Sonic Racing Crossworlds is a Kart Racing Game was released in 2025 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, Switch 1&2, and PC.
It was developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA, and it is a 12th title of all-previous Sonic racing games.
We all know SEGA had fair shares with many great racing titles starting with the mid-80s arcade hits like Outrun which not only it showcasing the super-scaling effects but also a fast, simple, and fun arcade racing game with tons of replayability, and then all the way to early-90s we had games like Virtua Racing becoming a first racing title showcasing the use of 3D polygon visuals featuring a 3rd-dimentional track design and 3rd-person perspective view of vehicle which is quite new for the 90s arcade gaming at its time, then it get really better with later titles like Daytona USA and SEGA Rally Championship became a pinnacle of 3D arcade racing genre that got really popular at the release that made everyone remembers SEGA as the king of their arcade racing games.
Not only SEGA did create the individual racing titles, but they also then come up with the idea of creating a racing game featuring the iconic video game mascot Sonic the Hedgehog with the Sonic Drift for SEGA Game Gear in 1994.
It's basically a Mario-Kart style racing game for SEGA's handheld system featuring playable racers with Sonic and his friends as they race to the finish line with 18 tracks themed after levels in 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sadly it wasn't well received at the release was criticised for difficult gameplay and lack of overall fun factor, same goes with Sonic Drift 2 was released in 1995 are also had a similar middling reviews still not as fun to play.
In 1997, SEGA had bought Sonic R for SEGA Saturn became a first racing game to feature 3D computer graphics which had a mixed reception at the release but it's not terribly bad racing title which can be a good fun for the casuals who are into with the racing games.
Then the later ones in mid-2000s like Sonic Riders and Sonic Rivals for 6th-gen system has received mixed reception but also became a commercial success at the release.
SEGA then decided to improve upon the Sonic Racing games with the Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing in 2010 for 7th-Gen system and PC featuring Sonic and many SEGA's playable rosters is where it all got started to become better than the all previous Sonic racing titles.
It was positive reception at the release for its driving gameplay controls, multiples of great game modes, and of course the fun overall multiplayer.
Then the next installiment was made in 2012 with Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for 7th-Gen systems and PC had done something better for its innovation of vehicle transformation mechanic, various of great game modes, and additional improvements over the first game is what makes the second title being my favourite in the racing series.
Then we had Team Sonic Racing was released in 2019 for 8th-gen consoles and PC are totally going on different approach making it a first game only features Sonic characters but not including the SEGA rosters from different franchise, so I say it wasn't as good in comparison with the predecessor but overall it's still a fine racing game which I wish they could have gone back to its roots like the previous Sonic Racing game that we much liked.
SEGA had then bought a 2025's title such as Sonic Racing Crossworlds for both 8th and 9th-gen consoles as well as PC which many had said it's one of the better racing title than the previous installiment featuring large playable rosters including 3rd-party guests and returning style of 2012's title for gameplay mechanics is all praised by fans and critics which gives me the reason to own this kart-racing title for PS5.
Is this racing title worth any of fun? let's all find out how the latest Sonic Racing game really plays it well for its whether the overall fun factor is entertaining enough or not and how much they putting much effort on quality gameplay, visuals, and content.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game starts out with really cool cinematic opening intro showing Sonic and his friends going for the race as they drives through the portal which traverse and teleporting into other worlds.
I really liked how it shows many good parts of the sequences such as everyone flying on the mid-air in the slow-motion before landing on the race track, starts chucking their attack items at the opponents, the driver just catching-up to them, likes to crashing on each other, and there are tons of crazy destructibles going on is just simply fun to watch the openings.
As I enjoyed watching the opening intros, you are greeted to the title screen in which after you hit the start button which takes you to the main menu which displays any of your favourite character you've selected sitting on their vehicle at the racing track course, so I also want to mention the customisable menu which allowing you to customise cars which changes the appearance of the driver's vehicle to display how the car really looks.
It had many types of wheels, bumpers, attachments, colors, and decals to choose from and you can however add it to your vehicle that suits your style which is the reason that I really liked having to play a racing games that gives you a choice of customising the themes and appearance of the vehicle looked really nice on the menu display.
I got to praise the game for its cast of characters being featured as the playable roster, so starting off with the base rosters which has Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Silver, Big, Blaze, Charmy, Cream & Cheese, Rouge, Vector, Espio, Omega, Dr. Robotnik, Metal Sonic, Jet, Sage, Storm, Egg Pawn, Wave, Zavok, and Zazz, where as the season pass rosters from Sonic Prime has Nine, Dread, and Rusty Rose, as well as pre-order bonus character such as Werehog.
It also featured the playable guest characters starting off with 1st party rosters such as AiAi (Super Monkey Ball), Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga (Yakuza Like A Dragon), Joker (Persona 5), Nights, Tangle, Whisper, and 6 more characters yet to confirm, where as the 3rd party rosters from season pass has Spongebob and Patrick from Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants, Steve, Alex, and Creeper from Minecraft, Pac-Man and Ghosts from Bandai Namco's Pac-Man, Mega Man and Proto Man from Capcom's Mega Man, and 6 more characters yet to confirm.
I say the overall presentation in the game is quite stunning which I really liked the choice of race maps and locations they included in the game.
It has standard tracks such as E Stadium, Rainbow Garden, Water Palace, Wonder Museum, Metal Harbor, Ocean View, Apotos, Colourful Mall, Mystic Jungle, Sand Road, Kronos Island, Northstar Islands, White Space, Market Street, Donpa Factory, Chao Park, Radical Highway, Urban Canyon, and Aqua Forest, where as the crossworld tracks has Sky Road, Roulette Road, Kraken Bay, Magma Planet, Dino Jungle, Cool Edge Night, Dragon Road Night, Digital Circuit, Cyberspace, White Cave, Galactic Parade, and Sweet Mountain.
The DLC tracks which includes Minecraft, Bikini Bottom from Spongebob Squarepants, and Pac-Village & Maze from Pac-Man Worlds 2.
Most of the race maps are being well structured on environmental design sides depending on any stages that shares the own style of themes like there are quite a bit of the bright and colourful in some areas and some others are can be sometimes dark and gloomy in some ways which is why I really liked having the kart racing game with different themes on each race track.
So far, the game's presentation delivers many great racing rosters, has really amazing numbers of race maps to participate the match race and grand prix, and of course the cool cinematic opening is just makes the Sonic Racing Crossworlds a stunning looking racing title that is designed to impress for those who previously enjoyed the first two Sonic racing games of the early-2010s era.
Overall, it has cool opening intros, great cast of characters, and stunning overall presentation.
Gameplay
The game has various of modes such as Grand Prix which has 7 base cup + 3 extra cup to complete the championship event.
Race Park has various of match types such as triple team match (4 vs 4 vs 4) with ring grab or tap boost, double team match (6 vs 6) with shootouts or dash plates, and of course 3 free-for-all matches such as quick match, extreme match, and custom match.
Finally the Time Trial which is simply a time challenge where your goal is to beat it for the new record to earn the highest rank as a reward.
It can be played on single-player solo or 4-player local split-screen and 12-players online matchmaking.
You take control of any of playable roster in 3rd-person perspective view, so in order to beat your opponent your main goal is to race through track on each lap and get to the finishing line at the end in whoever gets the 1st position declared winner.
Push the left-stick controls or press the d-pad left or right button is to steer around, but you can also these controls for air-trick moves while in mid-air.
Depending on which are two control settings you have selected to suit your playability, so I'm gonna make the label easy by including the brackets for alternative controls where as without brackets are the standard controls.
Hold the cross button (or right trigger) is to accelerate which drives forward, and holding the circle button is to use brake or reverse to go backwards.
You can perform the drift controls by holding the right trigger (or left trigger) then pushing left or right-stick controls which allowing you to drift your car on the sides of the track, but there are a gauge meter appeared on the screen which is used as dash boost meaning the more you drift your car then the higher your gauge meter goes higher then release the drift button to use boost.
Your vehicle has ability to automatically transformed onto 2 forms such as flight form which allowing you to fly on above if the track are empty, so while flying tilt the left-stick down to ascend and tilt it up to descend.
Then you have boat form which allowing you to ride on water track, so while on water hold the right trigger (or left trigger) to charge the gauge meter then release it to jump, but your jumping distance will increase depending on how long the gauge meter was charged.
You can also look behind by holding the square button to use rear view for surroundings such as how far the opponents close to your position.
Press the left trigger (or cross button) is to use items such as weapons to attack your opponents or the ability to use like shields or boost as an example.
If that's not enough then I will list the items that are used for combat and ability that are designed to use it for the match race such as boost gives you a burst of speed, laser will make you move at high speed toward the machines ahead, drill will move you automatically toward the finish line, warp ring will warp you to the machine ahead and crush things, monster truck transformed you into massive vehicle allowing you to crush opponents, boxing glove will launch green for rocket punch files straight ahead and bounces off walls or red for homing punch will lock-on and attack the opponent ahead, slicer will split the machine in half, throwable bomb that increases its size the longer it's held so the larger the bomb become the bigger will explode, king boom boo will attack the opponent in 1st position, slime blocks the vision of the other opponents which reduces their speed causing them to drop their items, weight drops on the opponents in 1st or 2nd position which crushes them, dark chao forcibly grants items to all opponents, void will attract and grab items like rings from farther away, shield will temporary protect you from opponent's projectiles, tornado will not only to protect you from projectiles but also deal damage to opponents on contact, spiked iron ball can be thrown ahead or placed behind on the track, and lastly the magnet that can be thrown ahead or placed behind on the track which attracts opponents.
I also wanted to talk about the use of gadgets, an additional enhancements for your vehicle can be customised at the customisation gadgets menu which are designed to attach your gadgets to the custom cars and unlock special abilities to use during races, so some gadgets are unlocked after multiple races.
I will list the gadgets item that benefits your driving ability such as ability to swap stock items, item stock increases to 3, start the race with a warp ring, your attack, defense, boost, and hazard items will appear more often, rocket punch will become bigger for large projectile attack, ultimate drift charge will add a 4th level allowing you to charge all 4 levels to unleash an powerful boost, speedy air trick will perform air tricks faster, technical drift will allow drift charge to fill faster in land form, perfect drift boost will release as soon as the gauge meter is filled to boost even faster, switching quick charge completely fill the drift charge with a switch drift while drifting in land form, collision boost will collide with a machine to get a boost, slipstream enhancement will extends the range of slipstream, and others useful gadgets to add on your customs.
So far, the driving controls plays it really smooth especially having an option to change control configuration which I've switched the standard control scheme to the alternative control option is because I preferred having the drift and accelerate on both the trigger buttons and using the cross button to use items which makes it easier to play than using the standard control option.
I say the drifting control works really well which I liked how the gauge meter system actually works on racing game because this gives me the ability to drift then boost at the same time which really helps me to boost my acceleration for speed, and these drifting are also feels responsive keeping tacked-on the road nicely without having to fall off stage or going off-road.
While the controls plays really smooth, I say the choices of weapon and ability items are actually pretty good for most part with effective attacks on opponents and gaining enough speed is just a straight-forward to use these kinds of helpful items during the race.
I am glad that the game has finally returned the form of the first two game, as you can tell that the transformation of the vehicle is just like you see from Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed where your car has transformed onto 2 forms like plane and boat depending on the design of the race track and then you have the crossworlds segment where you get to select any of two-paths traveling ring before you're reaching to the second lap, so I really liked having to travel to other worlds with different kinds of wacky and fun stages going on is something that I can able to enjoy this kind of kart racing game.
The best thing about this game is the customisation of cars with gadgets and modifiers because these gadgets gives you the enhancements that adds up the additional upgrades to your car and like I've mentioned about customising your car's appearances with different types of wheels, body, and stuff are also improves upon your class's stats such as speed, acceleration, handling, power, and boost which also helps the player's attributes to make their cars drive faster, smoother, and better which is why I really liked having a kart racing game with customisation options to improve the vehicle's performances and having a different playstyle in which you are not being stucked with default stats like most of the early kart racing game.
I got to praise the various of game modes including the grand prix match which I really enjoyed playing the championship matches for both solo or versus, where as the race park has many great number of group matches including both the triple team or double team matches where teams of players earn points by completing specific challenges such as collecting the most rings or hitting the most opponents with items.
My favourite part of these race matches is got to be a solo or team rivals where you get to challenge these guys for the individual or group matches is something that I would like to play a racing game that features the rivalry challenge.
Having to defeat the rivals will award you with the tickets which you can able to spend these points to unlock various of gadgets, decals, and wheels is something that keeps me playing the game every whole hours of day in order to unlock the whole thing is what I loved about racing games in general.
I also liked the time trial challenge that involves beating for the new records is something that I like to practice through the race tracks in order to get a best record to earn highest rank as a reward that keeps me playing the game overtime.
Then of course it had multiplayer in which you can able to play with your friends or anyone you know through the local 4-player split-screen or 12-player online matches with cross-platform support.
I forgot to mention that you can change speed class mode ranging from normal to super sonic speed which effects on the overall difficulty, such as the normal speed is slow but acceptable for casual players, high speed is good for keeping the pace of speed on balance, sonic speed is quite fast which is recommended for competitive matches, and of course super sonic speed is much more faster and chaotic action which I kinda much prefer playing on both sonic speed and super sonic speed is because this is how most of the SEGA racing titles works...ever heard of blast processing? sure you do guys it's mother f***ing Sonic Racing game everyone it's supposed to be played fast which I love it.
Overall, it has smooth driving controls, cool customisation gadgets and has different class systems, and of course various of fantastic game modes for local and online play.
Graphics
I say the graphics in this game did good in some parts which I really liked the environmental stages that are crispy detailed for its textures surfaces on the structures, objects, and roads.
Some of the stages has different kind of environmental sizes, so some has larger landscape on backgrounds then the others are tad short and simple, and finally these tracks can be wide or narrow on-screen with curvy spaces.
The use of special effects sure has quite flashy and more glossy feel to add the boldness of game's visuals to appear more brighter and colorful throughout the game's environments just looks quite nice on the stages.
The character's animation is looking amazing with silky-smooth frame movements just feels responsive during the race match with no signs of jankyness whatsoever, but I do want to point out the certain parts in some stages because there are some of the background animation that has few flaws such as the Casino Park stage where you can see the slow frames of falling coins below and some jets in Metal Harbour are quite has a bit of choppiness that didn't look too good, where as the foreground animation on many stage are completely just fine with no issue whatsoever.
The game's performance may vary on some platforms depending on how well the game can able to run on consoles, so let's start out with the 9th-gen systems.
The PS5 (both base and pro) and XSX/S (X model) offers a choice between graphic mode and performance mode, so the graphic mode provides full-on 4K resolution with 30fps which appears to have a sharper visuals but it is definitely not recommended for fast paced racing game as opposed to the performance mode ran on 1440p/1080p resolution with 60fps appears to be much stable and cleaner experience is the best way to play the racing game with better performance option.
The XSX/S (S model) are also perform just as well with the performance mode option running on 1440p/1080p resolution with 60fps seems to be quite a good news for those who owns the S model may not going to have an issue when playing the game.
The Switch 2 has 1440p resolution on docked mode and 1080p resolution on handheld mode running on 60fps ran so much better in comparison with the Switch 1 are quite inferior which ran on 1080p on docked mode and 720p on handheld mode with 30fps had suffered with numerous of blurriness and missing graphical details making it the weakest of all console platforms which is why playing on Switch 2 version is the best way of playing racing titles for those who preferred to play mostly on Nintendo platform.
The 8th-gen consoles such as the base PS4 and XBONE has 1080p resolution with 30fps where as the pro version such as PS4 pro and XBONE (X model) had upscaled to 4K resolution with 30fps which appears to be look better than the Switch 1 but not quite as good in comparison with 9th-gen consoles.
I say the PC version has an superior video configuration with the support of VSync that keeps the game fully stable and eliminates these screen tearing issue, 60fps to keep the game performance faster, and of course having the higher quality visuals, full native resolution, and anti-aliasing option that cleans out the bluriness and looks neater on the monitor screen.
That being said, the graphics are still quite decent overall for latest PC and 9th-gen console hardware which performed really well as opposed to the previous platforms are quite mostly had an issues on Switch 1 but not terribly bad on PS4 and XBONE side is something to consider better off sticking to the 9th-gen or PC platform instead.
Overall, it has great environmental stage design, nice special effects, amazing character's animation, and very good performance for 9th-gen systems.
Music and Sounds
The original soundtrack in the game has some quite decent music and some are okay at best, so the opening theme song of the game are not quite bad which did however deliver really good instrumental and oh boy I'm quite surprised that I did not expect to hear James Bourne, as some of you may recognise him as the lead singer of pop-punk band Busted, did perform the song which is an odd choice for Sonic racing games but it actually worked to be fair.
I say I rather much preferred the in-game soundtrack on many stages such as E Stadium, Rainbow Garden, Water Palace, Urban Canyon, and Blizzard Valley are sounds fantastic and quite has the energetic level to amp up the atmosphere, where as the Ocean View is a terrific cover of two likable songs from the 90s-era Sonic games such as Toot Toot Sonic Warrior (Sonic CD) and Super Sonic Racing (Sonic R) is definite my favourite of the whole soundtrack.
It was composed by Takahiro Kai did a tremendous job with his original score for this game that never feel let down because it's sounds quite amazing overall.
The sound effects in the game is excellent for it's vehicle's motor sounds, swoosh dash panels, collision noise of weapons and projectiles, and of course the surrounding sounds of environmental stage are perfectly well designed because it really fits not only the game's atmospheres but also sounded quite perfectly on sound system equipment just booming around the room are just awesome to hear thing.
Overall, it has decent soundtrack and excellent sound effects.
Special Features
The game features unlockable content such as the both free and season pass DLC characters, has numerous of skins, decals, gadgets, and stuff for vehicle customisation, and of course several of unlockable soundtracks from various of Sonic games.
Overall, an impressive overall content.
Advantages
Has great playable rosters
Stunning presentation
Smooth driving controls
Cool customisation gadgets and different class systems
Fantastic game modes for local and online play
Great visuals and decent soundtrack
Disadvantages
Stiff background animation
Sluggish performance on 8th-gen systems (9th-gen is better in comparison)
Final Verdict
Presentation 8/10 - cool opening intros, great cast of characters, and stunning overall presentation.
Gameplay 8.5/10 - smooth driving controls, cool customisation gadgets and has different class systems, and of course various of fantastic game modes for local and online play.
Graphics 7.5/10 - great environmental stage design, nice special effects, amazing character's animation, and very good performance for 9th-gen systems.
Music and Sounds 8/10 - decent soundtrack and excellent sound effects.
Special Features 8/10 - both free and season pass DLC characters, has numerous of skins, decals, gadgets, and stuff for vehicle customisation, and of course several of unlockable soundtracks from various of Sonic games.
Overall 8.5/10 - Sonic Racing Crossworlds is a triumph return to its formula of early 2010s like the first two Sonic racing game for 6th-gen console that we all loved back then, so this is could be another best entry of the Sonic racing series that does the whole job right.
With many great rosters to play, useful customisation and class systems for vehicles, and has various of enjoyable game modes for local and online play is something that the Kart racing fans will appreciate how amazing the recent Sonic racing game really has to offer such a good thing.
I am happy to say that I did not fully regret to play this is something that the game has bought the light of my day is the reason why I managed to enjoy this game for whole hours of fun.
The physical copy for all console platforms are cost between £30 and £40, where as the digital releases for PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam are just £65.
Is this game a must play for racing game fans and casuals? absolutely I think it's a worthy purchase for those who are looking for a fun racing title or someone who are into with the kart racing game as an genre makes this game an easy recommendation for all players.
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