‘Team Sonic Racing’ Is a Team-Based ‘Mario Kart’

Jada Griffin
Games Nintendo
Games Nintendo Xbox PlayStation PC Gaming

Sonic is back at it again trying to compete with his rival Mario’s popular kart racing series. Team Sonic Racing is the newest addition to the Sonic racing series and it looks like it’s building upon its previous successes. There wasn’t a lot revealed for Team Sonic Racing during our demo time that we hadn’t already seen in the trailer but here are our first impressions.

Team Sonic Unite

First and foremost, Team Sonic Racing is now, as you’d imagine, a team game. Twelve racers separated into four teams of three will compete for glory. During our demo, our teams would comprise of preselected members in groups that you’d expect. Sonic, would always be partnered with Tails, and Knuckles and Shadow with Rouge, and E-123 Omega and the remaining NPCs would all be eggbots. There was plenty of space on the character select screen, so we expect to see many other favorites return such as Charmy Bee, Big the Kat, and of course, Sonic’s biggest fan Amy Rose.

While selecting characters, it appears as though the cars will look to either be interchangeable or at the very least customizable with three slots. Most likely the game seems to be imitating Mario Kart 8‘s formula of modifying your karts chassis, tires, and a third unknown component that will probably be unique to the series. Each racer’s stats varied from one another when comparing acceleration, traction, speed, and other information you’d expect to see in a racing game.

Behind the Wheel

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails kart racing.
Team Sonic going for the gold.

During our races, we tested out Shadow, Rouge, E-123 Omega and of course the blue blur himself, Sonic. Sonic and Shadow handled nearly identically, while Rouge was a bit slower but had better control when taking sharper turns. Meanwhile, Omega could knock other racers around with his weight and high speed. Other than this, there was very little difference between most of the racers during our demo.

There are plenty of traditional racing techniques called “team actions” added to the game, including drifting, drafting, and slingshotting. Drifting functions like other kart racing games, so not much change there. However, one feature involves every racer leaving behind a trail that teammates can follow to gain a small but beneficial boost of speed as long as they remain in it. These boosts can make the world of difference for allies who are struggling. They can also be used offensively for slingshot maneuvers to boost a teammate with a higher top speed that happens to be close enough behind you to swing out from behind you as they get near your bumper.  Enabling an ally to do this was great, but performing it ourselves felt even better.

Offense Is the Best Defense

Close up of Sonic in his traditional kart
If you're not first, you're last.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a kart racing title without the use of items. Team Sonic Racing had the items we’d expect, but also introduced a new way to utilize them. After picking one up, racers can decide whether to use it or offer it to an ally. If the teammate accepts, which they usually will, they receive a stronger version of the item, and the team gains a bonus to the team ultimate gauge.

Items we saw were simple boosts, missiles, and blocks. The blocks were our favorite as it allowed us to throw a mid-sized block on the map either in front or behind us similar to Mario Kart’s banana peels, but with a much higher impact. Now, as you perform various team actions, pick up rings, and donate items to allies, your team gauge will fill. After activating, it gives all three teammates a massive boost of speed to close the gap on opponents or further increase their lead.

Finishing each of our races, we saw the results screen begin to tally up the scores of our teams. While I only finished first in half of my races, my allies usually performed well enough to edge out the opposition and earn the gold trophy. It looked like as long as two of our team finished in the top three or four, generally, it didn’t matter where our third racer was unless they finished dead last.

Foot Off the Pedal

Sonic Drifting around a corner
Gotta go fast.

Based on the trailer and our talks with the team behind Team Sonic Racing, the game will feature single player and 12 player online multiplayer game modes and up to 4 players offline split-screen as well as Grand Prix, Exhibition mode, Time Trial, and the new Team adventure mode. Including the items mentioned earlier, there will be 14 total items to be used offensively or defensively and 15 characters from the Sonic Universe that will be classified into three groups: Speed, Technique, and Power.

Team Sonic Racing is looking to get players to focus on team play over selfishly getting first place. This is an exciting dynamic and could lead to some interesting competitive play in the future. The game is scheduled to release in winter 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.

Jada Griffin
As the Director of Client Partnerships, Gaming at FANDOM. Jada is an Avid Gamer who roots for villains in Games & Movies. Her main fandoms are Zelda, FF, DMC, D&D and most things Marvel/DC. She always Maxes STR & LCK and lives life on hard mode while searching for Pizza & the next difficulty level.