Sometimes, gaming likes to throw out certain “ironies” that people either didn’t see coming, or we see coming…and we kind of know the result of what’s about to happen. For example, gaming “rivalries” between both companies and franchises happen all the time. Yet, some rivalries are very one-sided, and when those franchises clash, the winner can straight-up dominate its competition. In this year’s case, we’re talking about Sonic Racing CrossWorlds and Mario Kart World. Mario & Sonic have been going at it for decades, and with the success of the Nintendo Switch 2, Mario’s newest racing title is guaranteed to put up big numbers.
And that brings us to Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, which had a big presence over the weekend, when a new trailer highlighted new racers like Joker from Persona 5, Ichiban from Like a Dragon, and even Hatsune Miku! Yet, will people try the game out in large numbers, considering the competition? In a chat with VGC, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka noted that the two games are “fundamentally different” because of the focus the teams had. Nintendo’s team focused on making the grand, open-world stages, while SEGA wanted to improve on what came before:
“The whole focus about what we wanted to do from the very beginning was about taking that racing game and improving it and modernizing it and putting all these new, fun, crazy ideas into what a racing game could be, and developing that as our product. So even from the conceptual level, I think both of the titles are going in different directions and offering different experiences to people, so the design itself is fundamentally different.”
Ironically, the game will be on the original Switch when it launches on September 25th, but won’t come to Switch 2 until a bit later. How well the game sells, especially compared to Mario Kart World, will be something to look out for.
