In addition to being one of the greatest songs in Sonic history, “Live and Learn” seems to be a mentality that SEGA has embraced in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Over the course of Sonic’s 34-year career, I’ve spent more than 35 hours drifting, boosting, and collecting rings on a great selection of tracks. Hours passed with ease as I honed my drifting skills, customized my cars, figured out the best race lines for time trials, and frantically competed with friends to win the Grand Prix. In a Grand Prix of 2025 kart racers, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds could have been just another pit stop, but instead, it pushed me hard and wouldn’t let me take my hands off the wheel.
Over the previous few decades, I’ve played a good number of kart racers with well-known characters like Sonic, Mario, Crash, and many more. Only a select few make it to the upper pantheon of party games that rule every gathering, even though the majority are entertaining enough. CrossWorlds doesn’t just want to be in the rotation; it has set its sights on becoming the best game for me and my friends. It has 24 characters, 39 tracks, a good suite of multiplayer options, a ton of challenges to complete, and so many unlockable cosmetics that I still can’t see its end.
CrossWorlds‘ racing is easy to learn because of its simple controls, which basically consist of four key actions: accelerate, drift, brake, and utilize an item. Whether you’re speeding into shortcuts, performing huge trick combos for a significant boost, or mastering a challenging drift that requires you to quickly reverse course on a winding path, racing is an amazing experience. I adore the way the cars feel since each move flows naturally into the next, enabling me to chain drifts, jumps, tricks, and boosts before starting another drift to continue the sequence—that is, if my opponents didn’t throw anything at me.
The abundant placement of boost panels and item capsules on most courses made it feel more like minor speed bumps, but I did lose a few races when I got struck by things, messed up a corner, or collided with a wall. It rarely took me more than a few seconds to get back on course, and depending on how you tune your car, you may cut that lag time even more. Those hits do drop your ring count, which limits your top speed.
Your choice of ride will enable you to extract additional benefits: The long-awaited reintroduction of Sonic Riders’ hover boards allowed me to boost like no other when striking dash panels or using the boosting Wisp items. Power vehicles are excellent at pushing other racers around, and handling vehicles make it easy to master even the most difficult sharp corners.
The main attraction is the amazing CrossWorlds mechanism, which adds a decent amount of depth and keeps each race engaging. Similar to the dimension jumping in 2021’s Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, the second lap of every race, excluding Grand Prix Mode, nearly effortlessly takes players to a different circuit. Every race had me on my toes, whether it was the tremendously twisty Dragon’s Road, the primeval Dinosaur Jungle, or the maritime scenery of Metal Harbor. Before my review, this was my favorite feature of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ public test trials, but as I spent more time playing the entire game, I realized how brilliant it really was.
The amazing CrossWorlds mechanic adds depth and keeps races engaging.
Making the second lap random adds dimension to your ride customization because different vehicle types perform better on different courses, and you need to take into account factors other than the route you have selected. On courses with lots of straightaways or boost panels, my speed-obsessed car would excel, but on circuits with lots of bends and tight turns, it would frequently lose a few spots to racers who modified for acceleration or handling. I found myself creating a single loadout that could adjust to whatever route ended up being the second lap while still optimizing my potential for the first and last lap on the main track, because certain tracks feature sections where you can change into a boat or an airplane.
Simply going through a gate with the corresponding plane or boat icons will transform you into Flight and Water Forms. I was always happy to take advantage of the chance to switch things up; in fact, I would have loved a few more CrossWorlds that allowed me to spend more time in the sky. Some transformations, like the Water Form swap at the beginning of Kraken Bay, are necessary, while others are optional, like the short Flight Form path on Coral Town if you take a specific branching path. Flight Form allows you to drift vertically to reach goods, rings, and boost gates at various elevations. It’s always handled like a dream.
But unless you learn the right time and rhythm to accelerate, drift, and trick on each course, some of the Water Form sections can feel awkward. When I was struggling with a particular segment, I would practice in one of the better handling cars before switching back to my favorite Speed type selections because they seemed to perform the best throughout these transformations.
During CrossWorlds, no lap is the same, and even though the last lap takes you back to your starting track, there are a lot of adjustments made. More hazards occur in the route, previously inaccessible paths become accessible, and upgraded item boxes with higher drop rates for more potent options arrive. Even major structural changes occur, such as the last firing of a rocket in Metal Harbor, which eliminates two pathways and drives everyone into a newly created spine (or, for non-skamers, two quarter pipes positioned back to back).
The courses that are offered at launch are all quite good, even without the CrossWorlds concept. There are 24 primary courses for them to appear on, with Coral Town probably being my favorite, and 15 tracks that can only appear during that second lap. I’m still trying to figure out which of the multiple routes its looping courses make is the best for time trials; I kept switching routes based on my position, character, vehicle, and lap number. Classic stages like Radical Highway from Sonic Adventure 2, which required me to use boost pads to ride main cables to the top to overtake my rivals, and Market Street, which started as Rooftop Run in Sonic Unleashed, are also noteworthy.
While some routes have more rings to help you reach your maximum top speed, others have more boost panels to provide some speed in the short term in the hopes that you will either get far enough ahead to not need the extra rings or at least have enough breathing room to pick them up later. Each course feels like it is perfectly balanced in terms of risks and rewards. Pumpkin Mansion was one course that turned out to be my weak point. They conceal a stretch of harsher bends until the first person reaches the last third of the track, which is filled with enormous pumpkins that disappear as you get closer.
Until I took the time to commit their locations to memory through time trials and determined which routes I should follow, they consistently impacted the timing of my drifts.
Lastly, without any goods to provide some turmoil, a kart racer would just be a simple racing game. Depending on whether I was giving or receiving, the majority of the 24 objects in CrossWorlds that can be taken from boxes scattered throughout each course made me shout with equal parts delight and resentment.
The recognizable Wisps from Sonic Colors are back and provide tools like a drill, boost, and laser that can help you close the gap or increase your lead. When used properly, these let me to avoid some attacks, such as the harsh Slime and Weight items, and cut off over off-road parts, thus they were always nice. Many more interesting alternatives are also available, such as a bomb that expands in size as you hold it, eventually turning into a massive wrecking ball that crushes enemies it comes into contact with until it explodes.
Customizing Gadget Panels satisfied my love of min-maxing in video games.
Tornado’s ability to neutralize most incoming assaults and do damage to as many opponents as I could run into made it my favorite item very soon. The Monster Truck feature, which turns your car into a huge machine that crushes opponents, makes you immune to all other things, and lets you drive off-road without getting in trouble, is also going to stick out for many. Although I usually tend to favor gadgets that make me faster rather than fiercer, you can add a third item or switch between your two items by installing specific upgrades in your customizable gadget panel. By default, you can hold two items at a time.
With over 30 options to display on your Gadget Panel before a race, Gadgets provides a vast array of highly effective boosts. Although they won’t give you a win out of thin air because your racing prowess still matters most, they can make the difference between first and fourth place if you use them to their fullest. A Warp Ring that teleports you on top of the racer just ahead of you, forcing you to squish them, is one of the gadgets that can change your vehicle’s stats, boost drift performance, expand the number of rings you can carry, and grant you unique beginning items that aren’t typically encountered in races.
Determining which combination to utilize is challenging because each gadget needs one to three spaces, and each gadget panel has six slots arranged in a two-by-three arrangement. Building my Panel satisfied my love of min-maxing in games and turned into a little puzzle with no wrong answers. Five Gadget Panels can be prebuilt and switched between before each race, allowing you to adapt to different scenarios by changing your character’s base characteristics and vehicle choice as necessary.
Nearly every significant character from every generation of Sonic is included on the roster: in addition to the typical Team Light and Dark, there are members of the Sonic Heroes, Riders, Advance, Rush, Colors, and even more recent additions like Sage from Frontiers. Using a modified Speed-type vehicle, I quickly discovered my favorite in Shadow. In fact, I used him to clear all eight cups on the Sonic Speed and Super Sonic Speed difficulty (which correspond to 150cc and 200cc in Mario Kart), requiring only minor adjustments aside from routinely adjusting my Gadget Panel.
Verdict
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a beast, featuring 24 of my favorite hedgehogs, foxes, echidnas, and more. There is a fantastic soundtrack to go along with the 24 main circuits and 15 Crossworld tracks, which is the best-designed selection we’ve ever seen in a Sonic racing game. With many opportunities to customize your stats to your particular playstyle, the race itself feels quick, amazing, and easy to understand.
Although I wish it had splitscreen when playing online, several modes kept my friends and I occupied for hours, and CrossWorlds will likely become a common fixture at gatherings as additional characters and courses are added over the next few months. With a long range of customization possibilities, the titular Crossworld mechanism is a fantastic idea that keeps each race interesting and offers a terrific method to potentially turn the tables on opponents. Even though I’m still racing to finish all the tasks, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a game I know I’ll play a lot more of in the months to come, making it my all-time favorite kart racing game.
