All this visual opulence does come at a slight cost, however. There are one or two minor hitches, but you’ll barely notice as you focus on staying ahead of some surprisingly competent AI rivals. It’s incredible the frame-rate manages to stay as solid as it does. Tracks are bright, expansive and hugely detailed. It’s a lovely-looking game, too, with lots of crash-bang-wallop effects, dazzling lights and sundry other visual tricks. Each level is filled with shortcuts and alternate routes and it’ll take several replays before you find them all. Even the Sonic stages, which you might expect to be the safest of the bunch, are filled with creative flourishes - from the barrier-free ribbon of undulating track in Galactic Parade that feels like a Rainbow Road tribute act to the crumbling masonry of Sanctuary Falls. An AfterBurner-themed stage sees you soar through skies before swooping down and drifting around an aircraft carrier, ready to line up your next take-off, while a Golden Axe track sees you plunging into a sea of gloopy orange lava. This makes for some truly adventurous tracks, many of which are entirely different on the second and third laps. At various scripted points the track will disappear beneath your wheels as Sega whispers in its best Doc Brown voice: “where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” You’ll hear a few brief metallic whirrs and clanks, accompanied by a vaguely familiar, Hasbro-baiting sound and your vehicle will either take to the skies or speed across the surface of the clearest, bluest waters you’ve seen since Wave Race. That’s because a good deal of the time you spend racing won’t be on a solid surface. Yet it turned out the difference these tweaks made to Nintendo’s beloved series were relatively subtle the changes here are, appropriately enough, much more transformative. After watching that initial E3 trailer of Mario Kart 7, showcasing its gliding and underwater sections, the folks at Sumo groaned: their idea had been well and truly gazumped. Of course, you could be forgiven at first for thinking the developer had been looking over Nintendo’s shoulder and copying its homework. For once, the Mario Kart comparisons aren't warranted.
Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed might have an unwieldy title, but it’s a beautiful, inventive racer that dares to be a little different.
Yet the ever-reliable Sumo Digital may just have changed all that. After the disappointing LittleBigPlanet Karting and the rather lightweight F1 Race Stars, it’s hardly been a banner year for kart racers.
We'll be covering the Vita, 3DS and Wii U versions soon. Editor's Note: This review covers Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game.
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