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POSTED
23/11/12
SONIC & ALL-STARS RACING TRANSFORMED
SEGA
PS3 (also on Xbox 360, Wii U)
We
don’t wish to alarm anybody, but Sonic is dead.
Why such a seemingly outrageous claim, especially in light of this
apparent new starring role for the bluest of blue hedgehogical
zippy-shoeses? Well, think about it. He’s the fastest thing pretty
much ever, right? So why does he need a kart? Huh? Huh?!
Obviously it’s an impostor filling in. Maybe it’s Paul McCartney in
a Sonic suit? Anyway, it doesn’t matter, ’cos this racer is fucking
fantastic.
The almost as ungainly-titled
SEGA & Sonic All-Stars
Racing was great, but this one’s brought to you by the
letters ‘E’ and ‘R’, sticky-taped to the end of that ‘great’. You
zip around as any of 20-plus characters – some returning, some in
race suit debuts - upon tracks based on classic SEGAness from the
obvious like Sonic to the anything-but like Skies of
Arcadia, with stops including Golden Axe and
NiGHTS into Dreams in-between. But there’s a twist...
Your car thingy dutifully metamorphoses into a plane thingy or boat
thingy at certain junctures involving big transformimacating blue
ringy-thingies. So, you’ve Power Drift becoming After
Burner becoming Hydro Thunder. The ‘driving’ vibe
obviously changes, but one brilliant thing remains, and that’s the
driftability. Master it and you can hit much of the track in a
constant, finely-tuned slide – on ground, at sea or in the air.
Burnouts in space!
Soloist modes are plentiful, plus four can race simultaneously
locally, or up to 10 can go nuts online. Weapons are plentiful –
from puffy fish to bee swarms (!).
A scintillating karting experience, the key to S&ART’s
success is feel. There may be no construction kit, or stupid
real-life drivers (although inexplicably Go Daddy flogger Danica
Patrick pops up), but this sucks you in with sheer playability –
which is what racing should always first and foremost be about.
RIP Sonic – knowing that your doppelganger’s doing alright.
  
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