Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing review (PC)

One thing always springs to mind when I hear the name Sonic, so let’s get the this disappointing fact out of the way first. Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing will not greet you with the ever-loved, “Sega” that we all remember from the old Mega Drive days. What it does do, however, is offer PC gamers one of those fun and quirky racing games, that are often omitted from our platform altogether.

If you aren’t aware, this is the latest in Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series; it’s one of those racers akin to something like Mario Kart. There’s no Mario, though, and certainly no karts! Here you’ll be taking control of Sega’s “all-star” characters, from Sonic and Tails to Super Monkey Ball’s AiAi. Hell, Alex Kidd is even included (now that brings back memories).

Each character has their own vehicles, which all seem fairly even as far as performance goes, but certainly vary greatly in terms of appearance. There’s plane’s, monster trucks and Shadow the Hedgehog has his very own, uber-cool motorbike. Whilst AiAi, on the other hand, has some sort of strange banana-mobile, if that tickles your fancy; at the end of the day, there’s characters and vehicles in there that will appeal to Sega gamers of all generations – the game definitely won me over in that respect.

Each of the racetracks within the game are set in the style of various Sega games, old and new. My particular favourites being the Sonic Casino Zone styled tracks. They look amazing, just how would imagine it to be, if you took Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and made it 3D. The good old pinball bumpers are positioned somewhat annoyingly around the perimeter of the track, still making that same ‘ping’ sound that they did in the originals. Each track takes you deep into the world of the game it’s based on, reminisce to your heart’s content.

Upon starting the game and creating your save file, known as a license, you can choose from one of a few different game modes. There is of course the usual single race and time trial options, alongside that are Grand Prix and challenge options. Grand Prix makes up the bulk of the gameplay. Players compete in cups, scoring points over four races. Winning these cups will in turn unlock further cups, giving you more racetracks to play on. You’ll also earn “Sega Miles” across all game types, which are then used to purchase new characters. It’ll cost a good 32,000 odd Sega Miles if you’re hoping to play with Alex!The Challenges offer a little variation, giving the player objectives, such as collecting rings or shooting targets with some of the in-game weapons and pick-ups. They’re fun while they last, and tricky at times; but ultimately offer little re-playability.

So, you’ve won all the Grand Prix cups, completed all the challenges and set the best lap times you can, where do you go from here? Online multiplayer right? Wrong. Here is where Sega have failed, big time. Online multiplayer is simply, not an option. These are the sorts of games that bring the most enjoyment when you play them with friends. In this case, the only way you’ll do that is to share half of your precious monitor space in the local split-screen mode. An utter shame.

I feel a little bad for coming down so hard on this games lack of an online mode, as it’s a very well rounded and indeed well finished game. It offers a very enjoyable experience, with simple but responsive controls; which is something that’s rarely said about console-ported games of this nature. It’s because of this fact, however, that I’m kind of annoyed that I can’t play my friends. If I didn’t think it was going to be fun, it wouldn’t have mattered so much. This game may be a little childish or easy for those hardcore gamers that just want to ‘pwn n00bz’; but for those of us that want smiles and excitement from our games, there’s plenty to be found here. Until, that is, you go to click the Online button… ‘cos it isn’t there.

Written – Bobby Gooding