Sonic Racing CrossWorlds looks like a return to the over-the-top arcade fun of All-Star Racing Transformed, and we'll get to play it this month

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds - Announce Trailer - YouTube

Announced last year, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is the latest in Sega's ongoing kart racing series starring Tails. At Sony's State of Play presentation today, we saw some gameplay footage along with the news that a network test will kick off on February 21.

As someone who loved Sonic All-Star Racing Transformed, I'm enthused by what I see in the trailer above. It still inevitably looks a lot like Mario Kart—probably more so than most other non-Nintendo kart racers—but the Sonic games are generally just faster and pose a stiffer challenge. They're less reliant on on-track collectibles.

The novelty this time around is that the circuits jump between different contrasting environments, so that a stock-standard stadium track might segue perfectly into a sprawling Green Zone exterior. If my interpretation of the trailer is correct, you'll even get a choice on which environment to be warped to, depending on which portal you enter.

Anyway, as someone mostly ambivalent towards the blue hog, I've always liked the kart racers based in his world, so I'm pretty keen for this. They're definitely good, even if you're not invested in the emotionally charged world of Sonic fandom. It still doesn't have a release date, but Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is definitely coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store.

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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.