The genre of Kart racing has been primarily dominated by another well-known mascot in the video game industry. Sega is hoping to change that though with the release of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. The game is an easy to pick up and play kart-racing game from Sega that utilizes their wide library of characters and classic game icons and music to create the fun atmosphere for the racing game.

The games primary draw is the Grand Prix Cup Races that have three varying difficulties to conquer, Beginner, Advanced and Expert. From there you play through one of the six different Cups to race for, each a throwback to one of the characters or an iconic Sega game, each cup has four races that you will compete in to win the prize. Dependant on the finishing position you receive at each race you will be tallied with a number ranging from 1-10 (10 being first place) and will be added to your overall point value for the cup. The one with the most points at the end of the four races is deemed the winner. This system is clearly the same as Mario Kart but, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Besides the Grand Prix races there are Single Races where you can have fun and just try out all the tracks and characters, Mission Mode where you are given certain objectives and have a set amount of time to achieve them and are ranked a grade between AAA and E at the end of each, and Time Trial where you go through all the games courses you have unlocked to get the best times on them for your personal and online leaderboards as well as beating the staff ghosts from Sega.

Now, all that and one would say that’s a very solid single player experience, which it is but lets not forget this is 2010, so “Where’s My Multiplayer?” well this game has got it, in spades. It has online leaderboards as mentioned earlier, as well as online versus, a great lobby system and 4-player split screen offline. For all the trophy and achievement fanatics like myself, the game has rewards for online mode, but they are far from boring (hit 100 players with items online).  Like most online games, this is a lot more fun with some friends who have the game, the split screen is something that’s a welcomed addition to it, and if you got siblings or friends that like to come over and play the game you will have fun for hours. I played the game with some friends and we had a blast. Battle, King Of The Hill, Collect The Emeralds, and Arena were only some of the modes available for split screen play. The amount of time spent unlocking characters and trying out all the modes will bring you countless hours of fun to you and your friends.

The controls are great and simple for anyone in the whole family to pick up and play (I played it on the PS3 so can’t speak for the other two systems but I can suspect the controls are just the same on 360). Graphics are perfect for what they were aiming for, very crisp and the colors are eye-popping gorgeous. Track designs are amazingly original and as expected, true to the source material and make fans all the more joyful. Every play the tracks feel different with the varying missions and races.

The draw will be primarily for young adults, but I would recommend this game for anyone who wants a great racing to game to play with some friends online or if you have kids yourself. It’s a fun pick up game for anyone in the whole family, and all the things to collect and unlock ranging from twenty-four tracks, forty music tracks, and over twenty characters. All you can unlock with the games currency that are earned by getting Sega Miles which you can earn through all of the games modes and online. The game keeps track of your achievements/trophy progress as well as your licence, which upgrades as you earn more miles. Fun and addictive, Sonic & Sega All-Stars will keep you busy for a good while and satisfy any retro fan of Sega.
On a special side note, two versions of the game have exclusive racers. Xbox 360 has Banjo Kazooie and your created Avatar where the Wii has your created Mii character. On March 16th DLC was released on Xbox to unlock all characters. It is currently unknown at press time if the DLC will be released on PS3, or if there will be any future DLC.