This year, SEGA is gearing up for the release of several new Sonic games. The blue hedgehog, who is getting the third installment of his movie adventures, is going to hit the ground running with a new entry in the Sonic Racing franchise. The next installment, called CrossWorlds, was revealed in a first trailer during last week's State of Play.
The game is where we expect it to be, with no surprises in terms of its universe... or almost. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds introduces an interesting new mechanic that promises to revolutionize – at its level – family racing games. Indeed, it will be possible to change circuits mid-way by going from one dimension to another. If the gameplay vaguely reminds us of Portal, or even more recently Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, it also promises to leave a bitter taste in Nintendo.
For the company, which plans to release its Mario Kart 9 this year alongside the Nintendo Switch 2, the timing is bad. Little is known about the next Mario installment, but aside from the racing 24 participants and the new items, the few seconds of gameplay shown during the presentation of the console did not share any new features that could measure up to that of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
A new generation... for SEGA
And yet, it is Nintendo that is preparing to welcome its new generation, and not Sony whose PS5 is already almost 5 years old. It would have been much more interesting for Nintendo to have a feature such as the change of dimension to get its teeth into for the release of its new Mario Kart. The studio has nothing to fear in terms of sales, with the Mario franchise selling far more copies than its Sonic cousin, but it is taking a hit in terms of its brand image.
By offering real-time circuit changes, SEGA is exceeding the expectations that players have for the license, but also showing that the studio is capable of exploiting the performance of a console in line with its generation. It is worth noting that Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will also be available on Nintendo Switch, which promises to take the competition up a notch. It is all the more unfortunate that SEGA no longer claims to be a console maker. It is therefore also to Nintendo has the burden of proving the power of its machines with optimized and appropriate games. Will the company rise to the challenge?
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