I'm a Mario Kart fan. Super Circuit was one of the first games I ever owned, and Mario Kart 8 has swallowed countless weekends. So when I tell you that I've come away from playing Sonic Racing: Crossworlds to find that it's closer to the kart racing experience I'm looking for than Mario Kart World is, that should hold some weight.
The most obvious difference is how brash and bold Crossworlds is. This game is brighter, bolder, and louder than any other karting game I've ever played, with courses as big and brazen as Mario Kart's most impressive maps. Sometimes Sega overcooks things here, with sections of some tracks feeling like an assault on the senses, more of a high-speed, living obstacle course than a traditional race track. At its very worst, that can feel like a case of style over substance, though it's rare that becomes a problem in a franchise that's happy to lean into its individual style.
Let's have fun with science
In CrossWorlds, that style is all in the portals. At the end of the first lap, the race leader picks which completely different track the second lap will be run on, before portalling back to the original track for the final lap. From a distance I was sceptical, but portals are easily CrossWorlds' greatest innovation. Pass through one first, and it genuinely feels like you've dropped into a new dimension – with enough of a lead, you'll find yourself in an empty world, each new opponent popping onto the minimap as they finally start to catch up to you. In one instance, I was able to dodge an explosion by passing through the portal just in time to leave the impact in a totally different time and place.
Punching through the portal feels impressively weighty, and you're often catapulted forward into this new world. Sometimes that makes for a natural extension of the race, but other times it can be a huge contrast – you might be making your way through the twists and turns of a neon-drenched city, only to be flung out among the clouds, your car now a plane forced to weave through the sky to maintain the momentum that you might have built up on the track. The final race in each Grand Prix doubles down on that feeling, stitching together a lap from each of the three previous races (along with a handful of extra points for the winner) to ensure that no tournament ever feels like a foregone conclusion.
Combined that with CrossWorld's rivals system, and even CPU races start to feel truly competitive. While other Kart racers might let a villain emerge on the track, CrossWorlds tells you exactly who to watch out for. Every time you overtake one another, they'll let out a disgruntled bark that only heightens the satisfaction you get from beating this more competitive racer. In one Grand Prix, I was pitted against Espio the Chameleon, who I had to claw the title back from after a disastrous first race. In the end, it was only with the added points from winning the final race that I was able to win, but the rivalry held throughout the entire competition.
That push for maximum points got me surprisingly invested in two specific elements of CrossWorlds. The first is its incredibly deep kart customization. While it's easy enough to stitch two racers together (combining Shadow's signature hoverboard with Hatsune Miku's was a particularly entertaining quirk of the character roster), the real complexity is found in the gadgets system. At its most basic level, it might offer you a choice between a blanket improvement to speed or acceleration, but I heard other racers theorycrafting wildly, taking a specific concoction to allow for increased rings, faster tricks, and more boost that should help catapult top-level players to the front of the pack, especially if you master the system well enough to adapt it to different tracks.
But despite those changes, beyond some technological wizardry powering its portals, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a stylish, fast-paced kart racer. It's pushing the envelope a little on presentation and is set to do some interesting things when it comes to its roster, but it's not doing too much that feels particularly different. That, however, could work firmly in its favor.
I'm a huge fan of Mario Kart 8, but I'm yet to be converted to the bigger grids and open-format gimmicks of Mario Kart World. Granted, CrossWorlds has its own on-track gimmicks, but it doesn't really distract from the racing experience in including them. It feels different - a little slipperier in its handling, a little more aggressive when you're part of the pack - but that's to be expected, especially for someone battling against Mario muscle memory as much as I am.
Regardless, this is an experience that feels far closer in my mind to what I want from Mario Kart than anything I've ever had from a Sonic Racing game. Combine that feeling with the very effective pitch that CrossWorlds is launching on all major platforms with crossplay, and the fact that you don't have to own a Switch 2 to get that traditional karting feeling becomes very compelling. Throw in a wider-than-ever roster, and it feels like, with CrossWorlds, Sonic might be closer than ever to pushing Mario off pole position.
Kingslayer
On the complete other end of the spectrum are the helping hands that CrossWorlds offers. Indicators show up to help you measure how much boost you've accrued by drifting, or let you perfect your routine at the starting line. If you're holding an item that can dispel an incoming projectile, you're prompted to use it at the opportune time. Rings are handed out like candy, and you're not totally spun out if you're hit by something, merely slowed down.
But on the other hand, you're robbed of those rings if you do something as minor as bumping up against the barriers on a tight corner, and even if you trade paint with other racers, which feels particularly unkind in the original jostle for position. It's fascinating to see where CrossWorlds is prepared to offer a helping hand, and where it's more willing to get in your way.
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