Team Sonic Racing

Team Sonic Racing is a 2019 kart racing game and a spin-off from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series. Team Sonic Racing differs from traditional kart racers because of its focus on cooperative gameplay, similar to the kind featured in Splatoon and Overwatch —players are part of a team of racers and win races through efficiency rather than speed. Game modes include competing to earn points, time trials, customizing the racing rules, and a story-driven tutorial campaign. Sumo Digital, which had previously worked on Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed , developed Team Sonic Racing. Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka conceived the cooperative gameplay, and Sumo Digital used the team-based Sonic Heroes as a point of reference. Unlike Sumo Digital's previous racing games, Team Sonic Racing only features Sonic characters, as the team wanted to expand the series' world and character roster. They aimed to make the game stand out compared to other racing games and developed it using a modified version of the All-Stars game engine. Musician Jun Senoue, who had not contributed to a major Sonic game since Generations , composed the soundtrack. Team Sonic Racing's existence came to light when a Sumo Digital memo leaked in January 2018, with Sega confirming it the following May. Critics also considered it inferior to the Sega-All Stars games. Team Sonic Racing is a Sonic the Hedgehog-themed kart racing game featuring single-player and multiplayer modes. Power-ups called Wisps can be collected from canisters with "?" marks and grant players temporary offensive and defensive advantages. The gameplay differs from traditional racing games because of its focus on cooperative gameplay: the player is part of a team of racers and they must work together. Any character can be in a team; the player also has the option for each teammate to be the same character.