Team Sonic racing is a racing kart game developed by Sumo Digital a studio that worked on plenty of games and also worked on older kart games. As the title and the picture suggest, the mascots racing karts this time is none other than Sega's blue blur
Sonic the hedgehog. Sonic the hedgehog has plenty of spin off games, but kart racing games always had the blue hero in the drivers sit. The game was published by none other than Sega and the game was released in May 2019. The release of the game had the following releases:
Standard
Included the game alone
Special Edition
Included the game, artbook, A small figurine of Classic Sonic.
30th anniversary
Included the game, Artbook
Story of the Game
As seen in many recent games, such as Crash team Racing, these racing games, began to add 'plot' to their games and so Team Sonic racing joins the roaster of the games. The plot of the game revolves around an alien tanuki named Dodon Pa
who sends invitations to Sonic and to plenty of other familiar faces. These invitations were inviting the receiver to compete in a series of team based races. Dondon Pa also built cars consisted of advanced technology for each of the racers he invited and the winner team gets to
keep the as their reward for winning the cups. The main group which consist of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles have their doubts as they know little to none information about Dondon Pa but they also do not see a reason as to why they shouldn't join as it would ve been fun. The race tracks take
place across the world (which is a nice way to see familiar places in a more kart racing style). The heroes still dont trust the tanuki as his plans look very similar to something Doctor Eggman would ve done. While they re taking part in various races, they learned that he is infact
the king of the planet Donpa Kingdom and also the president of the Donpa Motors automotive corporation. His company and technology allows him to gain power for his machine through the power of teamwork.(dont question it). By using the racers as pawns for his plan, the cars store
that energy which he then uses for his own plans.
Doctor Eggman, who was also part of the racers, finds out about the Tanukis plan and has his own plans for it, and thus he gets directly involve with the story making him the final villain. His plan is to use the power being stored from the cars to power up his own evil machines. Sonic and
his friends though will try their best to stop Eggmans plans.
The Good and Bad of the Game's Story
Team Sonic racing story is very plain very simple which works for the concept. The story of the game is delivered though a still images of the hero currently talking with the text of their words. Every dialogue thrown is fully voice acted from the original cast of this generation of Sonic Games.
An issue with the game's story is the fact that the game will repeat same dialogues if an option is made. To elaborate, the game's hub world has a board map with the missions the player will have to play. Eventually a mission will unlock two paths, one for the next race and one for an optional challenge.
When the player chooses any of the two, the story will proceed as usual giving the dialogue that was meant to go with. However, when the player returns to finish the other option that same dialogue from before will also be triggered causing the specific part to be heard twice. This happens every time
a board map unlocks two paths for the player.
Gameplay
Hub-World
This Sonic game hub world is very similar to Sonic Colors that had an enormous board map for the player to pick stage. Once the level is selected and cleared, a path will open and interconnect with another level. There are cases were completing one level
will link towards more than one path. When a player completes a race, based on their team performance, they gain stars(0-3). On the board their are paths that require a certain ammount of stars in order to open and unlock further maps which will open given that the player performs well. A board
is typically consist of 4 singular race maps, 1-3 challenge maps which will unlock the final road which will include the tournament (a set of the 4 maps) and an elimination race which will have to be cleared in order to proceed forward.
Basic Gameplay
The game can be played in Solo Or as a team(Story mode is always team) where the player can control one hero. Based on the hero selected, the teammates will be of the same squad, Eg: Sonic (Knuckles,Tails) Shadow (Rogue, Omega)etc. The vechicles can move forward by holding down the button
focussed on Accelerating. Not holding it will result in the car standing still. During the starting countdown of the race, if the player perfect times tapping the acceleration button, they will gain a Starting Speed Boost. The fastest boost will be given if the timing was good 3 times,
2 times or even once, as long as they weren't interupted. EG: to get the 2nd boost timing must be achieved when the counter is 2 and 1, doing it from 3 to 2 and miss one will lose all the boost that was built. In order to Drift or press the Breaks the player will have to press the appropriate
button. Pressing and holding it down alone will stop the car from moving but when both accelerate and breaks are being held down, the car will drift based on the direction the player chooses. While drifting, the car's back flames will change into three colors, that indicate the speed boost the player
will receive from drifting. Yellow, purple and blue in that order, indicate the amount of boost the driver will gain weaker to stronger.
All the maps consist of boost and rings. Boosts are self explanatory as they give the player a boost when driving above them. Rings act very similar to the wumpa fruits in Crash and coins in Mario, where the more the player collects the faster the vechicle will move however, the moment a player is hit
by an enemy or drop of the map they will lose them all despite their number.(if the player had 120, they lose it all, whereas in the other games the players usually lose -3 and can collect a max ammount of 10). The maps also offer some high jumps, where the player can gain boost by doing air tricks. The
more tricks they do the more boost they gain and the rules applied are the same as with drifting. Tricks can be done with the stunt button. Failling to succesfully land after doing tricks will stop the vechicle and take away all the coins of the player. Since the name is called Team Sonic Racing, a
major factor of the game is the teamwork. A team is consisted of three heroes whose goalis to place high to score a higher ranking. The players can work together with their team by passing and receiving power ups and by using the Slingshot mechanic. The first racer of the team will always leave a
yellow trail behind them that their teammates can drive on. By doing so the racers gain a speed boost that will help them launch themselves ahead when driving off the yellow trail. This is a free boost mechanic that appears from the very first second. Slingshot rewards alot of team points that builts the
team ultimate. Behind the player's car there's a golden bar, that fills each time a slingshot or a trade is occuring. When the bar is filled, the player can trigger the ultimate key, which will make the hero invincible and also grand them a super boost. The next and final thing a player can come
across is the wisp boxes.
Wisps (Power Ups)
Wisps was a new concept introduced in Sonic colors and they 're little aliens fused with Sonic to unlocked further abilities. Their Concept is very similar to the power ups found in Super Mario games, where Mario picks a certain item and use it on his adventure. However unlike Sonic colors,
Wisps in the racing game are the power ups used to sabotage other or give the player a helping hand. The players can collect the by driving towards a box. Once a wisp is gathered, they can fire it with X and the direction they prefer. The player can also press Square in order to see backwards
in order to aim correctly. Furthermore, by tapping Circle, the players can hand their items to their teammates, but can also request their items to gain their items. Trading items rewards teamwork points and a small chance of receiving a triple power power up.
Wisps thrown by teammates or towards teammastes will not cause damage as there is no friendly damage. There is a total of 14 wisps available in Sonic Colors Ultimate.
These Wisps Are:
Boost (White)
The white Wisps will grant boost to the player
Yellow Drill (Yellow)
Grants the player boost and invincibility
Laser (Cyan)
Shoots a laser bean.
Cube (Blue)
Throws a cube behind or infront of the player.
Ivory(Lighntings))
Summons lightnings towards nearby enemies.
Spikes (Pink)
Three pink balls hover around the player. If a player approach the vechicle spikes will come out of the balls stopping the cars
Rocket (Orange)
Leaves a fire trail that can damage enemies that are behind the user.
Void (Purple)
Creates a tornado that not only absorbs nearby coins and items but also slows down nearby enemies..
Ghost (dark green)
The player becomes invincible and can steal nearby power up.
Black (black bomb)
Throws a bomb forward or backwards.
Rocket missle (red orange)
Shoots a missle ahead.
Eagle(red)
Chases the player ahead of it's user
Magenta (Magenta)
Blinds the drivers
Blue and black
Summon Pillars on the path
Gamemodes
The story gamemodes are standart to most kart games of it's Genre. These game modes are only available in story mode :
Single Race
Single race has a team racing in a certain map.
Racing Cup
It's a combination of 4 races. Each time the player finishes one, they earn team points that will sum up for an end result.
Elimination
In a single map the team is racing for survival. Each time a set of cars cross the finish line, a number of drivers get eliminated.
Drift challenge
The game has a checkpoint star of yellow and red sides. Passing through yellow, the player gains bonus points and on red they gain a multiplier.
Shooting Challenge
Targets are placed on a map and the driver has to shoot either targets or enemy cars.
Rings
A race where the goal is to collect as many rings as possible.
Multiplayer
The game offers both Online and Local multiplayer. In local multiplayer, the player can have up to 3 people joinning them. They then have to choose whether or not they want to play Single mode or Team mode. In single mode the game follows the rules
of 12 cars who ever comes first gets the most points. If a tournament was also selected the game will keep adding to each individual's score and declare the winner at the end of the fourth race. In team mode, the players race as a team of 3. At the end of each
race, each player is rewarded with points which would be added as a singular score. In tournament mode all three scores will constantly be added and at the end of the fourth race, the team that gathered most of the points will be the winner. The game also offers
the players a chance to have an elimination round where each turn a racer is eliminated.
Heroes and customizatios
The game has a relatively small roaster that sums up to 15, but it has the main heroes of the Sonic Franchise. The game has :
Sonic, Knuckles and Tails
Rose, Chao and Big
Silver, Vector and Blaze
Shadow,Rogue and Omega
Metal Sonic, Dr. Eggman and Zavok
Each hero has their own car model that can be modified. By playing the game, story mode, online or just for fun in local, the player is given tokens as rewards based on their performance. The tokens can be spend in the Gacha machine found in Mod Pods
in the home screen. The player can spent as many tokens as they have (10 each for each summon) in order to get more customizable options. The customizations come in the form of Color patterns, wheels, car's back, car's front and sticker designs. In order to equip
them the player will have to visit the garage in the home menu. Car Customization affect it's status. Unlike the other two games, making adjustment to the car will affect it's status so looks might cost the speed/boost/handle of the player.
Music and Level
First things first the music of the game similar to every sonic game is really good. There's not much things to say other than the fact that each track has it's own unique OST that is really good and sets the mood. The sound effects during a race are also good, as
they re not loud and their sound are distinctive. The one annoying thing of the sounds during a race is the dialogue some of the heroes will say. During a race a teammate may yell to be aware of upcomming danger and others which is good, but eventually the player's
character, will say something like a joke or a warning (Eg. Sonics"Water way to go" everytime he drives into water (for a shorcut) or Shadow's "Sand is bad"). These voicelines are being triggered alot which can be very annoying. It's like the developer's had the actors
record a script for the story and then only 5 lines for ingame courses.
the maps on the other hand are really beautiful. Each of the map has unique designs with plenty of areas to jump and gain boost from. There are elements that the player can interact with in order for the map to sabotage the players. Each map aslo has a few areas that
can trigger a bigger leap or a shortcut for the player to make a comeback. Each map is fun to race on even with all of their hazards, cliffs and loops.
Final Thoughts
Overall Team Sonic Racing is a decent kart game. It took the iconic Sonic heroes and place them in a familiar concept. The cars handle very well and all of the maps are beautiful. The story is mediocre but it is not necessarily a bad thing as it was a nice effort.
The Ai difficulty is very good. Easy, is a nice difficulty where the player will be ahead of the AI BUT the difference won't be like Crash's where the player is atleast a round ahead. The Ai will always be near the player. Hard is also a very good difficulty where the
players wil always fight for the top 3 with the Ai. Expert, is an actual challenge for the player. It is worth mentioning how sometimes, the game's difficulty is unfair. The player might finish first but their teammates might finish among the last gainning less points than
the enemy and thus losing. The customization options are very good as they can change the outfit of the car and their status. However, despite all of this, the game does not have the car transformations found in Sonic's all star racing transformed which made that game unique.
To elaborate in that game the cars turned into boats planes and others based on the maps which added alot to it's beauty.
This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game
These Wisps Are:
