"Rivalling with CTR and Mario Kart 64..."

OK, let's say that this game is pretty good for a Saturn game. The races are fun and you won't be frustrated. This game was a try to defeat CTR and MK64 as the best racing games of the time, and didn't do so bad.

Graphics-9/10

Nice graphics, considering that this game was done in '97, because they are great compared to some of the latest N64 games. These graphics won't disappoint you. It's nice to see Sonic and Friends' movements around the track. And the stars falling out of Super Sonic.

Game play-10/10

The game play is really nice! The difficulty is really correct for a racing game, including the special races against the special characters, the controls are pretty good and there is a slide option that lets you slide to gain grip when you want. Totally great!

Story-7/10

One of the many attempts for Dr. Robotnik to catch the hedgehog... that finishes in failure... once again. But this time the doctor was more creative and attracted Sonic to racing.

Audio-10/10

Great. But the best is that the songs have singer, that means you can listen to it well wherever it is. But the songs are still good, and very nice, if you ever remember that they match with the environment.

Video-9/10

The only videos there are the victory (from 1st to 3rd) and the loser (4th and 5th) poses, besides the intro, which is pretty cool. The poses are well too, but too repetitive. Sonic stands around, Mech Knuckles spins and Robotnik cheers. Always the same... but fine.

Replay ability-10/10

This game has only five tracks, which is poor for a racing game, yeah, I know, but the challenges are quite hard, catching the tokens and the emeralds even harder and
the races against the bosses the hardest. And there are still the shortcuts, that over-rates the lack of tracks, because for each track you find about 15 (!) shortcuts to each. It will take time to you to understand the best shortcuts and the ones which will make you lose time, or gain time. It will be fun, listen to me.

Buy or Rent?

Buy. You won't get tired of this game easily. It will take time to you to learn the shortcuts and still are the secrets that I took 3 months to enable. Ultra interesting, everyone should buy this great game!

Well... Sonic R can defeat Mario Kart 64, but loses against the (almost) perfect Crash Team Racing. The reasons are:
-Lack of story mode.
-Lack of tracks.

But there are good points, like the shortcuts, and I advice you to buy both.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/14/01, Updated 06/14/01