Alot of people in Europe will have received their copies of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing in the post today if not tomorrow, those of you who pre-ordered the Xbox 360/PS3 versions with specific retailers e.g. in the UK GAME, Gamestation and Gameplay will have gotten their pre-order gift code to allow you to play as Ryo Hazuki in his forklift truck as his main vehicle.

I’ve received my Xbox 360 version in the post and code by e-mail so I’ve been playing as him for the past couple of hours and after my experience I thought I’d share some notes and warnings.

1. You can play as Ryo Forklift on and offline

2. Ryo forklift is treated as a seperate character so one person can be Ryo-Forklift and another as Ryo-bike, this works on and offline.

3. You’ll be given an hard time online using Ryo Forklift as barely anyone knows about this pre-order gift code, especially those in countries that didnt get this bonus so people will be accusing you of cheating and/or hacking to use your All-Star Move throughout the game but Ryo-F has his own ASM that like the other characters cant be obtained in online play. In most cases people will have a go at you over their headset, leave or cancel the session. Its been happening to me over and over for the past couple of hours, so this gift is best to be played with locally with friends and/or family.

Sorry to be a downer and this isnt me having a public rant, I just thought I should warn people and pass on the the top 2 tib-bits of info. I hope this will enlighten people who have seen Ryo-Forklift on their travels online and thought the person using him was cheating/hacking.