Sonic R

"A Good Racing Game For Youre PC"

Since the 90's I always enjoyed the Sonic The Hedgehog Series, right from the Mega Drive to the Dreamcast. Every single time I wished as if there was like a Mario Kart version of Sonic for any of the systems. It was until 1997 I heard that there was a Sonic racing game out on the Sega Saturn. At that time I didn't have a Sega Saturn to play it on & I thought I would never get to play on it at all. But that was until a few years later I found out the game was now on PC. So I decided to go & buy the game & of course it was Sonic R.

Graphics: The graphics are really good for quite an old game now, it has great looking enviroments, & the characters look good too. When I look at it against Mario Kart, it is virtually a match for Mario Kart instally.

Sound: The Music here should be placed onto an albulm & placed into the music charts, because it is absolublety fantasic but would be off putting if you don't like Techno music of course. The sound fx's are taking from the orignal sonic series from the Mega Drive & a few new ones as well, however some of the sound fx's get really annoying for example when you play as Tails he makes that flying noise which is heard from Sonic The Hedgehog 3 over & over again unless you brake or stop.

Controls: It would be useful if you had a gamepad but not quite for the keyboard to control the characters. The controls aren't too bad for keyboard but the problem usually is trying to use the brakes for youre character can be a bit hard to do but should after a few practices you'll be able to perform well in the game.

Gameplay: Gameplay on this game is really good. Each character has their own gains & weakness for example Sonic is great at acceleration but rubbish at turning, Tails is slow but can turn really well & Amy is just total rubbish at both them except she has a little turbo boost on her car. For beginners it's best to use Knuckles first because he has the better skills of turning & acceleration. In the game there isn't just racing there is also tagging, balloon finding & finding out secrets (which I'm not going to tell you.) There is also multiplayer mode in the game which I like espically if youre Dr Robotnik going around shooting people for the fun of it.

Lifespan: Unfortunely this is probably the reason why it isn't as successful than Mario Kart. The biggest problem with the game that there are not enough courses. I would be satisfied with 10 but there just isn't anything else to fully spice up the lifespan.

Summary: A very good racing game overall & I wouldn't mind seeing another Sonic R come out. However if they do, they need to put more into the game for example race courses & possibly new & old characters from the Sonic Series to add in. But besides that now for a few quid here & over anywhere else it is a good buy & no I will not tell you what those secrets are.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/04