Warning: Anyone who's read my other blog, Arcade Throwback, will know I'm a massive fan of early Sega arcade games, so I apologise in advance if this review goes a bit too nerdy. Sorry.
20 years ago this year, Nintendo decided to take Mario, Luigi and company and put them into go-karts. Add in some twisting tracks, crazy weapons, a brilliant new graphical display called Mode 7 and most importantly, splitscreen multi-player and you had one of the best games ever made. Ever since, Nintendo has been iterating on the idea and other companies have been blatantly plagiarising it.
In 2009, Sega finally decided to get in on the act, with the help of premier racing developers, Sumo Digital from Sheffield. The result was Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing (or Sonic Racing for short). Let's be clear, this game had no new ideas and it did nothing we hadn't seen before countless times, but it had that sense of special Sega charm that we hadn't seen since their Dreamcast console disappeared in 2002. Our family loved it. So when Sega announced a follow-up that involved transforming vehicles, my son (who, like any self-respecting boy, loves Transformers) had to have it and this Christmas, Santa got it for him.
The roster almost doubled, but about half of the original cast has changed. Gone are all of the characters from House of the Dead, Chu Chu Rocket, Shenmue, Bonanza Bros, Fantasy Zone, Virtua Fighter and Billy Hatcher. It's testament to the strength of Sega's legendary brand that despite dropping all of those, they have been able to add characters from Golden Axe, NiGHTS into Dreams, Shinobi and Skies of Arcadia. There are also tracks based on a number of previously untouched franchises, including Panzar Dragoon. And that still leaves room for some very obvious additions should Sega decide to make another sequel (Space Harrier, anyone?). Previously, the Xbox 360 version got an exclusive character in the form of Banjo and Kazooie. This time, all of the platforms get exclusive characters, except the Playstation 3. That omission seems odd, surely they could have had Crash Bandicoot or Little Big Planet's Sackboy, but of course they both have their own karting games, one of which has only just been released. Perhaps stranger still is the fact the PC version gets 4 exclusives from such franchises as Total War, Team Fortress, Company of Heroes and Football Manager.
As far as my son was concerned, the first game out-karted Nintendo's legendary series. The combination of recognisable Sega environments, being able to spend in-game coins to unlock exactly what he wanted, an easier drift mechanic and the All-Star trump card meant he simply got more out of the game. Sonic Racing Transformed has all of that, but the game itself is a lot harder. Where as he could win every race in easy mode and hold his own in medium, even in easy mode he's failing to even qualify for the next cup. This is a big disappointment, as unlike the previous game, clocking up miles is not enough to unlock extras, you have to win races now.
Furthermore, the transformations do not add as much to the game as you'd think, especially the boats. If anything, the flying just makes an already hard game even harder. This is a shame when Diddy Kong Racing on the N64 mixed these three types of racing so brilliantly.
I'd like to tell you more about the game, but even I struggle to win races in easy and at this stage, I can see my son giving up and going back to Blur (which is effectively Mario Kart with real cars).
Verdict
The transformations add nothing to the formula, despite other games showing how this can be done, and the difficulty means younger kids will soon get bored. What a shame.
Recommended age: 10+ (because of the difficulty)
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