A MINOR SWERVE ON THE KART RACER.
Team Sonic Racing is the third Sumo Digital developed Sonic racing game after Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and the first current generation Sonic racing game. I was excited to try this title based on their previous games but hesitant due to the new team mechanic. Those hesitations disappeared after I started playing, but that’s not to say this game doesn’t have its hiccups.
Team Sonic Racing has what anyone would expect from a kart racer. Grand Prix is a race through four consecutive tracks. Exhibition Race is a race through a single track. Both Grand Prix and Exhibition Race can be played as standard kart racers or team races. Time Trial is a bit different in that it only times a single lap rather than three laps. This allows the player to keep racing around the same course attempting to beat their own ghost without exiting to a menu screen. There is of course Online Multiplayer which is fairly self explanatory, with options to matchmake, creating custom lobbies, or joining friends’ lobbies. The final is Team Adventure which is a campaign with multiple goals for each track and can be played in full co-op.
PLATFORMS: PC, PS4, SWITCH, XB1
MSRP: $39.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $39.99
The story in Team Adventure, like most kart racers, is pointless. There is an introduction done with static images and fully voiced dialog, but after that the story is completely optional. The game even defaults the main selection button (X on PS4, A on Xbox One) to skip the dialog intros, with square on PS4 being the button to watch them (which is not a default selection button in most other games). The quality of voice acting is great, but the story is mediocre and the way it is presented definitely screams of budget restraints. There’s a new character getting people to race his cars and the groups race as teams. Slowly the story mode introduces new teams and new levels, but nothing ever really feels like it pays off in some significant way. It is missing its Rainbow Road equivalent, or even the extremely mechanically neat and impactful finale of Sonic Riders. It ended with a splash screen that basically just said “Congrats. You did it. Play on harder difficulties to earn more credits.” I actually would have preferred for the credits to play.
The basics of Team Adventure involve team based Exhibition and Grand Prix events. Each of these events have three stars (each star is a different goal for the track) while some have keys (another optional goal) which unlock new customization options. Occasionally the game will dole out a non-racing event. Most of these are or can be considered to be drifting challenges. Drifting challenges are generally not fun. They were the least interesting events in previous Sumo Sonic racing titles. The Daredevil challenges had me drifting around these slalom posts and it is tedious, it is difficult, and it is unfun. I could barely rack up points to pass at times. Other challenges are better, even the other drifting ones. The biggest issue I had with Team Adventure was its reliance on the same courses despite there being 21 different tracks. There were a lot of mirror courses and it felt like padding.
I suppose I should talk about the team mechanic. In single player, specifically the Team Adventure mode, it barely made an impact. I am a competent enough racer (against AI anyways) to carry my team to victory on my performance alone. However, in multiplayer I can see this being a bigger strategic element. Members of the same team can help boost each other by driving behind one another or beside one another. Team members can also send each other items in order to pick up the person dragging behind. I would generally send all my items to Knuckles and Tails (as I raced almost exclusively as Sonic) in order for them to basically protect my spot in first place while making sure they place high enough for our team to come in first as well. The only time I can really think of it mattering is the elimination races in which the stragglers get kicked after every lap. I would do my best to make sure none of my team were lost in the cut off. There’s also a team meter that builds and allows a speed boost and invincibility when filled. With other players this is likely more interesting, but in single player it just comes down to some slight micromanaging while racing.
Racing in this game felt more performance based than luck based like Mario Kart. Mario Kart has the notorious blue shell in which someone in dead last can cause extreme damage to the person in the lead. This is extreme rubber banding and it sucks in all racing games because it doesn’t increase challenge, just frustration because the player can never be too far behind the AI racers or too far ahead. While Team Sonic Racing likely has some rubber banding, it never felt obtrusive. AI opponents definitely tried to dominate the course, but had to do so by actually racing and not spamming items (Wisps in this game). The Wisps help but never do so much to give someone an extreme advantage. In fact, the multiple ways the Wisps can be used to counteract each other is interesting (blocks can be destroyed with missiles, missiles can be stopped with blocks or can be outrun by boosting).
I mentioned upgrades earlier. This is by far the most useless addition to game. Everytime I finish a mission I get credits, then I use the credits in a gacha machine and sometimes I get car parts. Yes. That’s right. A gacha machine. There’s no microtransactions but performance boosting car parts are locked behind a luck based mechanic. Sometimes cosmetic parts or one time use items are received instead and that’s fine I suppose, but still annoying that I can’t just buy these options outright using earned credits. Also none of the car parts look neat and the gaudy gold pieces are labeled “LEGENDARY” but they look like crap and offer no bonus over the standard colored version of the same part. I wish the game just gave me the parts because this is just tedious nonsense for upgrades that really aren’t great. There are no parts that just make the cars better, but each set sort of evens out with one piece of the set offering a bonus on stat A while it depletes stat B and another piece offering a bonus on stat B while depleting stat A.
Team Sonic Racing is not as great as Racing Transformed, and can been seen as a slight step back in terms of innovation and gameplay. Despite that and all my complaints, I recommend this title for being a well made kart racer for modern consoles, especially Xbox One and PS4 where competition in the genre is lacking. For the budget price of $40 there is little reason not to pick it up. It is a great title for anyone looking to scratch that kart racing itch, with lots of throwbacks to previous Sonic titles in both course design and music (including a new Crush 40 track because of course it does). I enjoyed my time with Team Sonic Racing and I think others will too.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
