These can be spent in the Mod Pods section, which is essentially an elaborate gacha machine where you can unlock new decals, horns, paint jobs and – most importantly – parts for the game’s vehicles. Progressing through Team Adventure also earns you tokens (as does taking part in any of the game’s other modes). These missions can be obscenely difficult to clear with the highest Platinum grade, so if you’re a completionist you’re going to be spending an extremely long time trying to clear this mode entirely. Some of the solo missions are carried over from its predecessor too, most notably the one in which you have to avoid traffic while driving through moving gates to keep your time limit topped up. You make your way through a series of maps, trying to place high enough to collect enough stars to progress. At first you can only race as members of Team Sonic (Sonic, Tails or Knuckles) but as you progress through the mode’s seven worlds taking on various single team races, team GPs and solo challenges, more trios enter the mix and by the time you reach the last couple of worlds you’ll have 12 of the game’s 15 characters to choose from (Team Eggman sits this mode out, for reasons that become obvious).Īnyone familiar with the Story mode in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will know what to expect here, because other than the newfound emphasis on team racing the general structure is similar. This is a story mode in which Sonic and his pals are invited to take on a series of races by a mysterious tanuki called Dodon Pa. The game very much puts team racing front and centre, as is clear in its main mode, Team Adventure. Even though you’re just watching a number change, there’s an odd feeling of teamwork done well.įor those loners and rebels who don’t play well with others (even if they’re only AI-controlled), there’s still the option to take part in solo races in the Grand Prix, Exhibition Race, Time Trial, Wireless Play and Online Multiplayer modes, but be under no illusions these are considered an 'extra' option. It’s strangely satisfying when you send some rockets to your 7th place chum and see their ranking climb a few moments later. Thankfully, you have at least some say in your partners’ progress thanks to the item transfer mechanic, which lets you offer up any power-ups you collect and send them to your partners in case they need them more. This could potentially lead to frustration: nobody likes a game where you can do the best that’s expected of you and still lose. It’s all well and good taking the chequered flag, then, but if your partners trundle in at 5th and 7th while another team puts in a solid 2nd-3rd-4th performance, the other mob will get the win. Whereas most races fit the usual leaderboard style points system (15 for a win, 12 for second etc), this time the winner isn’t the racer who finished first, but the team whose combined points total is highest. It’s a bold move, and one that doesn’t entirely pay off in all the ways Sega and Sumo may have been hoping.Īs the name suggests, the main gimmick in Team Sonic Racing is the ability to race in teams of three. Now we have Sumo’s third attempt, and rather than taking the ‘Sega Superstars’ theme even further, it’s instead stripped back much of what made Transformed so unique in favour of a ‘safer’ karting game solely focused on Sonic the Hedgehog and his mildly-annoying chums. Its clumsily-named sequel Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed was even better with its morphing vehicles and ‘living’ tracks that changed each lap, it may not quite have been up to Mario Kart’s lofty standards but it certainly took the genre further in terms of innovation. Very few developers have perfected the art of arcade-style handling like Sumo, and its first attempt at a Sonic karting game – Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing – was a surprisingly fun speed-fest that paid tribute to Sega heroes past and present. If anyone’s shown it’s capable of this, though, it’s Sheffield-based studio Sumo Digital. It’s all well and good releasing karting games on Sony and Microsoft’s consoles, but it takes a big old set of Sonic Spinballs to try launching one on Mario’s home turf.
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