It is clear that during the past years, Nintendo has been holding the nro.1 spot go-kart racer market. There has been many attempts to usurp Mario Kart from its throne, but all the attempts has been clearly outmatched. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, however, provides a serious competitor. Which also means, that PS3 finally receives a good kart-game.

The first impression makes you feel like that Sega has taken the Mario Kart and gave it a good solid re-paint. It is bright, it has highly detailed tracks and cartoonish guns are blazing all over the tracks. The further you play the game, however, what is underneath reveals to be somewhat deeper experience.

Well-made SEGA experience

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing includes a heavy dose of Sega history pumped to the game, which even shows in the trophy list. The driving roster includes 20 characters including notorious names popping up in the Sega lore. While there are a good amount of characters, I still wish the see new ones in DLC, which I sincirely hope to see in the future.

The controls work like a charm and you won’t be crashing to the walls all the time, even when you’re doing the power-boosting drifting. The track design and visuals are very beautiful and detailed and I found myself finding “new stuff” when I’ve played some tracks over and over again. Tracks are good, full of twists, jumps, items and power boosts. Music tracks do their job well, and alltogether creates a nice mix.

The items work like in Mario Kart games – where you collect items along the road – but there are different objects: Missiles for red shells, land mines for bananas and green boxing gloves for green shells. The real tick is the All-star item, which work as a driver specific powerful power. Sonic turns to Super Sonic and so on. While they are very powerful items, they’re nothing to be considered overpowered. The items add just enough unpredictability to the game.

Good selection of characters

While the game is a solid experience I have to mention few things that I found to be a bit disappointing. The online gaming experience is very fun indeed, but there is no possibility for online tournaments. While racing is always fun, but tournaments are to my taste. It also takes a while to search for a online game, but I believe such issues will be patched. Then there is the track announcer, which you will eventually tire to listen, but NO WORRIES, this can be handled from options.

The Verdict:

All in all Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing offers a great Kart game formula, and really threats the Mario Kart’s throne. I know, that ModNation Racers is coming soon enough, but if you wish to enjoy a good kart-game experience, you don’t have to feel ashamed to spend the money here. If the DLC will include tournament mode, I can easily imagine spending countless hours with this piece and it is a game that you shouldn’t miss.

8.2 out of 10

Why so high? The game has smooth gameplay combined with speed! Well-designed courses offer lots of variety and there are good amount of characters to choose from. Racing against friends, online or offline, is simply fun!

Why so low? No tournaments! Online play is limited to just racing so no there are no grand prix tournaments among friends.