Sonic & SEGA All-Stars racing

[+Cafeman]

http://www.sega.com/sonicracing/

 

I downloaded the new X360 demo of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars racing, and came away impressed!

 

The demo has 1 course and allows you to choose either Sonic the Hedgehog, or Banjo Kazooie. I must have played the demo over and over for an hour. I'm not a huge Mario Kart fan, so I can't offer to in-depth of a comparison between these two titles, but this one definitely has more of a SEGA arcade racer feel to it! Sheffield, UK developers Sumo Digital created this game and they seem to have admirably captured the fun of their xbox game Outrun 2 in this context.

 

The racing uses right trigger for acceleration, left trigger for drifting around corners, A button for using items. Good drifting rewards little boosts and you need them to compete. Every character has an all-star move if they pick it up. Sonic turns into Super Sonic, warping the entire screen image as he hurdles down the track, wiping out every opponent he hits. Banjo's all-star move involves dropping jiggie pieces (which cream the opponents if they hit them) while being in a more super powered up mode.

 

There are all kinds of little animations and lively things going on as you race around - Chaos cheer the racers, NiGHTS hold the final flag, Sonic1 chomp-fish leap out of the river that you jump over, trying to chomp you. The music in the demo seemed nice too. I was not disappointed in anything and if there are truly 24 tracks, I think I'll be playing this a long time one it comes out later in February.

 

Anyone else download the demo? Its over 1GB and took longer than usual for me to download.

[moycon]

I'll have to give it a try. (If I can ever get through Mass Effect 2!)

[Video]

Cool looking game, I'll have to pick it up when it come3s out.

[liveinabin]

It's by Sumo so I can imagine it'll be good. Unfortunately, the demo seems to be an Xbox Live Gold exclusive - in UK at least.

[+Cafeman]

On the subject of item pickups - this game has the standard fare as expected. But also it contains the coolest anti-opponent pickup I think I've seen yet - when activated (in 1-player mode, always against you!), the screen rotates upside down and control reverses. It causes a unique bizarre freaked-out feeling when it happens. Totally unexpected & I like it.

 

This game comes out Feb 23 2010. Next Tuesday.

[Ghost Soldier]

Looking forward to playing the demo of this game.