Team Sonic Racing Announced Ahead of E3

Published: May 31, 2018 11:43 PM /

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team sonic racing

Sonic has a long history of racing, as befits a character who has made his motto on the idea of going fast and whose bread and butter was being contrasted with Mario, who famously has his own karting series. Starting with Sonic Drift and its sequel on the Game Gear, and then Sonic R on the Saturn, there have been over 10 different racing games featuring Sega's spiky hedgehog with the most recent being Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed in 2012 by SUMO Digital. Teases began earlier this year, with them saying it wasn't a sequel to any previous Sonic game, but a logo that was distinctively reminiscent of Sonic R's well, R.

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/974760424271855617

The teasing finally came to an end recently with the announcement of Team Sonic Racing to be done by the same team that did the excellent Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed in Sumo Digital. Team Sonic Racing will, despite the tease of the R being like Sonic R, be another kart racer for the hedgehog and friends, although unlike in All-Stars they are staying entirely inside the Sonic universe this time. Let's take a look at the new trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZMkv8_w1yI&feature=youtu.be

While there's not a ton there it does show us some of what they say in the press release (I know, who'd imagine that!). Team Sonic Racing will feature team-based gameplay with 15 different characters from across the Sonic series, able to play in a variety of modes. In races of up to 12 players per match take part in games either on your own or with other people in either online or local-cop (yes, that's split-screen and it goes up to 4 players!) in different modes including Grand Prix, exhibition, time trial, and a story based adventure mode. Beyond the team concept which includes sharing power-ups and speed boosts, Team Sonic Racing also has wisps making their appearance to give the game distinctiveness. Wisps are filling the role of power-ups with 14 different ones providing boosts both offensively and defensively. Coins, as seemingly always in a Sonic game, also make an appearance.

There's also the requisite performance and skin customization for vehicles and the different characters can be split into distinct character types of Speed, Technique, and Power.

The fact that the game while teasing Sonic R, appears to have nothing to do with that game hasn't gone unnoted by many. In fact, Jon Burton director of Traveller's Tale and a programmer on Sonic R, who also runs the GameHut youtube channel, shared his disappointment that nothing seemed to indicate any tie-ins to Sonic R despite the tease and logo design drawing on the 21-year-old game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av07I2G6fkQ&t=0s

Team Sonic Racing is scheduled to release in Winter 2018 for PC (digital only), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

What are your thoughts on Team Sonic Racing? Do you wish it was closer to Sonic R? Can you explain why the world's fastest hedgehog and friends constantly use race cars? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


Don Parsons
| Senior Writer

A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don

More Info About This Game
Learn more about Team Sonic Racing
Game Page Team Sonic Racing
Developer
Sumo Digital
Publisher
SEGA
Release Date
May 21, 2019 (Calendar)
Genre
Racing
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