Fans of Sonic racing games have quite a big day ahead of them with a new kart racer coming soon that aims to blend the best of everything together into one incredibly fast experience. The buzz around Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds makes sense considering that Team Sonic Racing was the last Sonic racer that was released. Not only have fans of the blue blur been without a title like this for a while, but CrossWorlds brings back Sonic Riders‘ EX gears, has teased a large roster of Sega and Sonic characters, and promises a wide variety of famous levels turned into tracks when the announcements for CrossWorlds have only just begun.
Indeed, the future of Sonic racing games does look rather bright, but the era of Team Sonic Racing isn’t over just yet. In fact, the multiplayer-focused title may be the best game to play while waiting for CrossWorlds‘ launch. Following the Closed Network Test on PS5, it’s easy to see how both titles compare. There are a number of improvements made to CrossWorlds that fixed some of the frustrations players had with Team Sonic Racing, but CrossWorlds keeps Team Sonic Racing‘s control scheme so fans with experience can hit the ground running.
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How Team Sonic Racing is the Perfect Game to Use as a Warm-Up For CrossWorlds
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Highlights the Importance of Controls
When it comes to favorite games and genres, the controls are one of the most important parts to easing a player into a new experience. The Sonic series in particular changes things up every so often, but with Sonic Generations taking notes from Frontiers‘ control scheme, it seems that there’s a standard fans can rely on for the titles going forward. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is keeping this trend going by giving fans the option to use Team Sonic Racing’s button mapping. This feature was shown off and announced before the Closed Network Test in the online manual fans could read to study the controls ahead of time.
The option to use TSR‘s button placement seems to have helped a few players make it across a million finish lines collectively, according to stats from Sega. There’s a strong chance this option will remain in the game at launch because of this, making it so those willing to return to Team Sonic Racing will be able to have as many practice rounds as they want before the game fully releases. CrossWorlds is different from TSR in many ways, though. Team Sonic Racing limits players to practice with cars only rather than EX Gears, for one, but Team Sonic Racing‘s flaws may lead to unexpected skills on the new, improved racetracks.
Just as the title implies, Team Sonic Racing has a heavy emphasis on earning boosts and items from other players, AI or otherwise. Some fans have felt that the team mechanics left behind an unbalanced solo-player experience, and part of that comes from how anything can take speed away from a player in TSR. If someone gets hit by an item, especially multiple, they lose any momentum and have to build it up again. The same can be said if a player hits a wall only slightly. Both of these issues don’t exist anymore in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. In the upcoming kart racer, fans can have their car cut in half and use what little speed they keep to hit a dash panel to regain the momentum with ease. Hitting walls only takes rings away from players, which lowers acceleration, but they keep all of their speed beyond that.
CrossWorlds‘ improvements may make it seem like Team Sonic Racing is a bad choice to practice with, but the way that these flaws were dealt with might make it the perfect challenge to take on ahead of the newer title. Players can use the tougher collisions and harsher item punishment to improve for the next racer, where there’s more to take advantage of in these moments. Fans who manage to make a comeback in Team Sonic Racing will surely be in the winner’s circle in CrossWorlds because they’ll know how to drive their car, leaving only the courses and Cross Worlds to master.
- Released
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May 21, 2019
- ESRB
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