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There's a deep variety of modes available, some asking you to hoover up coins or vampirically 'suck' them up from your competitors. It reminds me, if anything, of cycle racing, where you're busy managing your own miniature peloton, serving as the ultimate domestique as you corral the group into the best possible position. Finish first and you won't necessarily finish first, in other words, a slightly counterintuitive feeling - though you can play with vanilla rules both online and off across various modes - but it makes for a neat twist on the formula. There are slingshots and slipstream trails, ultimates that can be unleashed once you've reached a certain threshold and points doled out for working together as well as placing high up the field. There are three kart classes, each with strengths and weaknesses and with team composition outside of the solo mode entirely up to you. It's a neat idea, served by a multitude of mechanics. Here's one of those most cherished of things an arcade racer with a big idea, the idea here being about team racing - working together as a trio, sharing out pick-ups and ducking in and out of slipstreams, taking turns to lead your small pack or dropping back to scoop a lagging teammate up and bringing them back to the front of the field. Really, though, the biggest imprint on Team Sonic Racing comes from an unlikely albeit very welcome source.
You can even pull off three tricks in succession, if you're nimble enough. When mid-air you can perform tricks with a push of the right stick, giving you access to a boost when you land. That's a compliment, I think, and besides Sonic can lay claim to having conquered corkscrews well before Mario did anyway. The fundamentals, of course, are lifted wholesale from Mario Kart - it offers elastic and pliable drifts, all overstated in classic Sega fashion - and in tandem with tracks that boast impossible cambers and gravity defying corkscrews, it can be easy to forget the trappings and think that you are playing Mario Kart 8.
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Circuits - of which there are 21, with a handful returning from previous games - draw beautifully from classic Sonic levels, with levels staying true to the series tenets of speed, style and flow. It looks and plays great, too, with the colour and zest of peak Sonic.
SONIC MANIA TEAM SONIC RACING FULL
And good lord does it all sound great, full of the upbeat, spunky and summery energy of Sonic at its absolute best. It really is a top-tier soundtrack too, seeing Jun Senoue return to the series for the first time since Sonic Generations, and with his band Crush 40 also providing the title song. That telltale R in the title font is a not-so-subtle nod to Sonic R, while you can find more subtle call-outs in Team Sonic Racing's impeccable soundtrack. If you're from a certain strand of Sega fandom there are still plenty of deep cuts to be found here. Jet Set Radio's Beat is out, in other words, but Big the Cat is in. There are none of the rich, broad references to Sega's past - instead, this is a pure, dedicated Sonic game (a reverse trajectory to that of Mario Kart, funnily enough, which with the eighth instalment became a Nintendo all-stars series). For Sumo Digital's third kart racer for Sega, it sees the biggest departure from the formula yet.
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Team Sonic Racing is a very different game led by a different team, with development primarily handled by Sumo's Nottingham studio, staffed in part by former Free Radical team members. Panzer Dragoon! Skies of Arcadia! Burning Rangers! For players of a certain vintage, it was pure heaven. Some seven years ago Sumo Digital made, in All-Stars Racing Transformed, an arcade racer worthy of the greats, helped in no small part by how it leaned on so many of Sega's legends. Maybe that shouldn't come as much of a surprise - not if you've been paying attention, anyway. Availability: Out May 21st on PS4, Xbox One and Switch.Not that it's saying particularly much, but this might well be the best 3D Sonic in a generation or two. Just as Sonic Mania saw a group of talented fans going wild with Sega's icon to create something as good as, if not better than the very best 2D Sonic games, then the enthusiasts at Sumo Digital have worked similar magic here.
Sumo Digital ditches the wider world of Sega for its latest kart racer, but for all that's lost a new focus and inventiveness is found.
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