Some rivalries never end, and the one between Sega and Nintendo is one of the longest running and most legendary ever. The two companies both have newish racing games out, with Mario Kart World having launched alongside the Switch 2 back in June and Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds having released last month.
Sega took a ’90s-style dig at Mario Kart World in a pre-release ad tempting players to “leave the open road behind” and downplaying “that kart racing game,” and now, its developers are seemingly laying out what specifically makes Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds the superior kart racer.
Talking to Automaton, CrossWorlds creative director Masaru Kobayakawa said Sega’s racing game may look like “a party game on the outside,” but it’s designed to reward skill rather than luck.
“We designed the system so that no item guarantees victory, and players always have a way to counter items,” said Kobayakawa. “The goal was to keep the fun and chaos of a party game, while ensuring that victory ultimately goes to players who think strategically and race skillfully, not just those who get lucky.”
Kobayakawa also rightfully noted that item-based racing games, i.e. Mario Kart, often make it a huge disadvantage being in first place because everyone is chucking turtle shells at you from behind. Mario Kart even nerfs first-placers by giving them only the most useless items and increasing the length of time they stay shrunk after getting hit by lightning. Not to mention the blue shell specifically targeting racers in first place.
CrossWorlds, meanwhile, tries to offset the inherent downsides of being in first place by adding Travel Rings that the player in first place can use to decide which CrossWorld the second lap of the race will take place in.
Kobayakawa said the CrossWorlds dev team takes the racing genre as a whole extremely seriously, and balance was at the forefront of their minds when making the game.
“Our arcade development team includes players who are, frankly, among the best in Japan when it comes to the racing genre,” said Kobayakawa. “We had them do countless all-out serious matches, tuning the game until everyone agreed the balance felt right. It’s probably not something many other studios do.”
Nevertheless Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ Metacritic score ties it with the best Sonic racing game ever made, but it still can’t overtake Crash and Mario
