Hands-on: Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is a serious rival to Mario Kart

Kart racers are having an unexpected resurgence this year. The first new entry in over a decade, Mario Kart World launched alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 in June. Next month, the reigning king of kart racers will face competition from Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, a sequel to 2019’s Team Sonic Racing.

Sega must be seething about the timing, but seeing these two mascots go head-to-head on the track is exciting. It’s the gaming equivalent of Prost vs. Senna, Hunt vs. Lauda, Hamilton vs. …you get the drift.

While every kart racer is inevitably compared to Mario Kart, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has serious potential to knock the plumber off the podium.

Fast travel

Our hands-on demo at McLaren’s Technology Centre (if that sounds like a random venue for a kart racing game preview event, McLaren Racing announced a new multi-year partnership with Sonic the Hedgehog in June) contained four grand prix events, each featuring three tracks. Another six grand prix cups were locked. 

Among the 24 tracks, Sonic aficionados will recognise returning locations, from Kronos Island in Sonic Frontiers, to White Space from Sonic Generations and Metal Harbour from Sonic Adventure 2.

Whereas Mario Kart World shook up the formula with free-roaming elements and interconnected tracks with linking roads, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds ditches its predecessor’s team racing mechanic in favour of standard three-lap races. Despite its smaller scale, Sega’s kart racer has plenty of fresh ideas that set it apart.

Its titular CrossWorlds allude to Travel Rings on each circuit. Like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, these act as portals, transporting you to a new location mid-race. At the end of the first lap, whoever is in first place can drive into one of two Travel Rings to choose a location.   

Travelling between locations is impressively seamless. One minute, we were racing inside a spectator-filled stadium. The next, we were dodging dinosaurs on a beach or drifting on ice roads. After the second lap, another Travel Ring teleports you back to the original circuit. We can’t help but wonder how they will fare on older hardware without fast-loading SSD hard drives.

It’s an interesting idea that makes every lap feel unique, coupled with the fact that Travel Ring locations are randomised. Our only concern is that they may lose their novelty and feel gimmicky after a while. It’s also unclear if there are regular races without Travel Rings.

The gadget show

Whereas Mario Kart World pared back vehicle customisation, removing the ability to swap parts in favour of preset designs, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has a surprisingly deep customisation system.

Each of the 40+ vehicles has over 100 swappable wheels, front and rear parts. These are split into five categories: Speed, Acceleration, Handling, Power and Boost. With each component affecting vehicle stats, finding the right balance between speed and handling is crucial. Beyond this, you can also change your vehicle’s paint colour and add decals.

Mercifully, transforming vehicles return after being absent in Team Sonic Racing. Harkening back to Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, designated areas see you switch between land, sea and air vehicles mid-race. Each vehicle type has a unique charging mechanic: drifting in cars builds up a speed boost, whereas boats can jump out of the water.  

Gadgets, Sonic Racing CrossWorld’s take on power-ups, are assigned in a separate customisation menu. Here, you can store up to six slots, with each gadget taking up to three slots depending on its strength. Weaker gadgets like ring pickup boosters only use one slot, whereas more powerful gadgets take up three.

There’s a lot of scope for strategy here, whether you want to focus on smaller attacks or prioritise the most powerful gadgets. One three-slot powerup allows you to start in a massive monster truck, knocking opponents out of the way with ease. Combining this with gadgets that earned more rings when hitting opponents and increased the number of items we could store gave us an advantage when attacking rivals.

Alternatively, if you want to focus on increasing your speed, you can equip gadgets that fill your drift charge faster or provide a double boost at the start of the race. 

Out on the track, this latest series entry plays like an old-school arcade racer, with snappy controls, accessible drifting and over-the-top air tricks such as spins and rolls that provide additional speed boosts.

Using a dedicated drift button (accelerating with X on a PS5 controller instead of a trigger took some adjustment), chaining drifts while collecting coins is satisfying, but the vehicle handling feels too floaty at this stage. Drifting can also sometimes feel like it’s on rails. While it suits the game’s family-friendly style, we’re hoping the cornering characteristics can be finetuned for the final version.  

Races pit you against 11 rivals compared to Mario Kart World’s 23. Finishing first was easy in most races with the recommended ‘High Speed’ setting, but there are multiple difficulty options ranging from Normal to Super Sonic Speed to suit different skill levels.    

Sonic rivals

In another novel idea, each race assigns you a rival, who verbally taunts you and is harder to beat. This system gives characters more personality, while bonus rewards give an incentive to beat them. 

At launch, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will feature 23 playable characters, the largest in the Sonic Racing series, with more to be added from October via free and paid DLC. Familiar stars from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, like Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, make up the main roster, alongside lesser-known characters like E-123 Omega, a robot that seeks revenge against Dr. Robotnik.

Free updates will add characters from other Sega franchises, including Yakuza’s Ichiban Kasuga, Project Diva’s Hatsune Miku and Persona 5’s Joker. New additions won’t be restricted to Sega franchises, however.  

Characters from SpongeBob SquarePants and Minecraft are coming in the season pass, with more characters from other mystery IPs yet to be announced. The crossover possibilities are endless, with at least five more character packs planned for the season pass.  

Beyond the standard grand prix events, we spotted a ‘Race Park’ party mode, which features multiplayer-focused mini games. Speaking of multiplayer, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds supports both split-screen for up to four players and crossplay multiplayer, for up to 12 players which should help it retain an active player base online. We also noticed a ‘Triple Team Race’ option, hinting at a team-based cooperative race mode.  

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has a significant advantage over its main rival. Unlike Mario Kart, it’s multiplatform – a fact that Sega loves to reiterate.

Whereas Mario Kart World is a Switch 2 exclusive, Sega’s kart racer is speeding onto PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, with a native Switch 2 release earmarked for the Christmas period. It’s even slated for the last-generation PS4 and Xbox One.

Sega is clearly confident about Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Its potential to become the next ubiquitous kart racer is palatable – especially for those who don’t have a Nintendo console. With a Crazy Taxi remake also in the pipeline, Sega seems to be on a mission to put arcade-style racing back in the spotlight.

It probably won’t overtake Mario Kart World on Switch 2, but Sonic Racing: CrosssWorlds could be a serious contender with its highly customisable vehicles, wide-ranging character roster and shifting locations. 

With Mario Kart World and Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds going head-to-head this year, a new golden age of kart racers could be on the horizon.   

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds release date

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds launches on 25^th September 2025 for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, with a native Nintendo Switch 2 port slated for later this year. Pre-ordering the digital deluxe edition provides three days of early access from 22^nd September.