Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds – Review – Absolutely fantastic!

GAME INFORMATION : Release Date: September 25, 2025 Players: 1 player offline | local split-screen for 2 to 4 players | online multiplayer for up to 12 players | crossplay between all compatible platforms | online is 1 player per console Genre: Arcade racing | Kart Developer: Sonic Team with support from SEGA AM2 studio Publisher: SEGA Available languages: Interface and subtitles in Brazilian Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese | Audio in English and Japanese, with additional regional dubbing in some territories such as Italian | availability may vary by region/platform Available on platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam and Epic Games Store Age Rating: ESRB E (Everyone) | PEGI 7 | Brazil: Free Game reviewed on platform: PlayStation 5

I love kart racers. I’ve been playing this genre since Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo: I’ve played every version of the Mario Kart series, the stupendous Diddy Kong Racing on the Nintendo 64, the Crash Bandicoot kart games, and countless others. In short, I literally grew up racing every corner, chasing milliseconds on the timer, memorizing lines and shortcuts, and laughing out loud when luck turned the tables, so I have a lot of authority to talk about games in this genre. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds captured me in a way a kart racing game hadn’t in a while. It’s one of those rare cases where almost everything speaks to my style of play: the absurd speed, the drifting that rewards timing, the insane variety of tracks, and, most importantly, the amount of customization you can give your vehicle and your racing style. The result is a game I thought was “just a little something,” and before I knew it, countless hours had already passed.

That said, I’ve rarely seen a kart racer arrive as confident, as fast, and as full of possibilities as Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. After many happy hours playing this new Sonic game, it was hard to put the controller down. In each session, I’d say just one more Grand Prix, and before I knew it, I’d be immersed in yet another combination of parts, gadgets, and tracks to squeeze out tenths in the Time Trial. CrossWorlds doesn’t invent the genre, but it gives the series a distinct identity: hair-raising speed, tracks that change mid-race, and a customization system so flexible that it turns each race into a veritable laboratory of extreme fun.

I played on PlayStation 5, and from the start, I felt that CrossWorlds has a crystal-clear focus: to get you on the track fast and keep you there, without bureaucracy or fuss. There’s a ton of content on day one, but nothing is confusing or poorly explained. You accelerate, drift, use items, collect rings, pass through a giant transfer ring, and on the second lap, the race crosses a dimensional portal to a completely different section. On the final lap, the base track changes again, and you have to react. This rhythm creates an addictive cycle: there’s always a next setup tweak to try, a shortcut to master, a rival to silence, a timer to slow down. And when the game gives you the tools to do this in a thousand ways, the feeling of ownership grows along with the desire to come back for more; the result is a kart racer that hooked me like few others. Yes, this game is absolutely fantastic!

Below, I’ll break down everything I felt, in the moments I not only played, but also experienced happy moments with this wonderful, incredibly fun game.

Mechanics and Gameplay

The backbone is simple and delightful: accelerate, drift, use item, repeat. Drifting is the soul here. It builds a boost bar in levels, and with good angle and countersteering control, you chain together turbo boosts, string together jumps, spin tricks in the air, and land on a boost pad to set up the next drift. Nothing “sticks” for free; the physics are arcade-like, but they provide insight and feedback on every micro-decision. Missing the timing of your drift release punishes you with loss of traction and speed. Getting it right catapults you forward, which is exactly how I want to feel in a kart racer.

The spice that transforms the game into something truly unique is the CrossWorlds system. Every standard race has three laps. At the end of the first, the transfer ring appears; the first-place finisher chooses between two options, and everyone else is sucked into a section of another world on the second lap. These sections aren’t “loose mini-tracks”: they fit together as intermissions with a strong identity and real impact on strategy. There are aerial sections focused on flight and “vertical drifting” to hunt for rings and boost gates, aquatic sections that demand jumping rhythm and turn timing on the boat, and more technical segments that kill the momentum of setups focused on top speed. You can’t afford absolutes: your settings need to consider the possibility of a CrossWorld that demands acceleration and handling rather than a top-end finish.

The third lap shakes things up again. The base track is reconfigured, previously closed routes open up, extra hazards appear, and item boxes with a hotter mix appear. It’s the moment of truth, when your reading of the track and the grid finds your build. And this is where the other system that got me hooked comes in: Gadgets.

Gadgets are equippable upgrades located on a six-slot board. Parts vary in cost and effect; you can assemble everything from “bread and butter” kits to boost speed, acceleration, handling, power, and boost stats, to builds that change the driving logic: an aggressive spin during a drift that hits anyone who touches you, a fourth level of drifting for an extra burst on corner exit, acceleration of tricks in the air to chain together more maneuvers before landing, exclusive starting items to gain an advantage or defend in the first few meters, and an increase in the maximum number of charged rings. The cool thing is that these choices aren’t cosmetic: the car changes its behavior tangibly. On tracks with long straights and sequential boost mats, my speed- and boost-focused boards became missiles. On winding tracks or water CrossWorlds, I switched to a layout emphasizing handling, acceleration, and aerial tricks.

This customization coexists with something I’ve always wanted to see more of in the genre: an “official” rival. Before each cup, the game chooses, or you choose, a rival, with a level ranging from 1 to 10. They hunt you down, save items for the right moment, take on cleaner lines, and make a point of provoking you. It’s not just cosmetic; it increases the tension and gives you a concrete target. I’ve won cups handily and lost others at the last minute because I underestimated a high-level rival.

Items are another highlight. The variety is vast, with offensive, defensive, and utility options. There’s a targeted projectile, tornadoes that negate attacks while punishing those who touch them, magnetism that distorts the direction of those in front, saws, short-term teleportation using a ring, and that delightful madness of transforming your vehicle into a monster truck for a while to run over everything. The difference between luck and preparation becomes apparent when your Gadgets board aligns with chaos: starting with the right item, carrying more rings without losing them in a collision, shortening stun time when hit by an explosion. Again, this doesn’t replace skill, but it defines a photo finish.

The ring system closes the risk-reward loop. Collecting rings increases your top speed; crashing, scraping guardrails, taking items, and crashing knocks out rings and, therefore, your final point. You can accept riskier routes because they quietly offer 10 or 20 extra rings and build your advantage at the end of the lap, which aligns well with the alternative route design on almost every track.

Content and modes underpin it all: the Grand Prix is ​​the heart, with multiple cups and a format I love at the end, where the final race combines a lap from each of the previous three, requiring quick adaptation between themes and paces. There are speed classes that start out friendly and end in a total “hold the wheel” situation, as well as a mirrored class to relearn shortcuts and inverted angles. Time Trial rewards fine line control and clever boost usage with worthwhile unlocks. And Race Park offers fun team rules, things like “collect the most rings,” “hit the most items,” “only the most extreme items count,” and pits you against AI-controlled rival teams to steal different cars for your garage.

Finally, progression connects with the loop. Races earn Donpa Tickets, currency used to unlock vehicle front, rear, and wheel parts, horns, decals, aura plates, paint jobs, and other perks. You can increase your bond with characters to unlock specific cosmetics, and even better, you can spend a handful of tickets to redo a single race within a cup without restarting everything. This last one is a design decision that respects your time and eliminates the frustration when a monumental misfortune erases three good races.

Graphics

CrossWorlds is a beautiful game: it features a wealth of colors, reflections, particles, and settings that seem to flirt with amusement park and science fiction in the same round. The main worlds and the CrossWorlds have clear, legible identities. There are nocturnal metropolises dotted with signs and suspended cables, sun-drenched shores with translucent water, golden temples, digital circuits filled with geometric elements reminiscent of iconic phases in the series, polar regions where the boat glides through ice caves, volcanic planets that vibrate the camera with intense reds and oranges. The contrast between worlds is intentional and helps “reset” your reading when you enter the portal.

The vehicles and drivers’ lines are expressive. The themed cars evoke each racer’s personality without becoming caricatures or hindering track readability. There’s freedom to mix and match the front of one, the rear of another, and a different set of wheels, and yet everything visually “fits.” The paint materials fulfill a pleasing aesthetic role: metallic that shimmers in the sun, pearlescent that changes hue depending on the angle, candy that saturates colors.

The camera has two modes: a more dynamic one, with balance and motion blur to convey the sensation of absurd speed, and a more restrained original option for those who prefer less movement. I used the dynamic camera most of the time because it fits the “I can barely notice what’s going on” fantasy, but in long sessions, switching to the more stable camera helped me rest my eyes without sacrificing performance. The motion blur is well-used and matches the speed class. In Super Sonic, the track literally “pulls” to the sides when you land a drift-boost combo, and it’s beautiful.

On the PS5, sharpness is good, pop-in is low-key, the density of elements doesn’t hinder readability, and there’s a respectable amount of micro-effects: sparks when the wheel grazes the railing, convincing splashes in water sections, condensation trails on the plane’s wing, dust rising in dry sections. Even when the screen becomes a carnival in Race Park’s extreme modes, item icons and route signage remain easy to read, thanks to the use of contrasting colors and silhouettes.

What impressed me most visually, however, was the transition between worlds. Entering the ring at the end of the lap and instantly landing in another environment, seamlessly, with everything loaded, is jaw-dropping. And when lap 3 dismantles and reassembles parts of the base track, the staging is meticulous. I’ve seen a rocket take off and rewrite the layout ahead, I’ve seen waters recede to reveal new routes, I’ve seen platforms emerge with boosts in strategic locations. It’s clever design with a visual spectacle.

Sound

It’s a Sonic game, right? Just from that, you’d imagine the soundtrack is going to be VERY strong. Even so, I was surprised! If there’s a series that knows how to use music to push the player forward, it’s this one. CrossWorlds arrives with a vast and varied soundtrack that spans the hedgehog’s eras, with new tracks and energetic rearrangements. The game not only gives you a packed jukebox but also lets you create playlists based on the sequence: you can choose a more “opening” song for the first sequence, a more frenetic one for the second, and a third with that chorus that makes you scream at the finish. The detail that won me over was the transition: the tracks enter at different times depending on the sequence, fitting in fills and bridges in a way that feels like a live show.

In Time Trial, the reward for good times being more songs is brilliant. I spent an afternoon alternating between hunting A’s on specific tracks and organizing custom playlists. When I returned online, my “set” was with me, and this gives your runs a unique identity.

Effects have that classic DNA: the jingle of rings, the full roar of the engine on boosts, the dry crack of an item hitting, the full-bodied rumble of a monster truck, the satisfying thud of a spring. The mix prioritizes what matters when things get tough. The voices came together with charisma and personality. Your rival taunts you, your driver celebrates, some catchphrases repeat a bit if you play for many hours with the same character, so it’s a good idea to rotate the cast every now and then to avoid saturating a specific tone.

Fun

What keeps me coming back is the purposeful variety. There are dozens of main tracks and a generous portion of CrossWorlds, totaling 39 different sections for you to traverse. This alone makes for a fresh rotation that lasts a long time. Add to that the Gadget license plate system and the freedom to tweak car parts, colors, and decals, and you have a game that constantly invites you to experiment.

The Grand Prix works because it has a natural order of difficulty. The speed classes scale well: the most basic is really for those just starting out, the intermediate class requires reading corner entry and exit, and in the higher classes, you start to really brake and think of drifting as a tool for positioning, not just speed. The final race of the cup combines a lap of the three previous tracks and forces you to mentally shift from one stage to the next. And your rival provides a guiding principle for that little cup. “Today I’ll take this guy down” is a goal worth pursuing.

Race Park is my favorite couch mode. Rules like “only extreme items are allowed,” “colliding with an ally gives you a boost,” and “whoever collects the most rings wins” create chaotic and hilarious matches that break the seriousness of the focus and are good for the mood. And there’s a goal: AI-controlled rival teams come up with unique car combinations, and beating them three times earns you those vehicles for the garage. It’s a type of lateral progression that nicely fills the “let’s just play for fun” mood with a concrete prize.

Time Trial became my rabbit hole. I’ve never been the biggest fan of the mode in other games, but here, each track changes on the third lap, you have boosts to manage, gadgets to experiment with, and good music waiting behind the goals. I did a lot of “just one more” runs, keeping an eye on the ghost of my previous lap and testing my brain to see if exiting the drift two frames early would give me enough angle to land on the next boost mat.

Online is straightforward, with cross-platform play and lobbies that fill with CPU power when players are short. The fair play tag that disappears if you abandon a race midway is a simple and useful touch. There’s a slight ranking progression that unlocks more gadget options to customize your style. One limitation: only one player per console online. On the other hand, the locale can accommodate up to four screens, and performance remained stable throughout most of my sessions.

The final point of fun is something that only appears after many hours: the growing sense of mastery. CrossWorlds has a skill ceiling. You realize when your snaking has become more consistent, when your timing of an aerial trick matches the next turn, when looking at the minimap for a second is enough to decide whether to keep the item or use it to cut corners. And that feeling is golden.

Performance and Optimization

On PS5, the game’s priority is clearly fluidity. I chose to play mostly in the 60 frames per second mode, which maintains the sensation of speed and keeps the track readability intact even during particle spikes and item explosions. There’s a fidelity-focused mode for those who want more shine and reflections, but for a fast-paced arcade game, I strongly recommend sticking with 60.

Loading times are short. The transfer ring transition between worlds is virtually instantaneous, without any hiccups, which is impressive when you see three different environments stitched together in the same World Cup final. In split-screen, playing with two players, framerates remained stable in almost every situation, with dynamic resolution working to maintain the pace. In three and four players, a slight drop in sharpness is noticeable, but without compromising responsiveness.

The network is solid. In my pre- and post-launch matches, I joined lobbies in seconds, and there were rarely any instances of a positional mismatch between what I saw and what the server understood. Of course, the online experience always depends on your connection, but the foundation is well laid.

On the technical side, I encountered few real bugs. Occasional minor visual glitches, a shortcut that didn’t register my jump on the first try, and once, a quick brush with the side of the track that immediately pulled me back. Nothing race-shattering, much less a championship-ending.

What’s most striking from an optimization standpoint is how the game maintains visual readability even when activating “carnival mode”: extreme items everywhere, rivals catching up, CrossWorld with boost multipliers, and yet the track and essential signs remain clear. This is design meets performance.

Overall, it’s a technically solid package, with no major hiccups, and with enough options for you to tailor the experience to what you value most: fluidity, sharpness, accessibility, and visual comfort.

Conclusion

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is exactly what I wanted in a modern kart racer. It doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. It chooses its battlefields and wins with authority on the ones that matter in an arcade racer, because Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds knows exactly what it wants to be: fast, replayable, tricky in its challenge, and generous in content without becoming a to-do list. It’s a game that values ​​mechanical mastery with the most enjoyable drifting I’ve played in the genre in a long time, but it also leaves room for experimentation, whether with gadgets that change the car’s behavior or the world roulette on the second spin that requires adaptable builds. Furthermore, the game pays homage to the Sonic series itself, with circuits that play with memories from previous games, without letting them hamper the track design.

Can it be improved? Yes. Some cosmetics require more tickets than I’d like, the friendship system is grindy, the lack of a story mode takes away opportunities for varying objectives, and in long sessions, certain lines repeat themselves. In specific water sections, until you get the hang of it, the boat can feel less responsive than the car and plane. And online with more than one player per console would be a detriment for some groups.

But none of this takes away from the essential: CrossWorlds is a blast. I recommend it without hesitation to anyone who enjoys the genre, to anyone who wants a noisy couch, to anyone who chases time in solo mode, to anyone who enjoys building builds and seeing their plan come to fruition on the final corner. In short, I recommend this fantastic game to anyone who wants to have fun. It has that spark that turns into a good routine. And when an arcade racing game can make you think about the next lap even when you’re away from your console, it’s a sure thing.

I had the pleasure of playing Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds on PlayStation 5 and I leave this season with one certainty: CrossWorlds will stay installed on my console forever!

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Positive points:

• Delicious, deep drift with a high skill ceiling.
• CrossWorlds mechanics that refresh each run and give strategic weight to builds.
• Dozens of gadgets and parts with a real impact on vehicle behavior.
• Rich content on day 1: many main tracks and CrossWorlds, speed classes, mirror mode, Time Trial with rewards, varied Race Park.
• Huge, customizable soundtrack with beautifully crafted transitions.
• “Official” rival that increases tension and creates stories within the cups.
• Smart quality of life: retake a World Cup race while spending few tickets.
• Great performance on PS5, with stable 60 fps and fast loading times.
• Solid online crossplay and local multiplayer.

Negative points:

• Friendship system and some cosmetics require a lot of tickets.
• There is no story mode to vary objectives in single player.
• Boat sections require adaptation and may sound truncated at first.
• Online limited to one player per console.
• It would be great to have pre-built gadget boards for local multiplayer beginners.

Rating:
Graphics: 10.0
Fun: 10.0
Gameplay: 9.5
Sound: 9.8
Performance and Optimization: 9.5
FINAL GRADE: 9.76 / 10.0

* Analysis produced from a copy of the game provided by SEGA.