It seems that an embargo may have lifted! A number of websites have suddenly posted lots of details about the new Sonic Racing title including our first look at gameplay!

Shacknews also had this to say…

While Sega and Sumo Digital are aiming for 15 characters, 12 players will be allowed in each race. That’s four teams of three, with each team utilizing a Speed, Technique, and Power racer. Each of these racers have their own distinct stats, vehicles, and customization options. For this demo, we got to check out Team Sonic (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles) and Team Dark (Shadow, Rouge, and Mega), each of whom showed different stats and exchanged different banter during the race.

The race itself feels like a straightforward arcade racer. The Shacknews team got to try out a piece of the Wisp Circuit, a single standard track of three laps each. The interesting aspect of this particular track is that it featured multiple paths, with the choice to go left, right, or center. Each path felt noticeably different, with some feeling longer and more straightforward, while another one offered classic Sonic loops. It’ll be interesting to see how other, more complex race tracks will encourage the use of the item-sharing mechanic.

Kotaku also posted additional details.

Team Sonic Racing is a 12-player kart racer where racers are split up into four teams. Where kart racers typically reward players for their personal performance and own finishing position, Team Sonic Racing gives each player on a team points based on their finishing position, then adds up those points for an overall team score. Simply put, you can’t win as an individual by just being the best racer; if the team doesn’t do well, then nobody does.

Team Sonic Racing gives players a number of tools to help out their fellow racers, none of which I have really seen employed in this sort of cooperative racing game before. If you pick up an item (called Wisps) while racing around the track, but are considerably further up the pack than your teammates, you can press a button to offer that item to your team. If one of your team members accepts and takes the item, it’ll warp over to them, allowing them to catch up more easily (and hopefully knock a few people off your own tail). If you’re the player falling behind, you can use that same button to request items from your team, and any players with an item available have the option to pass theirs over. By passing items between your team, hitting enemy racers with items, or pulling off collaborative racing moves like slipstream boosts, you can slowly build up a team energy meter too which, when full, can be activated to give every racer on your team a short but substantial speed boost.

We’ll update you with more details as we get them.

Source: Shacknews Kotaku