Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (2012)

Sonic No All Star Racing Transformed Bad

Hi friends!! 👋🥹

This is a honest take regarding the game. Let’s just say it right off the bat, it’s decent… 🫩

I grew up playing Sonic All Star Racing which I find to be the most enjoyable racing I have ever played and a masterpiece on its own accord, regarding unique abilities and ultimate [All Star] a big variety of characters to choose from / from other franchise games from Sega.

The announcer and the soundtrack and the maps were all amazing, the trailer for this game still beats 2025 modern triple aaa games itself.

Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said about it’s second generation [transformed]. transformed is a awful mess, while the game did introduce us to many new characters some which were totally unexpected or even necessary.. 😐

Like Wreck It Ralph, while I don’t mind the big man Ralph it would have been way better if (Vanellope von Schweetz) would have been chosen. Not does she only fit the game aesthetic, she came from a racing game itself while Ralph came from a donkey Kong rip off… 😫 Massive let down 👎 this was probably done to promote the movie more I guess no idea.

There’s tons of weird and unexpected characters coming in, And tons of characters removed from the original game WHICH I HAVE NO IDEA AS TO WHY YOU WOULD DO THAT!!! Important characters from its own sonic franchise like, Silver, Blaze, cream, rouge, weren’t even added in transformed. Heck they removed big the cat 😂

But characters aside. The only good thing about this game was the new maps which were good, the announcer was okay the only funny thing is when you go to setting to mute him he will say no please don’t and try to convince you to keep him, the transformed part sucked 😬 The transforming into a boat is alright to change scenery and all, but transforming into a plane is hell 👹 the plane thing isn’t smooth so you can actually drift well… but that’s honestly for all the vehicles in this game.. The character optimization sucks as well since Metal Sonic is just ranked nr1 as character, other character stats don’t even make any sense, some character you’d expect to be way faster but get awful speed stats.

Soundtrack is non existent in this game as well, nothing really that catches you, the same for the all star part, it’s super duper cheaply made, it honestly should have never been a all star game just a Sonic Mario kart rip off.

Visuals wise it looks fine nothing any different, out of personal opinion I don’t find the game fun or deserves the praise it gets.. I feel like more people grew up with transformed than the original game, So out of there nostalgia opinion the game is the best in the series 😪 out of all bitterness aside.

I only enjoyed the new characters, some maps, and that’s pretty much about it… menu and the ui of this game is awful it doesn’t even look like a racing game and it doesn’t feel like a racing game.

The original game had menu aesthetic of a actual racing game, while this one does not.. Hell the difficulty in this game is plain weird, easy mode is always a win since the other racers don’t even drift…

than medium somehow becomes expert and time to time is even worse than the actual hard mode, and hard mode itself is blatant almost always either 2 place, or you get screwed up by the other racers L.O.L or the map itself, with stupid swarm aka bees been spawned and you’d have to avoid all of them… and getting hit in this game is a massive slow down so trying to get number 1 is a pain, And I only suck at the airplane thing lol the boat and car is easy to catch up.

But I have had too many instances were you got hit as a boat or airplane where it took massive amounts of time to get out of the hit and than trying to make speed again and than actually being on your way again but at that point you are either 7 or last place already…

Let’s finish this review off with Sonic All Star Racing Transformed wasn’t the game you’d expect from such a masterpiece as the original. As where the original was something unique and way different than a Mario kart game which is why it was amazing 🤩

PS I am that review that you desperately wanted to hear after all that transformed praising 😂

-CollectApk 21 May 2025 20:44

1st Playthrough: Reached credits through World Tour

• Unlocked all characters
• Finished all Mirror Grand Prix cups in A-class

2nd Playthrough [replay]: Placed 1st in five Grand Prix cups in A-class and OutRun Bay

Final thoughts: I personally think this game is REALLY good, even when commonly compared to Mario Kart 7/8. While the driving physics and art style is still more refined in Mario Kart 8, Transformed just has a much more stand-out of an identity to me when this game is like a celebration of SEGA's history akin to Super Smash Bros. The track design (for the most part, screw you Chilly Castle) and music remixes are INCREDIBLE, and it's really neat to see nearly every track representing an entire different franchise, with Race of AGES being an amazing homage race to everything else.

However when this game is hard... it's very hard! S-Class is some of the most unforgiving AI I've tried to race against. Also, I do feel rubberbanding feels very noticeable in this game especially in A/S-class difficulties.

Random nitpick but I do feel weird how OutRun, an actual racing game, got shafted in this game considering it's only represented as a DLC race (meaning it's unplayable in World Tour), and I guess the Wii U exclusive Mii's car if you count it. I find this strange considering Sumo Digital literally ported OutRun 2 to consoles way earlier.

I had no idea what this was, but it's Mario Kart with Sonic characters. The CGI in the opening cinematic is really good for 2012 and the game itself looks nice as well. The races have multiple paths with interesting obstacles. The transforming vehicles work seamlessly. It also runs in 4K.

Now for the bad stuff. The music is truly awful. The announcer makes me want to punch his face. The UI is dreadful, you have to go through 5-6 screens before you get to race. Easy difficulty is super-easy, normal difficulty is too hard in comparison. The third race is some godawful drifting thing that made me quit the game. I want to race, i don't want to drift. The racing itself is 100% arcadey, you don't really feel like you're racing in a car.

Worst of all, the controls aren't shown anywhere in the game - you have to launch the settings utility to see and change them. After i had changed the resolution to 4K and set the default controller to keyboard (without changing any controls), suddenly i couldn't turn right anymore?

Get a proper racing game like Dirt or Grid instead.