Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

I have strong opinions about couch racing nights, and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing earns its spot on that shortlist faster than you might expect for a 2010 console port. The pitch is simple: pick from 20 characters pulled across decades of Sega history, hop into vehicles ranging from sports cars and bikes to hovercrafts and monster trucks, and batter your friends across 24 colourful tracks themed on Sonic Heroes, Jet Set Radio Future, Super Monkey Ball, House of the Dead, Samba de Amigo, and Billy Hatcher. Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone, AiAi in his monkey ball, BD Joe from Crazy Taxi - the roster is a love letter to anyone who ever owned a Dreamcast, and that alone carries significant goodwill. The racing itself is tighter than the Metacritic score suggests. Controls snap cleanly, drifting builds boost (longer drifts bank more of it), and bikes add a wrinkle by enabling wheelies for bursts of speed at the cost of getting shoved around by heavier cars. Hovercrafts skip off-road terrain without losing speed and pull tricks faster, but handle sluggishly on tarmac. Vehicles genuinely feel different, which gives pick-up-and-play depth to what looks like a straightforward kart template. The All-Star moves are the highlight: each character activates a unique power tied to their franchise - Super Sonic, the Banana Blitz monkey ball barrage, Amy's hammer swing - and they're handed out preferentially to players running at the back, which keeps races alive. Items like the Pocket Rainbow (blocks the leading driver's view), the Confusion Star (flips their screen upside down), and the Mega Horn (spin-out blast) are fun to land even if they're not the most inventive selection. Single player offers Grand Prix across six cups at three difficulty levels, Time Trials, Single Race, and a Mission mode with over 50 bite-sized objectives - collect rings in a time limit, chain drifts, beat a rival from last place. Completing anything earns Sega Miles you spend in the in-game shop to unlock additional characters, tracks, and music. It is a clean progression loop that never gates content behind skill walls so steep that casual players bounce off. Hard AI is genuinely ruthless, though, so expect to get peppered with items and shoved off ramps if you push into the upper cups. Now for the couch question, which is the real one: split-screen works for up to four players and brings five modes - Free Race, Arena, King of the Hill, Collect the Emeralds, and Capture the Chao. That variety is a real bonus and makes this more than a one-trick party game. The caveat for the PC version specifically is that online multiplayer is absent entirely - console versions had online races, but the PC port shipped without it and never got it patched in. Framerate can also stutter during the opening lap of a race, a known loading quirk that typically smooths out once the session is rolling. Neither issue kills the fun but both are worth knowing before you boot it up expecting a polished modern port. If you and three mates already own controllers and want something that runs on practically any PC hardware, holds up for a full evening, and rewards Sega nerds with constant fan-service moments, this hits the mark. If online ranked play or a story mode matters to you, look at the sequel instead. For a pure local-multiplayer kart night, though, this one still earns its keep.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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