Sonic R
Developer.....Sonic Team Publisher.....Sega Players.......1 or 2 Difficulty....Medium
Once in a while, there comes a game which redefines the standards, pushes back the boundaries and says "look at me! I'm beautiful!". Such games include Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2, NiGHTS, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force 3 and Sonic R. Sonic Team did not have the time to spend on the development and so they licensed the game out to Travellers' Tales, the British development team responsible for Sonic 3D (oops).
The aim of the game is to steer one of five characters through the four races to glory, by finishing in third place or higher. There is a fifth level which can only be accessed by winning the fourth race. Naturally, you can play Sonic, but other characters to have a dabble with are Knuckles, Tails, Amy (in her odd car-thing) and Dr. Robotnik, with the opportunity to play as any of the bosses should you locate them (by getting all 5 Sonic coins and finishing 3rd in a race) and beat them in a straight race. The bosses are Mecha-Sonic, Mecha-Tails, Mecha-Robotnik and Mecha-Knuckles. Each character has his or her own strengths, notably Sonic's speed and jumping height, Tails' flying abilities and manouvrability, Knuckles strength and gliding abilities, Amy's ability to go over water and Robotnik's missile launcher and flight capability.
The game is pretty large. Not only do you have to complete the races but there are plenty of secrets. You need to collect all the Emeralds in order to access the final race, and you must collect all of the gold coins in order to set up an encounter with a boss. There are short-cuts galore and if you use the characters to their best abilities there is no reason why you shouldn't finish the game. That said, it is no pushover. If you do manage to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds and finish in first place on the Radiant Emerald course, you will get the chance to play as Super Sonic, just by pressing up on Sonic when selecting character!
Graphics-wise, it is very smooth and certainly shows off the Saturn's power. Just check out the transparent emeralds on the hidden level and the amazing reflective Sonic head, title screen R and placing number. There is a great effect where background objects are drawn and the textures spread themselves on as you get closer, and the approaching polygons mist in to the playfield (using the VDU 2 chip to produce 12 layers of transparencies!!!), which kind-of makes pop-up seem not so bad after all. It slows down sometimes, but only rarely. If anything, this looks superior to Mario Kart 64. Sound-wise, the usual Sonic effects, but some great dance music. The game features 6 play modes in total, including the basic one-player game, a neat split-screen mode too, a grand prix mode (so you can race your friends), a time attack mode and a multi-player mode. In 1 or 2 player modes you can race, collect balloons and so on. My favourite mode is the Tag mode, where you have to catch four other characters as quick as you can. They get a head start of about two seconds and weave all over the place to avoid you. It can be a real challenge, especially to catch them quickly.
The real bonus about the game is the freedom of movement. It offers full 360 degrees movement with no restrictions inside the game area whatsoever! It does take a while to get used to the control method, but it is a rewarding and fun experience. The game should not be marked down for something so niggly (a view not shared by some people). When replaying the game with the secret characters, the races become harder as you race the other secret characters, and you'll probably find it more rewarding to play. One thing to note about the 2-player split-screen modes are that the graphics, whilst having a nearer draw-in distance, actually look better because of the closer transparencies!
To finish, this is a fun 2-player racing-game with superb audio-visuals, a nice challenge, and plenty of replay value. Even when you've completed it, like Sega Rally, you'll certainly come back for more, and there is plenty of hidden stuff to keep even the most fussy person happy. It really is the best platform spin-off racer ever, and what's more, it's a great British game.
Graphics: 95% Audio: 89% Originality: 52% Lastability: 92% Gameplay: 92%
Overall: 93%
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