Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

Ich hatte dieses Spiel schon länger auf dem Schirm, schließlich habe ich den Vorgänger auf der Switch sehr gerne gespielt. Trotzdem dachte ich mir immer: „Den kannst du auch später noch kaufen.“ Dann kam allerdings die Summer Game Show und mit ihr die Ankündigung neuer DLC-Strecken und Fahrer. Als plötzlich EVA-Einheit 01 vorgestellt wurde, war es um mich geschehen. Kurz darauf hatte ich das Spiel gekauft. Für mich ist es vielleicht der beste Kart-Racer, den es aktuell gibt. Das Fahrgefühl ist hervorragend und lässt sich durch verschiedene Gadgets sogar an den eigenen Spielstil anpassen. So kann man beispielsweise stärkere Windschatten-Boosts erhalten, schneller Tricks ausführen oder mehr Ringe tragen, was wiederum die Höchstgeschwindigkeit erhöht. Auch die Individualisierung kommt nicht zu kurz. Fahrzeuge lassen sich mit unterschiedlichen Teilen, Farben, Aufklebern, Hupen und sogar Auren an den eigenen Geschmack anpassen. Schon allein das sorgt für viel Motivation, doch die eigentliche Stärke des Spiels liegt in seinem Umfang. Natürlich gibt es den klassischen Grand Prix, aber auch Teamrennen mit abwechslungsreichen Sonderzielen wie dem Sammeln der meisten Ringe oder dem Durchfahren möglichst vieler Booststreifen. Hinzu kommen ein Online-Modus mit Rangsystem, regelmäßig wechselnde Events inklusive einer Battle-Pass-ähnlichen Struktur und sogar ein Zeitfahrmodus, der erstaunlich viel Spaß macht. Ich war letztendlich so begeistert, dass ich mir auch die DLCs gekauft habe – zugegeben, vielleicht auch ein bisschen, um endlich mit Protoman spielen zu können. Die übrigen DLC-Charaktere haben mich persönlich zwar weniger interessiert, aber das Gesamtpaket ist so stark, dass ich den Kauf trotzdem keine Sekunde bereut habe.

Up there with Sonic Riders (fight me) with the best (official) Sonic racing games, in my opinion. I bought the game pretty recently on the summer sale after I committed to buying it, and since then, I've rarely put it down since. The roster is pretty extensive (not as extensive as a certain fangame, but extensive nonetheless), the amount of fan service in the game makes me squee, because I've been a Sonic nerd since I was a kid. Extreme Gear from Riders? Tangle and Whisper from the comic books? The Babylon Rogues, also from Riders? Apotos from Unleashed? All in an official game? Hook that directly into my veins, please. ...Not only that, but the picks for just straight-up SEGA buffs (me included) like NiGHTS, Arle and Majima. There are also the DLC racers, which range from really cool to hilarious, and although there are some serious flaws to them (come on, you're gonna make SpongeBob a mute?), the modding scene is extensive and encouraged by SEGA (as long as it's cosmetic, you're good). Its main competitor in the space is Mario Kart World, and I haven't played that considering it requires me to fork over 500 dollars for a Switch 2, and potentially 80 dollars for the game. Not a typo. Yikes. 70 dollars is super steep, but it's on PC. I've already got one of those (and if you're here, you probably do too). Wait for it to go on-sale if you're patient enough. Prices aside, I've heard many people who have played both ultimately prefer CrossWorlds to its Nintendo counterpart, which is an amazing thing to hear if you experienced the franchise's "dark ages" like I have. Anyways, totally recommend it. I just really wish they'd remove Denuvo. C'mon, SEGA, we both know it's an ineffective measure that's always defeated within a month, and all it really does is kill performance.

it makes me feel good inside.

Es genial, a nivel gráfico se ve de lujo y la música es un absoluto despropósito (para bien) le da cien patadas a MK8 y MKW (ya sabéis a que juegos me refiero) eso si, no penséis al jugarlo que sois malos por que la IA está rotísima y tiene un huevo de rubber-banding, ya que para Variar como hacen con todos sus juegos Sonic Team se ha fumado 14 porros y medio al hacer la dificultad de uno de sus juegos. Por cierto si lo váis a jugar en Steam Deck por algún motivo viene por defecto con los gráficos en bajo y se ve FATAL, no sé por que, pero cambiadlos a alto, da la sensación de que viene preconfigurado así por falta de potencia o algo pero para nada, de hecho tiene el mismo rendimiento tanto en bajo como en alto, y se ve espectacular en alto, parece otro juego totalmente distinto, y de verdad que saca los mismos FPS con todo al mínimo y una resolución con los píxeles como puños que con todo en Alto que se ve con una calidad que ya quisiera la Switch moverlo así. Como de costumbre SEGA haciendo "what Nintendon't"

This game taught me how to feel.

Peak

This game has given me such an addiction that I cannot play anything else without suffering from severe withdrawal. 10/10

9/10- Sonic Racing Crossworlds is an incredibly competent kart racer and undoubtedly the king of the (quite barren) PC kart racer scene, but it comes with one glaring flaw, and it can be somewhat difficult to overlook. For starters, the core gameplay loop is about the best you'll find in a kart racer, and the rival system is a fantastic addition which will keep me coming back to SRC for more. The average race also seems much more competitive relative to the average kart racer, which I really appreciate. I also have to give Sonic Team kudos for making a game on UE5 that has zero performance issues. Even at 5K2K with max settings, I'm getting a rock solid 60 FPS with zero dips, even in split-screen multiplayer. On the subject of multiplayer, this might be where SRC really shines. You've got your standard Grand Prix mode, but the Racing Park provides some much needed variety, especially if you're playing multiplayer with someone who isn't well-versed in the kart racing genre. Most of my playtime to this point has come in multiplayer, and so far, I've had an absolute blast. Finally, the music is on-point, as one would expect for a Sonic game. Absolutely no complaints there. However, SRC has one serious flaw that's hard to overlook, and that is the fact that the DLC is basically glorified advertising. You could make a case for guest appearances from the likes of Mega Man and Pac-Man since they're legacy gaming franchises which have co-existed with Sega for decades at this point, but the appearance of Spongebob, Evangelion, Godzilla, Avatar, and TMNT all feel like a blatant cash grab on Sega's part when they have [i]so[/i] many legacy Sonic characters and other Sega franchises to pull from. The DLC characters having zero voice lines and not appearing in races unless being used by players only further contributes to the feeling that the DLC is basically one big cash grab for Sega. And just when I think I'm done with finding glorified advertisements in SRC, I come to find out that I can decorate my kart/hoverboard with decals from the likes of Razer, Puma, Dr. Squatch, Samsung, and other brands completely and totally unrelated to Sonic or Sega! I understand Sega needs to make money off of their games and that this isn't the first time they've allowed advertising in a Sonic game (see: Soap Shoes in Sonic Adventure 2), but this level of advertising truly detracts from the experience and deserves to be called out. All things considered, I still had a great time with SRC and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good kart racer on PC, but only at a discount. Despite the amount of content here and the quality of it, $90 for the deluxe edition with all DLC included is indefensible, especially when the execution of said DLC is so lackluster and is no more than glorified advertising in some cases. I just hope Sega does better in the future and gives us some very high quality DLC based on Sonic or other Sega franchises to offset the amount of DLC based on unrelated franchises/brands.

This is everything I wanted MKW to be, thank you SEGA

This is genuinely the best kart racer I've ever played, though that could be because I come from playing Mario Kart 8 on the Switch which suffers from a lack of content if you play it long enough (or if you play it alone like I do because I don't pay for the stupid Online subscription). Crossworlds gives you so much more to do like challenging you to defeat every character in the roster with the rival system in the single-player mode, allowing you to pick a rival to race against with a customizable difficulty--which is a great way to build up your skills by gradually increasing the rival difficulty. Collecting the Donpa tickets also gives you something else to work for, like unlocking more vehicle customization options or more gadgets once you get later into the game. The vehicle customization is GREAT, too. The game allows you to change different vehicle parts (front, back and wheels specifically), as well as change their color, material, and add stickers. I love being able to drive in Spamton's Cungadero from Deltarune. You can also choose to gift your Donpa tickets to your favorite characters in the roster in order to receive character-themed rewards like titles, vehicle stickers and AI racer skins (which will give the character this kind of robotic ghost made of code type of look). But the friendship system is also where my complaints about the game start, unfortunately. The required amount of tickets you must gift in order to obtain the later rewards are ridiculous. I've been donating all of my tickets to Metal Sonic, and after obtaining his AI racer skin, he then wants about 6000+ Donpa tickets for the Stardust Speed Racer title. That amount of grinding will probably make me get sick of playing the game, which sucks. If they haven't lowered the requirements by now, then they probably never will. At least I know that Metal Sonic is the only character in the game that I'll be trying to obtain all of the friendship rewards for. This is a more personal gripe, but I wish that using the AI racer skins didn't remove all of their voicelines. They look cool but at the price of removing all of the character interactions you'll see throughout the race, including the unique dialogue between your selected character and your rival before the start of the first race. Speaking of that, the unique dialogue is also great and one of my favorite details in the game. Sadly Metal doesn't get to say anything in them (neither does Egg Pawn but I don't really care about them, we should have gotten Infinite or literally anyone else instead). I know being mute is part of his character but it would have been cool to see him get a voice like he does in the Neo Metal form in Sonic Heroes just for this game, like as a one-time non-canon thing where he gets to have a voice box just this once for the soul purpose of talking ♥♥♥♥. When the AI racers talk, they just make garbled computer noises similar to Metal and Egg Pawn. I wish that instead they could have rather just used the same voicelines but with a robotic filter over them so you'd still get the same interactions between characters. But in the end, I love this game, but the content maybe doesn't warrant the disgusting $70 price tag that it has. That's why I waited until a summer sale to bag this game for around $30 instead.