Sonic Racing: Crossworlds is a pretty solid racing game. Controls don't feel overly tight but they're still responsive, there are some interesting tracks, and the character selection is uh, wide and varied.
While I find Crossworlds to be a good time generally and I've sunk a decent amount of hours in and will continue to do so, I just wish it was better. Baseline gameplay is fine, no qualms there though I am not a huge racing game fan. There is a bit more of a learning curve than say, Mario Kart for casual players but I don't find that to be a problem.
What I do take issue with is the course selection, the music, the online experience, and the DLC implementation.
I know some people are extremely positive toward the course selection and good for them. I don't get it. I've found most of the courses to be either lame, same-y, or you're stuck replaying it constantly because its on the online course selection rotation (looking at Wonder Museum). Most of the courses just don't stand out to me or they feel like just filler, and the music isn't pulling much weight either. When I play Sonic, no matter a mainline or a spinoff, I expect banger music tracks and Crossworlds disappoints on that front. There's a few tracks that stand out but the majority fade into the background, nothing to write home about.
Online play can be such a drag. I play casually, I am not a try hard and I'm not trying to be one. There is only competitive online play and the second you get to Legend rank, good luck ever having an easy breezy time just playing the game. Notable to mention is that you WILL get to Legend eventually if you play online often enough, you gain points so long as you don't place super low and in earlier ranks you won't lose points by placing poorly and even when you begin to the loss is so minimal that actually dropping a rank seems near impossible. There is the exception of the festivals (why some of the modes included in festivals are not in base online play escapes me), in which you have teams and different modes rather than just a strict competitive race which is a nice reprieve. Having a casual mode and a competitive mode would hopefully help with this problem.
It is extremely disappointing the DLC characters do not get voice lines, if I'm paying for the characters I expect them to have the same effort put into them, if not more, as the base game characters. I don't know if this was an issue with licensing or if the DLC is supposed to just be a cash grab and therefore they didn't want to pay to have voice lines done or some other reason I didn't think of but its disappointing nonetheless. Another thing is DLC characters do not appears as CPU racers. Again, if I am paying for these character I expect them to be full fledged characters and it sucks that they aren't.
Something else to note about the racing in this game is that its weighted. The farther up in placement you are the lower your stats are, creating a near constant middle of the pack problem. Even if you are racing well and consistently, you will constantly fluctuate placement to the point where it does not matter what place you are in when lap 3 rolls around you won't be there when it ends.
I still recommend the game, I like it.
