Let’s face it, 3D hasn’t done anything for Sonic. Growing up as a Sega kid, I got to enjoy all his fantastic 2D side-scrolling adventures, and see the stupid transformation into a 3D platformer. Why Sega couldn’t just leave him as he was is just beyond me. The last straw was Sonic Unleashed, which was so god-awful I heard tell of grown men crying whilst clutching their Megadrives (Master System to you Americanos) and praying for a return to form. Well, we can expect that in the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 4, but for now, Sega have decided to give the old boy another bash at the world of non-platformers, in the upcoming Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. With Banjo-Kazooie.

Not like this is anything new; way back in the day there was Sonic R for the Saturn, and more recently on the PS2 there was that pile of crap with the hover boards, the name of which escapes me. But the cool new thing about this game is that, not only does it feature characters from other Sega games, but also it’s basically a straight rip off of Mario Kart! And who said the Nintendo/Sega rivalry was dead?

So, as you might expect, eight people line up on the grid. There seems to be some secret boost trick I never figured out, but oh well. As you drift round the corners (which gives you a speed boost if you waggle the left stick whilst drifting), you can pick up items to help you in the race. There’s the rocket (red shell), giant fist thing (green shell), bomb (bomb), exploding traffic cone (banana skin) and Sonic shoes (mushroom speed boost). What sets SSASR apart from Mario Kart is the use of “All-Star Attacks”, which are character specific special moves that are usually given to a racer at the back of the pack. Oh, hang on, they did that in MK: Double Dash. My bad. Still, they don’t have Sonic in their games, do they? Ha. Score one for Sega.

The graphics are very pretty indeed, with lots of bright, shiny colours in the well-designed tracks. Each track is supposedly going to incorporate aspects of each character’s game, so the track available (based on Sonic) had big loops, lots of speed boosts and bumper pads. The characters and their vehicles all look top-notch, and everything’s just the right side of cartoony to appeal to the younger audience and make the older gamer feel like a kid again. There are some design choices that seem a little odd (Sonic really doesn’t need a car) but in general everything works.

Another thing that Sonic has over Mario Kart is the announcer, who calls out random stuff while your driving around. I still can’t decide whether he’s annoying or hilarious, as he’ll just blurt out stupid things about the other racers and their place in the race. Aside from the voice over dude, you’ve got the music that sends me right back to my childhood and playing Sonic games, and classic Sonic sound effects. It’s good to see that some parts of the series don’t die.

I’m just not quite sure about Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. It seems like a lot of fun, given that it’s essentially just a Mario Kart for the non-Nintendo folk of the world. I’m definitely interested in checking out the full game when it comes out, so you never know, you might see a review of this coming up some time after it’s released on the 23rd of February. Or not. Heavy Rain comes out then.

Think Mario Kart will always be better? Gonna get it when it comes out? Let us know in the comments!