Sonic Racing CrossWorlds hands-on preview and interview – better than Mario Kart?

GameCentral tests out the latest build of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and chats with producer Takashi Iizuka about its development.

In any other year, the debate over which was the superior racing game – a new Mario Kart or a new Sonic spin-off – would be a no-brainer in Nintendo’s favour. For 2025, though, things aren’t so clear cut.

Mario Kart World has proved surprisingly contentious with certain sections of the playerbase and while Sega and Sonic Team obviously couldn’t have predicted that, everything they’ve shown of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds so far feels like it was designed to be the antithesis of Nintendo’s work.

Having got to play the newest build of the game ahead of its September launch, we feel Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds could not only match Mario Kart’s quality but genuinely offer Nintendo some fierce competition.

CrossWorld is, wisely, more of a successor to Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed than the more recent Team Sonic Racing. The transformation gimmick is back (sort of, your car no longer physically turns into a boat or plane and instead gets some jets attached to it during certain portions of the racetrack) and while the focus is on the blue blur and chums, Sega is already promising other Sega icons (such as Persona 5’s Joker) as post-launch DLC as wel,l as some delightfully weird crossover characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and, as announced during Gamescom, Pac-Man.

That said, unlike Transformed, it seems most of your race time will be spent on terra firma. In the races we played, the boat and plane sections don’t last particularly long, which may be for the best since both forms don’t feel as fun or smooth to control as regular cars. They’re by no means awful, but the flight controls in particular are notably stiffer than Transformed’s.

This might be because Sumo Digital, which handled both Transformed and Team Sonic Racing, hasn’t been brought back for CrossWorlds. Instead, it’s being made internally at Sonic Team, which admittedly doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to racing games, but it has enlisted help from another Sega team responsible for the Initial D arcade racers.

If you’ve played a lot of Transformed or Team Sonic Racing, the change in developer becomes very noticeable the moment you start driving. Fortunately, while the handling of cars isn’t one-to-one, they have a nice weight to them, and it remains satisfying drifting round corners. Like the previous games, drifting is an important part of races, especially since, with the right timing, it’s possible to chain drifts one after another to keep your speed up.

CrossWorlds’ most defining gimmick is the titular crossworlds, where the second lap of each race takes you to an entirely different location (one dictated by whoever is in first place) before returning you to the original track on the third lap, albeit with some changes, like new shortcuts or boost rings.

Mario Kart World’s tracks can sometimes change your route by lap, with the Grand Prix and Knockout Rally races offering different sceneries as you trek across the open world. But the crossworlds are more exciting since the shift is not only immediate and far more drastic, but also random, thus ensuring you never get the same experience twice in a row. Plus, they aren’t a mostly straight line, which is a common critique we’ve seen of Mario Kart World’s intermission tracks.

Speaking of tracks, they’re a definite step-up from Team Sonic Racing. Despite being restricted to the Sonic franchise, they promise to be a lot more varied in terms of aesthetics and while there’re a handful of original locales, it seems most of them are based on levels from previous Sonic games. We imagine these will be the most popular among long-time fans, with the build we played featuring fun tracks based on Kronos Island from Sonic Frontiers and the White Space hub world from Sonic X Shadow Generations.

We’re interested to see how balanced the final game will be. Not necessarily with the items, which are mostly rebranded Mario Kart concepts (with a few original ones like an iron weight that can flatten you in place) but the gadget system. Before a race, you can equip what are essentially passive buffs, that range from simple stat increases to your vehicle of choice to gameplay upgrades, like faster air tricks or the ability to hold up to three items at once.

It’s a neat idea in theory, that fits well with CrossWorlds’ goal of offering a lot of player choice and customisation (seriously, the amount of vehicle customisation on display is wild), but we suspect the more competitive players will figure out the most optimal loadouts very quickly.

While the items act as something of an equaliser, our time in both single-player and multiplayer races showed skill is the main factor, but the gadget system could risk undermining that a bit and push people into using the exact same builds in order to reliably climb the leaderboards.

We’ll need a lot more playtime to tell if CrossWorlds will become our go-to multiplayer racer (the extent of single-player content beyond the Grand Prix mode and time trials is still a mystery) or if it’ll be a temporary replacement before we eventually return to Mario Kart, but it could supersede Transformed as Sega’s best racing game yet and at least serve as a good alternative for those dissatisfied with what Nintendo’s offering.

Formats: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sonic Team
Release Date: 25th September 2025 (will launch for Nintendo Switch 2 digitally in 2025 and physically in early 2026)

We also got to briefly speak with Sonic series chief creative officer Takashi Iizuka, about Sonic Racing CrossWorlds’ development, what the development team learned from previous racing games, and the inevitable competition with Mario Kart.

GC: My first question is what lessons did you learn from Team Sonic Racing, the last Sonic racing game, that influenced how you and the team have approached designing Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds?

TI: One of the things we wanted to put in Team Sonic Racing, but we were unable to, was cross-platform matchmaking and cross-platform play. We just couldn’t get it in for Team Sonic Racing, and we knew next time we do a racing game; we want to make sure this is in there.

It wasn’t just Team Sonic Racing. We looked back at a lot of our racing games. Things like All-Stars Racing. Some of the things that were really popular from All-Stars Racing… having all the Sega characters in there alongside Sonic, was something that we wanted to address. When we talk about Sonic Racing Transformed, being able to race across land, sea, and air… that wasn’t able to be put into Team Sonic Racing.

This is one of those features that we knew when we were making the game, we wanted to really address with our racing fans. Even features from… the players who really liked the Sonic Rider series, they wanted Jet [the Hawk] in there, they wanted hoverboards. We couldn’t even put that into Team Sonic Racing, but we wanted to make sure the voice of all of our racing fans was being heard, and we deliver a game that would bring something to the table for all of these fans.

All of those elements and features got put together to become Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. That was one of the core ideas behind the concepting of the title.

GC: I did notice that CrossWorlds feels a lot more like a successor to All-Stars Racing Transformed than it does Team Sonic Racing. Although I would like to ask, why was it decided to have Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds developed internally at Sonic Team, rather than bring back Sumo Digital?

Takashi: When we talked about the concept, and the concept was really to make the best… this crazy idea to really make the best Sonic racing game ever. We wanted to make sure it was being done right, and so we wanted to have our arcade racing team at Sega, that internal Sega arcade racing team really be the developer of the game.

One of the other reasons is, we needed to execute on cross-platform play, and in order to do so, we need a lot of technical knowledge, not only of the cross-platform play, but we also needed them to be able to set up servers internally, in order to execute on not only the design, but the running and maintenance of the game long term.

Because we had these kinds of needs, and we had a team that was very experienced at making amazing racing experiences, the idea was really, we want to use the internal team. They’re going to have the knowledge and experience, and the ability to deliver on the concept that we are looking for.

GC: Cross-platform play is obviously one of the big selling points for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds but this is the same year as Mario Kart World. So, what elements does Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds have that you think it can offer to racing game fans, aside from cross-platform play?

Takashi: One of those elements that I think the racing gamers are going to get excited about, is really coming down to the core mechanics of the game. In a standard race game, you’re going to have your three laps around your racecourse. It’s one lap, second lap around, third lap around. The team really wanted to change that status quo of what a racing experience is going to be.

What their answer was, is changing up the racing experience on that second lap. Instead of it just being three times around the same place, on that second lap, you are going to a whole different world. You’re entering the crossworld, you’re going to have a new experience, and it’s going to fundamentally change your racing experience, and the dynamics of the race, and the other racers.

An example of maybe how this is going to work… suppose you’re picking a race that you’re really good at, a lap that you have mastered. Instead of you being able to just do three super clean races around that lap, and it’s no fun because you’re always going to win, that second course is going to challenge you, and maybe it’s not going to be a lap… a crossworld that you’re really good at, and it’s going to challenge you to really pick up the pace, and make sure you cross the finish line first on that third lap.

Maybe if you’re playing online against other people, and, ‘Oh, yes, everyone else chose a course that I don’t really like, maybe I’m not so good at,’ you’re not going to just go in there knowing ‘I have to do three laps of something I know I’m not going to be very good at.’ That second lap… it could fundamentally change everything. That second crossworld may be a course that you’re really good at, and that’s going to give you an advantage in that three-lap race that you can start coming ahead in.

It’s really changing what people think of as a racing format and making sure there’s a lot of fun and dynamic change happening in that second lap. Your third lap across… is going to be even more thrilling.

GC: In the Grand Prix mode you do three regular races, with the multiple lap change and all that. In the fourth race, you do one lap of each of the previous three courses, which I really like. Is that something you can do in just regular multiplayer as well? Is there a customisation option that lets you do that with friends, or is that strictly a Grand Prix thing?

TI: The feature that you’re talking about is really a part of the Grand Prix mode, and it makes it a special and unique feature for Grand Prix. We did want to make sure people had a wide variety of experiencing the game how they wanted to [sic].

We will include a time attack mode. And time attack really only works if you’re definitely racing the same thing over and over again. There’s ways that you can choose to have a time attack mode; ‘I’m going to challenge this course, and just continually go around, and not have to go through the crossworlds all the time’, because that would affect, ultimately, the time attack time.

The team also wanted to make sure the players had the options to do that, so they could just get really good at a course, or if they wanted to maybe only do racing in the crossworlds, they could choose, ‘Hey, I want to select this crossworld and just continually repeat it to get better and better and better at it.’

GC: When you’re on that second lap, whoever’s in first place, they’re given two options of crossworlds to pick from. Was there any particular reason why it was decided to give players the element of choice as opposed to just giving them one random track that they go through?

TI: Yes, it is a feature because we wanted to make sure we’re giving something special to that person in first place on the first lap. For the very first lap, what would be that something special? We wanted to give them the choice to pick where they’re going. They ultimately get to decide the future of where everyone’s going to be racing.

In those choices, there will also be options where you get to choose to go to a lap that maybe has all this crazy stuff going on… allowing the player in first place to say, ‘Is this going to be most advantageous for me? If so, that’s what I want to do, and I’m going to take everyone on this ride.’ Really, allowing people to feel like they’re earning something and winning something by being first at that very first lap was one of the ideas.

GC: To go back to bringing back Sega characters, we’ve already got Joker from Persona 5, Ichiban Kasuga from Yakuza, and Hatsune Miku. They’ve all been announced as free DLC. Can we expect more Sega characters to arrive as free DLC? Is that something you can confirm?

TI: Yes, we do have more characters that will be added in. For one year, every month, we’re going to be introducing a new character to the game, so that gives us 12 slots to talk about what new characters are going to be added in. We have already revealed the first three, Hatsune Mike and Ichiban and Joker, but we do want people to stay tuned for what new characters will be joining in the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds experience.

GC: You’ve also got other DLC characters in the season pass, but those are from other franchises, so we’ve got Minecraft and SpongeBob SquarePants. How did you decide which of those crossover characters to include?

TI: We wanted a variety of IP to be in that season pass, because we really wanted it to feel full and interesting. We started thinking like, ‘Hey, what characters would fit into this world in the first place?’ or ‘What characters would our fans really get excited about?’ We started listing up all these different characters, and from there, we started just reaching out to the companies responsible for those characters, and having a conversation about, ‘Hey, would you like to… would it be great for us to do some collaborative character stuff together?’

Not everyone said, ‘Yes, of course,’ and what you’re seeing are the companies that did say, ‘Yes, that’d be a great time,’ but we do have a lot of really cool characters joining our game, and we look forward to everyone enjoying them.

GC: You probably can’t answer this one, but are there any crossover characters you personally would like to include in the game?

TI: Actually, the announced Minecraft and SpongeBob SquarePants are exactly those kind of characters that are really interesting and exciting. They come from these very interesting worlds, they’re very worldwide renowned characters, people all over the world see these characters, know who they are, they’re extremely popular, and they’re also… not only are they characters that fans of Sonic would also like, they’re going to be characters that people around the world who maybe don’t even know Sonic like.

We get to present these characters out to people with these interesting worlds, with these really cool popular characters, and get not only our Sonic fans excited, but fans of those characters are also now excited, so that’s really like the win-win situation that we’re looking for.

GC: Just to stick with the subject of collaborations, as a Brit, I was very surprised to learn that James Bourne of Busted is singing the main theme song for the game. Can you say if there was any particular reason why you opted to get him for the theme song?

TI: So that’s really not in my field to talk about. It was really our sound team at Sega who… those guys are pros and they’re constantly looking for who would be the best fit for this game, and they’re the ones who are like, ‘Oh, no, this is the perfect fit, the sound, the qualities, it all fits Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, that’s who we want to get for vocals.’

GC: I probably already know the answer to this, but if you ever do another Sonic Racing game, do you think you’ll ever go back to having them all race on foot, like they did in Sonic R?

TI: One of the core elements we want to make sure is in our racing game, is that the racing is fair, and that all the characters have the same… are racing under the same conditions. If we just said like, ‘All right, everyone, ready, set, go,’ and started running, Sonic is going to be the fastest character, he’s going to win the race.

It doesn’t make for fun racing and we want to make sure everything’s fair, and by putting them all in vehicles, and having them race around, whether it’s hoverboards, or car type vehicles, that levels the playing field, and allows everyone to have fun, and have a fair racing experience.

GC: Obviously, Sonic’s done a bunch of racing spin-offs in the past. Are there any other genres you’d be interested in doing with the Sonic franchise that you haven’t done yet? Because I know someone asked you this once before, and you said you’d like to make a Sonic role-playing game.

TI: Yes, there was a Sonic role-playing style game that has existed out there, but I wasn’t involved in the development of the game. It was done by a different company, so I have never been able to make a role-playing game, and I think that’s why it’s very interesting as a genre for me that I want to make a role-playing game [GC: Iizuka is referring to Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, which was developed by BioWare for the Nintendo DS in 2009].

We think about Sonic, he’s an extremely popular character. All of the other Sonic characters also are becoming more and more popular. We have them featured in the movies, in TV shows, and animated series. At the core, they’re really… Sonic is an action game, and so a lot of the focus is on action, and it doesn’t really allow for a lot of story-driven experiences and so that’s why… a role-playing style game where the story was more of a driving factor is something that’s very interesting to me.

GC: I personally would love to see a new Sonic role-playing game, absolutely. I’m also going to use this as an opportunity to put forward my pitch for a Team Chaotix visual novel.

TI: [laughs]

GC: I really liked The Murder Of Sonic the Hedgehog [an official visual novel made for April Fools’ Day in 2023]. I’m thinking, do a Team Chaotix version of this. I mean, because they’d be perfect for it.

TI: [laughs]

GC: Thank you very much for your time.

TI: Thank you so much.

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