Sonic R

"Fun racer with tons of secrets!"

Many games which take famous video game characters and put them into different genres end up failing. Super Mario Kart and Sonic R are both proof that such games can actually be very good (and they're both racing games...maybe that's the key.) Sonic R is a graphical and audio masterpiece, and is downright fun to play as well.

The story is pretty simple (of course, can a racing game ''plot'' be very complex?). Sonic and the rest of the good guys get challenged into a race by Robotnik, and...well, that's about it. :)

Each track has a main road, and several shortcuts throughout, and discovering these shortcuts can mean the difference between winning and losing, especially against tough opponents, when your adversaries WILL be taking the shortcuts whether you do or not. Power-ups are scattered throughout the course in form of Rings and Shields and Power Sneakers. You never know which you will get until you hit the Power-up symbol, however. The object, first of all, is to win each race (DUUUUH!!!!) Secondly, you must try to locate the items that no Sonic game could ever be created without; the Chaos Emeralds, which are scattered throughout each course.

OK, that's a brief summary. Time to rate the game.

Graphics: Wow. Awesome 3D courses. Your characters may look a little ''blocky,'' but they move pretty smoothly. One problem is that the game scrolls rather slowly, unless you make your game screen on your PC really small in the Options menu (and who wants to squint to see everything??) You'd better have a fast, powerful computer to get optimum speed on full screen mode. Still, scenery, course layout, and animation are all super. Rating: 8

Sound: Why does this game catch so much flak for its music?!?! I love the tunes. I think it's a very novel idea to have lyrics in the race course music. And even if you don't like this, you can turn lyrics off in the Options menu, so what's the problem? Overall, the tunes are catchy and upbeat, and if you're like me, you'll get them stuck in your head and find yourself humming or singing them even when not playing the game! (''So take me baaa-ck in tiiime...'') The sound effects are also typical Sonic sound effects, but that is certainly nothing to complain about, as the Sonic series has always had good sound effects. Rating: 9

Control: Depends on who you use. Control varies drastically with each character. The ones with good cornering are very smooth and easy; the ones with bad cornering are HORRENDOUS!!!! Hey, it's OK to have differing qualities, but Sega made their guys to drastically different in terms of strengths and weaknesses, because some guys are nearly impossible to control. Could have used a little tweaking in this area. Rating: 6

Gameplay: Tons of secrets. You will discover just from the menu screens that there are 4 hidden characters that you must find a way to ''unlock,'' and one extra race course (not to mention the Chaos Emeralds, and what happens when you get them all.) Game is very strong in this area. Too bad there aren't more courses, though. The one main thing that really annoys me about this game is how uneven the characters are. There are some characters that simply are weak and cannot match up in any way with the strongest players. A racing game should not be like this; it's good to have varying strengths and weaknesses in each player, but for some racers to be so obviously and radically better than others is just ridiculous. You can run a near-perfect race with a weak player on Hard mode and still get whipped by one of the better computer-driven racers. Conversely, you can commit numerous mistakes with a strong racer and still beat a weak computer-driven racer who runs a race with fewer mistakes than you. This makes no sense to me, and hinders my enjoyment of the game. BUT, certainly not to the extent that it ruins it. There are too many good things about this game for this ''haves and have-nots'' factor to ruin the overall game. But, it could have been SO much better if the racers had just been made a little more evenly. Rating: 7

FunFactor: Hampered by the ''haves and have-nots'' aspect mentioned above, but otherwise high. Any game with this many secrets is going to be very fun. Replay factor is very high, as it will take several tries to discover all the secrets of this game. And I personally find it fun to be able to play as characters you wouldn't be able to use in normal games (such as Robotnik and the hidden characters.) Hey, saving the planet with Sonic is great, but sometimes I'd rather have someone else be the hero. Overall a very fun game. Rating: 9

Overall: A good effort by Sega and Travelers' Tales. Music is excellent, replay ability is high, and the game is loads of fun despite its noticeable flaws which keep it from being among the elite games in the Sonic or racing genre. A definite game that Sonic fans will like, and some fans of racing games as well. Rating: 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/03/01, Updated 07/03/01