But it’s no Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed was a celebration of all things Sega — and it was an amazing arcade racer in its own right. Matter of fact, I think it’s up there with Mario Kart 8. The next racing game from Sega, Team Sonic Racing, goes in a different, more Sonic-focused direction.
As the name implies, there’s a team-based format. Groups of three characters (drawing from a pool of familiar faces like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, and E-123 Omega) actively work together.
You can transfer offensive and defensive item pick-ups between your teammates, drive on the trail they leave for a speed boost, or just simply slip past their vehicle. Doing these sorts of cooperative actions throughout the race helps fill a meter for an ability that, once activated, temporarily puts your racer into a frenzied, sped-up state. Other than that, you’ll be doing a lot of standard arcade-racer stuff.
Remember the ABD rule: Always Be Drifting. Speaking of, drifting feels nice in TSR.
I played a quick two races against the AI at E3 2018 and they solidified my feelings on Team Sonic Racing. I’m still bummed this isn’t a follow-up to Sonic & All-Stars Racing, but it seems perfectly fine.
The item-passing mechanic could lend itself well to setting up devious last-minute comebacks, and I dig the idea of catching back up to your crew by driving across the glowing trail they leave behind. We’ll have to see how the game fares with human players in the mix and how the roster comes together.
It does have Crush 40, though!
Team Sonic Racing is planned for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this winter.
