Team Sonic Racing review (PS4 version)

Team Sonic Racing is an absolute blast, and so much fun to play. It’s the follow up to Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed from 2012, which was a great game on its own terms. This will be the only time I will make a comparison to Mario Kart, but the two come from similar DNA. In that both are relatively simple, arcade games that are easy to pick up, with very little complexity to them. Which is what I personally look for in a racing game.

As the title suggests, the game has one ace up his sleeve that makes it unique and different from its competition, and that is its focus on team dynamics. Each race will have four teams of three, and the aim is to still win by each member finishing as high as possible, thereby getting higher points at the end. But to do so you must work as a team by trading items and building up your ultimate meter, which gives you the best power up in the game. For example, instead of wasting a power up if you are in first place, you can offer it to another member of your team. The power ups are a bit dull to be honest, it is your typical boost and firing projectiles that you'll pick up. I wish they would have made the power ups more closely attributed to the characters themselves.

I was a bit sceptical of this new direction, but it works perfectly and adds tension to the races, as well as an element of tactical thought that is missing from other games of the genre. The team aspect of the game also works wonders in the online multiplayer races, it makes for an unpredictable and infuriating experience, but in a good way.

For those who want something more familiar, there is an option to play most modes as a solo racer. But be aware that the game is stripped of its chaotic fun and design nuance in the process.

There are twelve characters and twenty-one tracks in total. The characters are entirely taken from the Sonic franchise, so aside from Sonic and Tails, you have the lesser known Silver and Rogue, amongst others. The roster is a bit of disappointment to be honest, I find it baffling that characters from Sega’s large IP catalogue were not included. The racers are split into three different classes, speed, technique and power. Speed and technique are the easiest to use, with the slower power classes the hardest to master.

You can customise your vehicles with the credits you are rewarded with, you use these to open mod pods that give you random skins, paint palettes and car parts. These are basically loot boxes in all but name, but don't worry, there are no paid micro-transactions here. There is a lot to play around with, far more than I anticipated, so I pretty much redesigned every character's default vehicle at some point.   

The racetracks are good for the most part, they are multi layered with twists and loops, much like the levels in a modern Sonic game. With that said, although they are visually elegant, they do look reasonably similar to one another because there are a set of four tracks within the same locale. Much like the character roster, I think it would have been so much better if they had created tracks from other Sega IP, it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.

Overall, there is a decent amount of content, the basic stuff you might expect from a racing game, with a grand prix mode with three difficulty levels, normal, hard and expert. The game is not difficult once you have a grasp of things, even on expert mode it’s not overly challenging, which is another minor negative that I have towards the game. There are time trials for each track, where you can try and beat your own best times and those that have already been set by the game. The multiplayer online mode has team racing as well as solo races, you can take part in both casual and ranked modes. As soon as you have joined a lobby you get the choice of picking from four tracks, whichever one is picked the most is chosen for the race.

Finally, there is the Team Adventure mode, which has a bare-bones story that is nothing to rave about. In the simplest terms, an alien called Dodon Pa asks Sonic and his friends to come and race on his tracks. It really isn't worth going into the details of the plot, but you will get to experience all the tracks and extra challenges on offer, most of which will have a timer attached to them. The mode is best used as a tutorial, I would recommend starting the game from here. The further you progress the more difficulty levels that you will unlock, and I found it more challenging than the grand prix mode.

Team Sonic Racing is a bundle of joy, and there is a layer of depth that you don’t often get with these types of games. But it is not an excellent game, which is a shame because it could have been with more ambition in its character roster and track designs. And while there is a decent amount of content for what you are paying for, it is nothing more than my minimal expectations. But this last point is just a minor gripe that I had. So in conclusion, I would certainly recommend buying this game, the engaging team mechanics and customisation extras are worth it alone.

Verdict:

7.5