I didn't expect much coming into this game but I've been pleasantly surprised at how good this game is. For the uninitiated, Team Sonic Racing is the first racing game since 2012's incredible Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed. While Sumo Digital still is at the helm for this title, this new installment in the unofficial Sonic Racing Trilogy ditches all of the "All Stars" stuff and embraces the Sonic Universe. While having a racing game completely centered on Sonic is fine, since there is a lot of material in terms of characters and stages, it still feels like a step back from Transformed in terms of level design and character selection. However, if you embrace the game like a Sonic title instead of a SEGA one, then I think you'll find the experience much better.
Gameplay in TSR is completely centered around team based racing. Being first individually in a race doesn't matter in this game, as most of the mechanics are balanced around supporting your team and winning the race together by coming in first in the team ranking for that race. While it might seem complicated at a glance, the game's flow is still fast and simple, and taking care of your team isn't as difficult as it seems.
There are three types of racer in the game. Speed types are often the fastest and emit a little AOE effect everytime you come out of a drift that destroys any items in your immediate area. Tech types have better handling and they don't lose speed when off course, meaning that there are some parts in racetracks where only tech characters can take advantage of. The last type of racer is the Power type, which have the ability to smash through barriers in order to either clear the way without losing speed or open up new pathways. Each type feels different enough around their abilities but I personally stuck to the speed types since they do a very good job of staying in front of the back and providing support to help your team catch up.
In terms of the racing, you can drift and emit a little trail which your AI teammates will follow, giving them an enormous boost of speed and making them catch up if they're lagging behind, or if you or another teammate gets hit with a hazard or item, they'll come beside you to give you a Skimboost which instantly makes you come back into the race at godspeed. It's actually really cool having teammates constantly boost you up, and if used correctly, you and your teammates can completely demolish a race. Also, there are opportunities where you can offer your teammates an item and they can do the same. That combined with the above techniques build an ultimate meter, which activates your team ultimate, which gives you a boost of speed and invincibility. During this you can crash into other racers to try to extend the time in which you are in said ultimate. However, the AI is no joke during the story mode, since there were some races where I had to retry at the normal difficulty.
Other than the teamplay, there isn't much to say about a kart racer at this point, there's cars, drifting, items, and a whole lot of fun to be had with the local multiplayer. On the PC version, unfortunately the online is kind of busted, with server issues and frequent disconnections from the game. Sumo is working on improving the online experience, however I don't think I'll be touching it for a while.
The track design is decent, there are some tracks that are lifted from Transformed, the most notable being one of the Seaside Hill tracks. There are around 4 themes, with 4 tracks being used in said themes, kind of like an Zone/Act kind of system harking back to the level system in mainline Sonic games. The track themselves look beautiful, and the themes are nothing short of pure eye candy. My favorite track in the entire game is Sky Road, which has one of the best track BGM of the entire game and the concept of you literally driving above the skies of Spagonia is literally nothing short of pure ecstasy. It's easily the best track in the game, and that says a lot because I enjoyed most of the tracks, some of the Planet Wisp and Final Fortress tracks seem uninspired to me but I wouldn't mind racing on them if they came on online. The only detriment was that there's not enough diversity between tracks, and a lot of them end up feeling the same.
The story is split up into 7 chapters, I'm not going to get into a huge story breakdown because this is a Sonic game after all, but the story has enough races and challenges to keep you interested for the first 4 or so chapters. Chapter 5 onwards personally became a slog for me, since most of the tracks had been exhausted and kept depending on mirror versions to shake the game up a bit. However it teaches the mechanics and systems of the game perfectly, and I recommend playing through just enough to learn the game, and come back if you really want to play it, since it's the only way you can play Grand Prix courses in the entire game.
Character selection is basic, but most of the major players of the franchise are here, except for a couple of noticeable standouts, like Espio and Charmy, although they are mentioned in the events of the game. The cars for each character can be customized completely with parts that change their attributes or simple cosmetics ranging to wheels to hood ornaments to even the ability to change the sound of the horn. I didn't delve too much into it, but you earn these parts by buying little gatcha balls of parts that are purchased using credits, which you can only earn by racing in the game. There are no microtransactions to buy any, and I heavily respect Sumo and SEGA for making that decision.
The final part I want to touch on is the music, which is absolutely sublime. Jun Senoue comes back for the first time since Sonic Generations and his touch is known on the soundtrack, collaborating with the usual people in the SEGA Sound Team as well as Hyper Potions and Tee Lopes of Sonic Mania fame. The music has the familiar rock we know and love and along with original tracks that were developed for the soundtrack (Sky Road being a standout), there are remixes of music from earlier games. I never though Sand Hill, a minigame stage with some heavily underrated music would have a fully blown stage with an amazing remix to boot. I recommend listening to the soundtrack on your spare time. It's absolutely one if not the best part of the game and it's available on streaming services and digital stores!
TSR is a pleasant surprise and a game that all Sonic fans should play. It's not as in depth as Transformed, but I think there is a seriously solid foundation in this game, and if a sequel is announced, I think they're able to run wild with the concepts as they did with Transformed. For the story I managed to get through the game within 6 hours, doing some side missions for the first half of the adventure mode and then gunning straight to the end right after. Highly recommended.
