Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

[Emerald Emblem]

IGN Review - 8.0

 

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/107/1071525p1.html

 

What's that casino level constantly featured in the video review supposed to be from?... it looks like an F-Zero GX track rip-off!

 

I believe it's a redesign of Casinopolis.

 

A solid score nonetheless.

[Cube]

Played this for about an hour (360 version) and it's great fun so far.

 

There's also an interesting option...Rubber Banding can be turned off if you don't want it.

 

Also, the rather unbalanced All-Star Item isn't to be seen online.

[welsh_gamer]

Got my copy this morning and it's fun. Completed two Grand Prix's and spent an hour or so online. Online play is great, however there's no Mario Kart Wii style points to collect, and only the host in the lobby can choose the settings for the race which is unfair (playing Whale Lagoon four times in a row get tedious!) but you can change your character inbetween races. Got first place in around 8 out of 10 games, and raced against 2 competitive player, Fabrice and SPULLL. : peace:

 

According to the review in ONM there's no GCN/Classic controller support, but you can use the Wii Remote + Nunchuck combo to steer with the analog stick.

 

 

It does support the Classic Controller. The Offical magazine was wrong

[RedShell]

It does support the Classic Controller. The Offical magazine was wrong

Well, it's not the first time, and most probably not the last either.

[Ike]

Also, the rather unbalanced All-Star Item isn't to be seen online.

 

Here's why:

 

There’s no All-Star moves online on any platform. Basically those moves are quite complicated and extremely difficult to network. We did a few of them too, and the latency we were seeing didn’t work very nicely. Rather than put something in that didn’t work to everyones expectations – we thought it better to disable them online for a better play experience.

 

If you’re seeing someone do All-Star moves online, they’ve hacked the game. Kick them out of the lobby

[Nicktendo]

I also got this this morning.

 

First impressions: It's no Mario Kart. The framerate is the main difference for me, it just doesn't have the smoothness and fluidity of Mario Kart Wii which really detracts from the overall experience. Graphically it's not on the same level either; though the colourful, creative and varied tracks stand up well against the ones seen in MK.

 

The controls are good (I'm using the wheel), the boosting system is integrated well and it's really rewarding when you nail a top powerslide and boost! It's a shame it's limited to 8 instead of 12 characters per race but it does seem genuinely more difficult than Mario Kart (except when Mario Kart is unfair on purpose - Blue Shell, Blue Shell, Blue Shell... Die!!). Weapons again, are similar to MK but don't really have the same appeal, they seem weaker and less effective, except the Special weapon which is different for every character and also very cool!

 

Other than that it's a great kart style racer which seems very deep, has an excellent roster and lots of unlockables. As I mentioned the track design is good and there are plenty of varied locations. It doesn't stand up as strongly as Mario Kart but it's still a great game if you can ignore the slower framerate. Very fun in single (challenging) and multi-player and holds up well online.

 

If you're on the fence, go for it just don't expect the class and production values seen in Mario Kart, often referred to as 'the Nintendo Touch' TM

[welsh_gamer]

The framerate is the main difference for me, it just doesn't have the smoothness and fluidity of Mario Kart Wii which really detracts from the overall experience.

 

TM

 

True, it makes racing on some of the later tracks annoying as it's hard to see if there's an obstacle or corner coming up, especially if you're going at F-Zero-like speeds!

 

Weapons again, are similar to MK but don't really have the same appeal, they seem weaker and less effective

 

I really like the 'Mega Horn', timing it right and knocking out several players is quite rewarding. You're right about weapons being weak as hitting someone with a rocket or boxing glove only seem to disable them for 2 seconds or so from the race, and then they become invisible for about 8 seconds meaning you can't knock them off course - not so good when you have someone in front of you!

 

Having spent some more time with it, it is a fantastic single player game - the GPs are great fun and challenging and the Missions are just as great as the ones from Mario Kart DS, and there's a very generous amount of them to do. Unlike Mario Kart Wii, the online hasn't won me over, mainly because the lobby system is flawed, as I mentioned in my other post.

 

Also, the tracks - the first 8 tracks are simple enough but very enjoyable, but apart from Lava Lair, Ocean Ruin and Monkey Target later on, there's 13 tracks that are very samey, boring, too long or uninspired, so I probably won't be coming back to it after I'm done with it, and might sell it to get some money for Picross 3D on Friday, but don't let that put you off! It's worthy of a look on whichever console you pick it up.

[RedShell]

Just been checking out the soundtrack on YouTube, some interesting stuff in it, especially this:

 

 

Does part of that Synth riff sound familiar to anyone else? :

 

[Ashley]

Wait there's a weapon called a Mega Horn? In a game aimed toward kids?

[Zechs Merquise]

Poor first week sales:

40k on Wii

30k on 360

20k on PS3

Not good!

[STOOPIDDITTIES]

Poor first week sales:

40k on Wii

30k on 360

20k on PS3

Not good!

 

To be honest I thought this would get more than that, but it wouldn't really deserve it if it had achieved good sales. There are many more games who have sold less and are far more deserving.

 

At least the Wii sold more though.

[Josh64]

Poor first week sales:

40k on Wii

30k on 360

20k on PS3

Not good!

 

I'm really shocked, Sega did a lot to promote this and it's a decent Sonic game which I thought would appeal to a lot of people!

[Retro_Link]

After Sonic the Hedgehog (and to a lesser extent Sonic Unleashed) I think a lot of people have learnt their lesson lately as far as buying Sonic games go!... so whether this game is good or not, people would rather spend their money elsewhere than have another bad experience.

[Will]

You have to remember that this isn't a day 1 dependent title, sales should follow a flatter curve than blockbuster titles. You also have to bear in mind the total inaccuracies of numbers that are reported on the net.

[James McGeachie]

I'm really shocked, Sega did a lot to promote this and it's a decent Sonic game which I thought would appeal to a lot of people!

 

I think Mario Kart is the only truly marketable Kart racing game. A few people I know tried the 360 demo of this game too and completely didn't like it.

 

It didn't make much sense to me too as they enjoy Mario Kart and there isn't anything drastically different or lower quality about this game. Something about the Mario Kart ip is just drastically more appealing to people though. Good memories from the N64 days for a lot of people still I guess.

[LostOverThere]

Good memories from the N64 days for a lot of people still I guess.

Funny you mention that. The first time I played Mario Kart was on the N64 at a friend's house before I got mine. I tilted the controller to turn like a Wiimote at first. My friends laughed because they said that we'd never tilt a control to play a game.

[Zechs Merquise]

Once upon a time lived a developer who made games about speedy blue hedgehogs.

 

The developer ran down from the development studio shouting to the villagers about the latest blue hedgehog game and how great it was.

 

The villagers all came running and purchased the game, eagerly awaiting fast paced gaming, tight controls and smooth graphics.

 

The villagers were disappointed, the game was utterly appaling and could be best described as a 'let down!'

 

However the naughty developer went away with bucket loads of cash and was happy, for they had profited greatly from a piece of software that had very little effort put into it!

 

Thus the developer could see that there was easy money to be made from poorly made games starring the blue hedgehog.

 

The following year the developer ran from the studio waving a new game starring the blue one. Again the villagers were told how wonderful it was.

 

The villagers again ran from their homes, expecting this time the developer would have learned from the mistakes of the past and honour their promise of a good blue hedgehog game.

 

They were disappointed. Again the experience they were sold was terrible and could best be described as 'broken'.

 

The developer left the village counting their profits from another poorly produced title.

 

The developer started to think about what they had done. Maybe what they were doing was wrong, maybe releasing endless bad blue hedgehog games would eventually lead to the villagers not wanting to buy any more blue hedgehog games!

 

Over the next year they worked on a new blue hedgehog game. They based it on a popular game staring an Italien plumber and go-karts! This time they actually put a lot of effort into the game, working hard and polishing their product.

 

The developer ran down to the village, shouting loudly about their new game and how proud they were of it.

 

Yet the villagers were now wise to their tricks... they ignored the game and its sales were appalling!

 

The motto of the story: Don't keep releasing shit games based on your most famous IPs and milking them for all they are worth, because if you do the good will of the gaming public will eventually run out - and when it does your brand may be tarnished forever.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Zechs Merquise

[Josh64]

I thought, apart from the wolf, that Sonic Unleashed was pretty good. That's a game featuring the blue hedgehog.

Then again, after that I thought Sonic and the black knight would be good and... I was proven wrong.