Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sega
Platform : Nintendo DS

Wait, this game came out at the end of February? Gosh I'm almost 2 months late! :O One more thing, I'm reviewing the DS version, not the console versions.

Ever wanted to know who's the fastest Sega character? Many would say Sonic, but now many other Sega characters have the chance to triumph the blue hedgehog on the race track.

Mario Kart rip-off?

Many developers have tried to replicate the famous Mario Kart series with their own characters, and most have failed miserably (except for Naughty Dog's Crash Team Racing, that game was good), and now Sumo Digital have developed a karting game to challenge Mario Kart, this time with Sega characters. Sonic & Seaga All-Stars Racing can be considered a clone to Mario Kart, but the game itself has features to make it feel different.

Presentation

Sumo Digital have plucked out 20 characters from the many Sega IPs, from Sega's previous mascot Alex Kidd to Virtual Fighters' Jack Bryant. Out of the 20, there are all together 7 Sonic characters, which makes up for roughly one third of the roster. Each character also come with their own vehicle, such as Ryo Hazuki's bike and Ulala's spaceship. I don't have much complaints of the roster, but I feel that some should be left out (seriously, who plays as Amy Rose and Big the Cat?) and some should be brought in (Nights!).

There are 24 tracks throughout the whole game, with them categorized into 8 Sega universe, and 3 of them are from Sonic's universe, which accounts for 9 out of the 24 tracks (no wonder it's called SONIC & Sega). Each universe will have 3 tracks to race on, but some of the universe's 3 tracks feel very similar, like Samba De Amigo's as the tracks don't have much difference. Some of the tracks are dull and and are quite hard to see on the DS screen.

There's a few different modes in the game. Single Player lets you play Grand Prix (There are 6 Grand Prixs altogether, with 4 tracks per Grand Prix), Single Races, Time Trials and Mission Mode. There's also a Multiplayer and a Wi-Fi Mode, but I've yet to try the out.

Gameplay

The game feels and plays almost like a Mario Kart game. The starting boost, the items (some of the items have the same colour and usage compared to Mario Kart)...... they're kinda identical with each other. The drifting mechanics in the game is different though, as you can actually feel the difference of the handling of each character.

The big thing in SASASR (Shortened, the full name's too long!) is the introduction of All-Star Moves. If you're at the back of the pack, you can receive an All-Star as an item and help you get back to the top. Think of it as Super Smash Bros. Brawl's Final Smash and you'll know what I mean. Each character have their own unique All-Star move, like Sonic's Super Sonic Transformation and AiAi's Monkey Ball. While some All-Star moves are quite helpful to the player, some are just useless you have no idea why you picked that character in the first place.

The game's difficulty level is actually better than Mario Kart's, being not too easy nor too hard, but still enjoyable to plat across all difficulty levels. The game is more fair than Mario Kart WII, as it requires skills more than dependence of items to win the race, but I'm still gutted about being hit by items every 5 seconds at times.

The Verdict

Even with the game being almost considered a rip-off, SASASR is still in a class of it's own. It might not be as good as Mario's racer, but it's close. If you're bored from playing Mario Kart DS to bits, but still want to play something from the karting genre on your DS, I'll recommend Sega's Mario Kart as an alternative.

Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Innovation: 3/10 (It's a Mario Kart clone :P)

75/100