Take to the track water and sky with Sonic and his SEGA pals.
Characters
You get to play as most of the SEGA cast including Sonic,Tails,Ulala,Beat,Mee and many others plus you get bonus DLC to play as Metal Sonic as well. There are loads of characters but you need to unlock them first.
Game Modes
You get loads of modes like World Tour which lets you take on a series of challeneges like Drifting to beating a personal time to Vs people to destroying a tank and it has a certain requirement when you play it on a certain difficultly level. There's Grand Prix with over 20 curcuits in total 4 return from the first game in there own Grand Prix the other 16 are new but there are also some downloadable tracks.
There's also Time Attack where you race for a fast time and record it against other players online. Yes there is also online and it is improved over the last game. Whilst you don't get the freedom out of all the tracks there are 3 you can from and you race on that online and the game supports 10 player online VS and Battle Mode. The game runs pretty smoothly online but there have been situations on a certain track where there has been problems.
Gameplay
The gameplay has not really changed that much the game still feels smooth and easy to play. Drifting isn't to hard but what is a nice change is to decide what setup you want in certain events. These range from Balance,Speed,Handling,Boost which effect you in certain races so pick the best setup for a race track espically when it comes to online.
The circuits are brilliant one lap you could be driving the next lap or halfway round you could be in flight or in a boat. Doing tricks gives you a certain burst of speed if done correctly. There are plenty of power ups and none of them feeel overpowered. You have Rocket which can be fired at opponent
,Boost which gives you a Boost,Hot Rod gives you a temporarily boost but if you don't use the Detonator you will lose time. Ice which can freeze your opponents, a Twister which sends your rivals driving backwards and messing up their controls. A swarm leads a swarm of Buzz Bombers home in on the leaders and take them out but unlike the Blue Shell in Mario Kart it can easily be dodged.
The All Star this time also doesn't feel like a Bullet Bill rip off. Each character has there own which gives them attack which some having good range. The AI isn't bad but sometimes they catch up and sometimes you wonder how they did sometimes so using items and shortcuts is vital espically on the higher difficulties.
Presentation
The music is a mix of all sorts from the SEGA universe and thank god that annoying commentator from the last game isn't commentating. This guy doesn't seem as annoying but he's not perfect.
Lastability
Playing with friends and online will certainly keep you coming back plus there's online as well. The World Tour is also a very good feature for this game with it's different type of tasks.
Overall Opinion
A fantastic racer and one of the best you could play. It's fun,addictive and not that difficult to get into. The curcuit design is the big winner with how it changes over the course of certain laps and the boats and Flying machines don't slow the game down at all. A fun fast racer that finally manages to challenge the likes of the Mario Kart games. With lots to do you'd be missing out on a an amazing title.
Overall Score 8.5