Quick Review: Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing

Everybody is “CrossWorlds this”, “CrossWorlds that”… I am not nearly as cool. And besides I’ve got, like, three racing Sonic games in the backlog. I might as well start with the first of those, chronologically.

Shadow's bike is fast. We've got to find a way
to slow him down. Rockets or punches,
anything!

Developed by Sumo Digital, published by SEGA (of course) and released to Steam on March 3rd, 2010 (and to many other platforms as well), Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is… Okay, let’s not mince words. It’s a mascot racer, so it's very close in feel to Mario Kart; however, this one instead features many of SEGA’s franchises put together into a single game. Sonic is the company’s mascot and gets top billing because the roster of playable racers has a large representation of characters from his franchise. Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Shadow, Big the Cat and Eggman can duke it out on the racetracks. Sonic knows he outspeeds everyone on foot, that’s why he prefers to play fair with vehicles. Or, occasionally, on Extreme Gear. But today, it’s cars, bikes, and hovercraft.

Speed boosts are always welcome around here.

Other properties represented with racers and courses include Super Monkey Ball, Billy Hatcher, Samba de Amigo, Jet Set Radio Future, Alex Kidd and The House of the Dead. Many of these I’m not familiar with.

Cups follow the classic system; four courses per cup, with characters getting a score after reaching the finish line based on their position. The player with the highest score after the fourth race wins! Beating a cup unlocks the next, all the way to the sixth (thus, there are 24 tracks to race on). And the cups can be played on three difficulties: Beginner, Advanced and Expert, with the first cup unlocked in all three from the start.

Most All-Star moves boil down to "huge speed boost" with
an extra effect to attack, disorient, or slow down the
racers before the All-Star user.

There’s everything you can expect from this kind of game: Speed pads, item blocks, and courses that often include alternate paths. The base controls on PC are D for acceleration, S for drifting, Space to use an item, A to look behind you, and the arrows to move left and right. Drifting can be very useful to get through tight turns, but it has a second utility; if you hold it down long enough, you will get a speed boost out of it!

This game separates itself from Mario Kart in a few ways; for starters, every character has an All-Star Move they can obtain from an item box if they’re way behind, and that item can help them regain momentum and go up a couple of places. As one example, Tails’ All-Star gives him a big speed boost and releases a tornado that makes the racers it hits spin out.

Alex Kidd I've heard of, but the other two? I haven't the
foggiest.

Second, you receive SEGA Miles when beating Cups, which can be used in the game’s shop. There, you can unlock:

-12 more characters from SEGA’s history, bringing the total to 20;

-New courses for single-course racing or time trials (otherwise, only the first 8 are available out of 24);

-And new songs that can play during races. The music is great from the beginning, but you’ve only got the first 8 songs from the get-go, meaning you must buy the other 32.

The most obvious addition, though, is the announcer. While the overhead narrating voice can make good points and warn players about incoming threats (such as a racer activating their All-Star move), many of the comments unrelated to racers’ actions are jokes that eventually get old, because there are few of them and narration cycles through them quickly. Decent idea, needed extra lines for non-specific banter. At least the voice has lines for each of the twenty racers, which is cool.

A mission about collecting rings?
Yeah, figures that'd be here.

Drifting isn't going to save you here. Only
slowing down so you can do the 180° turn
proper. Yes. Slowing down,
in a racing game. Featuring SONIC.

Still not enough? You can complete the 64 missions in the game, most of which will ask something specific of you or provide a unique challenge. All missions will give you a grade going all the way to AAA, and it is an in-game achievement to get an AAA on every one of them. Speaking of – there are lots of achievements to hunt for here! Not for Steam, though; only within the software itself.

A minor annoyance: Some versions of the game had Metal Sonic as a DLC, but the Steam version doesn’t. Another gripe I have is that courses are designed with the drifting in mind, featuring a LOT of right angles and other circular turns that cannot be driven properly otherwise. If you don’t master drifting fast, those courses become troublesome. One of the final courses has several 180° turns in a row, and I legitimately hated it. Other than that, it’s very easy to fall off the road in key places; thankfully, the return to the road is quicker here than in Mario Kart, with a quick wipe of the game logo before your racer reappears on the road, so you might not lose your place as a result.

Not as bad, but a late course has an upwards
spiraling path. At least that one makes it easy
to get a couple of drift boosts in.

I got it! All-Star moves are... the Final Smashes
of racing games!

Aside from that? The game has a killer soundtrack (even if you must unlock most of it), looks great (Each franchise’s courses have their own feel), and there is a fun variety of characters. Honestly, aside from a few things, I generally enjoyed it. I do stick to my statement that “if you follow the leader, you stay behind them”, but Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing has just enough things to differentiate itself from a Mario Kart – such as covering multiple properties, being on several platforms, and having the personalized All-Star moves. It’s packed with content, be it the classic mascot racing game staples or the lengthy mission mode. It’s a very enjoyable time all in all, and more than worth it – especially as the first in a series of racing games that’s probably reached its apex with 2025’s CrossWorlds.

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is available on Steam for 9.99$ USD.