc it takes a few seconds to reset so by this time you can have gone down from 1st place to 12th, this is especially annoying for my 3 yr old who crashes all the time.Now Sonic,

19.6.2010

Although this game is a bit childish I don't find it anywhere near as childish and user friendly as Mario.This game in my opinion is the best Sega has come up with in a long time. If you grew up with the Saturn, Megadrive or even the Dreamcast than this game is just screaming out at you. I used to play Sonic R alot as a kid so to hear some of the soundtracks from that game while racing is very cool.The great thing about this game is that you unlock things according to how well you progress through the game. A great addition to this game is the unlockable content and the challenges which help you progress to the gold license.This game is very similar to Mario Kart in principle but (for me at least)

19.9.2019

Hello. I am writing a review to confirm that the game has been recieved fifteen days early from what it was meant to be recieved at. I recieved it unexpectedly and I was overjoyed. Upon booting the game up, I can confirm it works perfectly. I can also confirm that, even though nobody is online anymore because the Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing Transformed game and Sonic Team Racing are out, this game is great to play. It has fluent controls, a tutorial section teaching you most of the controls, a mission mode where you can complete various missions for a certain character to recieve SEGA miles. The SEGA Miles can be earned by racing, completing Grand Prix' and doing these missions and can be used to buy characters,

26.2.2010

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing has a great selection of Sega characters that you can race with which include: Amigo, Aiai, Sonic, Tails, Alex The Kid, Beat, Dr Eggman, Ulala, Nights and many more. I love racing as my Mii the most and the race tracks are large and look great as do all the characters. Each character has their own unique racing machine with Tails being a plane. All the weapons, handling and even the power drifting feel very much like Mario Kart. The racing isn't so manic as Mario Kart and it relies more on your skill to win the race. There are 64 challenges to complete which involve drifting, shooting and avoiding objects on the track. When you gain enough Sega Miles you can go shopping and unlock extra charcters,

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail