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Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Still Doesn't Feel Like It Has An Identity Of Its Own

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is quickly approaching the finish line, scheduled to launch in September. I got the chance to play the kart racer for a second time recently, and my opinion of the game is largely unchanged from my verdict during Summer Game Fest: It's dropping the best aspects of its predecessors to become something closer to Mario Kart. This second session, I spent a little more time with the game, getting a chance to race on additional tracks and play as the previously unavailable Hatsune Miku and Ichiban Kasuga.

CrossWorlds sees you jump into a kart or onto a hoverboard and compete against several other racers from Sega's catalog of Sonic characters (plus a few guests from other franchises!). Each race across the 24 different tracks is three laps, with the second taking place in an entirely different world after the racers teleport through a travel ring. Whichever competitor is in the lead as the racers approach the second lap chooses which world everyone hops over to, with two options given at random from a total pool of 15 other worlds.

It's an interesting gimmick, best seen in the Grand Prix mode that was the focus of both the SGF preview and my latest hands-on. In that mode, you're awarded a number of points depending on your place, which are added up at the end of a series of races to determine the ultimate winner. Each Grand Prix is four races, with the fourth and final race taking place across the three previous tracks--the first lap is on the track from the first race, the second lap is on the track of the second race, and so on.

As was the case at SGF, I crushed the computer-controlled competitors handily on the hardest available difficulty (there is one that's even harder, but it has not been available in either preview). As fun as it is to win, it's been hard to enjoy the game without the challenge of needing to try. I still believe that challenge will come when given the chance to play with other humans, but until then, CrossWorlds feels lacking compared to what came before.

Anyone else miss Sonic Riders?

The game borrows mechanics and features from Team Sonic Racing and Sonic Riders, but lacks the teamwork-oriented relay racing of the former or fuel management and character abilities of the latter. Those aspects made Team Sonic Racing and Sonic Riders distinct enough from Mario Kart to give them more identity, and also make them more challenging--it was rewarding to win at those games and I remember playing them (especially Riders) for hours upon hours and wanting to push myself to get better. I haven't gotten that sensation from CrossWorlds yet.

Like all of the other characters, Hatsune and Ichiban have their own stats that affect the minutiae of play--making slight adjustments to how each kart handles in a race. It must be very slight though, as I didn't notice any discernible difference between them, nor any change from my time with Jet the Hawk and Amy Rose at SGF. Changing up the plate loadout of the kart is a far more noticeable adjustment. I tinkered around with the kart plate system--which allows you to create several established loadouts to change how your kart behaves--a little more this time around, creating plates that let me start off with the monster truck transformation so I could run over everyone from the very start, or draft off others more easily and overtake the competition by stealing their rings, or spin like an unstoppable top while drifting to bash other racers and build extra speed boost.

With 24 tracks and 15 other worlds to explore, you'll see plenty of strange sights throughout the race.

These plate builds are fun and zany, and I wish they had a bigger impact on my performance to encourage me to spend more time tinkering in the shop. But I won with them all and I didn't really have to adjust my strategy for how I raced with any of them. I still needed to collect rings to build speed, pick up items to mess with opponents, dodge other racers' items, and drift around corners. Like everything else, the customization features don't help CrossWorlds differentiate itself from its competitors--nothing (so far) about this experience feels like it belongs solely to CrossWorlds.

I'm still hopeful that I'm just missing something. I generally enjoy the Sonic games that focus on racing, so this one not connecting with me feels like I'm somehow lying to myself. I'm sure that as soon as I sit down on the couch with my closest friends and we're screaming at each other for the bullcrap that we manage to pull off, I'll recognize in that moment what makes CrossWorlds special. Until that moment, however, I'm choosing to remain cautious of this one.

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is launching for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Switch on September 25. The game will be released for Switch 2 during the 2025 holiday season.