The year of mascot kart racers continues – after the Switch 2 launching with the ambitious Mario Kart World, and even a brand new Garfield Kart upon us, it’s time for the fastest hedehog in gaming to leave a mark. This is the XboxEra review for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, tested on Xbox Series X!
Electronic, Super Sonic
We’re a bit late to the party, but trust us, this one ain’t on us. You may have noticed over at Metacritic that, when the reviews dropped for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, only the PS5 version got any feedback. Indeed, the other versions, including the Xbox ports, were lagging behind for some reason. Not any more! We spent the last several days rolling around at the speed of sound on the many tracks of this new Sonic The Hedgehog-themed mascot kart racer.
Jesse’s been doing some lovely streams, Fairy’s on the review, Jon on the video and narration. You could say it was a… Team Sonic Racing effort! Well, after such a plug, it would be a wasted chance not to talk about Team Sonic Racing, which was Sonic’s last kart racer on console. It almost felt like a spin-off of sorts, with an intriguing new team-based mechanic in its races, but with a gameplay loop that felt very safe and grounded.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds seems to take more cues from one episode prior to that, the 7th generation banger Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, which is to this day considered one of the best mascot kart racers ever made (except for Mario Kart of course). The tight controls, the incredible track designs, the depth of the transforming vehicles, the cameos and crossovers… it’s easy to look at that chapter as a golden standard.
We live in fairy Tails
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds feels like the natural evolution of Transformed‘s core mechanics. The highly arcade handling is fast and precise. Our kart can, once again, turn into a boat when on the water or a plane when in the air. You still get to collect golden rings which serve as a protection and as a speed boost. The tracks are once again packed with detail, style, and feature all sorts of IP crossovers from SEGA’s incredible roster of games.
From Sonic’s own worlds, including recent additions such as the Starfall Islands from Sonic Frontiers or White Space from SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS, to tracks set in the worlds of After Burner, Panzer Dragoon and more, there’s a huge variety. Not only most of these worlds are quite incredible to look at, but they also feature absolutely banging soundtracks, remixing some of the most iconic SEGA tunes of all time. Perhaps the biggest issue is the amount of chaos on screen: it can become…excessive quite often, so be aware if that tends to annoy you in games. The key change in the game’s formula this time though, is in hinted at within its name: CrossWorlds.
Our heroes use portals to traverse to each event in the build-up to the race, but there’s more to it than just presentation. The classic 3-lap races see a deviation in the second lap, with the leader of the pack being able to choose between two portals; one leading to a different track the game has chosen for us, and another one going to a random location.
Whichever option we choose, the second lap of the event will be ran in a completely different place, with even some crazy Frenzy events that can turn this segment into a real blender. Ultimately, a portal brings us back to the original track for lap 3, though the track has usually evolved a bit by the time we get back – with new paths, destruction and more that can alter things.
Cracking our Knuckles
The game’s single player portion is of the most classic mascot kart racer kind, tasking us with winning cups of 4 races each. The portals, again, play a big part in how cups are organized, as the final race of each is not a new area – it is a 3-lap showdown that features one lap from each of the previous 3 events.
Unlike Mario Kart games, the player only needs to be the racer with most points – there is no 3 stars to obtain via winning every single event of the cup. There is, however, a rival system in place, with players being able to set up a character with a higher difficulty level for an extra level of competition within the race, with lofty rewards for completing said challenges.
Each cup and event in the game comes with 3 default speeds, ranging from Normal to Sonic – once again, not unlike the 50cc to 150cc system in Mario Kart games. The Super Sonic Speed mode, however, goes well beyond even Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s infamous 200cc, because its velocity is astonishing.
Insane reaction times and precision are needed here, as turns that may have seemed wide and easy even on Sonic Speed, will now turn into tight drift angles to nail, with a legit risk of falling off if we miss the optimal line by a couple feet.
It is absolutely exhilarating, yet it feels fair – I still recall how overpowered the AI was in Transformed on higher speeds, whereas CrossWorlds feels a lot more fair in that regard. This ludicrous speed does show that the track reset isn’t done too well in certain corners, putting the player back inches before where they fall off, which requires some odd manouvering to then restart properly. Nothing major though, and I only encountered this in two or three corners.
Treat me like a Shadow
Indeed, I would consider Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds as a “pro” mascot kart racer of sorts. It’s not quite as accessible as recent Mario Kart games, but it does feature quite the skill ceiling and results to work towards. A lot of the most effective shortcuts are very well hidden and technically challenging, there’s many somewhat advanced tricks to master to truly shine, especially in time trial. There’s even air tricks to pull off and be your flashiest self, granting us speed boosts.
Every character and kart part also have their own stats, making it easy to create yourself the combos of your dreams – be it on a hoverboard, behind the wheels of a sports car or in a cute little cab. There’s even more player agency to it all, though, thanks to the gadgets system. The player can create up to 5 different loadouts, each with up to 6 slots taken up by increasingly wild customizations. To generic upgrades boosting individual stats, to others increasing the drifts’ proficiency, all the way down to starting the race with specific power-ups and even some unique brand new mechanics.
The most hilarious of the bunch, but one I’ve found tremendously efficient in a lot of events, makes our kart spin furiously on its axis during a drift, turning our vehicle into a weapon of sorts that does damage and slow down anyone who gets touched. There are even a few power-ups and skills that are otherwise unobtainable, so keep an eye out on opponents that do what you can not.
Nothing beats a Jet holiday
While the selection of tracks isn’t that insanely high, with 24 standards ones and 15 unique CrossWorld areas, the general depth and variety of the title is quite incredible. There’s no proper single player campaign of sorts, no massive open world to explore or missions to clear, only the cup system. But with speeds up to Super Sonic, an eventual ‘mirrored’ mode to unlock, many rivals to beat, and a huge variety of kart builds and gadget loadouts – there’s a generous amount of content.
There’s even a packed post-launch support schedule, with some rather surprising IP crossovers to come – such as SpongeBob Squarepants, Minecraft and Yakuza/Like A Dragon. These all plan on bringing tracks, characters, vehicles and more to the mix. The Hatsune Miku free DLC has already dropped for those who pre-ordered, by the time you’re reading these words – it’s quite a blast, with even custom songs and a mighty fine hoverboard to boot. But even beyond the laundry list of tracks and playable characters, the sheer amount of things to do in CrossWorlds remains quite stunning. There’s local play up to 4 players and a meaty online mode with rankings – though it’s worth noting the servers were offline during the review window.
There’s even Team Sonic Racing-inspired team-based modes, where three teams of 4 or two teams of 6 have to clash in some completely unique racing variants, rewarding collecting the most rings, touching each others’ karts or hitting the most opponents with power-ups. Each mode even has various unique unlocks, so it’s worth diversifying. There’s even fully customizable rules for our own events, time trials with ghosts and leader-boards, challenges to unlock further customization options and so much more.
A Prime example of a kart racer
All of this runs butter-smooth on Xbox Series X at all times, with only rare framerate drops and a few dodgy collisions on some segments, too. In truth, just about everything in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds feels polished and high quality.
Excellent visuals with great performance, vibrant tracks, a technical driving model with quite the skill ceiling, a massive depth and variety, despite the not crazy amount of unique content just quite yet. It may lack a memorable single player portion, and it does have a few minor shortcomings. Rest assured though: Sonic’s latest kart racer is one of the absolute bests the genre has to offer. Its incredible spectacle and high-octane racing slingshots it to the top of the must play kart racers on Xbox, and I’m sure I’ll be revisiting this one for a long time.
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Technical and satisfying driving model
- Beautiful and varied tracks
- Sensational soundtrack
- Tons of customization and stuff to unlock
- Ton of game modes, both offline and online
CONS
- Not that great at lower speeds
- Lacks an actual single player campaign
- Visuals are often very chaotic
