Sonic Racing CrossWorlds review: A great alternative to Mario Kart’s new open-world focus

In case you missed it, Sega delved back into its past earlier this week when it released a remake of one of its classic Nintendo-baiting ads.

The infamous ‘Blast Processing’ commercial from the early ‘90s had a pop at Nintendo’s SNES, claiming it was no match for the power of the Sega Genesis. The new ad, released to promote Sonic Racing CrossWorlds and with its tongue more firmly in its cheek, this time puts Mario Kart World in its crosshairs.

The main argument of the ad is that not everyone is interested in Nintendo’s decision to switch to an open-world karting game, and that Sega’s offering is not only far more traditional in nature but also features crossplay multiplayer to boot.

It’s undoubtedly the right marketing strategy to follow. Ever since the original Super Mario Kart arrived on the SNES back in 1992, almost every other rival karting game has arrived to the sound of inevitable comparisons, almost always ending with the likes of “it’s obviously not as good as Mario Kart, but…”

Now, however, for one of the first times in the genre’s history, the latest Mario Kart no longer allows for a direct comparison with any new karting games appearing on the scene. By sticking with the tried-and-tested Grand Prix format and offering straightforward three-lap races, Sega’s game is no longer a like-for-like take on Mario Kart but has now – whether deliberate or not – positioned itself as a viable alternative for those not interested in the new direction Nintendo’s series has taken.

This means a series of eight Grand Prix cups (with two more to come when the crossover DLC arrives), each with four races, and speed settings providing the equivalent of 50cc, 100cc and 150cc races. There’s even the ability to unlock a faster ‘Super Sonic Speed’ setting which is essentially the equivalent of 200cc in Mario Kart 8 – something which pushes players’ skill to the limits, requires the use of braking and has yet to be introduced in Mario Kart World.

That’s not to say the Grand Prix racing in CrossWorlds is standard cookie cutter fare, however. The first lap in most races ends with a pair of portals that the player in first place can choose between. This then transports everyone to a different location for lap 2, before another portal sends them back to the original circuit for the third and final lap.

Things change slightly with the fourth race in each Grand Prix, which bundles together the first three tracks again in a sort of remix. Lap 1 takes place on the first track, lap 2 on the second track and lap 3 on the third.

Overall, it’s a fun way of mixing things up while still retaining the traditional three lap format instead of completely reimagining the process, as is the case in Mario Kart World’s mostly highway-based transition races.

There’s also a valid argument to be made that the fourth races are Sega’s cheeky way of making the game appear bigger than it actually is by only technically giving each cup three tracks, but that’s still 24 main tracks and 15 CrossWorld tracks (the ones that appear in the second lap) for a total of 39 locations at launch.

These locations span almost the entirety of the Sonic series, with even Sonic Frontiers getting in on the action, and are accompanied by fantastic remixed music from some of the all-time best Sonic tracks. This is all tied together with a main theme which is a rather catchy earworm – that is, except for the version in the intro and credits, which adds awful lyrics sung by James Bourne from UK boyband Busted and should be fired into space while a gathered crowd screams obscenities at the ascending rocket until it’s no bigger than a dot.

“This is all tied together with a main theme which is a rather catchy earworm – that is, except for the version in the intro and credits, which adds awful lyrics sung by James Bourne from UK boyband Busted and should be fired into space while a gathered crowd screams obscenities at the ascending rocket until it’s no bigger than a dot.”

Thankfully all this effort hasn’t gone to waste, as the actual racing itself is a joy to play. Whereas previous Sonic Racing games have been handled by Sumo Digital, this time development is handled by Sonic Team with help from members of Sega’s Initial D Arcade racing game team.

It’s the latter’s influence that’s clear here, as CrossWorlds provides the sort of ‘heavy’ powersliding you’d expect more from an arcade game than the lighter turning you’d get in games like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Fans of the previous games, then, will take a while to get used to the new drifting, and will likely find themselves hitting the inside of corners for an hour or two at first. Once this adjustment is made, however, sliding round corners is an absolute dream.

Extra dopamine is provided by the decision to absolutely cover each track in rings. In some Mario Kart games, collecting coins raises your top speed up to a maximum of 10. Mario Kart World upped this to 20, but CrossWorlds puts the initial cap at 100 rings, with the option to upgrade this even higher as you collect various perks. The result is that getting the right angle on your drift will see you sliding through a huge swathe of rings, which is deeply satisfying.

Speaking of drifting, however, a note for anyone planning to buy this for young children. CrossWorlds absolutely relies on the ability to powerslide round corners and get the speed boosts from those slides, and while it does offer Mario Kart style assists like auto-accelerate, steering aids and auto tricks, players are still expected to be able to powerslide to do well.

My young daughter hasn’t yet got the hang of powerslides in Mario Kart, but can regularly finish 1st in Mario Kart 8 and World with assists on and playing on 50cc. It’s a different story in CrossWorlds, as even on the lowest speed setting with all the assists on she found herself coming in last more often than not. The game does do the usual Mario Kart trick of giving players at the back the best power-ups but it’s still not enough to cater for the speed lost when not getting drift boosts.

The power-ups are a bit of a weak point in general, whether you’re a complete beginner or a multi-decade karting veteran. They’re generally fine but they don’t really give a satisfying impact when you hit opponents and some of them are just frustrating.

The previous claim that Sonic Team removed “anything that was very stressful for players, anything that always allowed people to come back from behind and win all the time” is demonstrably nonsense, as the Drill and Monster Truck power-ups are carbon copies of the Bullet Bill and Star in Mario Kart, while there are actually two Blue Shell equivalents, one of which takes out the player in 2nd place too.

It’s standard for items like this to feature in a karting game, so that’s not really an issue, it’s more that some of the items just don’t feel satisfying enough when they hit. It’s still worth pointing out, however, in case you saw the previous Sonic Team claims and were looking forward to a pro-friendly racing game with fewer ‘cheap’ weapons.

There’s still scope for those pro players to shift things in their favour with the extensive customisation options available. The game splits its vehicles into Speed, Acceleration, Handling, Power and Boost categories (the latter offering hoverboards like those in Sonic Riders), and while you can choose any of these for any character you can also customise your own by combining different parts, and buying new ones with the Donpa Tickets you earn from racing.

Each part has a slight effect on the car’s stats, so customising your own car isn’t just a cosmetic choice but can also shave time off your performance if you can create something that fits your specific playing style.

The customisation is taken to another level with the Gadgets mechanic. Players have up to six slots on their driving licence which they can assign various perks to. These perks are unlocked and improved as the game is played, and allow a wide range of abilities which can also complement the way the player races.

I’m more of an offensive player (as in my driving style, not shouting obscenities on the mic online) so my current layout adds a gadget that gives me a speed boost power-up at the start of the race, lets me hit Lv 1 drift boosts faster, upgrades my rings cap from 100 to 200, and makes it more likely I’ll get projectile power-ups.

There are dozens of these Gadgets which affect everything from stat boosts to armour perks to the ability to knock away opponents while drifting, and a full pack of racers with completely different Gadgets will make for some interesting online races.

“There are dozens of Gadgets which affect everything from stat boosts to armour perks to the ability to knock away opponents while drifting, and a full pack of racers with completely different Gadgets will make for some interesting online races.”

The review period means we haven’t had much luck yet connecting to online races but if the recent open play session was anything to go by it looks set to be a reasonably straightforward mode with a ranking system enabling players to collect rewards as they progress up the ranks. In that sense, if your main aim is to get the game to play online, then you’re likely to have a fun enough time even if the structure appears basic at launch.

It’s often solo players who run out of things to do quicker in games like this, but CrossWorlds does what it can to keep solo players engaged for as long as possible. When you choose a Grand Prix you also get to pick a rival character, who you have to finish ahead of by the end of all four races. Once all 23 rivals have been beaten – it only counts the starting Sonic characters, not the crossover guests – you unlock a ‘super’ 24th character.

Once that’s done and you’re finished with Grand Prix there’s Time Trial mode, which sets target times for all the main and CrossWorld tracks, on both Sonic Speed and Super Sonic Speed settings, meaning there are 78 medals to be won there. Every few medals you collect unlocks new albums for the game’s jukebox, making this a rare situation in which a karting game actually gives you a reason to play Time Trial mode beyond practice and beating your own times.

Then there’s Race Park, which is aimed at multiplayer co-op but can be played solo too. This mode is where fans of Team Sonic Racing will feel more at home, since it brings over the team-based racing of that game with 6v6 and 4v4v4 races which have you ensuring your partners are also doing as well as you are.

Race Park pits you against a series of eight rival teams, who you have to beat a few times each to unlock special vehicles. Beating Team Rose, for example, unlocks a fancy royal carriage-type car. So that’ll keep you busy for a while too.

There’s lots to unlock across all modes, then, especially when you eventually unlock the Friendships menu. This is a sort of offline Battle Pass situation, where you can use the Donpa Tickets you’ve earned from racing to unlock a series of decals, titles and other rewards. The twist is that each of the 23 main characters has their own Friendship reward path, meaning you can choose which character your rewards are based on.

My daughter’s a huge Shadow fan, so we’ve been throwing our Donpa Tickets at him and unlocking various Shadow decals to place on our customised cars. Some of these are pricey, so if you were worried that there won’t be a lot left to unlock after a few days of playing, anyone looking to grind for all 23 characters’ full Friendship rewards are going to be racing for a hell of a long time.

This is our main concern about the game. On the track it’s genuinely great, and really second only to Mario Kart when it comes to modern karting games, so in that respect there’s nothing to worry about. We wonder, however, how long the game will be able to keep players’ attention.

There are six waves of monthly crossover content coming, starting with Minecraft content in October and SpongeBob content in November. That means Sega will want people to still be playing this game next March to get all of this content. On top of this, free Sega cameo characters are coming every month – Hatsune Miku at launch, Joker from Persona in October, Ichiban Kasuga from Like a Dragon in November – and it’s said this is going to continue for at least a year.

It’s brilliant that content will continue to come, but will grinding Grand Prix for Donpa Tickets and a seemingly basic online setup be enough to keep players active until the last Sega DLC character arrives?

I understand it’s not common to actively request this, but maybe in this instance live service components may actually be welcomed in order to keep players engaged, especially when everything else is unlocked and all that remains is a lengthy grind to earn Donpa Tickets to get all the Friendship content.

There is a Challenges section where extra tickets can be earned, but even once those are all ticked off there’s still going to be a hell of a lot of grinding to do here before everything in the game is unlocked, so I’d love to see some regular time-limited challenges – like winning a Grand Prix with a specific car and character, or with specific Gadgets applied – which earn extra Donpa Tickets for completion.

That’s a long-term problem, however. For now, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a brilliant alternative to Mario Kart World. If you don’t have a Switch 2 but like your karting games, it’s absolutely worth getting, because it’s easily the best modern karting game on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

If you are a Nintendo-owning karting fan and you currently have a Switch, performance aside – this review is for the PS5 version so I can’t speak to how it runs on Switch yet – it’s still not quite better than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so it’s mainly worth looking into if you want a change of scenery, once you’re satisfied it runs well enough on Nintendo’s aging handheld.

If you have a Switch 2, where the story is different because of how much Mario Kart World diverts from tradition, hold fire and see how the game performs when it eventually makes its way to Nintendo’s latest console (it’s coming in “holiday 2025”, according to Sega). This could just be a serious contender depending on what you’re personally looking for in a karting game.