Sonic Racing Trilogy | Gotta Go The Speed Limit - AntDude

oh god no Sega recently hooked me up with a review code for the new team Sonic racing and comparing back then to now oh boy how far we've come you would think that a series revolved around going fast that they would have figured out this whole racing thing a whole lot sooner sonic drift was a disaster but hey at least they gave it a second shot and the sequel this is definitely better look it has nuke nucleus in it for whatever reason Sonic and racing just didn't really work out that well Sonic Riders was a solid attempt to create a new image for a racing game but yeah that that didn't really last all that long either for years Sonic R basically ran unopposed what a what a high bar clearly something that great can't be dethroned but if history has taught us anything is that if Sega themselves can't get the job done someone else will and they'll do it much better sumo digital a developer responsible for a handful of racing games and the ultimate classic super rub-a-dub for ps3 created Sega superstars tennis in 2008 sure you may think Sonic in a car is weird but have you seen Eggman cosplaying as the Doctor Octopus of tennis ultimately the game was all right a solid tennis experience with a ton of Sega fan service and him and hey taking a page out of the plumbers handbook once turned out all right why not do it again but this time with Mario Kart and let's not act as if these games are something that they're not sumo digital very loosely tied together sonic racing trilogy these are mario kart clones these are very very clearly mario kart clones this first game was a response to mario kart wii and then the rest of the series followed that's what they are and that's not a problem I feel like if you call a game a clone of another one people are gonna automatically think you're complaining about it in this case definitely not true it all began with 2010's Sonic and Sega all-stars racing following the tennis games main appeal and as the title would clearly indicate this is actually way more than just Sonic you see little ones there used to be a time where say go worked on a bunch of original franchises samba de amigo Super Monkey Ball Chuchu rocket despite sonica getting far and away the most loved from Sega themselves this game sets out to represent a lot of what that company created and give them a near Smash Brothers level of fanservice each of the cups here feature tracks from multiple locations spanning a handful of different universes man hearing some of that really good music from billy hatcher soundtrack makes me super nostalgic yeah you remember Billy Hatcher right of course you don't you got a super bright and colorful town from samba de amigo the streets of Tokyo from Jet Set Radio a creepy mansion from House of the Dead it's really cool stuff the playable roster is also really diverse we'll all off from space channel 5 beat from Jet Set Radio Dee Dee Joe from Crazy Taxi the choo-choos from Chu Chu rocket and even the Bonanza brothers who I had no idea who these guys were before this game that's that's kind of cool huh that shows how sega treats their old franchises didn't even want to make Knights a playable racer in this one just relegated to the flag person that's that's nice but make no mistake here the game is roughly 50% not Sonic and 50% Sonic there's just obviously a whole lot more to work with there who are you mechanically yeah it's more or less what you expect you press one button to accelerate and then do that better than everyone else until you win and of course it's not all about the racing you gotta have some madness thrown in there as well we got a bunch of items to turn the tides as well and it's it's really unapologetically Mario Kart here green gloves that shoot straight in one direction red rockets that directly hit the player in front of you yellow traffic cones that trip players up if they drive over them I can't imagine what inspired these it also kinda copies Double Dash by giving players further back in the race the ability to gain access to an all-star move where you use a character specific power to get yourself back in the running similar to the character specific special items from Mario Kart this racer mainly stands out by being primarily focused on drifting sorta like Crash Team right the best way to gain speed and win easily is to try him through basically the entire race and once you nail that the game then lacks any real challenge and actually gets pretty boring in my opinion it's relatively easy to master the mechanics so fanservice aside courses tend to blend together and it lacks the frantic nature that makes other car racers so much fun you think that with the use of items that wouldn't be the case but when you get hit with one it's more so just a slight hiccup than causing much of a problem so there goes that so overall it's it's just fine there's a good handful of special missions to go through throwing out different gameplay styles from time to time so there's a good amount of content to dive into into the Xbox 360 version features Banjo and Kazooie as a playable racer fitting in perfectly alongside characters like Bonanza Brothers and Alex Kidd as racers who were completely irrelevant at the time boy this got depressing it wasn't until the sequel when this sight series got into its own groove Sonic & all-stars racing transformed removing Sega from the name huh I wonder why oh good this is what the first game was missing let's go ahead and keep this as simple and straightforward as we can here this game absolutely blows the original out of the water and it's not even a competition now during races your vehicle will transform into an aircraft or a speedboat to suit the environment this is pretty similar to diddy kong racing that game had those vehicle types as well but having these changes occur mid race makes the game feel super different and Etana fun and not just the vehicles but the courses themselves transform as well for one lap you could be on land the next lap you're riding on waves and the final you're navigating the skies all of the vehicles have a better sense of weight to them the game moves at a noticeably faster pace there's extra customization options per vehicle it's obvious here that the first game was simply an experiment and transformed as the result of letting the developers roam free even the lineup of items got a complete overhaul totally changing the idea of just being reskin to Mario Kart ones snowballs puffer fishes a Hot Rod speed boost and explosion combo friggin B's the different themes used for the tracks also go for a stronger variety bringing in series like afterburner skies of arcadia and shinobi the soundtrack is filled with great remixes as opposed to simple ports like the first game Mike's is finally a playable racer meanwhile now ristar is the flag person man that's still depressing and the single-player world tour mode is much more engaging being essentially a glorified mission mode rewarding stars for completing different difficulty levels drifts challenges going through rings checkpoint races alongside car obstacles chasing and shooting a tank there are no rules anymore the first game did have some similar gimmick races for its mission mode but transforms does a much better job with variety and encouraging top-level skills since the stars that you get are what's used to unlock more stuff we're approaching Mario Kart des mission mode territory here and that's a guaranteed easy way to my heart and I'll be damned hard mode is actually hard having more crazy items and more opportunities to boost gives this game the frantic vibe that the first game simply lacked honestly everything comes together so well this racer is damn near perfect the only part that's super weird about it is the character selection specifically on PC wreck-it Ralph characters from Team Fortress 2 for foot foot foot football manager why okay I get it I guess that's a franchise that Sega makes but you may as well just make columns a playable racer as well but we do get the car from Daytona USA that transforms into a literal Dreamcast controller so yeah okay the game goes back to being perfect the big question then is with a game that is so well done featuring excellent mechanics and a fantastic level of fan service how can they possibly move up from there it's quite simple actually you don't that brings us to the third game in this so-called trilogy team Sonic racing and right off the bat I'm confused just sonic this time huh I mean okay yeah the previous games heavily leaned on the blue hedgehog but to totally eliminate the rest of Sega's franchises I mean thanks guys you've gone ahead and sent Billy Hatcher right back into the grave I guess it makes sense though Sonic's been through a lot as we're all aware so there's plenty of things to pull from that can easily fit an entire game on its own and then some a good portion of the stages are based on if not flat-out ported from the Sonic themed tracks in the previous games but on top of that we now have planet wisp from Sonic Colors glacier land inspired by Sonic Unleashed and sonic forces Oh God rooftop run also from Sonic Unleashed and send appleís inspired by Sonic 3 and Adventure 2 what's kind of neat too is that there are seven different locations with three courses in each sort of going for that typical zone and act setup of the traditional Sonic games cool touch the roster also follows suit by being filled to the brim with a bunch of the franchise favorites like Omega the Chou's zavok for some reason and the soundtrack to hoo boy the soundtrack the music and transformed was definitely good but team Sonic racing takes the typical Sonic approach of it doesn't matter the quality of the game the soundtrack is probably gonna be amazing and yeah it's amazing they got a whole slew of fantastic musicians to make tracks for this game between June so no a hyper potions T Lopes Men it's just a great listen all around and the items are now wisps of the returning and brand new variety being the way that you get speed boosts and weapons to take down your opponents you know what at this point I guess the wisps are just gonna show up in everything modern Sonic now without any explanation so yeah okay they fit in just fine and all of this is now together with a super corny and fully voiced-over story mode with each stage having individual objectives for extra replay value yeah man this is modern sonic treated right but then there's the whole team thing well essentially in a genre first team Sonic racing is a kart racer mostly about teaming up with two other racers of your squad and performing tasks to help each other out to ensure that your entire team takes first place not just you allowing your partners to get speed boosts giving them items that you're not using saving them if you see them wipe out all of these actions fill up a team a meter that when activated gives you a major speed boost as well as a burst of invincibility and this is definitely required if you want to surpass the competition but the kicker is the effect lasts longer if you're all able to activate it at the same time they weren't joking around with the name of that game man Crash Team Racing doesn't really have much to do with teamwork this game here oh it's all about it despite getting rid of the transformation mechanics that made the last game so good the team mechanics here make this game also a blast to play but just in a different way and sort of on a side note I got to experience this head-on because I was invited to a special press event in London of all places and I got to play with fellow youtuber kid icarus maybe you've heard of him and also man I don't really mean to brag here but I actually won a trophy for getting the fastest time in a time trial competition and something tells me that caddy he still he still a little upset about that having a full team of three people going out there with the sole intention of winning it really is an amazing time if you want to you can play the game like a traditional racer with everybody out for themselves and that way the game is okay when you lack all of the transformations from the last game and the team mechanics of the current game we're left with a pretty standard racer that's fine and that's about it it's nice to have that option but the team mode that's where it's at rather than trying to fill the game to the brim like transformed did team sonic racing simply bases itself off of it's really fun team mechanics which by the way are pretty enjoyable when playing with computer players and it's fantastic presentation the game looks and sounds incredible easily the best of the three games thus far and you can even customize your vehicles fully now changing their builds colors and even the honking sound okay I did pick up the switch version as well and it does run at 30 frames per second as opposed to every other console being at 60 but otherwise it's an equally great experience only now we can be taken on the go I really didn't expect much going into it but I'll be damned team sonic racing is pretty awesome transformed is still the better game it's gonna be hard to top that one but team it really stands out on its own if anything I hope that this gets built on for a future release much like how the first Sega all-stars racing set up the groundwork for the fantastic all-stars racing transformed so all in all the sonic racing games by sumo digital massive success this first game is definitely a Mario Kart clone and it doesn't really hold up all that well nowadays but these two games here men these games are a ton of fun now and will be a ton of fun for years to come and I can't wait to see what the development team comes up with next the only part that really sucks here is I noticed it while playing mostly transformed the more I played it the more I just came to accept that we're probably never gonna see ristar in a starring role ever again so that's that's that's cool oh great now I'm sad [Music]

Channel: AntDude

Views: 836,362

Keywords: AntDude, Dude Reviews, Review, Video Review, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Sonic Forces, Sonic Generations, Sonic Colors, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic ROM Hacks, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed, Team Sonic Racing, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

Id: H01kHrz_5QI

Length: 14min 9sec (849 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 16 2019