I’ve finally managed to grab the new Sonic racing title! Crossworlds always looked like a lot of fun. At the same time, it’s a bit hard to justify getting any racing game for $60. Fortunately it was on sale for $20 for Prime Day and that’s when I realized that this would be the perfect time to take the plunge. The game definitely holds up and really has a lot of content built in throughout the game. There are just so many characters, stages, and items here.

Naturally I went through the grand prix mode first. There are 8 tournaments and then you can play them all again in mirror mode. Each race will really push you to your limit as you try to come in first. There are quite a few speed levels in the game and the faster you go, the smarter the A.I. gets. So you will really want to keep that in mind here. It would be nice if you could jump right to the highest speed but you have to beat all cups on a lower speed to unlock the higher one. The gam is really made to force you to play it over and over a lot.

I think that can be a little annoying with how direct the game is about this. It has enough content where it doesn’t need to artificially extend it like that. At least if you ask me that was unnecessary. I did have fun beating all of the cups and am nearly done with beating them all a second time. You will really learn the ropes by the time you’re done with this. It’s also worth noting that the game starts you off with driving assistant on by default. Basically this prevents you from crashing or falling off a stage.

It’s nice as a form of training wheels and the catch is that this makes it impossible to get some of the red rings. If you want to get all of the collectibles then you’re going to have to work hard and drive on your own. I thought that was a pretty fair way to do things. You need to pay some price if you’re using an assistant like this.

Of course aside from the grand prix selection there are a lot of other modes. You have time attack mode and free racing. Then there is the racing park which has minigames that you can play. There is also the online races of course and thanks to the free PS+ weekend I actually got to check that out. It is really fun to play against other players online. I was surprised that the cars keep their customizations and items though. I suppose that means there will be an actual tierlist in the Crossworlds meta.

You can also use the online as a way to play the new DLC stages that you haven’t actually purchased yet. I’m glad that it doesn’t just lock them out or anything. The game makes sure to keep them tempting at all times with how the locked characters/stages will stay on your homescreen though. Basically the game is reminding you not to forget about all of this. The prices aren’t bad so if you really enjoy the game then you should consider buying everything. Personally I just don’t buy DLC very often at all.

As for the graphics, the game definitely holds up really well. The colors are super sharp at all times and there is a lot going on within the matches. The items are all really fun to watch even if they can be hard to keep track of at first. This game prides itself on being chaotic and lives up to that reputation. Especially on the faster speeds where things are really moving.

The soundtrack is also really good. There are a ton of remixes here so as long as you enjoy Sonic music then you will have a great time here. The main theme may not be the greatest Sonic tune that we’ve had but it’s still catchy. I was mainly listening to that tune while writing this review. You do feel like you’re about to get on a grand adventure. There is a lot of replay value here between the multiplayer mode and all of the online features. This is a game that will clearly keep on being supported for a very long while.

The customization also adds a whole other layer to the title. You basically have to try and get a ton of customizable equipment throughout the game and then see what you like to use the most. You’ve got tons of cars, wheels, horns, etc. For now I haven’t spent too much time on this and just picked the Shadow car with whatever items I had on hand. For the pre set boosts I picked extra rings and boosters. Generally I’m just not a big customizations guy. I’ll use whatever you’ve got and then go on to have a blast. It may come back to bite me in online races but that’s just how it goes.

The game has a pretty detailed tutorial so don’t be afraid to check that out if you feel a bit overwhelmed at first. Since this game is still getting updates, you will get a ton of pop ups when you first turn the game on. That is completely normal though. I unlocked over 10 characters and about 40+ items when the game first loaded. It’s honestly pretty exciting because it shows you how much free DLC the game got before it moves onto the paid model. Sure it’s probably a tactic to make you more willing to spend but since that tactic helps the player out, I’m totally cool with it.

Overall, I definitely recommend this game. It puts the racing genre to great use and pushes the genre about as far as it could go. I do wish we had a story mode though. Even a barebones one would have been nice just to have had something on the single player side. I suppose it just wasn’t meant to be in this case. A racing game doesn’t need one but it’s a little cherry on top of the package. As long as you like the genre then you should check this one out right away. I don’t see very many racing games coming close to this one anytime soon. It goes without saying but I would even put this one above Mario Kart World.

Overall 8/10