Sonic Racing CrossWorlds Is Pretty Cool
	2025 August 30
	Current Mood:	longposting is HARD, even about my special interests
	Now Playing:	forever ☆ - Competizione

Yesterday I was playing the Network Test Demo of Sonic Racing CrossWorlds and it was such a great time that I decided to write a post about it while the Network Test is still going and maybe you'll get a chance to check it out, too.

I am a huge fan of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. In my books no other kart racing game ever comes close to it: it has a very fun (sometimes ridiculous /pos) roster of playable characters, it's very fast, it has chaotic track designs (including some amazing dynamic ones, like the Skies of Arcadia one), a room-based online multiplayer that is still playable on Steam, and a fun singleplayer campaign with silly missions that can be played in couch co-op.

The trailers and gameplay videos for CrossWorlds that I watched on youtube reminded me more of Team Sonic Racing, that I have colder feelings for: slower speed, wider and straighter roads, some compromise of customization. I didn't think I was going to pick up CrossWorlds on its release date, especially for one of those new AAA prices.

Then I played the CrossWorlds demo at gamescom 2025 on the press day.

It was pretty crowded, but the queue moved fast, so after some waiting I sat down in front of a screen and got my (personal) headphones out to connect them to the PS5 controller that was there — oops, my minijack connector was too short to connect properly, because there was a security contraption in the way that protected the PS5 controller from getting stolen. So I wiped their own provided headphones with disinfectant wipes and tried to connect those — that had better results, but still the headphones kept losing signal if I didn't hold the connected minijack at a specific angle. Okay, I could work with that. Then I went to settings, turned off assist modes, turned up master volume and music volume, and started playing the grand prix cup that had the Apotos racetrack. In case you are wondering why so much hassle with headphones for a gamescom demo — I really like the remix that plays in the Apotos stage [youtube ]! Typically for me, I chose to play as Wave on an Extreme Gear board, then I chose "Sonic Speed" difficulty (should be somewhere around 150cc in Mario Kart) and.. I couldn't beat a Lvl. 3 rival x___x I came second in that grand prix.

The game still felt slow for some reason (I will figure out the reason later in this post), but the tracks felt nowhere as wide and straight as in Team Sonic Racing. Items also didn't feel as constant punishment mess. The game felt nice, but not really exciting.

Then SEGA announced the second Network Test for CrossWorlds that this time had both Switch 1 and Steam on the list, so me and my partner could finally check it out at home. They generously allowed to pre-download the game build, which led to hilarious mods that unlocked not only the intended singleplayer part of the demo, but also the two locked grand prix stages that were only there because their racetracks were supposed to be played online. Someone also made a VR mod [youtube].

I tried the Switch 1 version of the demo first, and, surprisingly, it runs well and looks very nice (the magic of upscaling and anti-aliasing...). I chose Wave with an Extreme Gear board again, and lost the grand prix again, this time to Lvl. 3 Rival Eggman. The game didn't feel slow at the Sonic Speed difficulty now though — I turned on Dynamic Camera in game settings. Then I customized my board, added some nice colors and decals. Then I made a nice Handling type car for Wave and won the grand prix against Lvl. 2 Rival Shadow.

Okay, so now we are getting to the part where I fell in love with the game: Character Builds with Vehicle Customisation + Gadgets. The reason you might not get into the game instantly is because you have to unlock all the slots in your Gadget Plate and most of the available in the demo Gadgets to really start configuring your character build and experiment with vehicle types. To unlock this stuff, instead of playing the only available grand prix over and over again (I don't like the pressure of championship modes and also Rivals are TOO TOUGH AND RUDE) or playing online (the game kept disconnecting me every time I tried to start an online race), I went for the game mode I was most excited about — Time Trials with Ranks. This fucking mode gave me the best of Trackmania vibes: I had to spend at least 20 minutes to get the A rank on E-Stadium, and to do that I had to actually watch one of the top 100 ghost replays that the game lets you download and just watch. Time Trials in CrossWorlds feel so fun, because the racetracks are pretty short, and every final lap is always different in some way and usually introduces a new path or a shortcut. So, after unlocking new Gadgets and all of the slots in my Gadget Plate I was able to build my Wave with an Extreme Gear board in a way that really felt like I was playing a new Sonic Riders game, while everyone else was playing something else.

And on top of it all, I was actually able to play the online mode later in the evening when the servers got more stable (I guess?) with my partner playing (on Steam) with me in the same "Squad Lobby" — CROSSPLAY RULES AAAAAA. Up to 4 players can join the squad lobby and just connect together to matchmaking!

One small surprising thing that blew me away when playing online matches: turns out, the second crossworld lap of the race can be any of the second laps of the normal racetracks. Choosing a random second lap while being 1st in the race and then realising that it's loading E-Stadium that you've spent like half and hour mastering earlier feels so good. Oh, you can also do Time Trials on crossworld racetracks!!

I just feel like it's such a bold move by SEGA to simply release a big part of the game for basically everyone to check out and play online with friends for a while, one month before the game release. I knooow they need this event to stress test the servers, but, really, there's no better advertising than just letting everyone play the damn game and decide for themselves.

My CrossWorlds ID is 217-424-4492