Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a racing game that has been released on a lot of platforms.
It’s developed by Sumo Digital and is the sequel to the 2010’s Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
The game is published by Sega and the game lets you use characters from different Sega franchises and race against them.
The line up on the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed grid sees SEGA favourites – including Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr Eggman and AiAi – return to battle against newcomers that include Gilius Thunderhead of Golden Axe and Vyse of Skies of Arcadia.
The PS Vita version is said to be identical to the PS3 version. The game has been received with good critical acclaim.
The PS3 and Vita version are said to run on the same engine and maintain a solid 30 fps framerate, and the engine is codenamed Sumo. The 3DS version is built from the ground up.
The game features fully transformable vehicles which change from car to plane to boat mid race, and also over 20 legendary All-Stars each with their own transformable vehicle.
It also has over 25 tracks and arenas which challenge you on land, water and air. The online mode is said to be competent as well with racing capability up to 10 players online, or you can also challenge your friends in four player split screen.
On November 14 Sumo Digital posted on the official forums for a DLC challenge which was met successfully. [reference]
“I’ll set you a challange. Without any policing from the SUMO or SEGA crew, if you can all agree on three characters by the 1st of December and prove there is sufficient interest of at least 1000 unique people *per* character, I will present the result to SEGA. I can’t promise anything will happen as a result, but since you’re starting it…”
Seven characters were chosen Ryo Hazuki, Hatsune Miku, Segata Sanshiro, Vectorman, ToeJam & Earl, Bayonetta, and Ristar, and only one has been approved so far.
Sega has also announced a Bonus Edition for the upcoming Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed title. [reference]
The Bonus Edition boasts a brand new track and character, as well as a handful of various collectibles, available whilst pre-order supplies last.
OutRun Bay is the featured track, featuring all of the standard Sonic Transformed race modes as well as challenges and time trials specific to OutRun Bay, inspired by Sega’s classic arcade game OutRun.
As the game’s name suggets it’s a mascot-based kart racer and you can choose any character from various Sega franchises. You have the ability to transform the vehicles into car, boat and plane modes.
The weapons are also quite ingenious with explosive hot rod engines, freezing snowballs and swarms of wasps that appear at the front of the pack.
here are power-ups, secret routes, and a myriad of expansive tracks and obstacles throughout the game. It looks to be good ol’ fashioned racing at it’s best – something which should feel even more fun when played online.
Sega released a new trailer which shows the World Tour mode, taking on different Challenges, including a few interesting boss battles, and being able to play against up to 10 players online.
Some screenshots from the game:
There’s no story here but the game is all about racing and using the characters from various Sega franchises to defeat each other.
Sonic and the All-Stars cast line up on the starting grid once again to battle for supremacy in the ultimate race.
You can compete across land, water and air in incredible transforming vehicles that change from cars to boats to planes mid-race.
Master your driving skills as you drift, barrel roll and boost to overtake your rivals, or use your weapons tactically and unleash your All-Star move to gain the winning advantage.
There are a lot of confirmed and unconfirmed characters in the game, here’s some of them. [reference]
1. AGES (Dreamcast VMU; new in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed)
2. AiAi (from Super Monkey Ball)
3. Amigo (from Samba de Amigo)
4. Amy Rose (from Sonic the Hedgehog CD)
5. B.D. Joe (from Crazy Taxi)
6. Beat (from Jet Set Radio)
7. Danica Patrick (NASCAR driver from Stewart-Haas Racing)
8. Doctor Eggman (from Sonic the Hedgehog)
9. Gilius Thunderhead (from Golden Axe)
10. Gum (from Jet Set Radio)
11. Joe Musashi (from Shinobi)
12. Knuckles the Echidna (from Sonic the Hedgehog 3)
13. Mee Mee (from Super Monkey Ball)
14. Miles “Tails” Prower (from Sonic the Hedgehog 2)
15. Nights & Nightopian (from Nights into Dreams)
16. Pudding (from Space Channel 5)
17. Ralph (from Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph Movie)
18. Reala & Nightmaren (from Nights into Dreams)
19. Shadow the Hedgehog (from Sonic Adventure 2)
20. Sonic the Hedgehog (from Sonic the Hedgehog)
21. Ulala (from Space Channel 5)
22. Vyse (from Skies of Arcadia)
23. Your Avatar (exclusive to Microsoft’s Xbox 360)
24. Your Mii (exclusive to Nintendo’s Wii U & 3DS)
There are also upcoming/DLC characters:
25. Alex Kidd
26. Metal Sonic
Danica Patrick is also one of the characters in the game.
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed has scored well among many critics. It’s sitting at 82% in Metacritic and the developers should be pleased with the critical reception. [reference]
Lot of critics have given it a high score including Joystiq, Gaming Age, and ZT Game Domain.