Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

Since its inception on the Super Nintendo over a decade ago, Mario Kart has seen many competitors come along and attempt to oust it from the top spot in the karting genre and one after the other have fallen at the hands of Nintendo's racing behemoth. Already having experienced this with the Sonic Drift games, SEGA have decided once again to give the karting game a go, this time enlisting Sumo Digital to bring together some of the biggest franchises from SEGA's history as a developer and incorporate them into a game which has learnt its lessons from Nintendo's own franchise. Can this one beat Mario to the finish line or is it left in a heap at the side of the track?

Gameplay

Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing, as the name would suggest, is all about providing high intensity kart racing action. Borrowing heavily from the bible that is the Mario Kart franchise, much of the content you'll find in the game is a virtual carbon copy of some of the stuff which the Mario Kart games have already given to the genre. While this lack of ingenuity when it comes to any form of originality in the basic contents of the package may put some people off, it is what Sumo Digital has done with them in relation to the racers and the tracks which makes Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing a kart racer that is worth your attention.

Like those racers which have come before it, this one offers a large amount of content focused on the single player. You have the option to take part in the Grand Prix mode, with 3 increasing difficulty settings and 6 cups, a mission mode, where you'll take part in gate challenges, target practise style games or race in shorter cups to unlock the privilege of continuing through the large number on offer, a standard time trial mode, where ghosts can be saved, and a single race option. So far, it's your typical fare of options but the increased difficulty which comes through the 3 difficulty settings means that on the highest difficulty, the game's AI puts up a heavy challenge forcing you to learn the layout of tracks so as to make perfect runs while managing your weapon use for upmost efficiency.

Through each of these single player options, you'll earn points known as Miles and have to use these to unlock tracks, characters and pieces of music. Whereas Mario Kart would award you tracks for unlocking a new cup or new characters for completing certain criteria, here you have to pay for the privilege to race on them or race with them. It's perhaps not the best way to provide the hidden content in the game as it elongates the necessary time it will take for players to accumulate points to get the tracks and racers they want but it does add to the longevity of the title, forcing you to replay the mission and Grand Prix modes on higher settings to accumulate more points.

Having a deep and plentiful single player component is one thing but where these games are made or broken is in the multiplayer spectrum and thankfully, the game offers plentiful options for both offline and online options. Offline, you have the ability to race friends in 4 player split screen as well as compete in Mario Kart style battle matches. There's plenty here to keep you coming back for multiplayer for weeks and months to come.

The racing itself is largely taken from Mario Kart, with the likes of power sliding through corners to acquire a short boost, weapons and tricks present in the game. Even with these copied aspects, the racing still manages to be highly entertaining and captivating through its sense of speed and difficulty, requiring inch perfect cornering at times if you want to win the race. The biggest inclusion that sets the game apart from the others is the All-Star moves. If you're languishing in last place, picking up an item canister will often grant you an All-Star move to help bring you back into the pack. These moves are character specific, with the likes of Billy Hatcher mounting a giant egg and rolling through the track, Ryo taking a seat in a forklift truck and Sonic turning into Super Sonic. They can at time be overly powerful and a nuisance but seeing the attention which has been put into them and the feeling of nostalgia they bring for the respective characters and franchises is worth the pain you may be put through.

Controls

Just as with Mario Kart Wii, Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing offers up multiple control options for all kinds of gamers. You can choose to use the Wii-mote on its own, tilting it to turn and it works extremely well although can be a little over-sensitive but this is something that is overcome with practise. Should you buy the bundled version of the game, you'll get a Wii-mote shell very much like the one that came with F1 2009 (it's the exact same one but in blue this time) to give a more tactile grip for Wii-mote only racing.

You can also make use of the Wii-mote in tandem with the Nunchuk attachment, where no motion gestures are used and all movement is purely button based. Again, it works extremely well. Finally, you can make use of the Classic Controller if you feel you would rather use a more standard controller for playing. The Gamecube controller isn't supported but the three options which are supported all work extremely well and the absence of support for this option really isn't a missed one given the integrity of the included setups.

Graphics

Visually, the game looks fantastic making use of rich and vibrant colours to bring the majority of tracks from 6 represented franchises to life. This is further exemplified by the movements and content that accompanies the tracks making them feel alive and providing further nostalgic feelings. Seeing the killer whale from Sonic Adventure make an appearance is definitely fan service of the highest order and so too are the psychedelic trance areas of the Samba de Amigo tracks. There are 24 tracks in total and while they all have varying degrees of visual integrity, the lack of tracks from other franchises supported in the game, such as Space Channel 5, Shenmue and Alex Kidd, is a real disappointment, although something which could clearly be remedied in a subsequent release. Some of the tracks however, such as the Final Fortress and Super Monkey Ball ones, lack the imagination of the others and do somewhat pull down the joy ever so slightly.

Characters and vehicles are all extremely well represented, with each character looking exactly as they should do and being produced to a high quality. 8 are provided for you from the outset but as mentioned, you'll have to spend Miles to unlock the other 11 characters. Some may dislike the new look Alex Kidd has received for this outing but in the end, he still manages to look the part and while certain franchises have been ousted in place of others, with the likes of Golden Axe and Streets of Rage being replaced by Fantasy Zone and Chu Chu Rocket, the depth of characters present easily makes up for any omissions.

Yet all of these high quality visuals come at a price and more often than not, the frame rate will drop on some of the more fantastical tracks due to so much happening on screen at one given moment. It is a little frustrating but through it all, the game maintains its composure and focus on speed to remain a visual delight.

Sound

With each of the 6 franchises represented in track form, the music accompanying each of these sets borrows heavily from the games in those franchises. Fans will instantly recognise pieces of music from the likes of the Sonic Adventure games, Jet Set Future Radio and Billy Hatcher while keen eared racers will find delight in hearing some remixed tracks from the Sonic R game on the Sega Saturn. It's pure nostalgic delight and a pleasure to hear some of the most iconic sounds from these franchises getting an airing, some of which haven't been seen or heard for nearly a decade.

Sound effects are similarly placed in the various franchises. For example, the springs littering some of the corners of the Sonic tracks make the iconic 'boing!' sound that many fans will remember from the Sonic games while things like the moans of the zombies as they scuttle around the Curien Mansion tracks will bring gamers to reminisce about their favourite moments playing those games.

Special features

The online mode for the game isn't quite as robust as its brethren releases on the other consoles or even Mario Kart Wii but what it offers is pure fun, allowing 8 people to battle it out for the top spot in a race, with the option of teaming up with friends or with anyone around the world. Friend codes are still in operation yet the lobby system employed in Mario Kart Wii is used here to make the experience that bit deeper. You won't get to vote on the tracks and options you'll race online but when the majority of the tracks are so good in the first place, it doesn't really make much difference. In terms of latency, the game manages to maintain a steady connection throughout the races, even with some of the more content heavy tracks being raced on, and while there will be dips in the latency, they don't affect the speed of the game in anyway.

Final comments

Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing is not a Mario Kart beater. That franchise remains at the top of the karting podium, at least on the Wii and DS. But what Sumo Digital and SEGA have managed to do is create an incredibly fun karting game that pushes Mario Kart Wii all of the way and narrowly misses out on the top spot due to a few technical issues and a lack of involvement of other franchises. It's a SEGA fans dream, with nostalgia at every turn from the fantastic track designs to great musical choices and superbly deep racing. If you own Mario Kart, this is the perfect accompaniment to that game and definitely worth a look by everyone.

Pro: Fantastic track designs, the music is superb and will bring back many memories, racing is handled brilliantly, plenty of multiplayer options
Con: Frame rate continually takes a dive, a wider range of tracks and music from other franchises would have been nice
Final score: 8.4

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