"Synopsis: This game may have not been liked, but you can definitely see that Sega used all the inspiration they had (Edited)."

I love this game. Actually, I love this game's music. The truth is: I've always wanted to play this game. The reviews were questionable and biased so I needed to see more. I then checked this site and the reviews aren't very good because they are coming from nobody but fans. I didn't want to spoil it by downloading the game over the net, so I waited. I eventually tracked this game down at my favorite pawn shop and I bought this game, Sonic 3-D Blast, and Sonic Jam for a total of five dollars. Here is the game in my heart felt opinion.

Graphics: 8/10
I hear that the Sega Saturn produces crap 3-D. I put this into consideration when I look upon this game right now. The polygons are so sharp that they can poke your eyes out. Sonic could have definitely looked better as well as one or two others. The majority of the characters look decent, however, and the game is crisp. It's quite colorful and moves at a crisp and smooth rate, albeit not 60 FPS. There are also some pretty bad (But thankfully sporadic) glitches that hurt the score a bit, but not much. You can jump through walls and fall through the floor if you aren't fortunate. Yes, it looks bad. Yeah, its not cool. The thing that makes the graphics shine is the interaction with things in the environment. Lights flashing, signs spinning, and more. It makes the game come to life. The 3-D isn't anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be. I was rather impressed with the 3-D for the most part.

The game is made in 1997, and it looks decent. I like the reflection that water has on it (Although, they could've made Super Sonic have a reflection on the water when he runs over it). I've been thinking of a couple of things, and the game looks quite nice. Several PS games don't look as nice for the given year and for a racing game, it's pretty well done. I love the Radiant Emerald stage. The glowing of the floor is fantastic and beautiful not to mention it's transparent. The few stages present possess an imaginative and very creative layout and design. Radical City is another well done stage that looks great and I like the “Pinball” area of the stage. I urge you to look at this game for yourself. Luckily, the slowdown isn't common (When something happens too much in a game, I tend to take major points). The camera angles are quite bad at times though. What else is there to this game? So far, so good eh?

Story: 1/10
Hmph. I never did like the story of Sonic the Hedgehog. Why? There really was never much of a story. If you've read my reviews, I like how the story is physically presented in a game. In Sonic, all you ever had was some blue guy who looks nothing like a true to life hedgehog (Not that that's a bad thing by the way.) who runs as fast as he can to stop some dork from doing something bad. The games didn't have really any text, and you could tell the story just by looking at the game, but that does you no good. What is the story of Sonic R? There really is none ALTHOUGH you CAN make one up. The instruction manual doesn't count because anyone can write a paragraph in a book, but it takes a more professional approach to implement that story in a game. I can generally say this: Sonic's gang is trying to win the Grand Prix before Robotnik's drones can. By doing this, you thwart some unknown plan that Robotnik has up his sleeve. I'm assuming he wants the chaos emeralds for something, but I won't say for sure. It's almost always been about the emeralds. I merely inform the public of story though, and it's not calculated in my final score.

Sound 9/10
Wow…and here I thought Nights: Into Dreams had great music. This is arguably the best music I have ever heard in a game. Period. I'd even go as far as to give this a 10 out of 10 (I NEVER GIVE 10's!!!!), but alas, I don't believe anything in life is perfect. There are three minor problems that doesn't make this game get the 10 it so richly deserves. First, you have the sound effects. They are typical Sonic fanfare. The small problem is that they still sound somewhat muffled and weak as though they didn't port over well onto the Saturn. They sound like they still wanted to come from the Genesis (or the Game Gear or wherever they got those sounds from). I could be ignorant and just ignore this (As the music makes the sound virtually nonexistent), but unfortunately, I'm not that kind of person. Those sounds do exist, and they will be evaluated.

Second, The number of BGM's in actuality are quite limited. Sure you have the track BGM's, but other than those and a few others (Ending, Title Screen, Chaos Emerald collection, and maybe one other…) , the music is either with vocals or without vocals and they count those as additional BGM's (In truth, they kinda are, but still). You really have about 7 or 8 songs and 4 or 5 additional BGM's without singing. Finally, this is very minor, but you usually can't hear the entire BGM on a track because the BGM's are so long. Fighters Megamix suffers a similar problem. With those being said, I must mention how good the music is. I am a fellow lyricist and vocalist myself so I know what good music should sound like. Sega expressed a passion so strong for this game that it should touch your soul even if you end up hating this game. I don't know who the lovely ladies are who sang the music for this game, but I thank them from the bottom of my heart (I'm serious) for bringing some more wonderful melodies into my life. This game's music is an inspiration and anyone who truly understands good music that comes from the heart should relate.

The music quality of this game is simply outstanding. I can understand every word the women sing in their songs because the Saturn is a wonderful system when it comes to producing crystal clear sound…And I haven't even tried to listen to this game with surround sound. The most remarkable thing about the music in this game is that every track has incredible music with vocal accompaniment. You might say “So what? Tony hawk games have tracks like that too and there's nothing special about it.”. If you're saying that, then you simply don't understand the magic. The lyrics created for this game are original. They aren't music from some band that's thrown into the game (Not that that's a bad thing at all.). They were made by Sega & some other guys…somewhere (God forgive me. I can't remember who they are, but they deserve praise.) and they are unique to this game. The Songs compliment their respective tracks beautifully. Sure other games have some original lyrics to them, but they don't possess the “feeling” that this game has.

I know it sounds like I'm being a fanboy, but when it comes to music, you can't explain a feeling like this one (God, I sound like such a Shakespearean softy). Lunar SSSC's opening song makes me feel the same way. At the risk of sounding vague, it's an unexplainable feeling, but you just “know”. The music itself is unforgettable and you MUST hear it at least once even if you never intend to own this game. Don't listen to the midis for the game as they are just home-brewed versions and aren't authentic. Trust me. I've heard some of them. I wonder if Sega will ever make another Sonic R or such. If they do, I wonder if it'll have singing on each and every track. 20 tracks full of singing… that would be awesome.

Gameplay: 5/10
This game could've been a winner if this were fixed up. There are many problems with this game. First, the item collision can be horrible; Especially when you go through a loop. You clearly run right through rings and that's not good. Next, there aren't really many power-ups in this game. You have the Bubble shield that let's you run over one area of water then it expires, the magnet shield which suck rings into you, the ring fillers that give you rings, and the sneaker that gives speed. You also have these speed strips on the ground that give you an extreme burst of speed if you have enough rings. Like any good racer, there are several shortcuts to be found (And long routes if you take them that are longer than usual). You can open up these doors that lead to items or shortcuts. You must find coins on tracks that allow you to challenge a hidden character to a race (If you manage to get the coins and at least place a favorable position that is.). If you beat him, you get him. You also get Chaos Emeralds to unlock Super Sonic.

Despite how much I elaborate, this is a very plain and short-lived process. You also have 10 characters: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Robotnik, Metal Sonic, Robo Knuckles, Egg Robo, Puppet Tails, and of course, Super Sonic. Some have advantages and disadvantages (While one or two may have no disadvantages at all!) to them. Sonic can double jump while Tails can hover for a period of time. Egg Robo is slow but can shoot projectiles. Some characters are obviously better than others which isn't very fair. This could've been adjustable if there were power-ups to actually attack and such. Once someone is in first place, they generally stay there and there's not much you can do to stop them.

Unfortunately, the A.I. is so stupid that you never really lose. It's easier than going to sleep at night on the bed of your dreams. With the array of given power-ups, the game feels painfully limited. To put the nail in the coffin, there are only five tracks total, and one you must earn. FIVE TRACKS??? No real mirror mode either to make it “feel” as though there are ten stages instead of five. The thing is: They do have a confusing, but cool mirror mode, but you can't actually race on these changed tracks in the Grand Prix (Like you did in games like Diddy Kong Racing…)…Not even in versus. In versus you can collect those 5 balloons. Tag mode can be extremely annoying due to controls. Not good.

A summary of the features is: Grand Prix, Time attack, Versus, and Options. Inside of time attack, you play frustrating games like finding 5 balloons placed on the course and tagging guys with awful controls. You can race the reverse versions of the courses only on Time Attack I was previously much harder on this score, but after playing games like Running Wild (Playstation), Daytona USA, Ridge Racer (Playstation), and such, I felt more sympathetic. Running Wild does not sport many tracks and it's newer too. Even still, Cyber Speedway had more tracks than this (8 to 12 or something) as well as many others so I can't be too sympathetic. There isn't much else. The replayability is limited.

There is one other very important thing I should mention: The controls. They are bad. Quite screwed and quite unresponsive. If the tracks weren't developed the way they were, you couldn't manage to get around. False advertising by Sega states that the game has ultra smooth control with the blistering power of the 3-D pad. Not only does it not have any good controls of any kind without the 3-D pad, but the experience doesn't change even the slightest if you do have the pad. I even tested the pad out although I knew there was really no point to doing so. It's all a lie. I just thought I'd rub it in their faces. I still have a shred of love for Sega somewhere, but I just won't tolerate lies. The controls, length, and linearity of this game give it the score it gets.

To buy or not to buy:
I have no idea how much this game cost nowadays. If you see it for cheap, go for it. If not, don't buy it. I am a master of “The Hunt” (As people call it), so I can't tell what it actually should cost. 15 or 20 dollars maybe?

Overall 7/10 (rounds down)
A short game flawed by unsavory controls and limitations. It's an otherwise good game that needs more attention. I love the music, however, and I will never forget it. It's probably the best Sonic racing game I've seriously played (Sonic Drift 2 is average crud.). If you can't play it, if you can't own it, if you can't buy it, you must hear it. You'll be glad you did. This game receives Vyse's recommendation 7 overall score and I do recommend you at least try it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/16/04, Updated 04/27/05