Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a karting triumph, even if its bevy of updates and DLC make it feel like it's only just begun to burn rubber peeling away from the starting grid rather than feeling like a complete package. Still, releasing this year means there's competition on the track – the acclaimed Mario Kart World didn't only release after a long and anticipated wait, but came alongside the Switch 2's launch. Still for my money on who can nab the crown, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds' main tweak under the hood outdoes Mario Kart World's own.
I'm talking about the titular CrossWorlds themselves. Or, rather, the ring portals that mean that Sonic and friends (including Hatsune Miku and, soon, the likes of SpongeBob and Joker from Persona 5) never do the same lap in a row. Instead, a starting lap gets you familiar with a track before the racer out in front selects a portal lane for the second lap that pulls racers into another course entirely. A final portal returns the pack to the original track, but with a final lap that now packs changes – from exhibits in a museum coming to life, to new sub-portals adding shortcuts to a rainforest track, or even Eggman's machinery sparking up to add new hazards in his floating expo. We loved how alive the racing feels in our Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review.
Many worlds
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds' approach is almost the complete opposite of Mario Kart World. Where Sonic's is more about adding many racing worlds into the fold and instantaneously zapping you between them, Mario Kart World is about spreading it all apart into one continuous space where you even have to race across an open world between each course.
CrossWorlds is completely geared around keeping you in the action.
Nicknamed intermissions or sprints, Mario Kart World's connective tracks are actually my biggest issue with the racer. Fun at first, the open world nature perfectly suits Knockout Tour, where racers are eliminated, but struggles to justify itself across Grand Prix and online modes. Not only do these long stretches of road often get boring to play the more you repeat them, but they detract from laps, meaning many Mario Kart World tracks only get you one go-around each proper circuit course before you move on.
Sonic, after all, has gotta go fast – whether he's on-foot or, as in this game, behind the wheel (and Sonic drives a car makes complete sense, by the way). That means slamming laps your way like nobody's business. Why drive through an open world when the game can just make the world come to you? Zipping through rings, all three laps come at pace before you can even blink. Not only does each Grand Prix in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds blast in whole bonus tracks into the middle of each one, but a final fourth race even stitches together one lap from each preceding race for one final flashy blitz of action.
What I love about this approach compared to Nintendo's in Mario Kart World is that Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is completely geared around keeping you in the action at all times. Instead of saddling you with breather after breather to haul around as you move between laps, it's green lights all the way – no stopping until the rubber is burnt clean off and the comically oversized boxing gloves have well and truly flown.
It's a wonder it stops at racing between each track in Mario Kart World. I no more want to slowly race down straight roads to get a truncated single-lap racing experience than I want to press a button to lean against shelving in the pitstop as I watch a pitcrew of Toads or chao ready my kart for the race. (Actually, that could be kind of cute). I'll admit it does add to the atmosphere as you make your way through solo play and in the exciting Knockout Tours, but after you've played the same routes time and time again I feel asleep at the wheel. Before Sonic came along, I was already back racing online in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe because of this.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds understands the appeal of mastering circuit racing in speedy little karts, but equally understands that there can be an amount of repetition in that which can get dull as well. The solution to throw you through portals to send you away to semi-randomized middle laps before shaking up the first lap for a final one isn't just elegant, but exhilarating too. What's more, the way each track can mesh together to enhance the middle of another means that as additional tracks get added, as has already been announced, more racing possibilities open.
All too often the prospect of holding accelerate to cross that same suspension bridge in Mario Kart World has made me put my controller down. But with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds I'm never certain how the next race will go, but always eager to put the pedal to the metal to find out.
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