Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds was a big focus during this month’s Summer Game Fest, and it’s definitely got a lot of people hyped. Not only does the game look great, but it looks like a budding contender for the fame that Mario Kart has found, especially in recent years. With CrossWorlds launching onto almost every console, it’s going to open up the world of multiplayer kart racing for a wider audience, and the addition of characters from external franchises means it’s going to be all the more exciting.
I had the opportunity to head over to Sydney to check out the Sonic Racing: Crossworlds demo for myself, and even though I’m personally bad at kart racing games, it’s already proving to be very promising.
The unique part of CrossWorlds is the warping, where, during a race, a warp will appear to take you to a whole other map. Warping to this new location also changes the traversal between land, air and water travel, with your kart shifting into a plane or boat depending. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed introduced the concept of changing traversal to the Sonic racing franchise, and dare I say Sonic Racing: Crossworlds might have perfected it. I was worried about one of these elements feeling more clunky than the others, but they all felt equally as easy to handle as each other. Flying has you speeding through rings to get a boost, and water lets you do boosted jumps to push you further ahead. All three traversal styles let you perform mid-air tricks, which also boost you based on how many points you get during.
There is a new feature called Gadgets, allowing you to change your playstyle on the fly. Along with different customisation options for your kart having certain stats leaning towards better power, speed, steering, gadgets also allow you to do things like hold more items at a time, start off the race with two boosts, pack more of a punch with aggressive items and a whole bunch more. You can select more than one to fit your gadget card, though the more powerful ones take up more space than others, so you can’t be too overpowered. It allows for a lot of playstyle customisation and can even help those who struggle with certain aspects of kart racing to gain a leg up.
Kart customisation is something that most kart racers have to some degree, but not quite to the level of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Not only can you change out your tires and body type, you can entirely change both the front and back half of your cart as well as changing the colour and adding decals with no real limit to placement. You can also change the horn sound, as well as trails behind the kart when you’re in flight mode, and more.
All the maps felt fun and unique, and they each offered something a little different. Each cup is a series of three races, and then a final fourth race, where each of the 3 laps is a mix of the three previous races. There’s the option to change the speed of the races, and even change the difficulty of the specific person you’re racing against in the campaign mode for anyone who’s finding it a bit too challenging, and as someone bad at kart racers, I appreciate having those options.
So far, a few big stars have been announced for collaborations, including Hatsune Miku, Joker from Persona, Minecraft Steve and Ichiban Kasuga from the Yakuza series. Sadly, none of these characters were in the demo. I was told that future collaborations are going to be even more exciting, but I wasn’t allowed even a hint of who might be next. With the announcement of partnerships with other popular franchises, and a whole lot more yet to be announced, it almost feels like Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds might become the racing equivalent of Nintendo’s’ Smash Bros, and honestly, I’m here for it. It’s gonna be very exciting as new characters get released with their own unique karts and personal quips.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will be warping onto consoles September 25, 2025, with physical editions for PS5 and Switch, while only digital versions will be released for PS4, Xbox Series X|S and PC. A pass to upgrade from the Switch to Switch 2 is in the works, but with no set date as of yet.
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Checkpoint Gaming flew to Sydney as a guest of Five Star Games Oz for this preview.
About the Author
Hayley Louise
she/they
Hayley spends most of her time gaming, but when she's not doing that you can find her doing all kinds of nerd-adjacent things like playing board games, building Lego, reading books and talking nerdy to everyone who will listen.
