Team Sonic Racing - Upcoming Sonic Racing Game

[Your Vest Friend]

59 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

I swear this game's story has ADD or something.

It's like two straight hours of "He's suspicious and I don't trust him!" "He's nice tho" "But he suspicious and I don't trust him!" until Vector's just like STFU. 

[Multikaris]

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, I got the game. It feels weird that I feel like I'm coming into a conversation about the game late when the game literally released today. About the story so far.

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It's a bit of a shame because I really feel like I wouldn't mind this story so much if it weren't for one thing. The fact that literally every cutscene, they keep repeating over and over again about how much they don't trust Dodon Pa and how obvious a villain he is. It's not even like they're doing it in a tongue and cheek way either. It's like the characters keep forgetting that they're suspicious of him so they need to keep reminding us. I get it when it comes to things like Vector asking if Amy trusts him when he first shows up but come on. Whether it's to set us up for a swerve or to ensure us that they know it's obvious just like we would, it's too much. 

It kind of sucks because the dialogue on its own really isn't all that bad. It's nothing to write home about but it's certainly nothing the elicits anger from me. I remember when everyone was freaking out over "Whose your daddy, Shadow?" Lines like that are definitely not the norm here. Plus, the voice chatter isn't all that intrusive either. The options settings make it almost a non-issue for those who care about it. I like hearing them talk though. Hearing "Big, how could you?" when Tails gets hit is kind of cute. 

Although, when it comes to characters, Big is probably the weakest here. I'm not exactly cringing at what he's saying but something about him and his lines feel off. Although he did have one good line about "talking to Froggy when Froggy isn't here". It was proper creepy.

Also, is Blaze like a species-ist or something? She sees that Dodon Pa is a tanuki and immediately wants to bail because they're known for being tricksters. Did she not see Zootopia?

I do like that Sonic is the only one not interested in who Dodon Pa is or what his angle is. Everytime he speaks he talks about how much fun he's having and how much focus they should have on the race at any given moment. That's good. I'm not saying there should be no focus on figuring out what this dude's deal is but you guys could stand to lighten up and have some fun while you're on the track. Talk a bit more about the race. In fairness, there are times where they talk a bit more about each other though. 

This game actually does what I keep asking every game to do when it comes to acknowledging the characters and their expected relationships with the other cast members (and the world) by actually talking about some of the things that they, normally, wouldn't bother expositing about.  For example, every time Silver and Blaze show up, I always ask for them just to mention the why and how. Blaze mentions that the invite came across her dimension and Silver, hilariously, mentions getting the invite from 200 years into the future. It's not high art but it's better than the nothing from before. The fact that this game bothered to explain it and the Forces game proper didn't (read the comic on our Twitter folks) is even more astonishing to me. I appreciated this.

However, the big surprise talk for me came from Vector. It was clear that Tails and Vector (the detective and the brainiac) were plotting something together behind the scenes but when Knuckles interjected and straight up asked where Espio and Charmy were (outright stating them by name, which fucking SHOCKED me) Vector stammers a bit and says that he's "freelancing" which lead me to believe that "Holy shit... there actually is a reason?"

Then later, Vector tries to act all happy about them winning and Blaze calls him out on having a different reason to be here aside from winning. Then Vector's like "What? No, I'm totally here for the money..." Blaze says she gets lied to daily because she's a princess (which is funny) and Vector gets all serious detective on her. I love how Vector's portrayals have him as a serious detective with a charming personality these days. It's like the opposite of his Free Riders portrayal where he wouldn't shut up about the money.

Come to find out that Espio and Charmy are off investigating! WHAT?! They not only acknowledged they weren't there but then gave... A REASON???!!!!

It's been so long since character absences and character appearances came with reasons. I'm surprised.

Then the next scene with Sonic and Tails was pretty good too. Sonic approaches Tails and says that Knuckles told him that he was being sneaky. Tails admits that he's working on something and Sonic immediately is like "Say no more. You'll tell me when I need to know." That's great! Be more like Sonic kids! Sonic is great in this game.

Actually, Sonic and Tails have a pretty good dynamic here in general. It's nice.

Some of the character conversations are pretty good too. Sonic and Silver have a legitimately funny exchange that made me genuinely laugh.

"I'm so gonna own you Silver."

"Okay."

"No! You're supposed to say "In your dream Sonic."

"In your dreams Sonic."

"Too late. The moment's passed."

I gotta say though, I'm really liking Silver the Anime Protagonist Hedgehog's new voice. It's kind of amazing how fast it grew on me. All it took was listening to it for a bit and suddenly it's my favorite Silver voice. It didn't take long to get used to at all. Also, Roger sounds great as Sonic here. He's so slick. All the veteran actors are super comfortable in these roles now.

Silver is such a dork. It's great. He's so socially inept. I used to not care about him but I love him now. 

I also kind of like that it was suggested by Sonic that it's a bit of a toss up whenever Shadow decides he wants to do something for Eggman or do something to stop him. Maybe that's just me feeling nostalgic for the time where Shadow kind of had respect for Eggman and didn't mind conversing with him despite not being a villain himself though.

I will say that this game did absolutely nothing to justify Omochao's presence here. The novelty of having an All-Chao racer kind of wore off when I realized that I tend to avoid picking them but the opening cutscene just saw Omochao thrust himself along with Amy and Big as though he was their third wheel all along. Immediately, it felt like something Cream would do. It was so jarring. 

I'm at the part where Zavok has shown up. No mention of the events on Lost World yet Sonic mentions beating him before. I guess all the references and acknowledgement of what happened before and who these characters are alluded Zavok. At least so far. I haven't beaten it just yet. I'm at Chapter 6.

So far though, this story isn't really a story. It's just a series of conversations, which, even for a game with only text boxes, I feel could have done a bit more on that front. Still, there are some good conversations in there. Not all of them are though. This leaves you with a game with mostly alright dialogue and not much of an adventure. Still, I'm appreciating a lot of what it's doing. Some of it is bare minimum stuff but Forces and some of the games before this couldn't even do that.

That's my thoughts so far. Shockingly, I wasn't able to beat the story mode in a day like I did with Forces. So my thoughts on the conclusion will probably come tomorrow.

Did they also give a reason why Cream doesn’t appear?

[EmmBee]

Random observation, but I'm playing on base Xbox One and can't seem to record or screenshot races. The options are there for menus, but not during actual gameplay. Weird, considering I seem to have no problem streaming the game.

[Your Vest Friend]

10 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Did they also give a reason why Cream doesn’t appear?

Not on your nelly.

[StaticMania]

35 minutes ago, Your Vest Friend said:

It's like two straight hours of "He's suspicious and I don't trust him!" "He's nice tho" "But he suspicious and I don't trust him!" until Vector's just like STFU. 

If only everyone was more like Sonic and Big, this wouldn't  be the case.

 

Better story structure, they could've focused more on interactions than plot...it's loose anyway.

[DabigRG]

Another thing about the story that's odd is the actual Team aspect. Namely, the fact that there's not much of that going on among the individual teams at all. This has thus far resulted in some characters disappearing for an extended amount of time or even suddenly appearing.

On 5/18/2019 at 6:30 PM, Marco9966 said:

Wouldn't you prefer if they had cut-scenes or comic-style transitions like Black Knight? or even 2d cutscenes by Tyson Hesse? Would have been a little bit better for me.

Actually, that sounds like it'd be a neat thing to bring back.

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, I got the game. It feels weird that I feel like I'm coming into a conversation about the game late when the game literally released today. About the story so far.

  Hide contents

 

Although, when it comes to characters, Big is probably the weakest here. I'm not exactly cringing at what he's saying but something about him and his lines feel off. Although he did have one good line about "talking to Froggy when Froggy isn't here". It was proper creepy.

 

That's my thoughts so far. Shockingly, I wasn't able to beat the story mode in a day like I did with Forces. So my thoughts on the conclusion will probably come tomorrow.

Yeah, he is primarily the one I referred to when it comes to flanderization. He still has some neat moments here and there, though.

Where in the world is that line though?

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, I got the game. It feels weird that I feel like I'm coming into a conversation about the game late when the game literally released today. About the story so far.

  Hide contents

 

Also, is Blaze like a species-ist or something? She sees that Dodon Pa is a tanuki and immediately wants to bail because they're known for being tricksters. Did she not see Zootopia?

That's my thoughts so far. Shockingly, I wasn't able to beat the story mode in a day like I did with Forces. So my thoughts on the conclusion will probably come tomorrow.

That strikes me a little more as a general perception about dealing with certain people and/or creatures, which could be a really interesting trait.

Though going with your point, maybe she has knowledge and experience with Yokai. 

Spoiler

Which further makes the other Yokai character's seeming forgotten status at the moment kinda annoying.

 

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, I got the game. It feels weird that I feel like I'm coming into a conversation about the game late when the game literally released today. About the story so far.

  Hide contents

I do like that Sonic is the only one not interested in who Dodon Pa is or what his angle is. Everytime he speaks he talks about how much fun he's having and how much focus they should have on the race at any given moment. That's good. I'm not saying there should be no focus on figuring out what this dude's deal is but you guys could stand to lighten up and have some fun while you're on the track. Talk a bit more about the race. In fairness, there are times where they talk a bit more about each other though. 

That's my thoughts so far. Shockingly, I wasn't able to beat the story mode in a day like I did with Forces. So my thoughts on the conclusion will probably come tomorrow.

I'm a little fuzzy on that myself.

Spoiler

On one hand, he's definitely the character who'd be more interested and accepting of the danger involved. On the otherhand, it kinda brushes into flanderization territory. It also leaves the effective protagonist role more on Amy and Silver so far.

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, I got the game. It feels weird that I feel like I'm coming into a conversation about the game late when the game literally released today. About the story so far.

  Hide contents

 

This game actually does what I keep asking every game to do when it comes to acknowledging the characters and their expected relationships with the other cast members (and the world) by actually talking about some of the things that they, normally, wouldn't bother expositing about.  For example, every time Silver and Blaze show up, I always ask for them just to mention the why and how. Blaze mentions that the invite came across her dimension and Silver, hilariously, mentions getting the invite from 200 years into the future. It's not high art but it's better than the nothing from before. The fact that this game bothered to explain it and the Forces game proper didn't (read the comic on our Twitter folks) is even more astonishing to me. I appreciated this.

However, the big surprise talk for me came from Vector. It was clear that Tails and Vector (the detective and the brainiac) were plotting something together behind the scenes but when Knuckles interjected and straight up asked where Espio and Charmy were (outright stating them by name, which fucking SHOCKED me) Vector stammers a bit and says that he's "freelancing" which lead me to believe that "Holy shit... there actually is a reason?"

Then later, Vector tries to act all happy about them winning and Blaze calls him out on having a different reason to be here aside from winning. Then Vector's like "What? No, I'm totally here for the money..." Blaze says she gets lied to daily because she's a princess (which is funny) and Vector gets all serious detective on her. I love how Vector's portrayals have him as a serious detective with a charming personality these days. It's like the opposite of his Free Riders portrayal where he wouldn't shut up about the money.

Come to find out that Espio and Charmy are off investigating! WHAT?! They not only acknowledged they weren't there but then gave... A REASON???!!!!

It's been so long since character absences and character appearances came with reasons. I'm surprised.

Then the next scene with Sonic and Tails was pretty good too. Sonic approaches Tails and says that Knuckles told him that he was being sneaky. Tails admits that he's working on something and Sonic immediately is like "Say no more. You'll tell me when I need to know." That's great! Be more like Sonic kids! Sonic is great in this game.

Actually, Sonic and Tails have a pretty good dynamic here in general. It's nice.

Some of the character conversations are pretty good too. Sonic and Silver have a legitimately funny exchange that made me genuinely laugh.

"I'm so gonna own you Silver."

"Okay."

"No! You're supposed to say "In your dream Sonic."

"In your dreams Sonic."

"Too late. The moment's passed."

 

That's my thoughts so far. Shockingly, I wasn't able to beat the story mode in a day like I did with Forces. So my thoughts on the conclusion will probably come tomorrow.

Yeah, those were some of the nice touches.

Too bad it doesn't apply more, especially with certain other characters in mind.

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, I got the game. It feels weird that I feel like I'm coming into a conversation about the game late when the game literally released today. About the story so far.

  Hide contents

I also kind of like that it was suggested by Sonic that it's a bit of a toss up whenever Shadow decides he wants to do something for Eggman or do something to stop him. Maybe that's just me feeling nostalgic for the time where Shadow kind of had respect for Eggman and didn't mind conversing with him despite not being a villain himself though.

That's my thoughts so far. Shockingly, I wasn't able to beat the story mode in a day like I did with Forces. So my thoughts on the conclusion will probably come tomorrow.

Oh, is that what it's supposed to be? I thought it was just a pisspoor way of going, "Remember when Shadow was Dark?" before he inevitably dukes it out with Sonic and then is promptly forgotten.

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, I got the game. It feels weird that I feel like I'm coming into a conversation about the game late when the game literally released today. About the story so far.

  Hide contents

 

I will say that this game did absolutely nothing to justify Omochao's presence here. The novelty of having an All-Chao racer kind of wore off when I realized that I tend to avoid picking them but the opening cutscene just saw Omochao thrust himself along with Amy and Big as though he was their third wheel all along. Immediately, it felt like something Cream would do. It was so jarring. 

That's my thoughts so far. Shockingly, I wasn't able to beat the story mode in a day like I did with Forces. So my thoughts on the conclusion will probably come tomorrow.

Egh. He/she even sounds like her through a weakass filter at first. 

Granted, Omochao was technically never meant to be a proper character and practically lacks an introduction entirely. Games like Riders and Runners do have it be thing, but even then, it's almost entirely tertiary and barely affects anything.

16 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, I got the game. It feels weird that I feel like I'm coming into a conversation about the game late when the game literally released today. About the story so far.

  Hide contents

 

I'm at the part where Zavok has shown up. No mention of the events on Lost World yet Sonic mentions beating him before. I guess all the references and acknowledgement of what happened before and who these characters are alluded Zavok. At least so far. I haven't beaten it just yet. I'm at Chapter 6.

That's my thoughts so far. Shockingly, I wasn't able to beat the story mode in a day like I did with Forces. So my thoughts on the conclusion will probably come tomorrow.

Elusive.

But yeah, I'm concerned,  conflicted, and confused at the moment.

[Blueknight V2.0]

2 hours ago, DabigRG said:

What hints?

In the Team Up trailer for one, where it literally shows Phantom Rubies. Plus there's the Phantom Ruby sound in Haunted Castle's OST.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Your Vest Friend said:

It's like two straight hours of "He's suspicious and I don't trust him!" "He's nice tho" "But he suspicious and I don't trust him!" until Vector's just like STFU. 

Oh, dudette, that's actually structured.

I'm talking about how characters & plot points just pop in and out of focus with little rhyme or reason. I'm stuck at the moment on two mandatory pole missions, but even Zavok is a bizarre case of that.

1 hour ago, Mayor D said:

Also... Infinite isn't in the game... But technically the Phantom Ruby is... do a custom local race and watch how the racers get onto the track.

I honestly just took it as something Dodon Pa was doing.

1 hour ago, Miragnarok said:

Did they also give a reason why Cream doesn’t appear?

It almost feels they wanna say Omochao IS Cream initially.

5 minutes ago, Blueknight V2.0 said:

In the Team Up trailer for one, where it literally shows Phantom Rubies. Plus there's the Phantom Ruby sound in Haunted Castle's OST.

Rubies?

[SonicLegends]

2 hours ago, DabigRG said:

It almost feels they wanna say Omochao IS Cream initially.

I mean... you make a valid point. Right at the beginning of the game Omochao says "If you're going, Big, then Amy and I will go with you too. After all, we're a team!" and I'm just looking at that line going... SINCE WHEN!?

[Shadowlax]

3 hours ago, StaticMania said:

 

 

Better story structure, they could've focused more on interactions than plot...it's loose anyway.

That's how i feel, would have prefered these characters play off eachother more

2 hours ago, DabigRG said:

=

It almost feels they wanna say Omochao IS Cream initially.

 

 

19 minutes ago, SonicLegends said:

I mean... you make a valid point. Right at the beginning of the game Omochao says "If you're going, Big, then Amy and I will go with you too. After all, we're a team!" and I'm just looking at that line going... SINCE WHEN!?

I wouldn't put too much stock into that. The " Since When " happens with characters in the game. For example rouge has a convo with knuckles that makes it seem like rouge doesn't know shadow or omega very well.  So you know, its what they wanted to do at the time. So what i'm saying it, cream could have possibly never been considered. They just wanted to write the story a different way.

That isn't to say i'm right though. If you dig through the files, phantom ruby noise is in them shits. That isn't to say infinite was considered by the OG render of the games EXE uses forces stock art. Decisions may have been made

[StellarBlur]

Looks like Team Sonic Racing opened decently in the US:

Benji is a US sales insider. Perhaps the ps4, x1 and steam version aren't doing as hot. I'm glad the game is selling well up to now tho. It deserves it.

[SonicLegends]

1 hour ago, StellarBlur said:

Looks like Team Sonic Racing opened decently in the US:

Benji is a US sales insider. Perhaps the ps4, x1 and steam version aren't doing as hot. I'm glad the game is selling well up to now tho. It deserves it.

Not surprised in the slightest given how Sonic performs in sales on Nintendo consoles.

[DabigRG]

I finally beat story mode tonight. Not sure how much longer spoiler watch should be in effect, but I'll maintain it for a brief rundown here. 

Spoiler

Much of what I've said before still applies. This felt a rather hurky jerk when it comes to focus. The story was sort of interesting as a narrative and as excuse for the characters to interact, it had a decent amount of moments despite the mixed execution overall. The suspicion towards Dodon Pa and Eggman planning to get the engine are inherently the most consistent plot lines due to driving the plot. When it comes to individual character input however, things get dicey: 

• Amy and Big get the most exposure by far. It's partly odd due to Amy sort of being a straight protagonist without taking much part in the investigation. 
• Vector and Tails somewhat drive things on the Heroes end for the first three or so maps, but the former gets swamped out after getting updates from Espio and Charmy. Rouge fairs better and worse as them throughout. 
• Sonic feels like a supporting major character that pops on and out at times until somewhat taking the field for the final map. He's more about the racing than anything else. 
• Zavok is weird case of them seriously building up to him, but then just slate him to the background with only occasion appearances. I'll talk about him overall later. 
• Blaze, Knuckles, and more so Shadow only pop up a couple times to say something. 
• "Chao" and to an extent Omega might as well not be there most of the time. 

Overall, this could've used more interaction among all of the characters, some better presentation, and more cohesion in the the story was being told. Oh and that final world and ending was kinda sad. 

 

 

 

[Dr. Detective]

I've beaten the story now. So, here are the rest of my thoughts on it.

Overall Story Thoughts

Spoiler

Massive "Whatever". 

I'll give it props for making me eat my words on a few things. I didn't expect them to acknowledge what the deal with Silver, Blaze, and Vector was and they did. I didn't expect the future to get mentioned but it was as well as the exact many years ahead Silver is. I didn't expect Blaze's dimension to get mentioned and it was, as well as some insight into what being a princess means to her.

I didn't expect Vector to be here for anything other than money and for his teammates to not even be mentioned. That absolutely didn't happen. Espio and Charmy were off working for Vector and the big boss was here because Tails hired him to investigate. It's a massive step-up from Free Riders where he WAS just there for the money and he only came over because Amy gave him a call a half hour before the race started.

Everyone else (except Zavok) was relatively on point. They remembered that Rouge loves gems. They remembered that Omega loves destroying Eggman robots. They kept reminding us that Big likes Froggy and Fishing... a lot. 

There were a few conversations and character interactions that I found charming and one that legitimately made me laugh between Sonic and Silver. However, that's about it. I can't even really say it was the majority of the game that managed to do this because a huge junk of the beginning is just character's going on and on about how much they don't trust Dodon Pa. True or not, obvious or not, it's just annoying hearing the same thing talked about over and over again.

The ending half of the game is where they truly run out of steam though. Nothing's going on during the "Kidnapped" chapter. The last chapter is just Eggman stalling until Dodon Pa's engine is done. Then he steals it and then we get it back. Then he runs away because he hears a mountain lion the core is gone and the fortress falls. So I guess that's the end of the Final Fortress after years of being left alone since Heroes. 

The reveal of who Dodon Pa was I actually liked. Having him own a corporation that's universally well-known kind of makes Sonic's world feel a bit more interconnected with the other planets in a way that isn't just "These aliens are invading" or "These aliens need help". His agenda not remaining a bit more ambiguous is something I didn't like though. I kind of had this picture of him in my head of him being a little bit like a more mischievous Willy Wonka character. You don't know what his deal is and you're not really supposed to. He gets a kick out of seeing people race dangerously for his amusement but at the same time isn't a straight up prick either. When I hear someone called the "Master of Ceremonies" I think of the Mumbo Jumbo Song from Teen Titans  I think of someone who remains impartial, speaks in riddles, and gives the heroes and the villains an equal hard time. Then floats off mysteriously before reappearing again some other time to challenge us once more.

This all could have benefited from some actual visuals and cutscenes of course. I'm not saying it would have fixed everything. Colors and Generations had that but they still do nothing but stand around. I'm speaking merely from a perspective that wishes this series would take advantage of being an action cartoon in video game form a bit more. It really does help the experience when everyone's animated and the story is pushing the excitement along. Some cutscenes with them on the race track like Team Sonic Racing Overdrive would have gone a long way. It's not even like it matters who wins the race when we're playing so why not?

Seriously. I lost the last race and the final cutscene began with Eggman shouting "CURSE YOU SONIC!" at me like I had won. 

So that's the story. It's whatever. It was pretty much what I expected it would be the instant I saw that one PNG of Sonic in that magazine scan. Talking heads. A lot of insipid dialogue. A lot of repetition. And a couple of things that were legitimately charming and surprising but not enough to salvage the whole thing.

Riders' story this ain't.

Zavok

Spoiler

... 

... So... what even IS this character anyway?

I have no clue. Why is he here? 

I spoke about how I didn't expect the game to give an explanation for the presence of anyone and to my shock and awe they did in fact do so for everyone... except Zavok. Goddammit. He's actually one of the ones that stood out the most because him being on Eggman's team made literally no sense. You could explain away Silver and Blaze being with Vector (and they did) and Omochao being replaced with Cream is whatever... but Eggman enslaved Zavok. They hate each other. Zavok wants Eggman dead.

The explanation for why he was here to face off against Sonic while working with Eggman would have had to have been a really good one. I figured they wouldn't bother but after seeing them try with the others and STILL not bothering with Zavok, I'm left supremely confused.

Eggman just... hires him to do a job that would in no way benefit Zavok and in no way requires Zavok to be the one to do it. Zavok straight up says that he isn't getting paid. Eggman admonishes Zavok, yells at him, calls him names, and says he sucks a ton of times... and Zavok has no reaction to any of it. He only reacts to it ONCE and even in that same scene, Eggman has to hurl insults at him twice before he responds with anger. 

Zavok has the potential to be a more interesting villain because he hates both Eggman AND Sonic. That's one of the very few things he has going for him that could throw a wrench into potential storylines but that's just not here. He's just Eggman's lackey. He's not being forced to do it. It's not mind control. Eggman asked him to do something and Zavok did it. 

Lost World's story couldn't have been scrapped because Sonic mentions beating Zavok before. Why have continuity in one part of the character's history but then completely ignore it for another? Even if Zavok's inclusion was mandated by someone who loves the fuck out of him, that's no excuse not to write an in-game reason for it. You're working with stills and PNGs of characters. You could have thrown in some sort of explanation in that mix of repetitious banter that goes nowhere.

It's weird that I have a figure of this dude on my shelf but there still doesn't exist a figure of Omega or an affordable one of Rouge the Bat. 

I don't hate Zavok but it really does feel like these games are trying their damndest to make me hate him. 

As for the game itself, it's fun. It's challenges are hard as balls but that's how it always is with Sumo's All-Stars games. 

The racing is really good and the ultimates are actually fun to use again after that disappointing nerf from Transformed. I understand they needed to do it so that the game could work with them online but if they're useless anyway then what's the point? Might as well keep them as they were in the first game which, to date, still has the best All-Star Moves of the bunch. 

The tracks are where Transformed has this game beat however. Despite my surprise with how varied some of them ended up being... the vast majority of them are still just three versions of the same location. Rooftop Run is the only one that has three tracks that outright feel like completely different areas. Sky Road and Haunted Castle don't even feel like they're apart of Spagonia. I can only tell that Haunted Castle is because of the Clock Tower on the outside but that's really it.

There are some neat bells and whistles here and there. My all time favorite is King Boom Boo in Boo's House. That track is one of my favorites simply due to the visual of him flying about and laughing along with that AWESOME music track. It really gets the blood pumping.

However, Transformed just had way more in terms of stage variety in general. Couple that with the fact that the tracks would change with EACH LAP and you're left with this being a shadow of its formal self on that front. Not helping is the return of Ocean View, Lost Palace, Whale Lagoon, Roulette Road, Bingo Party, Pinball Highway, Thunder Deck, Turbine Loop, and Dark Arsenal. Just one of these tracks from each of these locations would have been fine as a nice call back to the first game but the fact that they're all here in this game with only 24 tracks is a tad disappointing.

Not as disappointing as the roster though. Despite being happy that they cared enough to acknowledge the absence of the other Chaotix, it did nothing for this bare bones selection of characters for them to be gone. I know the budget comment is going to be brought up again but no one should really have to take that into consideration when judging a game. Plus, I'm still not convinced it's even the reason why it's like this. I do still feel like three extra characters could have been added and the production of the game wouldn't have imploded on itself. Not saying it wouldn't have been hard work but hearing that Crash Nitro Fueled Whatever Racing has 25 characters, is making previously unplayable boss characters playable, and is being sold for the same price as this game just feels weird to hear. I know that game's a remaster but I can't let it slide. It's not as if this game isn't reusing assets too. 

Ultimate Verdict

This is a good game overall. It's fun. It's beautiful. The music is a god-send. It's like we were given access to Jesus' Jukebox. However, it's shortcomings push it down to being a more standard kind of fun. Its team gimmick is fun and works better than I feel we initially gave it credit when it was announced but it's not enough to elevate it above its predecessors.

If you're going to make another of these racers than I do feel it best to return to the SEGA All-Stars aesthetic from before. If you're going to make a Sonic-Only racing game and you're not going to go ALL OUT with the cast then honestly, why bother? Something like this is the perfect opportunity to get weird and exotic with your roster of Sonic characters. They couldn't even fit the entire main cast in though. Zavok is the most exotic this roster gets and he's someone no one cares about. 

If this game was made to be only Sonic characters for the sake of having a Sonic racing game because there hasn't been one in a while... then fine. I'm glad you got one out of your system and didn't return to the Riders series for that. Despite liking the Riders' and Zero Gravity's stories more, I vastly prefer this style of racing over the kind those games had.

Now that one exists though, we don't really need another one unless you're going to go all out and crazy with it. If you're not than stick to SEGA All-Stars.

Or maybe give that foot racer idea a try. It's not like you've got anything to lose at this point.

6 hours ago, Miragnarok said:

Did they also give a reason why Cream doesn’t appear?

They don't really need to give a reason why she doesn't appear. The absence of the rest of the members of the Chaotix Detective Agency is something that would more naturally be questioned than the absence of Cream. She doesn't really belong to an official group or have an occupation. It's just that, replacing her with Omochao looks and feels weird.

5 hours ago, DabigRG said:

That strikes me a little more as a general perception about dealing with certain people and/or creatures, which could be a really interesting trait.

Though going with your point, maybe she has knowledge and experience with Yokai. 

I wasn't really trying to make a point. I was joking. 

 

[Whatever the WhoCares]

This game definitely has a budget feeling to it, from its menus to its options to its graphics in general, which is kind of the opposite of Transformed. It feels like they went back to square one a bit, it’s better than ASR but definitely inferior to Transformed. Hopefully we can get Team Sonic Racing Transfomed lol. 

Edit: I really wish they would just port the old All-Stars games to newer consoles. Transformed in particular runs so poorly that it’s hard going back to outside of PC. 

[Eurisko]

15 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Big's problem...again is the voice.

It's quite monotonous.

Sonic Heroes had the best Big voice.

Jon St John has a lot to answer for he only did the Big The Cat voice as a suggestion/joke and they ran with it. Its awful.

[shdowhunt60]

Someone mentioned people reporting performance issues on PC. FWIW, I caved and actually got it on PC, and it actually runs extremely well with me. I have no issue holding 120fps+ on my Vega 56 at 1440p.

Still not happy with the game having Denuvo, but otherwise I've actually been really enjoying it, and I don't normally play cart racers like... Ever.

[KHCast]

Here’s a side by side comparison between it and Transformed.

Damn, looking at it next to its predecessor, it actually looks a lot slower and much less hectic...that’s something I really enjoyed about Transformed was the crazy speed. Can that be adjusted in TSR?

[Jango]

TBH, Transformed looks better even visually ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

Not that we didn't knew this would happen, but Transformed is almost unbeatable. I don't think even the original CTR can beat it. Maybe the remake...  Then again, everyone's got their opinions. Someone is having more fun with TSR than Transformed, I garantee. 

[Dantemustdie00]

Yeah the matchmaking definately needs to be better, I'm better off playing Solo than Team cause of how unfair the system is at picking human players on a team.

did the previous games even had Ranked matchmaking, can't remember, honestly wish they do away with that too, get everyone in the same room.

[Blue Blood]

24 minutes ago, KHCast said:

Here’s a side by side comparison between it and Transformed.

Damn, looking at it next to its predecessor, it actually looks a lot slower and much less hectic...that’s something I really enjoyed about Transformed was the crazy speed. Can that be adjusted in TSR?

I can't watch the video right now, but I'm curious about the difficulty settings. ASRT was fast on S class, but super dull on C class. Is Expert in TSR still slower than ASRT's S class? Disappointing if that's the case. I've not played much of Expert mode yet, cause TSR is kicking my arse on even just Hard mode.

-

I've got a question about platform differences. On Switch, crashing into walls or clipping bumps in the road often seems your car spinning around to a ridiculous degree. You'll end up facing backwards or driving on the side of the car, and all of this seems to happen for no good reason. It's just a case of broken, buggy collision detection. I've managed to get several videos of this happening to me. I'm wondering... Is this exclusive to the Switch version (or at least much more common there)? I'm not hearing many people talk about these relatively game breaking issues.

[Plasme]

The car spinning around happens a lot on the Steam version, including going backwards.

[Meta77]

11 hours ago, StellarBlur said:

Looks like Team Sonic Racing opened decently in the US:

Benji is a US sales insider. Perhaps the ps4, x1 and steam version aren't doing as hot. I'm glad the game is selling well up to now tho. It deserves it.

Not surprised for the fact is anything big even out right now. Its like releasing a small movie and it doing well when there is literally next to noting big or name grabbing out there outside of it. not saying Team Racing isnt an ok game for the asking price. Just theres not much to get outside it atm.

[JezMM]

The only thing I will say in TSR's defense is while the item gameplay is a bit hit-or-miss, GOD I appreciate the Wisp usage over the first two games' generic items when I see them side-by-side. I know the fandom as a whole is still struggling with swallowing the "Wisps are here to stay" pill, but the fact is they're a major part of the Sonic franchise now and they are so much more appealing to look at, what with the little guys peering around quizzically, putting on a sassy expression or looking downright traumatised by everything going on around them as you wait to use them, as oppose to... Baseball Glove.

[Sonicka]

4 hours ago, Jango said:

TBH, Transformed looks better even visually ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

Not that we didn't knew this would happen, but Transformed is almost unbeatable. I don't think even the original CTR can beat it. Maybe the remake...  Then again, everyone's got their opinions. Someone is having more fun with TSR than Transformed, I garantee. 

TSR is smoother, and graphically - it’s still ahead. But I get EXACTLY what you mean.

Somehow, (for this stage at least) the amount of goddamn bloom placed actually makes the track seem less clean and appealing like in Transformed. Also no boat section making the robot octopus feels redundant. 

I’d have rather they’d put Seaside View in instead really. The underwater tunnels, huge jumps, and the amazing ocean loop would have been amazing to travel over in this game - not to mention they could have updated driving through the pipes to be able to scale the walls and ceiling this time.