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Having caught us off-guard with Eurogamer's 9/10 score last year, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is Sumo Digital's shining moment - a clear step forward from the studio's first stab at a Sega-themed racer in 2010. With new features such as terra-forming tracks, and cars that smoothly morph between planes and boats in response, the good news is that the execution very much lives up to the concept. These are far more than gimmicky bullet-points to occupy the game's blurb-space; instead, the flying and boating mechanics have been an area of major focus, resulting in a starkly different breed of racer to its precursor.Tweaks to the in-house Sumo engine are at the heart of the shake-up. Most significantly, a new "Starlight" editor has allowed the team to add fully dynamic lights to tracks, while a more complex physics engine is used to bring the airborne and sea-based racing to life. Where the previous game's driving mechanics may have felt a tad simplistic, these new physics allow for simulation of bobbly terrain and lashing waves, affecting a vehicle's inertia, grip, torque and downforce as they go. Gone are the floaty controls and flat pathways of previous game Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing; in their place stand courses littered with opportunities to splash high into the air and earn speed boosts from carefully timed tricks. It's dynamic, less predictable, but ultimately the more rewarding experience for the adaptive player.
With tracks built in memory of cult favourites, even including Skies of Arcadia and Panzer Dragoon, the game feels conscientious in its handling of Sega's legacy - clearly a "for fans by fans" kind of deal. It's also a respectable release for being so very multi-platform in nature, developed on just about every platform outside of iOS. Having made the cut for the Wii U console launch, alongside versions for the PS3 and 360, we've since seen Vita and PC ports following in hot pursuit - the latter finally hitting stores last weekend. To compare the console versions, and the PC running at maximum settings, we have a huge quadruple-format gallery for you to flick through, plus a range of head-to-head videos.
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