We heard about it back in February, but SEGA has decided now is the time to come out with all kinds of information about the second entry in the Mario Kart challenger Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. First of all, take a look at the trailer:
Right here you’d expect me to tell you that it’s been confirmed for the Wii U, as well as it coming out for 3DS, PS3, Xbox 360, Vita and PC. Well I can’t confirm it, but the producer Joe Neate had this to say:
I’m sure there are still discussions ongoing about that at the moment. I think the platforms announced today are the only confirmed ones, but yeah, keep your eyes peeled for potential other platforms I’d imagine.
‘I’d imagine’? Really? Either deny it or confirm it man, if you’re the producer of a title I have quite a difficult time believing that you’re not sure if there are plans for the Wii U. To me, that’s as good as a ‘yes’. So what else have we learned?
Well, they seem to be very into the ‘transformed’ part of the title, in that your car will also be a boat and a plane, ala MarioKart 7. Joe Neate was quick to point out that it was actually going to be significantly different, in that each version of your car will handle very differently. In MarioKart 7 the water form of your car was really just a floatier version, and the plane part was really just short sections of hang glider. In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, there will be up to three surfaces per track, which means you’ll actually have different versions of the car racing against each other on the same section of track. Track that can transform in different ways. Sega has shown two tracks to select press so far, one inspired by Panzer Dragoon and the other by Super Monkey Ball. Neate had this to say:
In Panzer Dragoon, some time on the second lap an airship crashes, opening up the water route. During the water route these dynamic events happen, so this big water worm from the Panzer Dragoon world crashes through the bridge causing a massive wave to come hurtling at you meaning you have to take evasive action or jump over the wave. Later on in the level, the alien spaceship Shellcoof fires a big laser into the water causing another big tidal wave. Near the start of the third lap, one of those water worms jumps up to attack the iconic blue dragon from Panzer Dragoon and as it does it crashes through the road, meaning you then have to fly.
In Monkey Ball, it’s much more about loads of different routes, but there are dynamic events too, like Monkey Ball tumbling down his temple and falling into the water and causing these event waves.
So the transformation element is about the vehicles transforming, but in different tracks we also have different ways to change the look and feel of the environment or the routes through it. It’s not Split/Second, but we want ways to change the routes and open up warp routes or air routes or driving routes using transformation events.
He was of course referring to the excellent Disney driving game Split/Second which allowed you to dynamically alter the track as you drove. It sounds like this will be more like the game Hydro Thunder in which every play through will have the track changing in the same ways every lap. This means you will still be able to learn the tracks down to the pixel, but they will be much more complex.
A few other interesting tidbits are things like remixes of classics SEGA tunes, a dynamic announcer, a levelling system, split-screen multiplayer, online races with 8 players and 16 new tracks being joined by 4 classic tracks from the first game like Jet Set Radio Future’s Shibuya and Sonic’s Death Egg track.
And just because I love you, here’s a metric tonne of screenshots:
