Team Sonic Racing - Team Gameplay Spotlight

[ShadowSJG]

Characters badly written?

[Mad Convoy]

Honestly, I still think this game looks like a lot of fun, despite some budget limitations.

I guess it helps that I never really minded the Lost World aestetic. I think its a good tradeoff imo-- simplified graphical aesthetics in exchange for consistent 60fps that makes the game more fluid. Sure Unleashed HD was a gorgeous detail-fest, but its kind of hard to appreciate when the game is lagging frequently in a way that messes up the details. Colors and Gens were able to avoid that while still having very detailed graphics, but it came at the expense of being limited to 30fps, and the problems with 30fps are becoming increasingly noticeable as technology advances.

I'll probably be turning off the voices unless they turn out not to be as annoying as I'm expecting them to be. A shame as I don't think its a bad thing to have character chatter-- I just don't want to be hearing the same lines over and over again. I wish maybe the game had taken some cues from the Sonic Storybook series in regards to that, but oh well. Its not enough to completely kill the game's enjoyment for me.

I still think the team gameplay is potentially interesting-- for one, its miles above the Mario Kart approach of screwing over the guy in first place at every opportunity in terms of fun, since TSR's team mode at least lets the guy in first place get some help if the computer has decided to screw them over. Online mode is a quagmire to handle, as it is for every team-based game really as unfortunately some people are jerks, but so long as they implement a good blocking and opting out system, I think those issues can be mitigated. This is a new venture for Sega and not an idea a lot of racing games have implemented, so I don't expect everything to be perfect, but so far the foundations seem solid.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

22 hours ago, JosepHenry said:

....... is Roger voicing Knuckles?!

I noticed Kuckles' weird voice too.

[SoniClub]

Sad to have to bring another negative outlook to the table - but this game has yet to spark any excitement or interest in me. It just looks so linear and lifeless compared to Transformed, which as many have pointed out, came out six years ago. Every stage in that game just brims with cinematic, high-velocity action; incredibly dynamic stages that explode with colour, movement, life, directly interacting with the player through track-specific hazards that feel like they naturally belong in the environment - not just some out-of-place looking ice pillars clumsily dropped in the middle of a corridor track.

And although we admittedly haven't yet seen much, I'm still confused as to how this game manages to look objectively far less impressive in the graphics and design department than a game that came out over half a decade ago, on the last generation of consoles. Quite a few of the background decorations, especially the crowds cheering at the beginning of Planet Wisp, look like two frame N64 sprites. Is that not something kinda unacceptable with this generation of hardware for a big budget game? It's not like the tracks are all that complex...

With this new edition we seem to have bendy-hall-way stages set against cute, but inconsequential backdrops, which the player does not really interact with, whilst the track itself seems to almost completely lack any real challenge for the player in terms of the racing itself. Seriously, why are we driving on a linear concrete/dirt-track when we could be racing through the vast, twisting forests of Planet Wisp before whizzing up the labyrinths of Eggman's multi-tired factories. Just imagine what a bore that stage is going to be if you play with no items.

Compare that to Transformed, where even watching game-play footage gets me hyped...

There is not a single stage in that game, even the opening Seaside Hill, that feels lazy in its track design, monotonous in its stage hazards or that does not live up to the incredibly high cinematic standard that was clearly set. And its not all looks - the transforming mechanic constantly keeps you on your toes and the racing experience fresh, all amongst some really tight controls that hold it all together.

Like any racing game, there are a couple of issues with controls and with some track layouts, but overall they hit such a home-run with making Transformed a really exciting game to play. They really needed to do something incredibly innovative, different or at least something that rejuvenated the pre-established formular to shake things up. TSR certainly doesn't look bad by any means, instead it just resembles a perfectly stable, albeit uninspired, racing game that you could kill some time with. This team dynamic gimmick, while a nice addition, just isn't enough for the entire game to ride on, especially when everything else about it looks rather unremarkable.

From what we've seen, this feels like a downgrade - 6 years later. 

[Dr. Detective]

I prefer they not do anything to shake things up. Thats kind of what this Team mechanic is here to do. There's a lot of focus on all the different things you can do with it too but if no one appreciates or anticipates it then there's no point.

Its gonna have single races anyway but next time just do a traditional racer. I'm guessing part of the reason the tracks are wider and the cars seem slower is all to accomodate for helping each other out. 

None of this is bothering me as much as it is everyone else but I'm willing to conform to what everyone else wishes if only for the sake of not feeling bummed out by the reception people are giving the game next time. I'm really tired of SEGA ushering in endless negativity.

[Blue Blood]

5 hours ago, ShadowSJG said:

Characters badly written?

[CottonCandy]

Gotta be honest here, it just doesn't look as fun as transformed. It looks fine, I guess. The stages, team mechanic, and graphics looks alright. I'm not expecting it to be a bad game but its doing nothing for me. Maybe we might see something exciting later on but so far it feels like a repeat of sonic forces. I hope I'm wrong though. 

[DabigRG]

Okay, I was wondering if this had been seen.

I like how the music style is kinda similar to something from Heroes era, although some of the voices are laughable.

And  admittedly, there is something humorous about how out of place Omochao's portrait is.

@Patron I just realized your Profile pic is dabbing.

On 8/7/2018 at 12:09 PM, JosepHenry said:

....... is Roger voicing Knuckles?!

Yeah, that line was hilariously bad. That would explain it.

It's Sonic Shuffle all over again!

On 8/7/2018 at 2:15 PM, LukA8 said:

Many people seem to get confused by that misplaced line. It comes from Big, not Knuckles. We've heard Knuckles' voice in the game before, and it's still the same one.

 

Does it? Doesn't sound like something he'd say, nor like his voice really.

It just sounds like an overfull dudebro.

On 8/7/2018 at 2:15 PM, LukA8 said:

Also noticed that Vector's Tailgator car got a redesign, its "snout" has a darker tone of green now. I hope they will reveal Team Chaotix soon, and it doesn't end up being Team Chaotish like what they did to Rose. I do wonder why that car's ad is plastered everywhere on the two tracks, either they must think the joke is extremely funny or something's up with that.

 

Wait, the what now?

23 hours ago, Fire-N-Space said:

Really liking this game so far I can see that its more put together then Transformed you can now bump in to other racers without flying off the road, Items now aim at the target and are effective, no badly programmed water tracks, no empty sky tracks, and tracks aren't big enough to drive a bus on Transformed had far to many bugs in it. I'm happy to see that the characters talk during the races it makes the game feel more like Sonic Heroes now.

 

Amy's car looks good in 3D!

 

Admittedly, it does look a little more serviceable in action.

22 hours ago, therealfalconpawnch77 said:

Big is being voiced by his 4Kids actor, like he was in Lego Dimensions, the line we're all caught up on is really a Sonic line, not a Big one. The pitch is too deep and warbles like it's been digitally altered, unlike Big's actual voice. I've been listening to the line through my gaming headphones, so I've had the sound isolated from the white noise around me, and I can say 100% it's not a Big quote.

Oh, is he now?

That's neat.

[DabigRG]

21 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

It's just that roster. Even if they had gotten in 18 characters, it still would have been enough to ensure that most of the people everyone cared about got in. Why stop at 15? 15!

DLC better be over the horizon, I swear man.

I'm guessing it's because multiples of five feel neater.

19 hours ago, Strickerx5 said:

Well I'm going to place money on this being Ice Factory. That's the only place it really could be with that volcano in the background of one shot. Only one level in the franchise has that trait (even if it was stupidly never used in-game).

Not to mention the factory machines around the place.

 

I think that's Lava Mountain back there, but it makes sense nonetheless.

19 hours ago, Strickerx5 said:

 

& Knuckles... man, what did they do to you? That ain't Travis. Here's hoping this was just an error in editing the trailer (they do have a history when it comes to Sonic trailers oddly enough) or a placeholder as I'd really hate to see Travis go... especially for this new voice. It's not good imo.

 

Plus, we'd have to get another Zavok as well.

19 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Soo.... something positive. Oh! Look at this!

 

 

 

Oh, you went and got me vaguely excited for some story information to justify some of the restriction.

9 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

Sonic Riders worked.

Did it?

Like, they were fun-ish & all and represent an attitude I really want this franchise to more solidly get back, but Riders 1 was a little complicated, Zero Gravity was kinda too simple(and the 2nd player mode was unnecessarily hard), and I wasn't able to even touch Free Riders with it's excess novetly. 

 

 

 

[Dr. Detective]

Sonic Riders is a bit of an odd ball game.

I actually really like the story and characters as well as the way the cutscenes were animated. It had a very typical "ADVENTURE" theme stamped all over it. Like something Nathan Drake would be seen apart of if he were apart of the Sonic universe. I actually didn't like it as much when I was younger. Mostly because it came off the heels of Shadow the Hedgehog and I was kind of, still hungry for something a little big and worldly, like that game, only... written better and not focused on Shadow's memory issues. 

Looking back though, what it did as far as it's presentation is a lot more than normal Sonic games do now. I'm still willing to bet that the story for Team Sonic Racing will be just a bunch of talking heads and text boxes rather than fully animated. Hell, Riders' cutscenes weren't just well animated but it was also the first time they tried their hand at bumping up the humor, contrary to the belief that it was Colors that did. It was pretty well received on that front at the time too. I feel like it had a nice balance.

On the flip side, the gameplay had this shockingly steep learning curve to it. I eventually managed to figure it out but god damn was it hard. What's worse is that it doesn't all instantly come back to you once you try and revisit it either. It's very strange. That's why I enjoyed Zero Gravity a lot more. The gravity gimmick was actually fun playing around with and controlling the boards were so much easier. That said, because of this, the game ended quicker and I was left with little to do in comparison to the first one.

Ultimately, while the hoverboard angle was something that felt distinctly Sonic... these cars just look and feel better. It's easier to squeeze fun out of something like this. The competition and course mastery being where you get your difficulty works a lot better than sheer focus on control mastery, I think.

I wouldn't call it trash or anything like that but I'd have been disappointed hearing it was going to be another one of those versus this. 

[Plasme]

I remember reviewers taking the piss out of Sonic Rider's story.

When I first played Riders I hated it, but I slowly got into it and ended up really liking it.

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, Plasme said:

I remember reviewers taking the piss out of Sonic Rider's story.

When I first played Riders I hated it, but I slowly got into it and ended up really liking it.

I mean, I usually don't factor in the opinion of reviewers because I'm conditioned to already assume they hated it. I was talking about the fanbase. The opinions I care about are usually from them. 

[DabigRG]

10 hours ago, Mad Convoy said:

 

I guess it helps that I never really minded the Lost World aestetic. I think its a good tradeoff imo-- simplified graphical aesthetics in exchange for consistent 60fps that makes the game more fluid. Sure Unleashed HD was a gorgeous detail-fest, but its kind of hard to appreciate when the game is lagging frequently in a way that messes up the details. Colors and Gens were able to avoid that while still having very detailed graphics, but it came at the expense of being limited to 30fps, and the problems with 30fps are becoming increasingly noticeable as technology advances.

 

Yeah, honestly, I personally found the worlds of the Lost Hex to be interestingly simple yet somewhat vibrant.

5 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

"Black Doom. Professor Gerald Robotnik. It would seem that I have two fathers."

Anyway, what's up with that curl in his hair?

 

[Fire-N-Space]

Thinking about it I really hope that announcer from Transformed isn't back all he ever did was yell "Nice Combo" in my ear none stop this time it will be Amy's turn to talk as she only got like five lines in Sonic Forces. Sonic Riders would do a whole lot better if it had more then six tracks.

[Blue Blood]

5 hours ago, Fire-N-Space said:

Thinking about it I really hope that announcer from Transformed isn't back all he ever did was yell "Nice Combo" in my ear none stop this time it will be Amy's turn to talk as she only got like five lines in Sonic Forces. Sonic Riders would do a whole lot better if it had more then six tracks.

The announcer added some personality, but yeah, he got awfully repetitive. I did like him on the whole though, unlike the dreadful Omochao commentary that hung over you in Riders. Regardless, it looks like the announcer won't be back in TSR:

With none of the characters shutting up about anything and everything, an announcer repeating everything they say would be total overkill.

[Dr. Detective]

15 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

We gotta host some sort of contest or something where people get to submit their own lines for the characters to say in this game. I also have a feeling the people who wrote for Tails in the Boom TV show could write something for him that sounded snappy and fun without making him sound like he was doing a try-hard Austin Powers impersonation.

EDIT: I will admit, some of the lines in that video were fine. One or two even made me laugh. Shadow hitting someone with a weapon and just bluntly saying "You deserved that!" got a chuckle out of me. All of the lines I've heard from Omega so far were actually pretty golden. Again, like with Forces, I'm not worried about the chatter. It's noticeable when you're watching a video but it usually does become background noise when you're playing the game. Often I, as someone who likes hearing the characters speak, tune the characters out accidently when I play Forces. Plus, there's probably an option to turn it off anyway...

The announcer in Transformed wasn't even a presence. I was surprised there was an option in the game to turn him off because I don't recall him saying anything. I remember liking the Omochao voice in Riders though. It didn't sound like the Omochao I was used to so I didn't even put it together it was him until I saw one of the story cutscenes.

The real winner in announcing shit was the guy from the first All-Stars Racing though. Bring that dude back. He brought the cheese and I ate that shit up.

[Red Hot Jack]

The fact that we are getting low budget titles like this and Forces means Sega is short of money, it's why Sonic games need to sell more, hopefully with the commercial success of Mania and even Forces they will have resources to make bigger games, but obviously quality needs to be the top priority, still having a small roster and not much content is what is damaging this spin-off, but I do like these gameplay mechanics.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

On 8/8/2018 at 2:43 AM, Strickerx5 said:

Well I'm going to place money on this being Ice Factory. That's the only place it really could be with that volcano in the background of one shot.

Only now realize that the 7th zone of the Sonic Lost world is right next to the 4th zone....
Does that mean Sonic is taking a freaking DETOUR to Silent forest and Sky zone while his planet is being sucked dry and Amy's pleading for her life?
Hah.
Then again, considering the Tornado was fixed up in the first zone and they still go on foot, I guess Sonic was never concerned about getting there in time.
And where are the flying donuts on this world map? And-


Oops, off topic.
Errr... I agree with Detective Mike that Team Sonic Racing looks good enough, I like the art style.
As energetic and exciting Sonic racing transformed was, it could sometimes be a little too chaotic for it's own good. Especially in the more realistic tracks where the road you're driving on has the same color sceme as the scenery. Then you really have to have the levels memorized.

That said, yeah, Team Sonic Racing is really looking generic and dull. I forgave planet Wisp for looking conventional, it's the first track and I liked that we were getting a normal Speedway for once, always wanted a more conventional Daytona style speedway in Sonic Sega all stars racing.
But yeah, Spagonia being a sky track, and the generic looking snow level... It's about time I expect them to ramp up the crazy and energy, because this ain't impressive.
So weird that Mario kart has way more epic and crazy looking tracks then Sonic. Come on Sonic Team, Mario is out- Sonic-ing you, that's pathetic.

Eh, I like Sonic Riders Just wish the gameplay wasn't so technical and complicated.
Zero Gravity is slightly better.
Sonic Free riders is pure evil, tough.

[Kazhnuz]

At the moment I like the tracks and the gameplay, I just hope that it'll have enough content to be entertaining. The number of character is less than the All Star Racing serie, so I hope that at least we will have a similar number of tracks.

( And I must admit that if the TSR comic-book plot is the same as the game, I'm really curious about that plot xD )

On 8/8/2018 at 1:12 PM, Marco9966 said:

If you mean shoving Classic Sonic then it's the worst idea ever after the fiasco that was Sonic Forces, 1000x worse than Sonic 2006 story-wise.

If you mean just old levels without Classic Sonic then it's good. 

There is a difference between a funny racing game and a plot-driven game. If TSR had more character, characters like a "Classic Team" (that doesn't appear in the scenario, but as a bonus like some other character in Riders) could have been a fun thing. Games like that are the way to go a bit more crazy about character.

[Tracker_TD]

3 hours ago, Drifting Jack said:

The fact that we are getting low budget titles like this and Forces means Sega is short of money, it's why Sonic games need to sell more, hopefully with the commercial success of Mania and even Forces they will have resources to make bigger games, but obviously quality needs to be the top priority, still having a small roster and not much content is what is damaging this spin-off, but I do like these gameplay mechanics.

I don't think budget is the issue here, I think poor game design is the issue here. Forces sucked, but it didn't seem that way due to budget constraints so much as it was being led by a Director who's nigh consistently demonstrated poor understanding of good Sonic game design. In this case, throwing money at it wouldn't magically fix the teamwork mechanic to be un-intrusive or the artstyle to not be fairly naff.  

At most, throwing more money at it would perhaps fix the roster issue. But time is a factor too, more likely a bigger one. Game Quality and money shovelled into it aren't exactly a correlative factor, if Kickstarter (and Mania) have taught us anything. The fact that, looking beyond Sonic for two seconds, SEGA's putting plenty of love into releasing more of their JP titles such as Shining and Valkyria, which relatively speaking could be considered risks, tells me it's not about SEGA being short on dough as much as it is these games just having bad design. 

[Marco9966]

26 minutes ago, Kazhnuz said:

At the moment I like the tracks and the gameplay, I just hope that it'll have enough content to be entertaining. The number of character is less than the All Star Racing serie, so I hope that at least we will have a similar number of tracks.

( And I must admit that if the TSR comic-book plot is the same as the game, I'm really curious about that plot xD )

There is a difference between a funny racing game and a plot-driven game. If TSR had more character, characters like a "Classic Team" (that doesn't appear in the scenario, but as a bonus like some other character in Riders) could have been a fun thing. Games like that are the way to go a bit more crazy about character.

I am against all form of classic in modern games.

Classic and Modern being different fucking people wasn't supposed to happen at all in the first place. Sonic in SA1 looked more classic than in S3&K, even if his eye color was changed!

[Kazhnuz]

Not really, he was more classic than in SA2 and after, but not really more than in Sonic 3 and Knuckles. He had longer spines, his torso design was already more like modern (when Classic had a more round belly, even in S3&K).

 

And I don't disagree with you not liking that or being against that (because you have all right to dislike that, and I can't really "disagree" with the taste of someone, as they are just taste xD), but in that it would be a "bad idea". Because that kind of thing are normal for these kind of multiplayer "fun with friends" games. It's not even a question of them being the same of different people. It's just something that happen in these kind of game, because the rules is having a lot of character (Smash Bros, Mario Kart, etc… do it. Even F-Zero have a reference to Star Fox with a character xD). Dead character, character that couldn't be realistically here (Blaze, Silver), alternate version even… all that doesn't count because these game are made to be fun. TBH, here he wouldn't mess the plot if made as a multiplayer-only character, and he wouldn't have a bad gameplay like in Forces (because he would have the same than everybody else).

 

TBH, I would have way preferred the game with more character including some classic one, even if I like it so far. It's not a problem in itself, it's just that for that kind of game, if they aren't having any non-Sonic character, I think that they should have gone a bit more crazy with Sonic content, then.

[Multikaris]

1 hour ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Only now realize that the 7th zone of the Sonic Lost world is right next to the 4th zone....
Does that mean Sonic is taking a freaking DETOUR to Silent forest and Sky zone while his planet is being sucked dry and Amy's pleading for her life?
Hah.
Then again, considering the Tornado was fixed up in the first zone and they still go on foot, I guess Sonic was never concerned about getting there in time.
And where are the flying donuts on this world map? And-


Oops, off topic.
Errr... I agree with Detective Mike that Team Sonic Racing looks good enough, I like the art style.
As energetic and exciting Sonic racing transformed was, it could sometimes be a little too chaotic for it's own good. Especially in the more realistic tracks where the road you're driving on has the same color sceme as the scenery. Then you really have to have the levels memorized.

That said, yeah, Team Sonic Racing is really looking generic and dull. I forgave planet Wisp for looking conventional, it's the first track and I liked that we were getting a normal Speedway for once, always wanted a more conventional Daytona style speedway in Sonic Sega all stars racing.
But yeah, Spagonia being a sky track, and the generic looking snow level... It's about time I expect them to ramp up the crazy and energy, because this ain't impressive.
So weird that Mario kart has way more epic and crazy looking tracks then Sonic. Come on Sonic Team, Mario is out- Sonic-ing you, that's pathetic.

Eh, I like Sonic Riders Just wish the gameplay wasn't so technical and complicated.
Zero Gravity is slightly better.
Sonic Free riders is pure evil, tough.

Sonic could have done a beeline from Windy Hill up to Lava Mountain! Only going through Frozen Factory on the way up. As well as that new zone that looks like a mud flat.

[Jango]

Still not feeling it. Gonna pass this one like I did with Forces. It's a damn shame, tho'. I've been waiting for a great kart racer on the PS4 for a long time... Guess this will be a forgettable one. Crash Team Racing remake when?

[Blue Blood]

It's pretty crazy how tepid the reaction is to this, and I can't see any reason at all for people to be feeling more positive about it. SEGA were asking for this the moment they decided to use the Sonic R 'R' in the logo, and leave that as our only teaser for months. I think they'd have been better off calling it Sonic Heroes Racing or something, but the name is the least of the problems really.