When we visited Sega’s booth at Summer Games Fest Play Days 2025, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance wasn’t the only thing we got our hands on; we also got a Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds hands-on preview, and with a new build. Sadly, this build did not have the newly announced characters of Joker, Ichiban, and Hatsune Miku, but it did have the Sonic Riders cast. We had the full cast of the playtest available, but we also had Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, and Storm the Albatross. The build I got my hands on at Summer Games Fest only had three Grand Prix available in single player.
You Are My Rival
The big highlight for me in this build of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds they showed off was the Rival mechanic. When you choose your character and you are shown to the Grand Prix screen, a screen will pop up with a random driver that will be seen as your rival. I played as Wave the Swallow and I used her in a giant bulldozer, while Shadow the Hedgehog appeared as my rival.
While during a race, it felt very chaotic but the focus I had was beating Shadow more than anything. I loved basically setting up traps in locations I could see Shadow coming. He also goes after you if he isn’t ahead of you and it can make things hectic but also very focused. I no longer cared about being first in the races, I just wanted to beat Shadow. I did manage to snag first place at the end of the grand prix but the thing that mattered to me more was beating Shadow and hearing him get upset that Wave was ahead of him.
That’s the interesting thing. These rivals can have unique dialogue based on who the rival is. I did the next Grand Prix and Amy Rose was my rival. She talked about keeping her boys in line with Wave responding back that they aren’t her boys.
One thing that was different in the races now than the playtests were the extra vehicle mechanics. There are large rings around the race maps that once you touch, can transform your car into a boat, or an airplane. These will take you on different routes or even above the race track entirely. If you miss the ring, you are stuck driving on the road.
Chaos Control
The bulk of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will be chaotic, like most racing kart games try to be. There are traps like magnets and spikes, and bombs racers can drop. You can be shot by shurikens or punching bags. You can be passed by CPUs using shortcuts you didn’t see or even know about. To make things worse, or better depending on who you are, there are red coins throughout each stage. You get more points for collecting more red coins.
Controlling the car and drifting felt rather nice. I played in a bulldozer with a lot of wide turns but drifting did make the turns easier to manage. It did make boating very fun though when you get a bulldozer boat. I customized my gadgets to get a higher chance of attack items or double boost items specifically. If you use a boost and hit a different car they lose rings, losing rings means they get a reduced max speed. So I was boosting and smashing into as many cars as I could find, though I generally reserved them for my Rival if they were close enough to me.
My Verdict
I do like that the Rival mechanic does make it less feel like a Mario Kart clone, and having it be confirmed with crossplay makes it more likely to retain a larger online community. I think Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will be a fun time, and having a large list of planned updates to the game can be a negative or a positive, depending on how much polish a game might need. It felt much more responsive and less buggy than the playtest, so I am hopeful. I don’t think you should compare it to Mario Kart World anyway, due to the extensive customization options for your kart and character’s kit.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will be released on all major consoles, including PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC (via Steam and Epic Games), and Nintendo Switch in 2025.
