first of all: this IS the superior version of the game. sonic r was made FOR the saturn and i adore it in all its graphical crust and cascading render distances. seriously, the way they handle the low render distance in this game is gorgeous and amplifies the look of tracks like radiant emerald. i'm getting aside of myself though
sonic r is a misunderstood gem. i was thinking about this a lot in my free time the other day- i've been on a sega saturn binge lately and i played sega rally championship back to back with this game. intentional or not, sonic r and src are definitely similar games, yet sonic r has a 2.8 and sega rally has a 3.7.
"well, sonic r has slippery handling and inconsistent physics!" yeah, so does sega rally. stop playing sonic r like a kart racer
"well, sonic r barely has any content!"
sega rally has 4 stages, yet nobody complains. i guess cuz its an arcadey racer and you're supposed to master high scores? i'd definitely argue that's what sonic r goes for as well.
"the music is bad!"
nobody says this about either game i made it up
so the biggest complaints about sonic r come down to misconceptions. i think this is also why people complain about the "difficulty spike" for 100%-ing the game! the game demands mastery of the few stages it has for the same reason any arcade racer would. it provides a solid testing grounds for your fastest pathways, and the shitpost-tier ai in the standard races makes it less of a pain in the ass to get back to the challenge again. i don't know what design decisions were legit decisions here, but it all flows together quite nicely. though, obviously, the greatest part about this game are the track layouts and the MUSIC. i cannot say anything about sonic r's soundtrack that hasn't already been said. just listen to "work it out". it is the most bright, bubbly energetic music that fails to ever get old when you're practicing routes through those stages. and those stages do have hella routes- they're essentially 3d sonic levels that loop. it's super fun to use each character's power to "exploit" things. the speedrunning scene for sonic r is probably insane. maybe that physics engine was good all along? the artstyle is damn perfect too, featuring signature sega sunny skies as well as sparkley space voids and shiny metallic sheens. exploring is fun and satiates my need for a 3d platformer on the sega saturn, cuz this is way more interesting as a genre hybrid.
yeah sonic r is basically perfect. best racing game i've ever played
sonic r is a misunderstood gem. i was thinking about this a lot in my free time the other day- i've been on a sega saturn binge lately and i played sega rally championship back to back with this game. intentional or not, sonic r and src are definitely similar games, yet sonic r has a 2.8 and sega rally has a 3.7.
"well, sonic r has slippery handling and inconsistent physics!" yeah, so does sega rally. stop playing sonic r like a kart racer
"well, sonic r barely has any content!"
sega rally has 4 stages, yet nobody complains. i guess cuz its an arcadey racer and you're supposed to master high scores? i'd definitely argue that's what sonic r goes for as well.
"the music is bad!"
nobody says this about either game i made it up
so the biggest complaints about sonic r come down to misconceptions. i think this is also why people complain about the "difficulty spike" for 100%-ing the game! the game demands mastery of the few stages it has for the same reason any arcade racer would. it provides a solid testing grounds for your fastest pathways, and the shitpost-tier ai in the standard races makes it less of a pain in the ass to get back to the challenge again. i don't know what design decisions were legit decisions here, but it all flows together quite nicely. though, obviously, the greatest part about this game are the track layouts and the MUSIC. i cannot say anything about sonic r's soundtrack that hasn't already been said. just listen to "work it out". it is the most bright, bubbly energetic music that fails to ever get old when you're practicing routes through those stages. and those stages do have hella routes- they're essentially 3d sonic levels that loop. it's super fun to use each character's power to "exploit" things. the speedrunning scene for sonic r is probably insane. maybe that physics engine was good all along? the artstyle is damn perfect too, featuring signature sega sunny skies as well as sparkley space voids and shiny metallic sheens. exploring is fun and satiates my need for a 3d platformer on the sega saturn, cuz this is way more interesting as a genre hybrid.
yeah sonic r is basically perfect. best racing game i've ever played
chandler
6 months ago