My Take On Sonic Racing Crossworlds
I'm a total Sonic nerd. When I first saw Sonic Racing Crossworlds, I was very hyped. When the pre-orders were available, I got the digital deluxe edition. I was excited, but also skeptical. Sonic racing games have been a mixed bag.
The Sonic Riders series, for one, was a cool concept and has some of my favorite characters: Jet and Wave. I'm pretty sure the Riders series had a bad rep when Free Riders came into play because of the horrible Kinect feature and no controller compatibility. Thankfully, I managed to play Free Riders on my PC with an emulator and had controller support, and it was actually pretty fun.
Then there's the actual Sonic Racing series. I loved both Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Racing Transformed was pretty much my childhood; I remember pouring hours into the missions and just doing single races on my favorite tracks. It was absolute cinema.
Then came Team Sonic Racing.
Team Sonic Racing was a mixed bag. To me, it felt like a downgrade to the previous two racing games. I think probably the only good thing I can think of was the music.
When I saw that Racing Crossworlds would include the Babylon Rogues (Jet, Wave, and Storm) that was really cool. I remained skeptical, however, because of how Team Sonic Racing went. When seeing leaks and eventual gameplay footage, it honestly seemed like Team Sonic Racing but with Transformed elements via the land, air, and sea racing mechanic.
And then the open network test came, and I was immediately hooked. It was just very fun playing as Jet with extreme gear. I couldn't wait for the main game to be released.
And now the game has been out for a few weeks, and I gotta say it's pretty solid, but I want to get my thoughts out on here.
Firstly, I have seen several people calling Crossworlds the best Sonic racing game ever and how it's so much better than Mario Kart World. Now, I never played Mario Kart World, but I've just seen people hype and glaze this game to the moon. I definitely think the game is cool, but I don't think it's that great.
The actual game itself is average. There isn't really much content. There's only Grand Prix, Time Trials, and online mode.
And online mode... oh boy, is it depressing.
One of the main criticisms of the game was how the items made the game too chaotic. Does anyone remember the spiny shell in Mario Kart games? Well, how about we add that but then add another anti-first place item that also targets second place because it's funny. Oh, and how about adding a saw blade that if you get hit by it, you are guaranteed to be last place. It is practically impossible to recover from items in this game, that playing online mode is really much gambling and praying you don't get hit.
I'm pretty sure this game has skill-based matchmaking as well. I lost several races, the game put me in with lower-ranking players. I do good in that race, and the game puts me back with sweaty tryhards with their robotic skins. Online mode is just depressing for me, most of the time, I'm sorry.
That aside, I think Sonic Racing Crossworlds is a pretty decent game. I enjoy playing as Jet and riding my extreme gear, and I'm looking forward to the DLCs, which I gotta say: it's pretty much Nickelodeon and Smash Bros. Ultiamte 2 which I have no problem with.