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Review by Clement Chan -
Particularly, there are dozens and
dozens of racing games that are out in the market. Some are the
same boring old one like racing on dull tracks by using dull
cars. Nothing really livens the life up, what with all the
similar racing games appear every time on every store. One game
catches my eye as I look through a shop, and I’ve got a
reason why I should be excited when Sonic R was announced.
And boy, I was right. It was one of the best racing and Sonic
game ever released in history.
Graphics – 10
What can I say more? The brilliant graphics that circulates in
the game are really wonderful! This is also one of the known
Sonic game to be in 3D and it’s real colourful. With tons of
colours ranging from bright red to pale green, it brightens up
the whole game completely. The character’s model is
perfectly created in full 3D, and they look all really wonderful.
Everything in this game is rendered nicely to make this game have
the Sonic ‘feel’ to it. The backgrounds are absolutely
amazing and the best one out there. Animations are fast with no
flaws and not even one frame of it failed once. If you have a 3D
card, use it! That should add a lot to the game as it helps push
out the 3D capabilities of the game.
If you use a 3D card, you'll see lots of difference on using
DirectDraw and Direct3D (Direct 3D's the best of the two). The
landscapes are all truly nice, with correct and bright lighting
together with colours and detailed tracks and all other things in
the game.
Unfortunately, there are always the glitches that are quite
noticeable in most 3D games, like the super-popular Sonic
Adventure for Dreamcast. This kind of graphics problem don't
hurt the fun of the game one bit but only sometimes you can see
your character through a wall or something. Other than that, the
whole game is completely perfect itself.
Music – 10
One special aspect I like is the background music. Not that I
will like to call it ‘background music’, it is more
suitable to be called ‘soundtrack’. Now why? Every
levels (specifically tracks) have their own song to it including
lyrics. It’s probably the first Sonic game with such thing
ever included (second would be Sonic Adventure, of
course). The songs sometimes really ‘brightens up the day’
when you’re feeling down.
The special effects itself are just completely suitable for the
whole game and the usual rings sound that could be always heard
when you take it can still be heard. Others like using the
accelerator, getting rings and bumpers are just sharp and clear.
One of the best parts of a racing game without any flaws that you
could be proud of, music.
Gameplay – 10
Lots of stuffs to do? You bet! The modeled tracks which includes
Resort Island, Radical City, Regal Ruins and Reactive Factory
including one secret, bonus track is definitely the best I’ve
ever seen (notice all the tracks started with ‘R’. I
guess it suited really well to its own name, Sonic R. It’s
full of stuffs and secrets and shortcuts for you to use!
There are rings that you can grab on and use it to open doors
that lead to shortcuts and even Chaos Emeralds! The rings can
also be used for the accelerator that can speed up your speed at
one particular point. Furthermore, collecting more rings will be
useful as you can use them as how many times as you like at every
time.
There are five options for you to choose, Grand Prix which you
can use to race with other characters, collecting tokens to
unlock hidden characters and getting Chaos Emeralds for ‘you
know what’. Multi-player mode can also be used to race
against other three friends and this only applies to PC version!
The Time Attack allows more replay value as they have lots of
things to keep you occupied. The Tag Mode allows you to 'tag'
other four characters as fast as you could in your favourite
race. The Balloon Mode requires you to grab all 5 balloons in one
track and the time allows you to see how fast you can get
through.
There are tons of shortcuts and the tracks are really wide. Some
are really 'huge' ones that will cut off half of the track
immediately. The map itself which are always on the screen shows
the locations of the incredible Chaos Emeralds, shortcuts and
normal route in different colours (though there are no legend to
help you to recognize, it's simple actually).
Once you completed a track, you can also replay what you have
done with the camera automatically changing always. This is what
I call a real, cool option that is added to this game. After your
hard time of beating one particular track, you can sit back and
relax yourselves while watching what you have done all through.
If you want to show your friends your cool race without having to
replay it all over again, the replay option is there.
If you lost or simply not satisfied, the retry option is
definitely useful in such situations, as well as the retire
option that allows you to disqualify yourself in a race. All of
this are what SEGA and Travelers Tales have thought before, and
the results of their hardwork and groupwork together.
Now, every character you choose has their own special abilities.
For example, Sonic can especially double jump higher, Tails can
do his popular flying technique, Knuckles can glide further out,
Amy can turbo boost with her own favourite car and so on. There,
every of their special abilities can help you a lot in tight
situations when you’re about to lose or about to jump down
to the wrong track.
One of my favourite option mode is that you can change the
weather situations there and it really changes the whole
situations in most tracks. When raining, there will be more water
and you are more likely to slow down a lot and other types of
weather like sunny, cloudy and snowing applies to the changes of
tracks.
Controls – 9
If anyone have problems using the controls, I’m surprised.
It’s actually easy to control once you know how to use it
properly. If you’re not good at the default controls, you
can always change them by going to the Options mode. If that
doesn’t help out, get a gamepad. And if that doesn’t
help out, get a friend to help you. But if that don't help
at all, you're not suitable to play this game.
Story – 9
There is never these kind of storyline for a racing game. Rather,
there are no actual storylines for racing games of any kind! Sonic
R can actually be the first racing game that I’ve ever
saw to have its own special type of story which you must know in
order what you’re really playing for. This is the actual
story straight from the manual for you to know.
Sonic and Tails are enjoying a little time off from their
adventures. The trip they've planned will be a nice, relaxing
vacation. Or so they think... Tails spots a huge sign alongside
the road. It is a billboard for the World Grand Prix.
''Sonic, look! There's going to be a huge race with all the best
racers in the world. What a great opportunity for you to show off
your speed and compete with the other top runners!''
Sonic thinks for a moment. He's the world's fastest runner, but
participating in races is not really his interest. Then something
on the sign catches his eye. Dr. Robotnik, Sonic's archenemy, is
participating in the race! In a blur, Sonic races off into the
distance.
''Wait, Sonic! Wait for me!'' Tails shouts after his friend.
Miles above the sign, a spy satellite focuses on Sonic and Tails.
Dr. Robotnik snickers in delight. ''Now that you have fallen into
my trap, Sonic, I will finally have the Chaos Emeralds, and beat
you at the same time. With my new hover machine, and these...''
Dr. Robotnik looks to his left, and a row of gleaming eyes gaze
back at him, ''nothing can go wrong! Ha ha ha ha ha ha...''
Little does Sonic know that Dr. Robotnik has learned where to
find the Chaos Emeralds! Sonic is not the only one who will be
racing against Dr. Robotnik. Sonic's rival, Knuckles, has learned
that Sonic will be participating in a very important race.
Knuckles never turns down a chance to be around Sonic when the
action starts.
Amy will be there, too. After secretly overhearing Dr. Robotnik's
plans, she also decided to join the race to find the Chaos
Emeralds.
Replay Value – 9
There are many secrets in this game to keep you coming back! Even
after two or three years (after I bought this game, of course),
I've never felt bored with it or simply leave It to collect dust.
You'll simply have to return back to play with this game! You can
collect the five Sonic tokens that are scattered in each track
which you can collect all of them to unlock secret characters.
Other than that, there are still many other stuffs that you have
yet to find.
If that doesn’t interest you, go and use the multi-player
mode! Fighting against three friends (yeah, up to four characters
in a split screen!) through network battle is absolutely cool! Or
you can still fight against your own friend through the same
computer. Make full use of every single options and you can see
why I choose and say this game as the best racing game ever
existed!
Overall – 9
Whenever you want to get a game, make sure you really like it and
I have two reasons why I want it. Firstly, it’s a Sonic racing
game and it’s a true one. Sure, the Sonic Drift
series might be nice to you but it doesn’t last out much.
This is the real, true Sonic racing game. Secondly, there are
simply many things for you to do and play so this game should be
your target of your shopping list! Re-read everything and gather
the facts; you won’t regret having this game in your
collection. Now, if only Sonic R 2 will appear for the next
release...