A classic game for you today. One that many players have never had the chance to play, but one that die hard Sonic the Hedgehog fans would be smart to seek out.
In the late 1990s the mascot racer was a big thing with Mario Kart 64 dominating multiplayer game sessions, and the likes of Crash Bandicoot, Diddy Kong, Bomberman and even Atari Karts getting in on the action. With Sonic known for his speed, it was a natural for everyone’s favourite blue blur to speed into a race.
The truth is there had already been two Sonic kart racers released on the Sega Game Gear, in the Sonic Drift titles, and whilst these were ok for handheld games, they weren’t the Mario Kart beater that Sega fans wanted.
Enter Sonic R. Released on the Sega Saturn, the game changed things up with most characters running on their feet instead of being in karts. In fact, only Amy Rose is in a traditional Kart, with Dr Robotnik also being in a vehicle. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and a few unlockable characters all race on their feet.
The game plays somewhere between a kart racer and a 3D platformer, and whilst I like the game a lot, truthfully it doesn’t play as a great example of either genre. The characters control more like they are cars for the most part and this is a bit odd considering they are mostly on foot. It is cool that they do have their usual moves from the platform games though. Tails and fly and Knuckles can glide.
You still collect rings and have the challenge to pick up coins and chaos emeralds. It’s like a super charged version of 3D bonus stages from the likes of Sonic 2 on the Sega Mega Drive.
The biggest let down of the game is that there are only five stages.
The theme music on the title screen is iconic. Some may not like the sung sonic intro, but I genuinely love it, and the songs for each track. It was a way that the Sonic series was upgraded with this move to the 32-bit console. One weird thing is that the title song is called Super Sonic Racing – even though that’s not the name. It makes me wonder if the game was at one stage going to be called Super Sonic Racing.
There is a shiny R on the title screen which you can spin. The shiny R you can spin on the title screen is cool, and was a neat little touch that you started getting in this era where you could move the Star Fox logo in Lylat Wars and pulling Mario’s face in Super Mario 64.
When the game starts you can play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose. You can see that there are five characters to unlock and that one of them is Dr Robotnik…and yes, I’m saying Doctor Robotnik because this was before Sonic Adventure released and everyone started calling him Doctor Eggman.
The stages are fantastic looking for a Saturn game. There are the first examples of fully 3D Sonic loops to run around and they have loads more rings to pick up from the multiple laps and also because in 3D they can offer more than one layer of rings.
If you pick up enough rings, you’ll see doors mid-way in the track that can be opened for a short cut. At the time this released this game felt so much more like a proper 3D environment than you found on Mario Kart 64. Even though that game had a lot more tracks, these felt like stages from Super Mario 64 with multiple paths and secrets to find.
There are five Sonic coins in each stage and also a chaos emerald that you’ll be trying to pick up. If you come first in Resort Island, you’ll get the chance to unlock Metal Sonic if you can beat him in a one on one race. This instantly tells you that not only are you aiming to come first in each race, but that you’ll want to do multiple play throughs to unlock all the characters.
Beating the other stages, which include Radical City, and Regal Ruin will likewise give you the chance to unlock additional characters like Puppet Tails and Metal Knuckles…or whatever the other was. It’s strange that this game is from an era where there was no Shadow or Silver the Hedgehog and no Cream the Rabbit. Also strange then that they didn’t bring in Vector the Crocodile or the other newer characters from Knuckles Chaotix, although I guess this may have started development just as that game was releasing.
It’s a shame that the game’s main mode is called Grand Prix, but you just tackle one track at a time and don’t have a mode where you race across each of them to build up points like you get in other racing games. With just five tracks it’s understandable, but they could have added more to the game if there had been two cups with one being normal mode and the other being mirror mode cup.
Even though this game is a racing game there is something about the exploration and wider levels that make this feel a better 3D Sonic platformer than his actual 3D games often do.
I think this game would have been better if Sonic had controlled more like he does in the Sonic World stage in Sonic Jam. Super Mario 64 has a few stages that feature foot races and I think there is still to this day a lot more room for games that are racing games but that they basically play with 3D platformer controls.
If I could make one change to the game, it would be to have an action button be used to run forward like on a driving game as keeping your finger on he up button whilst also tilting your thumb left or right to change directions can begin to hurt after a while. I imagine if you can remap the controls this will make a world of difference.
I also like that the game is kinda uneven in that Amy is in a kart, Robotnik can shoot and the other characters are on foot, some can fly and it just being a wacky races style event where it’s a completely uneven and unequal playing field.
Having most of the unlockable characters just be metal versions of characters is a bit of a shame as they could have included a badnik or boss from a past game, or like I already said, even used someone like Vector the crocodile from Knuckles Chaotix which was still relatively new at that time.
The last level Radiant Emerald is perhaps the most samey visually, but that is because they were trying to go for that Mario Kart Rainbow Road level of cool look with the transparent emerald look of the stage.
This final stage almost feels like a bonus unlockable in itself as there are no Sonic coins or chaos emerald to find.
The last couple of bonus characters are Eggman and Super Sonic who is much faster and just glides along the track. You feel very over powered once you have Super Sonic.
The game did find its way into PC at the time, and thanks to this it did also later find its way into the Sonic Gems Collection, but hasn’t been seen since. I’d love to see a new version rereleased on modern platforms. Either just a straight port, or something of an update or sequel with new tracks and characters.
How would you rate this game? Let us know by rating it with you score out of five stars below!
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