Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Review

Alf Horsley

Kart Racers haven’t exactly found a home on the HD console market this generation. With the only attempts (such as Madagascar Karts) being horrible the market has been left wide open with nobody running in to claim the throne. When All-Stars was announced, many dismissed it as another Mario Kart clone that would crash and burn instead of taking pole position. While they were right about it being a clone, this is one clone that has seized its opportunity and come out on top of the HD market, however it is unable to rival Mario Kart on the Wii.

From the outset, from the very moment you hit the power button All-Stars oozes charm, the introductory CGI video showing off the characters and locales perfectly. The menu system does this equally well, the music staying charming but fast paced and the graphics being beautiful. This remains the same for the entire game in and out of gameplay. The music is all sourced from the Sega titles that the particular track or character is from, adding the amount of charm, tension or even horror you would expect from the given source material.

Graphically, the game is beautiful, outputting in HD with graphics that are simply incomparable to any other Kart Racer on the market. The tracks, karts and characters are all beautifully detailed and don’t stray from the graphical style of the source game. For example, Jacky and Akira of Virtua Fighter fame do not stray from their game’s more realistic style, adding a surreal twist. Having them race amongst AiAi and Samba de Amigo on a track straight out of House of the Dead adds to the game’s charm. The drawback to such breathtaking graphics in such a fast paced game is that sometimes they suffer at the peak of action packed races, suffering from some minor framerate and tearing issues. This is particularly evident in splitscreen multiplayer and the more players added, the more likely it is to happen. This can mar the experience of a 4 player game, and when you’re flying past all the beauty at break-neck speeds it doesn’t seem worth it to trade off a smooth ride for graphical detail that you won’t normally see.

The core gameplay mechanic is the classic kart racing formula. You pick from a roster of between 20 and 22 racers (20 on PS3, 21 due to the added Mii racer on Wii and 22 including Banjo-Kazooie and the Avatar racer on 360)7 of whom are from the Sonic universe. The remaining 13 are a selection of mad, bad and dangerous others including realistic racers like Ryo from Shenmue and the fighters of Virtua Fighter, Classic characters such as Opa-Opa and Alex Kidd and more recent Sega stars like AiAi, Ulala and Amigo. The core gameplay is so simple, using only 3 buttons, accelerate, power-slide and fire weapon. It plays like your standard Kart affair, speeding round the track, sliding round corners to gain a boost and picking up weapons to harass your fellow racers. This is so simple to learn but so hard to master, with the later single player missions punishing anybody who strays off the standard line even an iota, giving the game a satisfying challenge in the later races and missions. However, once these single player missions are done with, you’ll be left with nothing to do but the same thing again and again to earn achievements and upgrade your ‘Sega Licence’ which is neither engaging nor worthwhile for anybody but those who are playing for achievements or trophies. While there is some value in the online play, it is quite limited, both online and splitscreen are restricted to single race. This is unlike its inspiration Mario Kart, which allows for players to play a series of races multiplayer. If you’re on Wii, you’ll soon find yourself playing Mario Kart instead of All-Stars, whereas on the HD consoles you’ll find All-Stars gathering dust until you have 3 friends around to play it with you. But when that happens the fun will last and last- with 20 characters and 24 tracks to choose from, the value for split screen is superb.

Overall, All-Stars Racing is a Mario Kart clone at heart. But unlike most modern Kart racers, it is not only a passable Mario Kart clone; it’s a fantastic one that only does a few things worse than the big dog itself. Single player content is a little thin on the ground but on 360 and PS3 you’ll find local multiplayer makes the game worth the money. I for one will never trade this game in, as I know that when a party starts this will be one to pick up and put on- everybody from Mum and Dad to the kids can play and one that the ‘core gamers will struggle against one another to master. On the other hand, the Wii version can’t stand up graphically to the HD versions and simply cannot stand up to the fact that Mario Kart is simply a better game. I would describe this game as a must for 360 and PS3 gamers who are into splitscreen multiplayer and should rightfully take its place alongside the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero as party game royalty.