Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Review

Racing games aren't exactly few and far between these days; it was only a few months ago that we saw F1 Race Stars which was heavily compared to Mario Kart and now we have Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, the second game where Sonic and the bunch have donned their driving gloves and buckled their seatbelts but can this game live up to it's predecessor?

The main selling point of this title, and I think the thing that really sold it for me, is the transformation. During a relatively normal race, the track can fall out from under your wheels and be replaced with either air or water. Luckily the guys over at Sumo Digital have been bright enough to not leave you high and dry with a car floating in the drink, so instead, you car will seemingly metamorphose into either a plane or a boat. Not only is this a different surface to race on, but your vehicle will now control and feel quite different. It can completely turn a race on it's head and allow some of the players who are lagging behind shoot out in front.

Speaking of players, there's a whole host of characters to choose from, each with their own stylised vehicle ranging from Sonic and Tails to Ralph (Plucked straight out Walt Disney's Wreck-it Ralph)  and Vyse (The protagonist from Skies of Arcadia). There's a large enough list to cater to anybodies needs, however I stuck with a classic, B.D Joe from Crazy Taxi. As you race, you'll gain experience points which goes towards leveling up that character. As they level up, they unlock different modifications for their vehicle which can be applied before racing to tailor a character to your play style.

There are 20 different tracks to play on in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, inspired by the characters and retro SEGA games meaning that you can roll through the Temple Trouble map influenced by Super Monkey Ball or the Carrier Zone map based on After Burner. Each map is laden with boost pads and power-ups galore.

Anything post-Mario Kart tends to feel like a reskinned version of a red shell or a banana but in this, even though in essence, the mechanics are the same, they feel a lot more unique. You have the typical red shell (Remote-control car) and green shell (firework) but then you have snowballs that can freeze opponents, bee swarms which create obstructions in the track, twisters which reverse the enemies controls and hotrods which boost you ahead and then explode, harming anybody in a short-radius, to just name a few.

There are a few different game modes for you to try your hand at too - so it's not all just racing - each having a choice of C, B or A class which will gain you 1, 2 or 3 stars. Within the career mode, you go through different tournaments and as you complete events and earn stars, more events and characters will become available to you. These events vary as you go along, so you could be faced with a simple race or you could have to partake in a boost or drift challenge, where you have to beat the clock to the finish line, stopping the clock whenever you boost/drift. It's a lot more challenging than it sounds. Along with this there are traffic attack challenges and hot lap. There are some more combat oriented game modes as well, such as pursuit where you have to collect ammo and take down a tank whilst avoiding it's attacks; battle mode where you have to defeat the other players on a track; and battle arena which is much like the previous mode but you're in an arena rather than a track. All of these game modes can also be played on local or online multiplayer as well as the career mode!

When I sat down to play the game I really thought I was in for a SEGA reskin of Mario Kart for children; I don't know if it was this low expectation, or the fact it is a good game, but I actually had a lot of fun playing this title and sunk a fair amount of hours into it. It's more than just a racing game, it's transformed (I hate myself for using that, I'm sorry).