| Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Review Overview
What is Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds?
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, revealed in December 2024, is the latest installment in SEGA’s Sonic Racing franchise. Building upon its predecessors, this title aims to be "Sonic game, driving game, and action game all-in-one," while bringing together characters from the Sonic universe and other SEGA properties. The game launches on September 25, 2025, on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. A Nintendo Switch 2 version will follow at a later date.
Key to the game are the Travel Rings. During races, the leading racer chooses the "CrossWorld" for the second lap, shifting the track to a different dimension. As terrains change, so too must players adapt to the different environments, whether it be by land, sea, or air. These changes in track design draws inspiration from previous Sonic Racing titles like Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds features:
⚫︎ Dynamic CrossWorlds Tracks
⚫︎ Vehicle Transformations
⚫︎ Extensive Kart Customization
⚫︎ Large Roster of Playable Characters
⚫︎ Rival System in Grand Prix
⚫︎ Varied Item Pool
⚫︎ Team-Based Racing in Race Park
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ gameplay and story.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
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 Steam |
 Epic |
 PlayStation |
 Xbox |
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| $69.99 | |||||||
 Switch |
 Switch 2 |
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| $59.99 | Coming Soon | ||||||
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Vehicle Customization Is Plenty Deep CrossWorlds Are Soooo Good Excellent Soundtrack Strong Starting Roster from Sonic’s History |
It’s Hard to Grind for Donpa Tickets Season Pass is Such a Tease |
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Story - 8/10
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds doesn’t really have a traditional story mode, which isn’t surprising for a kart racer. Instead, its Grand Prix mode keeps things moving cup by cup, race by race, while sprinkling in a sense of personality through rival racers. These CPU opponents trash talk before, during, and after races, and beating them adds a level of gratification that goes beyond just placing first. The roster itself is strong, with returning faces like Jet the Hawk. However, it is a shame that some of the most exciting characters are locked behind a $20 season pass. No SpongeBob for you if you can’t afford it.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Gameplay - 9/10
Racing in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds never feels stale, with tracks that change mid-lap and vehicles that morph between cars, boats, and planes. Vehicle customization goes deeper than I expected, as different types, parts, and gadgets let you tune your ride to fit your style or the course ahead. It’s fast, fun, and often unpredictable; exactly what you want out of a kart racer. The game’s progression, however, is very grind-heavy, and this can slow down the fun just enough to keep it from feeling perfect.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Visuals - 10/10
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds isn’t polished to the same degree as Mario Kart World, but it still looks amazing. It still gets a perfect 10 here simply because frame dips happen in places that don't really affect the overall gameplay, when assets are loading in before races or when you’re jostling between karts in the menu. On PS5’s Performance Mode, the framerate during races is steady and smooth. Graphics Mode locks things at 30fps, which feels slower, but the trade-off is a stronger sense of speed with motion lines and effects that really sell the thrill of racing. The tracks themselves are often gorgeous, and leaping between one course and into a CrossWorld before jumping back had my jaw figuratively on the floor.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Audio - 10/10
For me, a Sonic game doesn’t feel complete without a strong soundtrack, and CrossWorlds absolutely nails this aspect with around 100 tracks pulled from across the series' history. I caught myself humming along to Apotos’ soundtrack and the main theme more than once, even as the sound of rings scattering across the racetrack mixed into the foreground. What stands out most, though, is how the music shifts mid-race, with one theme blending into another as laps change. If you want, you can even listen to all of these in the extras menu after you’ve unlocked them.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Value for Money - 8/10
$70 feels steep for a kart racer, even if it lines up with what most big releases cost today. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds does, however, give you a lot to dig into with its tracks, modes, and customization options, and there's a lot of fun to be had even if you stick with just the base game. The problem, though, comes with how much the season pass adds, since locking crossover characters and extra tracks behind an additional cost makes the package feel incomplete at $70. You can still enjoy the core experience without paying more, but it's hard to shake the feeling that the best parts of the roster are gated off.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Overall Score - 90/100
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds nails the basics of what makes a kart racer fun, with sharp handling, meaningful customization, and a roster that celebrates Sonic’s history. The racing itself is fast and satisfying, and the way vehicles and gadgets can be tuned gives it more depth than you might expect, especially for those who love min-maxing loadouts. Even with a few rough edges, it’s easily the strongest Sonic racing game to date, and one that finally makes sense to keep playing long after the first few races.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Review: Better Than Mario Kart World
The Blue Blur Wins This Round
I didn’t think I’d ever actually write this down and mean it: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is better than Mario Kart World. At least in many of the ways that matter most to me. That’s a bold statement to even type, considering how much time I’ve sunk into Mario Kart World since it dropped three months ago as the big launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2. That game became the centerpiece of game nights with my friends, partly because it felt like the natural next step for the series.
But then along comes Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. To say I was skeptical would be underselling it. I’ve had history with Sonic racing games, and while I enjoyed Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed back on the Wii U, its follow up, Team Sonic Racing, felt like a downgrade. The team mechanics were good, but friendly AI was abysmal. At the time, it almost seemed like SEGA was never going to catch up to what Nintendo was doing in this space. So, for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, I didn’t go in with huge expectations. At most, I thought it might be a fun distraction from Mario Kart World, but nothing more than that.
But then I kept playing. And playing. And playing. And suddenly, I found myself hyping CrossWorlds up to my friends. It’s the first time in years that a game in this genre has been able to compete with Nintendo’s flagship series on my shelf and not feel like the obvious second option. In fact, when it comes to pure fun, I actually think CrossWorlds edges out Mario Kart World. That’s not a small thing, either, because the Mario Kart series has been my go-to kart-racer since childhood.
Items Don't Make or Break Races
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds plays like most party racers on the surface. You press a button to accelerate, another to drift, another to use items, and you can pull off air tricks when the track allows. Simple enough. But the more I played, the more it became apparent that the game is built on layers that make those simple inputs feel far more involved. To explain why, I think it helps to put it side by side with its closest rival, Mario Kart World.
Mario Kart World is built around its big open-world idea, so its races are shaped by that. Tracks are wide, shortcuts often tie into gimmicks like wall-riding or rail grinding, and races can have as many as 24 drivers at once. It makes for a lot of chaos, and because of the way its items are balanced, even the people lagging behind always have a chance to claw their way back. Bagging—a strategy where players purposely hang back to stack strong items—was everywhere in that game, and while it’s annoying and can be unfun to play against, it’s part of how Mario Kart World plays.
CrossWorlds, on the other hand, is much tighter in design. Tracks are narrower, sometimes to an extreme. Take Apotos from Sonic Unleashed, for example. Early in the course, there’s a section that’s barely wide enough for two racers to drive side by side. The track does eventually open up, but tight spaces here are common. Because of this, races are capped at 12 players, half of Mario Kart World’s.
The smaller number works in its favor, though. The narrow tracks mean you’re almost always shoulder to shoulder with someone else, and when items come into play, the middle of the pack can feel like pure chaos. I rarely saw players pull off bagging online in this game. Even then, it doesn’t seem to work here the same way. A few can climb back up to third or fourth place, sure, but first place almost always goes to the player who stayed consistent and used the track well.
Granted, the game just came out, so I'll probably be proven wrong in a few days. Someone will surely find a way to break the game and discover the optimal strategies, just like the community did with Mario Kart World in no time.
It also helps that items themselves are handled differently. Compared to the game’s Closed Network test, item frequency feels toned down. You’ll still grab a box often enough, but it doesn’t feel suffocating like before, where you could barely drive five seconds without something hitting you. Powerful tools like the Drill Wisp (this game’s Bullet Bill) or King Boom Boo (the Blue Shell equivalent) still exist, but they’re not game-winning items on their own.
There are 24 types of items available in the game that players can get during a race, and what you receive depends on where you are in the pack. Unlike Mario Kart, you can actually get useful items like a metal shield in 1st place that makes you invincible to all incoming attacks.
It feels as though there are noticeably fewer boxes scattered along the track, however, so you have to think about when to unleash such powerful items.
CrossWorlds Are Just Too Good
Boost panels are the opposite, though. They are everywhere, and they’re the lifeblood of how CrossWorld feels. They keep you moving fast, recover your momentum after mistakes, and capture the speed that defines Sonic.
That sense of speed is part of why the tracks feel shorter than they actually are. Most of them still fall within the standard three-minute runtime for a race, but between the plentiful boost pads and the option to crank up the pace in Super Sonic Speed mode—a setting that feels like Mario Kart’s 200cc—the races fly by.
But, really, perhaps the biggest reason as to why races feel fast is the mechanic the game is named after: the CrossWorlds. Each cup during a Grand Prix gives you three tracks to play. During each race, the first lap starts simple enough, with everyone jostling for position and looking for an early lead. But after the first lap, massive Travel Rings appear, and the player in first gets to choose which CrossWorld the group will jump into. This instantly changes the flow of the race. Suddenly, you’re in a neon-lit casino, a dinosaur jungle, a pastel-colored skyway, or a pirate ship under siege from a kraken.
By the time you return to the main track for the final lap, the course has evolved into something new. Wonder Museum is a great example. At the start, it’s a calm run through what looks like a normal museum, but by the third lap, the exhibits come alive, and suddenly you’re weaving past moving T-rex skeletons. Finish all three tracks in the cup, and you'll play in the fourth part of the Grand Prix, which puts you into the evolved forms of all the cup's main courses in a three-lap race.
There are 15 CrossWorld tracks that only show up during that second lap, spread across 24 main courses. It’s a big pool, and each one feels distinct enough to keep things interesting. CrossWorlds as a system makes the track list feel larger than it really is, and it gives every race a different flavor depending on where you end up.
That sense of variety extends beyond just the tracks, though. CrossWorlds also marks the return of vehicle transformations, something that’s been missing since Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and sorely missed in 2019’s Team Sonic Racing. It’s back here in full force.
At certain points during a race, your kart might shift into a plane or it could transform into a boat, sending you skimming across water. Each form comes with its own handling quirks, so staying in control is half the fun. The best moments are when all three forms show up within a single race, and you have to quickly adjust to whatever the course throws at you.
Race Park is Fun... If You Have Friends
Alongside the Grand Prix mode, you can also play Time Trials and the Race Park. The Race Park is a collection of challenges that, at the time I was playing, I couldn't fully enjoy as they are ideally set up for multiplayer and played in teams. This mode slightly changes the familiar formula of the Grand Prix, with every challenge focused on racing for points. For instance, one mode is about who can get the most item hits.
I can see how much fun this mode could be, especially with a group of friends, and it's a great diversion after getting competitive in the Grand Prix mode. However, for me, the Grand Prix is really where it’s at.
Grand Prix mode even creates a sense of purpose without needing a full story. It achieves this by introducing a rival, a powerful AI opponent you face with varying levels of difficulty, from 1 to 10. These rivals are far more intelligent than your average competitor. I've even seen them save items to use at the perfect moment, whether to attack me when I get too close or to block an incoming projectile.
And it's not just that they're tough to beat; they'll also throw out nettlesome remarks when they pass you or win. Each character (excluding DLC and bonus characters, unfortunately), has unique and specific voice lines when they interact, which adds a lot of personality to the races.
Pimp Your Ride with the Best Gadgets
One of the biggest things that sets Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds apart from Mario Kart World is just how much you can tweak and customize. That sense of control goes beyond simply picking a favorite racer and hoping for the best. Different vehicle types are better suited for different tracks, and because the second lap often shifts the course into something new, you’re always having to think about how your setup might hold up under changing conditions.
The foundation of this system is the vehicle classes. Each type handles the track in its own way, and the differences matter once you start experimenting. Speed types shine on wide stretches of straight road where you can build and maintain momentum. Handling types, on the other hand, are great when it comes to tighter, trickier corners where drifting makes all the difference. Acceleration types, as their name suggests, get back up to speed faster than most, which makes them forgiving if you’re the kind of racer who tends to take a few hits. Power types bring bulk to the track, letting you shoulder-check other racers. You also have Boost types, which trade off some strength for the ability to ride boosts longer than anyone else.
On top of that, the game lets you go even deeper with cosmetic and functional customization. Aesthetically, you can design your own ride with paint jobs, decals, and themed parts inspired by the game’s roster. However, Gadgets, really, are where it’s all at.
Gadgets are essentially perks you can equip before each race, and there are over 70 of them to unlock. They’re stored in what’s called a Gadget Panel, and at the beginning of the game, you only have two slots to play with. As you race and progress, though, that number grows until you eventually unlock six slots, two rows of three. Each Gadget costs between one to three slots, so you’re always weighing the trade-off between loading up a bunch of smaller bonuses or committing to fewer, more powerful effects.
Some of these make your tricks faster to perform in mid-air, while others increase how many rings you can hold from 100 to 130 or even 200. There are even Gadgets that let you start races with an item in hand, and ones that significantly alter how your vehicle plays. Building these setups quickly became one of my favorite parts of the game. It reminded me of the satisfaction you get when you’ve tailored a loadout to suit exactly how you want to play, and then seeing it pay off on the battlefield—racetrack here.
The important thing, though, is that none of these systems overshadow the actual racing. You can’t rely on perks alone to carry you, especially since every track plays differently and the CrossWorlds twist means conditions can change in an instant. What they do instead is give you more ways to prepare. You’re allowed five preset Gadget Panels, and you can swap between them before each race.
Grinding for Donpa Tickets Can be a Chore
Where Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds really pulls ahead of Mario Kart World, at least for me, is in its roster. It might not look that way at first, especially since CrossWorlds launches with only 23 characters (minus DLC and bonus characters), while Mario Kart World starts with over 50. Numbers don’t tell the whole story, though. What matters here is who among who made the cut.
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are obvious inclusions, as are Shadow, Silver, and Metal Sonic. But the roster pulls from all across Sonic’s history. You’ve got Sage from Sonic Frontiers, Charmy Bee who’s barely been playable in anything, and even Egg Pawn, who has never been more than an NPC until now. This makes the lineup feel like it has more weight than Mario Kart’s, which sometimes feel padded with filler. Look, I love picking Cow from Mario Kart World every now and then, but I’d be lying if I said that game’s roster felt as good as what SEGA’s put together here.
And that’s just the starting lineup. If you pick up the season pass, you’re not only getting extra tracks, but also new guest stars. SEGA went wild with this. Joker from Persona 5 joins in October; Ichiban Kasuga from Like a Dragon is on the way; Minecraft’s trio of Steve, Alex, and Creeper are also coming; even SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star are a part of this game, which makes me wonder how far SEGA is willing to go with crossovers.
Personally, I’m hoping for Mega Man, specifically Geo and Omega-Xis from Star Force. It’s a long shot, but if Bandai Namco’s Pac-Man can make it in, I can dream.
These characters come with their own titles, decals, and alternate costumes you can unlock. To do that, you need to level up their friendship by spending Donpa Tickets, which act as the game’s main in-game currency. Everything revolves around it: vehicle parts, cosmetics, retries during Grand Prix, you name it. It’s not a bad idea on paper; it means everything you do in the game contributes toward unlocking more stuff. But the way CrossWorlds handles how you earn them is rough.
In a standard race, you’ll usually get between 30 and 50 tickets, depending on how you do. You can do certain things, like holding first place for a stretch or grabbing Sonic’s Red Rings to give you extra tickets, but they don't really give out much. The only way to earn noticeably more is to crank up the difficulty of your rival, which means you’ll need to really "git gud" to farm tickets efficiently.
The problem is how much things cost. An alternate costume for one character is 3,000 tickets. If you’re averaging 30 tickets per race, that’s 100 races just for a single costume. And that’s before the game starts increasing the ticket requirement for the next set of rewards.
That grind might not bother everyone, since it means there’s always something to work toward, but it’s a heavy time investment. It also hurts that retries in Grand Prix cost tickets, too. On one hand, it’s nice that the game even gives you the option to redo a race instead of forcing you to restart the whole cup. On the other hand, coughing up 20 tickets just to try again feels punishing, especially if you end up with the same result or worse after the retry.
I’ve had races where I got clipped by four different items in the last lap, fell from first to last, and then had to burn tickets just for a second try. Those 20 tickets could have gone toward something more permanent.
Is Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Worth It?
Yes; But Maybe Go For the Deluxe Edition… If You Can
I’m really happy with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. It feels good to finally say that Sonic has a win against Mario outside of maybe an Olympic minigame. The racing itself is fun and vehicle customization has a lot of room for players who like to min-max their loadouts.
I do, however, have to pause when it comes to the price. The base game is $70, which is hard to swallow even with many modern games nowadays costing the same or even charging for more. However, that price doesn’t get you everything this game offers. If you want the full experience, including extra characters and tracks coming with the season pass, you’re either paying $20 more or grabbing the $90 Deluxe Edition instead. Now, I know season passes are extra content, and you don’t have to buy it to enjoy the game. The problem, though, is that CrossWorlds makes those DLC characters feel like a natural extension of the game’s lineup. When you hear that Pac-Man, SpongeBob, or Steve from Minecraft are part of the roster, it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’re missing out if you don’t spring for the pass.
$70 for a kart racer is going to burn holes in pockets, even if it is as good as CrossWorlds. Add another $20 to that, and you’re paying almost a hundred dollars for the "complete" version of the game. I get that live-service content has changed how these games are packaged, but at some point, it stops being about optional extras and starts feeling like you’re buying back the game piece by piece.
Regardless, I can’t deny how much fun I’ve had with CrossWorlds. It’s frustrating in spots, yes, but it’s also proof that Sonic doesn’t need to play second fiddle with Mario anymore. If SEGA can keep supporting this game with new content while smoothing out the rough edges, this could be the racer many would stick with for years, and that’s not really something I thought I’d ever say about a Sonic racing game.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
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| Steam |
Epic |
PlayStation |
Xbox |
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| $69.99 | |||||||
| Switch |
Switch 2 |
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| $59.99 | Coming Soon | ||||||
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds FAQ
Who Are the Characters and What Are the Tracks in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds?
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds launches with a lot of content, including 23 characters and 24 main tracks. Players can also race on 15 unique CrossWorlds tracks, a new type of stage for the series. The roster features fan favorites like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Dr. Eggman, while the tracks revisit classic locations such as Metal Harbor, Apotos, Colorful Mall, Ocean View, Holoska, and Roulette Road. More characters are coming to the game post-launch through its Season Pass.
For more on Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds' characters and tracks, you can check out our article below!
How Long Are Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ Racetracks?
A three-lap race in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds typically lasts around three minutes.
Game8 Reviews
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Similar Games
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Product Information
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| Title | SONIC RACING: CROSSWORLDS |
|---|---|
| Release Date | PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, NSW September 25, 2025 NSW2 Holiday 2025 More Details |
| Developer | Sonic Team |
| Publisher | SEGA |
| Supported Platforms | PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store) PlayStation 5 PlayStation 4 Xbox Series X|S Xbox One Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Switch |
| Genre | Racing |
| Number of Players | 1-4 Players (Local Co-Op) 1-12 Players (Online Co-Op) |
| ESRB Rating | ESRB E |
| Official Website | Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Website |
Hatsune Miku >>>>>> Mario