Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a dazzling experience, in every sense of the word. This upcoming kart racer has it all. Bright, shiny tracks with vast and impressive scopes. Gadgets and gear that fling you ahead of the pack, or let you unleash devastation on your opponents. Even magical portals that suddenly fling you to the Jurassic era, or to an active volcano. With a breakneck pace and very cool ideas, it’s an impressive kart racer that could be the next big Mario Kart competitor.
It’s funny. Despite the years Mario Kart has been around, there’s been rarely a kart racing game that’s come close to touching this franchise. Something in the pacing, colour, and charm of Mario Kart has stood out across decades. There’s an intangible razzle-dazzle that’s been missing from the franchise’s pale imitators.
After spending a week with Mario Kart World on Nintendo Switch 2, and hopping directly into Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds in a recent hands-on preview, I’m convinced this game has the razzle-dazzle it needs.
Picking from a range of racers, including some Sonic the Hedgehog deep cuts – I chose Shadow, of course – you can take to the tracks for Grand Prix races, as well as Time Attacks. One mode called ‘Race Park’ indicates there’ll be new ways to play beyond racing and sliding your way to victory, although I wasn’t able to get hands-on with this during my preview.
Grand Prix, even with only a handful of demo tracks available, proved to be magical. Across three multi-track races, I drove with dinosaurs, charted a museum, avoided lava dragons, and explored modern Greece. The courses in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds are all very different from each other, which makes its warping system feel so much more discombobulating.
In each track, you’ll discover roaming portals, which may bring you to a set world, or a random one. One moment you’re gazing at dinosaur skeletons on display in an immaculate museum, and the next you’re trying to avoid getting chomped by real ones, in a deep jungle.
These portals can warp you anywhere, with a Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart-style portal transition flinging you across regions. It spices up each race considerably, ensuring you’re more on your toes, particularly as environmental and opponent hazards approach.
What gets you really locked-in during Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds are those aforementioned opponents. They’ve got real personality in this game, which I feel is something Mario Kart actually lacks. In each race, you’ll have a specific rival to beat, and they’ll speak to your character directly, taunting them, or pleading with them, throughout each race.
Read: Mario Kart World review: a familiar formula made fresh
In one particular match, my rival was Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese) and in each race, she’d beg me to slow down and let her overtake, attempting to use her charms to persuade me to slow down. Reader, I did not. I trounced Cream on multiple tracks, while she begged for mercy. Did I feel a bit bad? Surely. But mostly, it made me prouder of my progress, and more determined to plow ahead.
On a harsher difficulty, I faced off with Wave the Swallow, who was a lot meaner in her approach. Every race started with her doing tricks and taunting Shadow, telling me I couldn’t win because she was better than me, and I knew it.
Sadly, this did prove to be the case, and tail between my legs, I had to push the difficulty down – but it did prove the rival system’s value. I was charged up with a desire to destroy Wave on the race track, and every drift I pulled off, every sharp corner I took, was motivated by that desire.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds – Release Date Trailer
The game does give you every opportunity to strive for greatness, at least, with a racing system that rewards precision and planning. The racing is very similar to that of Mario Kart. It’s all fast-paced manoeuvring, taking corners with drifts where possible, pulling off tricks for speed boosts, and deploying items to temporarily disrupt your opponents.
I will say the controls felt a bit floatier than Mario Kart, by virtue of me going directly from one game to the other. There’s a bit more leniency when a drift starts, so you’ll need to readjust your alignment if you’ve got muscle memory for other racers. It also felt like the gadget and item selection was a bit more limited – although it’s worth noting I was playing a pre-release demo, and there’s likely to be more options in the full game.
With this racing system, and my past experiences with Mario Kart on board, I was able to blitz through Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, marvelling at the grandeur and ambition on show. This is a game that takes the base principles of the Sonic Racing series – most obviously Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed, with its transitions between land, sea, and air – for an entirely new, more chaotic spin. The game has a strong lineup of characters, ultra-cool tracks, and well-designed racing mechanics.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has impressed me in its first showing. It could very well be the next big Sonic Racing game, and the next big kart racer, rewarding patient fans who’ve long awaited a strong competitor.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is set to launch on 25 September 2025.
