it's weird that sonic r is probably one of the games in the sonic franchise i have the most history with, and one of the ones i probably in turn have the most to talk about. being that i was really fascinated as a kid by the bizarre outliers in franchises i was growing up with - as i've noted in the past for instance, i've always had a fascination with super mario bros. 2 - it made perfect sense that one of the first games i'd buy for myself was sonic gems collection. sonic cd was a longstanding gap in my collection of the other genesis titles, sonic the fighters seemed interesting enough with its wide cast of literally-who's, and then there was sonic r...
i've made no secret of the internet being a readily available and immediately influential piece of my culture and specifically my gaming journey, so yes, let's get this out of the way - my first exposure to sonic r even existing was the 'tails doll curse' creepypasta. ultimately, for what it's worth, that was the lasting legacy of this game... for better or worse (mostly worse) but i remember fondly calling my best friend over the landline at 9, 10 years old - he much less world-exposed than i (sort of the tails to my sonic if you will) and leading him through old tails from the crypt stories (basically a weebly site dedicated to hosting stories about the tails doll) and practically hearing him cower in novice fear on the other end. how i've kept his friendship for like 15 years boggles me, too, reader.
anyhow, i got my copy of sonic gems collection, and i admit even now recalling a level of unease to the whole thing. something about the bizarre music to the english release of sonic cd, the spacey, ambient menus and accompanying theme, this sort of... emptiness to the whole experience, that's the place sonic gems collection still occupies in my mind. i like it that way. i like how weird and almost taboo the concept felt at an impressionable age like that - these were the sonic games lost to time, that you weren't supposed to get... something like that. 9 year olds are creative like that. interestingly, i ended up sinking a lot more time into sonic r than one might expect, especially considering that review score (but didn't i tell you not to take my scores all that seriously? ;) ) and it's a game i hold pretty fondly.
sonic r is a pretty unique concept - something of a platformer-racer hybrid where you need to explore the courses as you would a sonic title, grab character coins and chaos emeralds along the way and use them to unlock characters and eventually, the final stage. i'll get my criticisms out of the way first, because i'd really like to spend more time enjoying this game.
it controls terribly, there's basically no cohesion to anyone's flow of movement. but even if there was, the stages expect you to deliberately go out of your way to stop progressing, take completely opposite directions, narrowly grab the coins/emeralds, and then still manage top 3/first place respectively. collecting the goods is counterintuitive to winning the race. it doesn't work, but that isn't due to a flawed concept, it's flawed execution, namely in controls and stage layout. the character roster is absurdly unbalanced - amy rose, eggman, and egg-robo are all legitimately useless and once you unlock super sonic basically any competition besides maybe like metal knuckles is null. the amount of content here is pitiful, especially when compared to contemporaries of the era like mario kart 64 or crash team racing. only five stages means that if you're not going for the collectables, you'll beat the game in maybe a half hour with only a time attack and objective-catcher mode to really show for it.
let's move on. aesthetically, this is everything i'd want out of a sonic racer - i love the look of the saturn-era designs, i love the course concepts which feel ripped directly out of the sonic games of the era, i love the sound effects, i love the idea of alternating times of day and weather... and sonic r not only boasts one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time, but genuinely my favorite dance album of all time - and that i come from a musical background first and foremost means that's particularly praiseworthy. i'd seriously love a live house, almost underworld-ish recorded performance of this soundtrack, maybe borrowing from later drum n bass style soundtracks like the fifth/sixth gen ridge racers.
sonic r is a game i attest to caring about and one i do ultimately recall fondly, even knowing it's a poorly designed and frustrating game. it's got vibes and it charmed me at a young age, both through the innocent era of creepypasta that brought me to it and its own merits of goofy late-90s charisma. i hear tails doll's in that friday night funkin game now or something? good for the kids. let them take the reigns and creep each other out or something. godspeed.
i've made no secret of the internet being a readily available and immediately influential piece of my culture and specifically my gaming journey, so yes, let's get this out of the way - my first exposure to sonic r even existing was the 'tails doll curse' creepypasta. ultimately, for what it's worth, that was the lasting legacy of this game... for better or worse (mostly worse) but i remember fondly calling my best friend over the landline at 9, 10 years old - he much less world-exposed than i (sort of the tails to my sonic if you will) and leading him through old tails from the crypt stories (basically a weebly site dedicated to hosting stories about the tails doll) and practically hearing him cower in novice fear on the other end. how i've kept his friendship for like 15 years boggles me, too, reader.
anyhow, i got my copy of sonic gems collection, and i admit even now recalling a level of unease to the whole thing. something about the bizarre music to the english release of sonic cd, the spacey, ambient menus and accompanying theme, this sort of... emptiness to the whole experience, that's the place sonic gems collection still occupies in my mind. i like it that way. i like how weird and almost taboo the concept felt at an impressionable age like that - these were the sonic games lost to time, that you weren't supposed to get... something like that. 9 year olds are creative like that. interestingly, i ended up sinking a lot more time into sonic r than one might expect, especially considering that review score (but didn't i tell you not to take my scores all that seriously? ;) ) and it's a game i hold pretty fondly.
sonic r is a pretty unique concept - something of a platformer-racer hybrid where you need to explore the courses as you would a sonic title, grab character coins and chaos emeralds along the way and use them to unlock characters and eventually, the final stage. i'll get my criticisms out of the way first, because i'd really like to spend more time enjoying this game.
it controls terribly, there's basically no cohesion to anyone's flow of movement. but even if there was, the stages expect you to deliberately go out of your way to stop progressing, take completely opposite directions, narrowly grab the coins/emeralds, and then still manage top 3/first place respectively. collecting the goods is counterintuitive to winning the race. it doesn't work, but that isn't due to a flawed concept, it's flawed execution, namely in controls and stage layout. the character roster is absurdly unbalanced - amy rose, eggman, and egg-robo are all legitimately useless and once you unlock super sonic basically any competition besides maybe like metal knuckles is null. the amount of content here is pitiful, especially when compared to contemporaries of the era like mario kart 64 or crash team racing. only five stages means that if you're not going for the collectables, you'll beat the game in maybe a half hour with only a time attack and objective-catcher mode to really show for it.
let's move on. aesthetically, this is everything i'd want out of a sonic racer - i love the look of the saturn-era designs, i love the course concepts which feel ripped directly out of the sonic games of the era, i love the sound effects, i love the idea of alternating times of day and weather... and sonic r not only boasts one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time, but genuinely my favorite dance album of all time - and that i come from a musical background first and foremost means that's particularly praiseworthy. i'd seriously love a live house, almost underworld-ish recorded performance of this soundtrack, maybe borrowing from later drum n bass style soundtracks like the fifth/sixth gen ridge racers.
sonic r is a game i attest to caring about and one i do ultimately recall fondly, even knowing it's a poorly designed and frustrating game. it's got vibes and it charmed me at a young age, both through the innocent era of creepypasta that brought me to it and its own merits of goofy late-90s charisma. i hear tails doll's in that friday night funkin game now or something? good for the kids. let them take the reigns and creep each other out or something. godspeed.
2 Comments
super comfy game for me!!
FallenGrace
1 year ago