Team Sonic Racing - E3 Demo Footage/Impressions

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I’m not really the biggest fan of racing games, but this is an interesting concept they got going on here. Individual players working as a team to win? Yeah, I can see that being some good competition to Mario Kart if they really want to carry this forward.

Unfortunately, I don’t really see myself in a hurry to play this, but I like the idea nonetheless. Would be interesting to see that in an online platformer now that I think of it.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

5 hours ago, Biggs said:

I'm glad they brought back the midair flips, that was such a great feature in ASRT.

Graphics look better in motion too and the Wisps look like decent powerups.

Overall looks pretty great so far and this is only a snippet of gameplay. Can't wait to see what's next. Pretty hyped tbh. I have a lot of faith in Sumo.

Same here. I'm already on the hypetrain!

[Dr. Detective]

I actually don't see much wrong with the artstyle here. When I saw it, I was mostly thinking it didn't look a whole lot like Planet Wisp. It kind of reminded me of Splash Canyon from Sonic Riders when I first saw it, though I think that's mostly because so much of what I'm looking at is the road and it's entirely made of wood, which isn't an element of Planet Wisp that was played up a whole lot.

The team mechanic has the potential to be something that'll be fun to play around with so long as it's not forcing you to play with three characters every single time. I do hope there's something of a normal mode where I can choose to have a team of one or something like that. If that isn't the case, it won't ruin the experience but it will take some time to get used to. Especially considering I'm someone who likes single player games. Racing games are still a ton of fun despite that of course and this having some semblance of a narrative, supposedly, will go a long way towards helping me out on that front.

I'm totally jazzed by this though. I don't see anything wrong with it. It looks like a Sumo Digital racing title, which is exactly what I want and need right now. 

[Pawn]

Some more footage:

 

[MegasonicZX]

Man those voice lines are atrocious, who the heck thought some of these were ok? Also, not really liking how when you get hit it brings you to a complete stop instead of sliding to a slow down. Didn't really like that too much in mario kart and it just feels even more janky here in comparison. I am curious about that trail that comes off from sonic at 0:39, I wonder if that is some sort of speed boost or maybe a way to gain points towards something?

[Natie]

Yo, this game's artstyle isnt even remotely comparable to Lost World lmao. They just made the land forms more stylized and geometric, and honestly, good on them for goin for a middle ground. I don't like the generic lost world look and I also really hate Generations' super overly-detailed remix style. It was fun at the time as a kid but its really such an artistically lazy choice to just make green hill look like a real place but with some occasional loops and checker pattern textures stretched over all the rocks. 

Good Lord look at this, i can barely tell sonic's there when being fought over by all the immense and tiny spots of green and brown fighting for my eye's attention. Trying to take the mega-stylized world of Green Hill and make it overly organic like this is really conflicting, it could be any rocky nature level with some simple texture changes. 

The original looks like a completely different place, the trees are like folded paper, there's geometric tetris-block-shaped indention in the rock, it's very flat and slick with all its surfaces, you see a big body of water separating the more organic and "normal" looking mountains in the distance, almost like the zone is a magic paradise nestled within a tall, harsh mountain range. There's very clear shapes that are not only greatly readable for gameplay, but also very memorable and paint sonic's world as a fantastical place unlike reality. 

Not to say this racing game's artstyle is nearly as good of an implementation, but toning down the hyper-realism in forces and TSR a bit from the generations look by just making shapes a little simpler and more striking and stylized with keeping the modern realistic texture work is a good idea for the modern universe. 

This comparison from earlier had the opposite effect on me, as the landforms in Racing are way easier to read. I like the dark blue contrasting silhouette in the horison that shows the very prominent and clear shape of the Planet Wisp trees which are the location's most recognizable landmark. Eggman's additions to the planet pop out in harsh reds and oranges and give a lotta life to it. The rock shapes in the foreground are appealing and cartoonish while not going full-plastic like lost world and still feeling believable as rocks. That and the flat cliffs to the left make for a place sonic actually fits in, without compromising detail, but also not putting it so much detail like the generations image (which still looks good mind you) with tiny mixed up splotches of color and really needlessly intricate texture work that just makes the place more distracting and probably messes up the bitrate in recordings a lot.  It's not the most creative environment, but this is the modern universe after all, I'll take it. This game not bothering with texturing every grass blade and speck of dirt will not only look more appealing and less distracting on a high speed course, but your computer might actually run it well, too!

TL;DR 

Stylization/Good Color Design/Readability > Realistic Detail

[The Tenth Doctor]

Whenever Sonic goes "Ultimate" or whatever he says, I hear Reach for the Stars playing. Hope the team have different songs for their attack, Shadow wouldn't suit that song

[brobotnik]

Ahhh, there's that Planet Wisp arrangement I was listening for. Thanks for embedding that new Shacknews clip. Music concerns... fading.

Concerns shifting to... vehicle customization. (Hoping it's a step beyond non-cosmetic stat changes so we'll get some cool visual nods, like skinning Sonic's Speed Star to look like his hot rod from Drift.)

[Multikaris]

In the video, around 16 seconds in, Tails encounters two identical eggpawn opponents in quick sensation. So even more evidence they’re story opponents, because it’s pretty rare to have mirror matches. 

[Razule]

I'm confused about how the team racing thing works in single player..

[Plasme]

The music in the stage doesn't seem to sound anything like Planet Wisp. Am I missing something?

[Your Vest Friend]

Oh yeah, haven't given my opinion on the footage. 

Looks like it's back to being more like SASR than ASRT, which means it'll be fun again. With the bonus of having more Sonic in there. All around a good'un for me. 

[Multikaris]

10 minutes ago, Plasme said:

The music in the stage doesn't seem to sound anything like Planet Wisp. Am I missing something?

They changed it to appeal/pander to the Adventure fans. 

[Plasme]

I've been listening to the footage and can kind of hear the refrain, but it sounds so different to the original track. It's a shame because I really love the music of planet wisp. I hope they don't change all the songs this drastically, it's like a different song entirely. And I like the Adventure music!

[Biggs]

Based GameXplain back at it with the analysis machine

 

[Skull Leader]

24 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

Oh yeah, haven't given my opinion on the footage. 

Looks like it's back to being more like SASR than ASRT, which means it'll be fun again. With the bonus of having more Sonic in there. All around a good'un for me. 

I too though the same when watching the gameplay videos. 

I appreciate what Sumo did with ASRT, but I always thought that SASR handled the car racing aspect much better, both with the actusl gameplay and design of the tracks, speaking of which, I hope we get more parts where the racers go through loops, corckscrews and other such gravity defiant sections to add that Sonic-y feel to the races. (Plus I like the visual spectacle since it's like racing on a rollercoaster)

[JezMM]

4 hours ago, Plasme said:

The music in the stage doesn't seem to sound anything like Planet Wisp. Am I missing something?

I didn't recognise it at all first time until I was looking for it, but yeah, listen carefully at 0:09.  You can hear the memorable opening "Dah-nah-nah-naaaaah..." notes from Planet Wisp, but it kinda puts it's own spin on them immediately after.

 

The music is still a little lacking in atmosphere and flavour for my tastes but it seems okay.  As before though, I'm reserving final judgement for when we have a clear, uninterrupted clip of it.

[jgcatindig]

11 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

An interview says that Iizuka was inspired by games like Splatoon and Overwatch for this co-op onlne gamestyle.

It's very original and we didnt see something like that in a racing game before, I hope it has a big success on its online mode.

Overwatch?

(inserts Knux "Oh no")

Now the salt train has arrived.

[Your Vest Friend]

5 hours ago, Biggs said:

Based GameXplain back at it with the analysis machine

 

*Say the Tailgator looks like a reference to the obscure SSH machine*

*Not notice the teeth design combined with the green colouration and the obvious Croc pun*

Analysis machine broke. 

[JezMM]

It's funny that Overwatch and Splatoon are cited as inspirations because I was just thinking earlier how, unless the HUD will somehow convey this, I usually have a GENERAL idea of where my teammates are and what they're doing in order to support them in those games.  Racing games are a bit... I dunno, broader, vaguer?  Due to the size of the map?  It'll be interesting to see how tactical we can really be with item allocation beyond just "I'm furthest ahead of my team so I will give my helpful item to the person furthest back in my team".

[Salamander]

It depends on how far they want to push it, I suppose.  It's possible to conceive of systems where certain items might be more effective in the hands of certain classes of racer; an offensive item used by a Power-type racer could have more stopping power, for instance, so in that scenario it might be advantageous for a Speed- or Technique-type to transfer such items to their Power-type partner.

[Blue Blood]

Geez... the artstyle is bringing this game down. The gameplay looks solid, even if the team aspect is a bit ambiguous and unclear right now. I just think it looks so bleh. Why why why is SEGA now pushing this especially cartoony style? Realistic detail in glorious fantasy worlds has always worked so well for Sonic; Colours and Generations absolutely nailed visuals. While '06 and Black Knight went way too far in the realistic direction, now the opposite is happening between this game, Lost World and Forces. It's like they've become scared of edges. Everything is so rounded and flat. Visually, this game looks boring. It's bright, but beyond that it doesn't stand out. Kinda wanna say that Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart 8 look closer to what I'd expect from Sonic than TSR does. Planet Wisp here doesn't have any sense of natural beauty of serenity that previous games captured, even when it was being industrialised.

I kinda hate it. But enough ranting - what I don't hate is that Sumo is still using the Secret Rings/Olympics models rather than the Unleashed/Forces ones. These models are way nicer with the length and curvature of Sonic's spines, and especially the fact that the characters finally have eyebrows again.

And about the gameplay... it looks tame. It's likely that this is just one of the first courses, but it's not particularly exciting yet. The team gimmick isn't at all obvious from just watching the footage. Driving, drifting and tricking all seem to be lifted directly from ASRT, which is always a plus. It's hard to comment further though. Looks good, but a bit basic.

[Red Hot Jack]

I don't think the graphics look anywhere near as bad as people are saying, it's definitely NOT like Lost World at all, it looks more of a compromise like Forces looked, which is not as detailed as Generations, but still pretty to be honest. 

Gameplay also looks solid, the team mechanic could be fun... even though I'm not a fan of teamwork, previews seem excited so I'm really not worried, and it's made by Sumo, people shouldn't try too much to find things to complain about, even though I can understand some concerns.

And for me it has already a better roster already than any SEGA crossover, c'mon, it has been done 3 times before, we haven't had a proper Sonic spin-off in a long time, if they did the SEGA treatment it would be basically the same roster as ASR, I just want to play as my favorites again, since they are getting a lame treatment in main games and crossover spin-offs. 

It looks it's gonna be good honestly. Fingers crossed, but so far the previews are positive.

[Bobnik]

Upon watching several times, I found another thing I don't like - I understand why cars looks glossy, but why the hell does Sonic look so plastic-y when under sunlight? He looks more like a live toy than anything, and it's annoying me a bit. Heck, it's even noticable on Shadow in the screnshot above. I hope that won't be the case in the full game, but for now characters look like plastic toys than live characters

Quote

It's like they've become scared of edges.

I mean, people were saying the franchise has gone too edgy...

...get it? no? ok, I'll see myself out

[Detective Kaito]

13 hours ago, Natie said:

Yo, this game's artstyle isnt even remotely comparable to Lost World lmao. They just made the land forms more stylized and geometric, and honestly, good on them for goin for a middle ground. I don't like the generic lost world look and I also really hate Generations' super overly-detailed remix style. It was fun at the time as a kid but its really such an artistically lazy choice to just make green hill look like a real place but with some occasional loops and checker pattern textures stretched over all the rocks. 

*pic*

Good Lord look at this, i can barely tell sonic's there when being fought over by all the immense and tiny spots of green and brown fighting for my eye's attention. Trying to take the mega-stylized world of Green Hill and make it overly organic like this is really conflicting, it could be any rocky nature level with some simple texture changes. 

*pic*

The original looks like a completely different place, the trees are like folded paper, there's geometric tetris-block-shaped indention in the rock, it's very flat and slick with all its surfaces, you see a big body of water separating the more organic and "normal" looking mountains in the distance, almost like the zone is a magic paradise nestled within a tall, harsh mountain range. There's very clear shapes that are not only greatly readable for gameplay, but also very memorable and paint sonic's world as a fantastical place unlike reality. 

Not to say this racing game's artstyle is nearly as good of an implementation, but toning down the hyper-realism in forces and TSR a bit from the generations look by just making shapes a little simpler and more striking and stylized with keeping the modern realistic texture work is a good idea for the modern universe. 

*pic*

*pic*

This comparison from earlier had the opposite effect on me, as the landforms in Racing are way easier to read. I like the dark blue contrasting silhouette in the horison that shows the very prominent and clear shape of the Planet Wisp trees which are the location's most recognizable landmark. Eggman's additions to the planet pop out in harsh reds and oranges and give a lotta life to it. The rock shapes in the foreground are appealing and cartoonish while not going full-plastic like lost world and still feeling believable as rocks. That and the flat cliffs to the left make for a place sonic actually fits in, without compromising detail, but also not putting it so much detail like the generations image (which still looks good mind you) with tiny mixed up splotches of color and really needlessly intricate texture work that just makes the place more distracting and probably messes up the bitrate in recordings a lot.  It's not the most creative environment, but this is the modern universe after all, I'll take it. This game not bothering with texturing every grass blade and speck of dirt will not only look more appealing and less distracting on a high speed course, but your computer might actually run it well, too!

TL;DR 

Stylization/Good Color Design/Readability > Realistic Detail

I really disagree with that. I personally never had an issue with readability in Generations, but even if that's still problem for everyone in general, you can be more detailed like Generations and have stylization/good color design/readability at the same time.