OK, I tried to give this one a chance. I put a good few hours into trying to learn the gameplay. I don't like being harsh on things, and I tried my absolute hardest to go in with an open mind.
But my GOD, this game is putrid.
The soundtrack slaps, yes. The presentation is good, and the low-poly environments and models have a ton of charm. But that's ALL I can say that's positive. The gameplay, which is the core of a racing game by the way, is fucking HORRIBLE. You barely have any control over yourself, the player's momentum is somehow both super stiff and super slippery, and turning barely fucking works, forcing you to jerk yourself into a super wide turn well before you actually get to that point on the track, almost always leading to overshooting and going off the track. Oh, and speaking of the tracks, they're WAY too thin for a racing game. They're just barely wide enough for four people, let alone however many NPCs the game plans on throwing on the track later on. There's constant sharp turns in crowded flooring, and going off for even two seconds can completely ruin a run and put you 3 places below.
You think this is a traditional racing game so far, right? NOPE. The tracks are littered with collectibles and gates, which are required to collect to unlock new tracks and characters. You have to memorize where these are, meet their requirements and collect them, ALL while ensuring you stay in first place, because if you aren't then the current race doesn't count. It's an actual fucking mess.
As a longtime Sonic fan who played a ton of what are considered the "worst" in the series... Yeah, I even enjoyed Sonic 06 more than this one. There's SO many better racing games, even from and before the time this released, so I just have to ask...why? How did you screw up an established concept this badly? This now sits alongside Sonic 4 as one of the only Sonic games I will never be returning to.
But my GOD, this game is putrid.
The soundtrack slaps, yes. The presentation is good, and the low-poly environments and models have a ton of charm. But that's ALL I can say that's positive. The gameplay, which is the core of a racing game by the way, is fucking HORRIBLE. You barely have any control over yourself, the player's momentum is somehow both super stiff and super slippery, and turning barely fucking works, forcing you to jerk yourself into a super wide turn well before you actually get to that point on the track, almost always leading to overshooting and going off the track. Oh, and speaking of the tracks, they're WAY too thin for a racing game. They're just barely wide enough for four people, let alone however many NPCs the game plans on throwing on the track later on. There's constant sharp turns in crowded flooring, and going off for even two seconds can completely ruin a run and put you 3 places below.
You think this is a traditional racing game so far, right? NOPE. The tracks are littered with collectibles and gates, which are required to collect to unlock new tracks and characters. You have to memorize where these are, meet their requirements and collect them, ALL while ensuring you stay in first place, because if you aren't then the current race doesn't count. It's an actual fucking mess.
As a longtime Sonic fan who played a ton of what are considered the "worst" in the series... Yeah, I even enjoyed Sonic 06 more than this one. There's SO many better racing games, even from and before the time this released, so I just have to ask...why? How did you screw up an established concept this badly? This now sits alongside Sonic 4 as one of the only Sonic games I will never be returning to.