Eurogamer has a very well written preview of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed that I highly recommend you read. It’s very well written and pretty effectively illustrates the struggles many arcade racer developers are having today, and how much of a unique case the success of the original Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is.
The article also had loads of new info, which I’ve reported below:
The game has 27 characters. This is 7 more than the last game, not counting console specific characters.
A WiiU release cannot be confirmed or denied. I personally quite confident we’ll see it at E3, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
The development team has been expanded, taking in people from two recently closed British game development studios that specialize in arcade racing titles: Bizarre Creations, the people responsible for Project Gotham Racing, The Club, and Blur, as well as people from Black Rock, creators of Split/Second. Gareth Wilson, whom we met at the press event in San Francisco, is one of those people. He came from Bizarre Creations and has games like Project Gotham 2-4 as well as Blur under his belt.
The 27 characters will be unlocked in a single player adventure mode apparently inspured by games like Super Mario Galaxy. EuroGamer quote Wilson as saying “There’s a feeling of starting at one place and unlocking characters, rescuing them as you progress through the game and different game modes… I thought the original game was a fantastic driving experience but maybe lacked a little bit in meta-game type stuff – progression and things like that.”
These characters can be leveled up via XP earned in races. The XP can be earned by filling the All-Star gauge, which also allows racers to activate their All-Star move. With each level players an unlock stickers, achievements and vehicle mods which can alter a vehicle’s handling.
Finally, we also got some details on the final weapons that will be in the game. These weapons are apparently inspired by Looney Tunes Acme weaponry:
The homing missile will be a little remote control Sonic car, complete with transformations.
The shield will be a catchers mitt that will capture incoming and allow the player to use them.
*choir voice* Hallelujah! AHHHHHHHHH! FANGASM FANGASM FANGASM! Story and character unlocking inspired off of Super Mario Galaxy… heheh…. 27 characters… woohoo… remote control Sonic car and other cartoonish weaponry… hurrr HUR… XP for All Star moves so I possibly use em more and even vehicle mods… YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! I’M GOING CRAZY WITH AWESOME FEELINGS! YEAAAH!
You know, it kind of almost feels like a spiritual successor to the Riders series as well, to a very minor extent. I hope we hear some music from those games!
If we are getting Chemical Plant, I wanna hear Megalo Station or Metal City there… yeah…
They Shoud Have The Aqur Capital Music In Chemical Plant Track.
Is that a Sonic Free Riders music track? I never played Free Riders, it is one of the very few Sonic games I haven’t played… well, I did play it, but it was for a couple of minutes.
Aqur Capital Is That Water Baced Track In Zero Gravity.
27 characters? Damn. The last one had 20. Packedpackedpacked.
Can’t wait to get my hands on this.
There were not 7 characters in the original.
He probably means “7” more.
Yeah, I know…
Yeah, totally messed that up. Been way too long since I’ve written news posts on the fly. You guys deserve better from me.
At least I brought you guys a kick ass preview with NO such mistakes XD
I’m not angry or anything, the preview is awesome.
“The game has 27 characters. This is 20 more then the last game,”
I’m not going to lie, this quote confused me. I think you should re-word it differently. In my point of view, it looked like you said:
“This game has 27 characters! 20 more characters, unlike the original ASR, which only had 7 characters”.
That’s just what I saw in my head lol.
So, an Adventure mode? So like a mini-story followed by racing in between parts? COOL!
So an addtional 7 characters? Nice, I was already content with ASR’s roster, but the more the merrier!
So, the chracters can be leveled up? By that, do you mean a Lvl 99 Sonic, or just in general leveling up throughout the course while collecting XP? I’m a bit confused lol.
This game is looking fantastic, and glad to see more people are a developing this game than ASR!
😀
And that’s not all, we’re most likely getting a version exclusive character or two for each system! I want Mario and Mii on 3DS, Ratchet/Clank and Jak/Daxter for PS3 and Vita (or Crash, I like that idea), and Avatars and Banjo/Kazooie on the 360.
Somehow despite all of the good news, I am afraid that Adventure Mode is going to force me to play as Sonic like most of the other racing games instead of allowing me to pick my own main character.
WANT.
Imagine Ristar’s all star. Could swing around a pole then bounce around the stage haha
I thought the same same thing
“A rep tells me that it’s being treated as ‘this year’s big Sonic title'”
Does that mean that Sonic Dimensions won’t be coming out at the Wii U’s launch/this holiday season?
As far as Dimensions goes, it’s pretty much been proven as a false rumor, it was never a real game.
As far as SAASR, I cant wait! Loved the first one, just really hope NiGHTS is a character in there!!!
Sonic Dimensions was a scam all along
A letter to Sega: I want to be Silver the Hedgehog is in this part and … I wish all of the commentators publish this statementI Want
Silver would be a cool character. His all-star move would involve him yelling IT’S NO USE and throwing around all the opposing players with his powers.
*crosses fingers Blaze or NiGHTs is one of the 27*
I want to believe.
Put in a member of the Chaotix and I’m in!
One of them?, why not the 3?
http://xamoel.deviantart.com/art/SSASR-characters-Chaotix-160779756
*meanwhile at Sega on May 15th*
Ken Balough: …Hello? Guys? Episode 2’s out. Anyone?
Remember, This game won’t have big the cat, Because there no longer using him, So we could expect 8 new characters,
Maybe more if there canning some others too,
Pretty sure that “not using Big the Cat anymore” thing was an April Fools joke. But even so it would make sense to axe him from the roster to make way for more Sega related characters. I personally thought the last one had too many Sonic characters regardless of the fact it has “Sonic” in the title.
I think that some of the characters, such as Big and Shadow, will have to be dropped, purely because Sumo will be unable to come up with a vechile that can “Transform” for them. I can’t really see shadow’s bike folding up and becoming a jet, can you?
Now, it’s not that I want to see these characters go, but it’s not the end of the world for me either. Frankly, removing these characters would create more room for more “SEGA All-Stars” who aren’t Sonic characters. Personally, I think 5 Sonic characters is more than enough for this game. Maybe throw in a few others as optional DLC, if you really want to.
I’m hoping they’ll be a bit more variety in the tracks this time around. We practically got ocean palace twice in the last game. There are all sorts of Sonic areas, so why repeat the same place twice? And the main franchises dominated the choice of tracks last game, maybe spread the wieght around this time – at least one track for each franchise featured.
Anyway, this game looks great! I’m hoping tails shouts “Tornado Transformation!” Everytime his vechile transforms…
I can see Shadow’s bike turning into his hand glitter that he used in Shadow the Hedgehog, and when he is on water I can also see them do something that’s kind of like a hoverboard.
However, I’m completely with you on this, the less Sonic characters the better so we can have more and more unique characters added in. Though, I really wouldn’t mind 8 Sonic characters so that if you want, you can have a all-Sonic only race.
I don’t think everyone from the last game will come back also, to help keep switching out the roster.
…you know, it’ll be ALOT of fun to see PuyoPop in this game.
i dunno, i really want more sonic charas.
27 in total is low anyway.
i think 35 characters is good number
I hope there are loads of courses and some return from the previous game but with a twist like thunder deck with the ability to fly over parts of the track
You mean like Mario Kart 7? XD Yeah, I’d kinda like that too.
I want you can add Silver The Hedgehog in this game
Nope.
Don’t be mean to him! :/ What are you, a biased 9 year old?
Pfft. No, he was pointing out nobody here’s going to be putting him in, because nobody here works at Sumo. Plus, if anyone seemed biased here it was the original commenter.
I think 9 year olds would also be the type of people to say “Don’t be mean to him!” *pout* 😛
Well, as far as the playable character goes, I just hope Metal Sonic is still in and avaliable from the get go (no freaking DLC)
Hopefully they kept Sonic, Shadows, and Knuckles all-star moves the same in this game, those were the best imo. lol
I wonder if anyone will “accidentily” add Manic in as a cameo like what happened w/Sonia.
Also I wonder if Lee will be coming back to do some kind of reindition of “So Much More”
If Bizarre Creation staff are on board I feel a lot more confident in the quality of the finished product.
As long as NiGHTS is there, I’ll be completely satisfied.
Also console exclusive character(s) for all platforms.