Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

What's the bloody point of getting the rights to have Spongebob playable in this game and yet not even include voice acting?
 
Having the Patty Wagon in the game? Vehicles are iconic in their own way. (I realize the question was rhetorical.)

What in blue blazes is Aang going to drive? If this were a Riders game Air Scooter would be a freebie. But it's not and it probably does have to be a discrete vehicle given that it has to be able to transform. A tank? A original design based on the glider? Appamobile?
 
It even has a similar color scheme to Coconut Mall.
 
Still holding out hope for Tangle and Whisper DLC
 
Alright, White Space is a heck of a pull for a track. Visually striking, far from actually being prominent, and definitely something that I figured we'd never see again given the point of its existence was to allow Sonic Generations to use other locations. I guess I'll be at that network test too.
 
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Alright weekend trial period is ongoing. I am having a blast, even though online play requires Nintendo Switch Online and therefore I'm stuck with the offline mode's restriction of only having one Grand Prix to play. I went and did all the available achivements too, even though progress doesn't save for the full game. Quick hits:

  • This demo doesn't even have a playable tutorial, just some videos with text accompaniment, yet its somehow a better tutorial than the entirety of Team Adventure? Huh.
  • Part of that is because some fiddly parts of the last game got cut. There's no team mechanics here. Air tricks don't change your trajectory anymore, and it appears the player can no longer fail air tricks. Instead, waggling the stick lets players do air tricks until they are too close to the ground, at which point the player simply cannot do another air trick. So basically its reminiscent of the Sonic Rush "remember to do tricks for every jump" mechanics rather than matching older Sonic Racing games.
  • I still don't know how drifting with a plane really works, but Ring Cyclone's mechanics at least telegraph the places where you are supposed to drift in: whenever a turn ends with a cluster of Rings.
  • Each track having a third lap variant with more rings, double item boxes, extra shortcuts, and more dash panels/rings really does add to the gravitas of finishing a race. I also like having the final stretch riddled with boosts as kind of a last chance to push for a higher placing.
  • The nature of Crossworld selection is that the last stretch of every main course has to be a straightaway. I'm fine with this, but some people might not be. The dash panels on lap 3 do a good job of covering up this layout restriction.
  • Cross the Worlds is my least favorite vocal song, but it is really good background music for E-Stadium
  • Red Star Rings in a racing game as collectibles? Huh? This works better than I expected as a means of making the player familiar with optimal handling and shortcuts, but it is strange to have them stay transparent so they can be recollected for extra currency and even stranger when a symmetrical ring formation that has a Red Star Ring becomes asymmetrical in Grand Prix Finals because Red Star Rings aren't in those races.
  • There's something off about the items. I think I just don't like the animations, both for the items and for the Machine's response. but I don't have a word to put to my feelings. "Lackluster"? The concept of cutting an opponent's car in half deserves a better game. Maybe its also how many of them are themed as being sent out through a Warp Ring and then appearing in above/in front of the target, which gets repetitive. I guess it is also a brick joke because one of the items is in fact a Warp Ring. (It teleports you on top of an opponent to squish them and move ahead in placement at the same time.)
    • There's also the idea that maybe its a bluff? That since multiple attacks appear from Warp Rings, you have to act to avoid/counter the incoming item without knowing if it's the incredibly weak Slime or incredibly strong Weight? Well, since two out of the four Warp Ring items cause the target to lose all of their items in some way, it's not really much of a choice. If you have a counter-option available, you have to use it, unless its too deep in your inventory to dig out in time.
  • There's a lot of items that make the target lose their item. I think there's too many and this short circuits planning around your items, a bad thing when this game has two default item slots and an optional third if you take the perk for that. The perk that prevents a player from dropping items to these attacks is not worth the cost.
  • I'm not so sure how I feel about some of the items only appearing for racers who have perks for them though. Isn't that basically reducing variety? I think the base set of items is good enough that you'd only want to take the perks that grant access to exclusive ones for novelty reasons.
  • For a good point of items, I like the push and pull of holding onto Bomb long enough for it grow to max size or throwing it quickly, or the inbetween of only growing it part way before throwing at the next opportunity.
  • This game's customization system really is off the charts crazy. Parts for your Machine, a dizzying array of cosmetic options, and perks both minor and major.
    • If a Grand Prix is four races, why are unlocks for every five races? Seems like padding.
    • The game desperately needs more than five loadouts for perks. It there are perks that have a boosted effect with one of the five vehicle type, and a restriction on item affecting perks in Time Trials, then at minimum there needs to be ten loadouts.
  • While the idea of the last race of a Grand Prix being all three of the tracks in the Prix put together is cute, I think it winds up being repetitive and boring instead. I feel like it probably should have also either used the lap 3 variant of all tracks or put the entire race under a Frenzy effect. Heck, even "all the courses but in a random order" would probably suffice.
  • It's funny that in Time Attack, despite how the same course is being used for three laps, each lap still ends on a Travel Ring. I guess the game is really built around Travel Rings ending laps.
  • I really like having a visible optimal driving line in Time Attack, for similar reasons to the Red Star Rings. Having a guide to follow, even if its really hard to stay on it because of vehiclar interia, does make the A ranks and S ranks feel more approachable.
  • It is very funny to have Shadow complain that the Ultimate Drift Boost gadget isn't based on him, but at the same time I fear this is exaggerating Shadow's personality.
  • Rival exchanges are neat, but this is one of those features where everyone watches the compliation videos and the developers question why they bothered making it, isn't it?
  • They should probably have made a few different vocal lines for Crossworld selection. Rivals only having two: one for picking and another for the player picking, gets repetitive. There's also a context issue: Wave's line of "You picked THAT one?" doesn't really work if I'm picking "Random".
  • Crossover characters not getting diolouge at all does suck, but at least the Arsene Wing is pretty cool looking and its color scheme is another preset available.
EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot Frenzies. Nothing to say, they're fun mix ups but I can't really get a read on how they fit overall with the three available in offline Grand Prix in the demo.
 
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man this is like blur all over again

 
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