Let it be known this is coming from a guy who doesn’t dig racing games much. Sure, I spent half my childhood playing MarioKart, but honestly i’ve never really enjoyed a Burnout game, Forza Motorsport game or anything of those style of games. That said, I enjoyed the small portion I got of Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing.

The demo is one of the unfortunate demos that simply doesn’t really give you enough to satisfy. Two playable racers to use on only one racetrack is a bummer to see once you download the demo (which takes over an hour on my internet connection ). Luckily, the two racers they do give us are a good representation of the variety in characters and the one track they give us is a unique, stylized Sonic-themed level.

The racers available are Sonic himself and the Xbox 360-exclusive Banjo and Kazooie. Sonic is in a standard kart with all around average stats for a good basic drive, while Banjo/Kazooie are in their offroader. The game emphasizes terrain-centric driving. If you take a kart offroad, you will go SLOW. This helps train players to start driving well and to drift. Yes, you must drift constantly. Kart racing afficionados should be familiar with drifting though, and this game lets you do it very easily and very clean.

The item usage was surprisingly barren which made this game very enjoyable. You could go through a race not needing any items at all, unlike similar genre games. The items included require a good amount of chance and skill. Most projectile weapon items do not lock-on, requiring the player to actually have skill shooting. A particularly unusual item turns the entire level upside down, reversing the controls for a small amount of time.

Overall, Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing could shape up to be a great family-friendly racer that anyone can enjoy. While I might find it hard paying a full $60 for a game like this, it could very easily be worth it. With over 25 tracks, 24 characters and online play, fans of the genre could be in for a surprise in this game.