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    Team Sonic Racing




    Team Sonic Racing



    I've been working my way through Adventure Mode (Switch version) and am now hitting around halfway through Chapter Five so I'm around the part where content wise I've seen everything and objectives and courses are repeating often. It's hard to believe that we're seeing this game release seven years after its predecessor and that if you were to write down a description of it you'd swear blind that Transformed was the sequel to this.


    The Need for Consistent Speed
    It takes little to highlight the preference for 60fps like the other versions have, with the Switch version I've noticed a couple of dips below its target 30fps but they're not that common and not by much. There's nothing that comes close to some of the chugging drops the previous games had on some courses. It feels very consistent for the most part, the main area that I may be overlooking is playing the game docked as I've only played it in handheld mode. It's a solid looking game too, it's better looking that Transformed most of the time though not up to Mario Kart 8's benchmark and because of that clean and consistent look it's perfectly enjoyable on Switch so likely not a concern on any other platform.

    Using Mechanics

    The team based approach does actually work for the most part. I say most because it is broken, just not as much as it easily could have been. Moves etc build your Ultimate bar and sometimes you will also trail lines behind you. Any team member (including yourself) who drives in these lines builds the bar, gets a speed increase and builds a slipstream boost as well. You can share power ups with your team that builds their strength up as well. However, you're placed individually as well as by team and if your AI partners rank 5th and 12th and you annihilated everyone in 1st you'll still lose by their rankings dragging you down. Wisps replace items but work exactly the same as before, they just make more sense contextually.

    Banging Tracks
    Musically this is the best entry, the soundtrack is great and sounds better than the past entries but it's notable for what it's missing. Actual tracks wise, it's a difficult one. I downloaded Transformed on Steam last night and gave it a few races and the two games aren't as distinct as TSR first felt with its heavier steering. The diversity of the Transformed tracks makes them much more appealing as well as the way they change mid-race, in TSR the tracks stay the same but are better designed.

    The games big issue is definitely the decision to drop other Sega IPs. It's like if Nintendo made the next Smash Bros and it played great but they stripped everything out that wasn't Mario related. It'd still be a great game but it'd fail to win people over and would be the dullest entry for it. By focusing purely on Sonic TSR quickly gets a bit samey. There are some lovely tracks that are more diverse in the game like a Haunted Road track but what you also find is that this track and many of the 20 in the game don't actually carry Sonic based theming either. There's a clear Heroes theme in there, the Casino theming in back too which is common in Sonic games but it's pretty generic casino theming, not anything directly recognisable from Sonic games. Basically, if you think Sonic themed racing you'd likely imagine tight tussles through the heart of the Death Egg, pulling a 360 loop in Green Hill Zone or breaking top speed across water as Chaos attacks by the sides - you'll find nothing of the sort here.

    Team Sonic Racing is Sumo Digital delivering all of the refinements, expertise and craftsmanship you expect from them but not much of the inspired, imaginative design that made Transformed so popular. Sonic racing on something of a budget. I doubt but hope that the game does well enough to warrant a fourth entry next gen and if it does then Sega needs to commission it with fuller support and utilising its other IPs instead of completely missing the point of why having them in is the best thing for Sega and the game.
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    #2
    I think here's the truth of the matter with this, it's an incredibly competent game but having reached the end of the Adventure mission mode I feel burnt out on it and its biggest impact has been to make me hanker for its predecessor.

    Built upon a fourth game could be truly great but this one just culls too much back.

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      #3
      Originally posted by Superman Falls View Post
      Built upon a fourth game could be truly great but this one just culls too much back.
      I agree. It's a good game in its own right and the team thing sets it apart from Mario Kart but SEGA's insistence that it fits with the current Sonic theme, wisps and all, limits it somewhat. I miss the big boy SEGA fan service and ambitious transforming tracks.

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