Of course none of this would matter if it couldn’t address the biggest complaints about mascot racers: the slot machine-like change of race position randomized weaponry can bring. After nearly 40 hours with the game it still feels fresh, and I’m still noticing new details to appreciate. And even after you learn the scripting behind those changes it keeps races feeling chaotic and alive. These events alter the path through the stages from lap to lap, or open up new paths, forcing you to adapt as your vehicle changes to suit the situation. The Skies of Arcadia race takes place during an air and sea battle, with the stage being set ablaze, and ships exploding alongside the docks, climaxing with the stage itself being torn completely apart, leaving you to navigate the chunks of it still suspended in the air. The House of the Dead stage takes you from the entrance of the Curien mansion into the torn up attic, draining into the waterways of the sewers, before passing through a concert stage on the final lap, inspired by the obscure dating game of the series, Loving Deads. On the Panzer Dragoon stage a crashed craft causes the earth to slump into a river where sea creatures roam, and the bridge on the main path gives way when a dragon breaks through it. Unlike Split Second these changes aren’t player controlled, but nonetheless allow a ridiculous amount of chaos and spectacle to happen between courses. They’re also integral to navigating the deformations of the the track that prevent the monotony of racing the same course for three laps. These different modes give you a lot to master and even allow you to sneak tricks in while transitioning between forms. It’s far from, say, the daredevil antics encouraged by a dedicated plane racer like Skydrift, but it adds a rewarding play between risk and reward. Dig deeper and you’ll find you can gain more speed by diving and doing Risk Boosts-boosts granted by rolling or flipping out of the way of an incoming obstacle just in time-which turns static scenery into an obstacle course you can use to gain speed in between passing boost rings. Airplanes are the most uneven, initially seeming to have a bit too much airspace, leaving a disconnect from the tight encounters of the other modes. Crash or get shot, however, and you’ll lose your charge, making clean racing a must to reach top speeds.īoats handle similarly, but open up the track to compensate for the wider drift arcs, and allow you to take advantage of airtime granted by launching off ramps or cresting a wave to get small boosts granted by doing tricks. Hold a drift long enough and you’ll charge up to three drift boosts, with each charge granting longer and faster increases of speed. Cars can hold drifts almost indefinitely, reversing the direction of a drift effortlessly, allowing you to trace the best racing line through the corners while hitting every boost pad. These stages tie into Sonic Racing Transformed’s headline feature-the ability to change between three different vehicle forms.Įach vehicle has its own set of nuances to master. The legacy of the aforementioned Blur and Split Second shows through here, with a competitive refocus on weapons and dynamic stages that change lap to lap. Thanks to the success of the first game, Sumo Digital was able to take in members of the shuttered Bizarre Creations and Black Rock Studio. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed takes the drifting and structure of its predecessor to and seriously refines it. Still, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing was a little too messy for serious competition: the powerups are uneven, and the track design isn’t quite there (it might be accurate to have 90° turns in the Monkey Ball stages, but it isn’t much fun to drive on them). It also set the standard for SEGA fan-service, with offbeat choices like Fantasy Zone’s Opa Opa and the Bonanza Bros as unlockable racers. The first game in the series, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, built on the sublime drift mechanics and challenge modes developer Sumo Digital brought to Outrun 2006. All while being an absurdly fun celebration of all things SEGA. So it might catch you by surprise to find out that Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed manages to not only build on the legacy of games like Outrun 2, Split Second and Blur, but takes the mascot racer, a genre that often aggravates players with its random elements, and turns it into a serious competitive racer. Sonic the Hedgehog might be fast, but he’s probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of top tier arcade racers. New Testaments is a monthly retrospective in which Amr Al-Aaser presents an overlooked modern game and champions its best ideas.