"A fun game with an incredible soundtrack"

VISUALS: 7
SOUND: 9
FUN: 7

Sonic is to Sega what Mario is to Nintendo. Like Mario, Sonic has had a great chain of games over the years and while Sonic R isn't the cream of the crop, it's certainly a pleasant surprise for Sonic fans.

Sonic R was developed by Travelers Tales for the ill-fated Sega Saturn. The game was originally released in 1997 to a Sonic-starved crowd of gamers. Some say Sonic R was one of the Saturn's best games and thankfully Sega had decided to port the game over to the PC.

Not to be distinguished as your standard franchise-based racer, Sonic R branches off from the norm by being a hybrid
of racing and exploration. You collect rings, run over speed boosters and even engage in some platform action. Your main objective is to race three laps around the courses and place first but there are also Chaos Emeralds and Sonic Coins to find which help you access unlockables like hidden characters. There are a few other modes that increase the fun of the game like time attack, multiplayer, finding five balloons and tag, which has you racing back and fourth through the selected course to tag other characters.

The cast of Sonic R consists of the blue hedgehog himself, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik, Amy (of Sonic CD and Sonic Drift fame) and more. Rather than hopping in a go-kart like just about every other character-based racing game, the crew of Sonic R each has their own means of transportation. Some take to the track on foot (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles) and some use vehicular travel (Amy uses a car and Robotnik uses his egg machine). Each character can use their attributes that we've all seen them use in other Sonic games. Tails can use his twin tails to fly, Knuckles can use his gliding ability to get a lead on the competition and Sonic comes with a cool double jump move.

Controlling the characters is pretty easy (though this review was based from gameplay with a control pad, which is the recommend way to play) but the only real tough part comes from taking sharp turns, although on some tracks you can use a little technique that lets you bounce off the walls.

The actual courses are inspired from other Sonic games and are very fun to race through. Each of the courses offer their share of short cuts and the CPU won't hesitate to use them, which places an emphasis on learning the ins and outs of the tracks. The fifth course really pays homeage to Mario Kart with it's rainbow road design but one-ups the plumber's course by having cool disco-like flickering effects. When you compare Sonic R to other PC games, you know you've seen better, but what's here gets the job done. Though the characters may look a little generic in their 3D forms, they are still very recognizable.

Sonic R's audio is one of it's greatest aspects. The sound effects are exact replicas of past Sonic games to the little bell-like sound of collecting rings to Sonic's trademark sound effect when he jumps. Rather than just whip up some mediocre, happy-go-lucky soundtrack, the developers really went all out with Sonic R's tunes. The songs in Sonic R actually have lyrics by some very talented singers. The end result is a soundtrack that many will not expect from this type of game and that's a very good thing. With songs like ''Super Sonic Racing'' to ''Can You Feel The Sunshine?'' it's no wonder Sonic R has such stellar audio. Don't be alarmed if the music gets stuck in your head-it's that good. You may even find yourself singing them out loud. Sonic R easily wins the award for most surprising soundtrack. Thankfully you can listen to the music in the option mode. Nintendo needs to get these song artists and have them do music for the next Mario Kart.

Sonic R is a fun game that Sonic fans will enjoy. With all the modes, secrets and great music the game comes up as a bit of an unexpected gift that just happens to be a good one.

FINAL SCORE: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/01, Updated 10/10/01