Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review – Live and burn some rubber

It’s safe to say we’re currently living in a new Golden Age for Sonic the Hedgehog. We’ve had three high-quality live-action films so far, and every year brings a new—or remastered—entry in the series that delivers rock-solid entertainment at the very least. This year’s big outing for the Blue Blur? Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, a grand tour of speed and drifting, featuring the Sega icon and friends as they race for gold across a colourful selection of circuits.

Like Sonic’s previous forays into kart racing, CrossWorlds focuses on simplicity: pick a course, choose your vehicle, and hit the gas. With a roster pulled from across the 35-year history of Sonic, it also offers a stacked selection of fan-favourite drivers while you weave through the 24 courses on offer. A few of these will be familiar to longtime fans, but the big twist is that the racer in the lead can shake things up with a touch of interdimensional chaos.

Whoever is in pole position during the second lap can teleport everyone to a secondary track, throwing new obstacles and challenges into the mix. On top of the collection of power-ups that all players can grab at top speed, CrossWorlds demands constant attention as you look ahead for a trans-dimensional shift to one of 15 new routes while keeping an eye on your rearview mirror for any nasty surprises.

Another highlight is the Grand Prix mode, which serves as a substitute for Team Sonic Racing’s full-fledged campaign from a few years back. This is essentially Sonic Racing with an F1 edge, as the mode gives you a rival who can match your speed, skill, and snark. You can fine-tune how good they are before starting a Grand Prix, and on higher difficulty levels, they’re capable of racing circles around you if you’re not in top form. To add extra variety, the fourth race in each Grand Prix stitches together sections from the previous three courses, creating a highlight reel of the event to blitz through.

Another layer to the experience is the class system, with five distinct categories. Power racers can muscle their way through the grid, those who specialise in Acceleration launch off the line quickly, Handling helps you glide through corners, Boost enhances momentum with each burst of speed, and Speed characters are a menace on straights.

You can further tweak stats and use the Gadgets system to get the most out of your chosen class, and when you start winning, there’s an absurd number of collectibles to help you visually customise your favourite kart. Of course, there’s a Nintendo-shaped elephant in the room with the release of Mario Kart World this year, but CrossWorlds represents an entirely different side of the kart-racing coin.

It’s a racer that wears its old-school heart on its sleeve, while also introducing some smart quality-of-life changes. Take the idea of retrying a race, for example. If a first-place finish slips away, you can spend the in-game currency of Donpa tickets to restart that race mid-session, without having to start the whole event over. The downside is that the game can be stingy with tickets—they’re earned based on performance and optional goals—and since they’re used for everything from unlocking new parts to improving friendships with fellow racers to earn exclusive gear, you’ll need to put in plenty of laps to get what you want.

Fortunately, CrossWorlds nails the fundamentals of the genre with its thrilling gameplay. You’ll focus on speed, drift through corners to build up acceleration, and hunt for the perfect racing line through courses packed with shortcuts that can give you an edge. All the new systems work together to enhance the superb sense of momentum across its various modes. And, as you’d expect from a Sonic game, the soundtrack is a collection of absolute bangers, with each song seamlessly transitioning into the next through what can only be described as audio black magic.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is out now for Nintendo Switch (Switch 2 coming in future), PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, plus Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles.