I wonder how many of you remember when Sega did what Nintendon’t. Well, that seems to have changed a bit over the years because this title may as well have been called “Super Sonic Kart”. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see that as a bad thing. I believe that if you’re going to copy a game at least copy a good one and Super Mario Kart is a very good game indeed. You’d need to be living in a cave for some time to have not heard Nintendo’s classic racer and you’d need to be blind to miss the blatant similarities in this title.

Some of the playable characters are Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Knuckles, Alex Kidd, Beat from Jet Set Radio, Ulala from Space Channel 5, and Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue. Ryo is my character of choice for a number of reasons: his appearance is unusual in such a game, he has a cool motorbike, and I can pretend I’m playing a bizarre prototype of the elusive Shenmue 3.

You unlock Sega Miles by playing through the game and this currency can be used to unlock new characters, tracks, and music. Unlocking such items is something I rarely enjoy but found myself going back for more as the tracks are well designed and each character’s vehicle feels different enough to make it worthwhile.

The array of weapons available are almost identical to those found in the Italian plumber version. It could be argued that there’s not much variation to be had in this type of game so there’s bound to be major similarities. That’s a fair enough suggestion but in truth I’m not bothered either way as long as it’s fun. The weapons work well and my favourite is the homing missile which results in a satisfying crash when it connects with an unfortunate opponent. Good times.

The tracks are very well designed, as I mentioned above, apart from the Monkey Ball track which I found to be an absolute disaster. I am not a Detective, well perhaps a part-time one, but it seems to me the Monkey Ball track is so different from the rest that Sega may have actually employed a monkey to create it for them. You know the type, coming over here and stealing our jobs because they’ll work for peanuts.

The graphics are gorgeous with vibrant colours and there’s a huge variety in the design of each track. I thought the sound effects may start to bother me after a while but I didn’t have any problems in that department. I even found the commentator, who provides regular updates on what’s happening in each race, to be a nice feature. I also really liked the theme music which accompanies the various character specific tracks in the game.

Long-term fans of Sega should enjoy driving around with some of their most familiar characters and if they happen to have kids it’s a nice way to introduce them to their relentless gaming addiction. Leave the negative Mario Kart comparisons to those who have taken their eye off what really matters and appreciate Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing for the fun game it is.

8/10

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