Is Sonic R Underrated?
Sonic R is a mascot racing game developed by Traveler's Tales and Sonic Team and released
for the Sega Saturn during the holiday season in 1997. A PC version would follow the next
year, and this PC version would later be ported to the GameCube and PlayStation 2 as part
of the Sonic Gems Collection. But for this video I'll be focusing on the Saturn original.
Much like its reputation today, Sonic R was met with mixed reviews upon release. GameSpot
scored the game a 5.6 out of 10 stating, "Sonic R is a good rental, but it is so short that
you'll probably finish it the day you rent it." Ultra Game Players Magazine gave the
game a 3 out of 10 noting, "Sure it looks great, but what lies underneath it's pretty
exterior is far less appealing: shoddy control, horrible J-Pop-esque music... and some the
most poorly designed tracks I've ever had the displeasure to race on."
So, is Sonic R really this underwhelming? Let's take a look.
The story of Sonic R is pretty simple. Sonic and friends get word there is a World Grand
Prix Challenge, and Sonic reluctantly decides to partake in the event upon learning Eggman
has entered the competition. Eggman's plan is to collect the chaos emeralds and then
finally destroy Sonic and take over the world, per usual. Eggman having his name on the participant
list was his trick to lure Sonic to the World Grand Prix Challenge in the first place. How
Eggman determined the chaos emeralds could be found on the circuit, or why they are there
in the first place is a mystery. But whatever.
As expected, the main gameplay mode is the grand prix. Here, you have the ability to
select Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or Amy Rose and take them for a spin on one of 4 different
courses. It's also obvious there are some unlockable characters, in addition to a 5th
course, as they are shown on the selection screens with red X's. But we'll get there
in a bit.
First, let's take a look at Sonic R's presentation. The tracks themselves feel very much like
they are ripped from the established Sonic universe. Everything is bright and cartoony,
with plenty of checkerboard patterns and vibrant color palettes. If you look closely, you might
see references to Green Hill, Casino Night, and Chemical Plant. There are even loops,
a Sonic favorite.
Even better, items are carried over from the previous titles. While there are no monitors
to break open, there are emblems containing random items, including speed shoes temporarily
boosting speed, a lightning shield attracting rings, a water shield allowing characters
to walk on water, or bonus rings.
Speaking of rings, they are helpful for three different reasons. First are speed pads, called
accelerators, which give each character a massive boost in speed along a predetermined
path, at the expense of rings. The more rings you have, the farther the accelerator takes
you. Second, there are special doors which require either 20 or 50 rings before they'll
open. Finally, some of the characters need rings to use their special ability.
Eggman can spend rings to launch a rocket at opposing characters. This is all pretty
cool stuff, and some of the most creative use of the ring gimmick ever found in a Sonic
game, in my opinion.
On the surface, Sonic R starts off pretty promising with a classic Sonic presentation,
in terms of graphical design and gameplay gimmicks.
But then you get to the actual racing mechanics. And quite frankly, the racing mechanics aren't
very good. Especially considering how well Sonic controlled in the 3D world found in
Sonic Jam, which was a fairly smooth experience and released a few months earlier.
None of the characters in Sonic R control that well. Somehow the controls feel both
slippery, and sluggish, all at the same time. The initial movement is somewhat jerky, making
staying straight tricky in itself. And then when you get to a corner, none of the characters
turn sharp enough to navigate them effectively and you'll find yourself hitting and rubbing
the walls quite a often.
Thankfully, the left at right triggers do allow the characters to turn sharper. But
it still isn't enough. Anytime there is a sharp turn, you are going to run into the
wall, and there isn't much you can do about it.
While you really aren't penalized for running into walls, it feels, and looks, incredibly
sloppy and overall, the lackluster controls will be a deal-breaker for many. It is worth
noting Sonic R does support full analog control with the 3D Control Pad, but I found the analog
controls even worse than the d-pad. The twitchiness somehow feels amplified. I'll chalk this one
up to personal preference, but for my money, the d-pad is the way to go.
After the learning curve that is the controls, you can finally start getting somewhere with
the actual race tracks. If I'm honest, these tracks don't really feel like race courses
at all, especially compared to what games like Mario Kart already established for the
genre.
Instead, they feel more like 3D platforming levels with the paths to the finish very loosely
laid out. In fact, if you take a gander at the track maps themselves, these can look
downright confusing. It isn't always obvious how the track map corresponds to what you
are actually seeing in the game world either, further compounding the issue.
Still, making your way around the tracks is a relatively simple experience, with a sort
of central "main path" being obvious and getting lost a rare possibility. After enough practice,
you'll start venturing off on other paths; finding shortcuts, often game breaking, and
ultimately scoring yourself victories.
After winning on each track with your character of choice and earning a cool gold cup, the
fifth track will be unlocked. If I was a betting man, I'd guess this course was inspired by
Rainbow Road, featuring a fantasy styled course on a star filled backdrop. It's also worth
noting this track is much more linear, rather than open, like the four initial courses.
In any case, beating Radiant Emerald marks the end of the World Grand Prix Challenge
and brings on the game's ending credits.
Beating the game will unlock Eggman as a playable character, and will leave most gamers scratching
their heads. In the most basic sense, beating the five courses is a relatively short experience,
and not terribly challenging once you understand the flow of the tracks.
If you look at it this way, it's easy to see why Sonic R isn't a beloved game. With just
5 tracks, a handful of characters which basically handle the same, and some controls leaving
a lot to be desired, Sonic R isn't a very good game. But if this is the case, how could
anyone in their right mind declare this a great Saturn game?
The answer to this question begins in the save file loading screen. Here you'll see
a progress bar of sorts, showing silhouettes of the chaos emeralds and characters yet to
be unlocked. The path to unlocking these items is where Sonic R begins to shine.
First let's talk about the Sonic Tokens. Each of the four main stages contains 5 tokens,
and you can see how many you have collected in the bottom left corner of the screen. These
are somewhat hidden around the courses, but always in the same spot. In the first course
Resort Island, for example, the tokens can be found by traveling along the less optimum
path around the course. Additionally, there is also one hiding behind a door requiring
20 rings to be unlocked.
The challenge to collecting them all, in a single race, is then two-fold. First, you
have to figure out where all 5 of them are, and then second, figuring out how to snatch
them all while still placing at least 3rd in a race. Once you finally complete this
goal, you'll be transported to a challenge race.
This is a one on one race against one of Dr. Eggman's creations. Either Metal Sonic, Tails
Doll, Metal Knuckles, or Eggrobo. Here, you have one shot to beat the foe. Victory will
result in you unlocking them as a playable character.
But beating the special character isn't easy, as Eggman's robot creations are all significantly
faster than the main characters. This means you must follow the quickest, shortest path
around each and every course with minimal mistakes. Additionally, taking advantage of
the speed boosts is a must, meaning you need to be aggressive in your ring collecting to
maximize the boost's effectiveness.
Failing to win the challenge means you have to start all over, first collecting all five
Sonic Tokens before being able to give the challenge another go.
It's tricky for sure, but there is something really cool about the puzzle solving aspect
of the challenge. It kind of reminds me of something like The Lost Vikings or Grabbed
by the Ghoulies, where you have limited resources and specific guidelines to follow to complete
the task at hand.
In Sonic R, those limitations are the 3 laps, and time, as you need to finish 3rd or better.
In Reactive Factory for example, you cannot collect all five Sonic Tokens in a single
lap. Well I guess you could if you backtracked, but that would likely take too much time,
one of the limitations already outlined.
As there are quite a few branching paths here, there will be a lot of trial and error, figuring
out where the five tokens are in addition to mapping out a way to hit the necessary
paths in two or three laps. Then of course, finishing the race on time. It's a tough challenge
if I'm honest, and also an extremely rewarding one once you figure it all out.
In any case, after repeating a similar process for Regal Ruin and Radical City, in addition
to winning the challenge races against the unlockable characters, you'll be one step
closer to completing Sonic R.
**
The second step is locating the Chaos Emeralds. There are 7 in all, scattered about the 4
main courses. These are even more challenging than locating the Sonic Tokens. First, these
are always hiding behind a door requiring rings to unlock. This means you generally
aren't going to nab them on your first lap. Instead the goal of the first lap is to collect
the rings necessary to unlock the door, the second lap being focused on unlocking the
appropriate door containing the chaos emerald, and the third lap being focused on winning
the race.
That's right, unlike chasing the 5 Sonic Tokens, in order to collect the chaos emerald you
have to finish in first place. This adds yet another requirement to the puzzle solving
formula referenced earlier. Failure to finish in first place will result in an emerald tease
of sorts.
Further complicating the issue are some timing nuances. In Regal Ruin for example, it will
take a few moments for these doors to open up revealing the emerald. You'll have to make
a decision to wait a few moments, or swing by on the next lap to nab the prize. For this
specific example, I waited as there are some tricky jumps leading to the prize.
After you find all 7 chaos emeralds, scattered about the 4 main tracks, you'll see your save
file is now finished. Additionally, long time fans know what comes next. Sonic transforms
into Super Sonic, the final character in the game.
Needless to say, the additional challenges provided with completing the game really are
the best part of Sonic R. It really forces you to learn the courses inside and out, discovering
where all of the different paths go as well as figuring out the optimum path for efficiency.
I find all of this both satisfying, and a lot of fun. When you combine the exploring
elements with the challenge of finding the Sonic Tokens and the Chaos Emeralds under
the strict limitations, you're left with a very enjoyable experience. The fact that completing
these goals unlocks new characters, offers a nice reward for the hard work.
In short, the folks who really dig Sonic R, are most likely referring to these specific
collecting elements.
However, for as much enjoyment as these secondary tasks provide, the controls are still far
from optimal. While you can make each character move forward by pressing the up button on
the controller's D-Pad or analog stick like a normal platformer, there is a dedicated
accelerator button which works much better in practice. However, to decelerate, you don't
press down and there is no brake button. Instead you must press both triggers. This is unintuitive
and it feels awkward for sure, and since bouncing off the walls doesn't punish you, I found
myself rarely using the brakes at all.
In any case, the imprecise controls can really rear their ugly head when going for a full
completion, with a few paths of the game requiring tight 90 degree turning with a control mechanism
not really allowing for it. Further still, there are areas requiring the player to stop
and turn around, which is impossible with the control scheme used. As far as I can tell,
you can't move backwards, instead you have to slowly turn around, really breaking the
game's pace.
Finally, there is a spin dash and Sonic can roll around in a ball, but these maneuvers
aren't required, sloppily implemented and I simply never used them.
On the flip side, the jumping, flying, and gliding all feel surprisingly good, allowing
Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails to avoid the many water traps slowing them down dramatically,
as well as creating some makeshift shortcuts. Without the awkward friction of the feet on
the ground, the secondary maneuvers feel precise and I greatly prefer Tails and Knuckles because
of their mid-air maneuverability.
Amy Rose even has a cool trick up her sleeve, in addition to her boosting. She can hover
over the water, with the wheels flipping out, very much like Mario Kart 8. So all is not
lost. Unfortunately, I did find Amy Rose to be too slow. I imagine these speed and acceleration
differences of the characters would all but ruin the 2-player experience as well. However,
I didn't get a chance to test this theory.
As noted, the unlockable characters are all significantly faster than the standard characters.
However, choosing one of bonus characters will result in a race filled with bonus characters,
so there isn't any real advantage to using them. Same goes for Super Sonic.
Anyway, moving on to the technical aspects of Sonic R I have to talk about the graphics.
In addition to being artistically pleasing, they are technically impressive. For starters,
while there is pop-up, it is somewhat mitigated with a neat fading effect, with elements slowly
coming into prominence as they get near. It's not a perfect solution to the lacking draw-distance,
but it certainly makes the experience less jarring.
However, the floor of each level doesn't fade in and is always visible. I assume the floor
is actually a background layer generated by the Saturn's VDP2 chip as it is flat, massive,
and contains no texture warping whatsoever. The remaining elements are true polygons,
and the two elements sort of remind me of Legos stacked onto a base plate.
The result is one of the most visually impressive Saturn games I've ever laid my eyes on. The
texture work is exceptionally sharp and detailed, polygon counts seem above average, and each
of the characters is animated reasonable well. There is some clipping, the pop-up is masked
but still obvious, and the frame rate will drop from the usually smooth 30 frames per
second, but even with these drawbacks, Sonic R is still a visual treat.
Traveller's Tales would also claim the fading effect, in addition to the water reflections,
would not be possible on the PlayStation hardware, which was quite the claim at the time.
And I can't forget to mention the transparencies in Radiant Emerald. Generally speaking, few
Saturn games featured any transparent polygons at all, instead opting for a dithering effect
which doesn't look very appealing on modern display equipment. Like the shadows and dust
effects featured throughout this very game.
However, nearly everything in Radiant Emerald is a transparent polygon. Perhaps this was
a last hurrah for the dying system, and I can't help but find this ironic in a way.
Still, if you look closely you'll still see the limitations of the Saturn's hardware.
All you can see through the transparencies is the star filled background. No other polygons,
such other parts of the track, are visible through the transparencies. Additionally,
the cool fade-in effects are completely gone, and the pop-up is extremely noticeable. It's
easy to see why you couldn't use this specific implementation of transparent polygons as
the back window of a car, or a window on a house, for example.
Finally, there are some neat reflection effects, like the R on the title screen which you can
rotate yourself, a chrome Sonic head on the loading screen, and a chrome number on the
results screen, showing you the place you finished. While never used in game, it is
another cool effect I had not seen used before.
Moving on we arrive at the soundtrack. Sonic R was the very first Saturn game I had ever
played back when I purchased my Saturn in 2000. At the time, I hated the vocal tracks,
and instead played Sonic R with the vocals turned off.
However, as time moves on, I've come to find the vocals quite amazing. The overall
vibe here is a Euro Power Pop synth sound with high energy vibes fitting the racing
genre perfectly. And the singer TJ Davis can really belt out the lyrics, with a powerful,
yet controlled, voice that is easy on the ears.
And the lyrics themselves are just awesome. Each is bright and cheerful filled with nonsensical
positivity and even subtle references to love. Why most of the lyrics have virtually nothing
to do with Sonic or Racing is beyond me, but they are catchy as hell and are sure to get
stuck in your head if you give them a chance. The title track, Super Sonic Racing is an
absolute gem and one of my favorite pieces of Sonic music.
**
Wrapping things up, there is a 2-player mode as I previously mentioned, along with a variety
of time trial modes, including normal, reverse, Get 5 Balloons, and Tag 4 Characters. The
5 Balloon mode is like playing hide and seek, and you literally just need to find the 5
hidden balloons. I guess this could help with learning the ins-and-outs of the courses,
but it's an oddity for sure. Same goes for the Tag 4 Characters mode. Again, you literally
just need to tag the 4 characters scattered about the map. They do move however, and as
staying on a straight path is somewhat tough, it is easy to run past them. These are really
goofy additions, but completely optional, which is nice.
So with all of that out of the way, we arrive back at the question asked at the beginning
of the video. Is Sonic R underrated?
If you come into Sonic R expecting Mario Kart with Sonic characters, you'll definitely
be disappointed. Besides Amy Rose, there really isn't any karting here, at all. The controls
are strange, there is a real lack of tracks, the artificial intelligence is rendered moot
with the shortcuts, the offensive weaponry of Eggman and Eggrobo barely slow an opponent
down, the track design is geared towards platforming rather than racing, the soundtrack is an acquired
taste, and quite frankly Sonic R fails at being a racing game in just about every way.
It's easy to see why this game didn't light the world on fire back in 1997, and
it's easy to see why the game still so unpopular today.
On the flip side, Sonic R has some high points as well. The 4 main courses are as expansive
as they are exhaustive, and the designers did a tremendous job cramming in shortcuts,
branching paths, as well as tons of nooks and crannies hiding chaos emeralds and Sonic
Tokens. And despite the track maps looking extremely confusing, the levels are anything
but. It's easy to figure out the path forward, no track feature is ever repeated, meaning
you always know exactly where you are on the course, and they function brilliantly as platforming
levels needing to be completed quickly.
And in this regard, Sonic R succeeds at being a really fun game, if you are into the gameplay
mix of exploring and light puzzle solving under time constraints. And that is a pretty
big if. Same goes for the soundtrack. It is a love or hate it deal with little room in
the middle. If you can't get into Euro Power Pop with love vocals, and I don't blame
you if you can't, Sonic R might be a tough pill to swallow.
One thing I think everyone can agree on, there is little doubt Sonic R is a brilliant piece
of technical coding, featuring a ton of graphical wizardry rarely seen on the Sega Saturn. Toss
in a solid framerate and some excellent textures, and I would argue this is a top 5 Saturn game
from a visual standpoint.
But no, Sonic R is not underrated. The problems are numerous and the game is too short. However,
if you dig the specific brand of platforming challenge offered, Sonic R has no equals.
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