We Played Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

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Kinda Funny Gamescast: "We Played Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds"

Date: August 26, 2025
Host: Tim Gettys
Guests/Co-Hosts: Blessing Adeoye Jr., Greg Miller, Roger Pokorni, Andy Cortez
Timestamp Legend: [MM:SS]

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the crew’s first hands-on impressions of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Sega’s ambitious new kart racer, following a press preview event. The crew discusses gameplay mechanics, innovations over previous Sonic racers, customization depth, their personal reactions, and how it compares to other kart racers like Mario Kart and Hot Wheels Unleashed. Special appearance: Greg’s son Ben shares his own delightfully earnest mini-review.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Preview – First Impressions

• Tim, Blessing, Roger, and Greg share their varied histories with Sonic racing titles and dive into the major innovations found in CrossWorlds.
• The discussion frequently circles back to comparisons with Mario Kart, the broader kart racer genre, and Sega’s prior offerings.

2. Core Gameplay & Unique Selling Points

• Portal Mechanics and “CrossWorlds” Concept

  • CrossWorlds’ standout feature: dynamic mid-race portals determined by the first-place racer. These warp racers to different themed “worlds” mid-race, creating branching, semi-randomized race experiences.
  • "Whoever's in first place sees the options of two different portals...that is dictated by the first place player. And it feels so cool to get to do that." (Blessing, [08:05])
  • The Grand Prix finale uniquely chains all tracks together via portals, testing player adaptability and memory.

• Seamless Transitions

  • The new game loads much faster than previous Sonic racers, improving the fluidity of races and removing barriers for quick play, especially noted by Greg as a benefit for family/kids.

• Level and Track Design

  • Tracks are fashioned after various Sonic games, including Generations, Superstars, Frontiers, and more. Mall-themed tracks and smaller "cross world" segments add variety.
  • “As we watch his Tails footage, you see like the track has the walls up there. There wasn’t a driving assist on as well. But he wasn’t getting turned around. He wasn’t getting frustrated. Is keeping you barreling down this path that I think is going to open it up.” (Greg, [12:07])

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3. Customization Systems

• Vehicles, Gadgets, and Loadouts

  • Extensive vehicle customization, including wheels, body, starting items, and a "gadget" (license plate-like) system. Perks and abilities can be mixed and matched, with limited slots forcing choices between, say, starting as a monster truck or holding more items.
  • "There's a lot of interesting customization when it comes to the vehicles and the ways that you can build out your perks and your loadouts that I can see myself kind of getting into." (Roger, [09:04])
  • No character skins/outfits—only vehicle customization.

• Examples of Loadouts:

  • Early Earner combo set: Start as Monster Truck, mow down rivals, earn more rings.
  • Collision combo set: Collide with other racers for boosts and to steal rings.

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4. Mechanical Feel & Game Flow

• Game Feel, Drifting, and Controls

  • Emphasis on speed and “arcade” momentum; strong sense of flow and “stickiness” on the track, less prone to frustrating setbacks.
  • Comfortingly familiar controls, with trick systems assigned to the left stick during jumps.

• Comparisons to Other Kart Racers

  • More Mario Kart than Hot Wheels Unleashed in feel, but with a stronger arcade slant and some unique systems.
  • "Hot Wheels always feels like I'm controlling a toy... Sonic Racing feels like Mario Kart Sonic, if you've raced it before." (Greg, [42:05])

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5. Depth and Longevity—The “7 Out of 10 Curse”

• The crew discusses the common critical reception of Sonic racers (“preview darlings, review sevens”).
• "Seven doesn't have to be inherently bad... If you wanted to make a 10 out of 10 Sonic Racing, cross worlds kart racer, there's a lot you would have to like, do to make it even worth doing... As long as you're catering to the audience, who gives a fuck if it's a 9 out of 10?" (Blessing, [30:51])
• Concerns about long-term depth: Will customization and rival systems hold up over hours of play, or will options feel samey?

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6. Special Segment: Ben Miller’s Preview Impressions

(With Greg and his son Ben, [13:51]–[19:47])

• Ben’s Highlights:
  • Most excited to play as Shadow (“Because he can run very fast.” [14:23]).
  • Favorite item: Boxing glove (“I was aiming it at people.” [17:33]).
  • Loves monster trucks, used that starting item every race.
  • Thinks the game is “a 10 out of 10” and “so cool” because of “more Sonic characters.”
  • Can’t wait for the Switch version to play on plane rides.

Memorable Ben quotes:

• "I'm just gonna play as Tails if they have it. If Tails is not there, I'll play Snuckle. If Snuckles is not there..." ([15:39])
• "Because it's so cool." ([16:55])
• On rating: “Ten out of ten.” ([18:58])

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7. Rival System

• Before each Grand Prix, you get a “rival” (sometimes fixed, sometimes random) that comes with custom dialogue and increased challenge. Defeating rivals adds a carrot-on-stick element, but some confusion persists about how dynamic/repeatable/motivating this system will be in the full release.
• “As soon as I was on a winning streak, I was put up against a higher level rival and they managed to nab the place ahead of me more times than I would care to admit.” (Gamescom preview, recounted by Greg, [37:44])

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8. Track and Music Variety

• Many creative tracks inspired by recent Sonic titles plus new environments (e.g. a mall, casino, “white void” from Generations).
• 24 courses and 15 cross worlds confirmed ([44:38]).
• Music is solid, not standout (yet), but the crew expects tracks will become cult favorites post-release.

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9. Price Point & Platform Notes

• Game launches at $70, which some find surprising—especially given Hot Wheels Unleashed was $40—but the team ultimately feels the Sonic branding and content justify the price more than Hot Wheels.
• Switch 2 version confirmed, but won’t be available at launch ([47:09]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You want to win? You’re gonna have to earn it. You three and a half, yes.” (Greg on parenting, [13:42])
• “I was flicking that stick, bro. I was going crazy. Yeah, I was flicking that stick. I was going crazy.” (Roger, on the trick system, [30:15])
• “Mario Kart World feels like it’s about kind of making the experience of experiencing these different tracks more seamless. Sonic Racing Crossworlds does that same thing. And I think in some ways does it even better...” (Blessing, [07:55])
• “No skins for the actual character. That’s something I made sure to ask about—because they have Hatsune Miku...she has endless outfits! But the only customization is with the karts.” (Roger, [27:07])
• “Every kart racer: put them all in it.” (Blessing, on the need for a mall track, [39:29])
• “If it gets me back into the Sonic racing excitement and fandom playing Hatsune Miku, it does its job.” (Roger, [34:20])
• “Switch 2, it is coming to Switch 2 but not at launch. Holiday digital, and that’s a little sad.” (Greg, [47:09])

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Segment Timestamps

• Start & banter: [00:00]–[03:14] (movie debate, house ads)
• Sonic Racing CrossWorlds coverage begins: [03:58]
• Personal Sonic Racing histories: [04:22]–[06:19]
• Detailed event impressions (Blessing, Roger): [06:28]–[11:36]
• Greg's thoughts & Ben’s impressions: [11:42]–[19:47]
• Customization systems: [24:06]–[28:05]
• Kart feel, controls, and game flow: [28:18]–[30:06]
• Sevens discourse / long-term depth talk: [30:40]–[34:20]
• Rival system deep dive: [36:33]–[38:55]
• New and returning tracks discussion: [39:01]–[40:58]
• Music and comparison to other racers: [41:07]–[42:32]
• Price and content value: [43:21]–[44:47]
• Super chat Q&A, character uniqueness, DLC: [45:00]–[46:40]
• Final wrap-up: [47:39]–[48:43]

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Additional Memorable/Insightful Quotes with Context

• Customization Analysis:

  • "I really, really like this. Yeah." (Blessing on the deep loadout system, [25:32])
  • "That did feel different than the other kart. So I think that is the right question to be asking." (Roger, on how cart choices affect feel, [45:51])

• Game Feel & Accessibility:

  • "It was that idea that [the tracks] weren’t getting him frustrated. Is keeping you barreling down this path..." (Greg, on accessibility for kids, [12:07])

• Pricing/Value:

  • “Mario Kart World, $80 should not have been $80. This being 70, I understand a bit but I also think that’s crazy. When Hot Wheels was $40.” (Tim, [43:21])

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Final Thoughts & Takeaways

• Overall Sentiment:
  Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds excites the Kinda Funny crew more than previous Sonic racers. The seamless “cross world” mechanic, improved controls, more robust customization, and thoughtful level design set it apart from past efforts. They expect it to deliver on fan service, if not universal acclaim—a strong “for the fans, by the fans” kart racer.

• Lingering Questions for Full Review:

  • Will the rival and customization systems keep things fresh over time, or will depth become an issue?
  • How will the final build balance originality and polish to possibly push it past the “7 out of 10” legacy?
  • Is the price justified for kart fans not already invested in Sonic’s universe?

• For Fans and Families:
  This looks like the best Sonic kart racer yet, with enough unique twists to carve its own place in the genre, great for fans, kids, and anyone looking for a new racer outside the Mario Kart ecosystem.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[A]

What's up? And welcome to the kind at Funny Games cast for Monday, August 25, 2025. That's not right. Tuesday, August 26, 2025. Of course. I'm your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by Roger Pocorni.

[B]

Get your head in the game. Gotta get you, get you, get you, get your head in the game.

[A]

Blessing Adioia Jr why do you point.

[C]

At me like there's another.

[B]

No, I want you to. I want you to do another one.

[C]

Yeah, I'm gonna put Shrek in the conversation for the conversation you were just having that we don't need to rehash.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

So I want you to understand how much you're arguing against your point that Titan Titanic is one of the top five most iconic movies of the last, whatever, 30 years. Which?

[C]

Chat again. Listen to what he just said. He's saying that like that's a crazy thing.

[A]

No, but you're now naming Shrek. You're naming you're Shrek more than five things already.

[C]

No, if I'm, if I'm limiting it to five, I'm saying Titanic. I'm saying one of them Avengers movies. I'm saying I'll put out there. Dark Knight.

[D]

This all stemmed from. Do the kids know about high school musicals?

[B]

Yeah, that was my question.

[C]

That was one of the ones I said. Avatar. Avatar.

[B]

Avatar's number one for sure.

[A]

Okay, okay. You name it a lot of things. And I love Titanic. I know how much money it made. I've seen Titanic many times and so has most of the world. You have not.

[C]

Bless.

[A]

No, we'll change that.

[C]

I'm not.

[A]

It'll change your goddamn life again.

[C]

Titanic and Avatar exist in the same category for me, where I've not seen it, but I acknowledge the greatness. Yeah, I put my ones in the air.

[D]

I gotta acknowledge acknowledging it that hard. Okay.

[C]

The Matrix. The Matrix. Yes, chat.

[D]

Yes, chat.

[A]

Yes, chat. Yes, continue the point. Remember, this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics of video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcast to get all of our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be part of the show. Submit your thoughts and opinions as you YouTube super chats as we go. Little housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business. All about live talk shows today. Games Daily was all about PlayStation making big changes because of Concord's failure. Then the stream after this is going to be Greg hanging out with Erica Ishii. That's pretty cool.

[D]

What's that all about? It's a little return and we have cool friends. Why not? They said, do you want to interview Eric? I said, sure, we'll bring her out. Let's just do a stream, we'll hang out and chit chat. I haven't talked to Eric in a long time.

[A]

Very, very cool. If you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg Ways 17 minutes answering the question, Will Nintendo ever get third party support? It's looking bad, isn't it?

[D]

Yep.

[A]

More and more.

[D]

They don't need it.

[A]

They're fucking it all up.

[B]

Who cares?

[A]

Me deeply.

[D]

No, all you think you care. You don't care. You're just hung up because your wife's cousin's boyfriend's husband, wife worker who does the thing at corporate house has a switch and that's all they have. And that's the only thing they can play. You're that person comes up many times. That person comes up many times in the Greg way. You can catch right now on Patreon, YouTube or Spotify, Apple.

[A]

Nintendo could be dominating so much more than they are and they could be, they could be saving the video game industry.

[C]

Number one point.

[D]

If I got in shape right now, dominate the NFL, who cares? I'm doing great on my own.

[A]

Let's let everyone else die then. Let's just not care about the industry around us.

[D]

Cool.

[A]

Today we're brought to you by Ex Real. Thank you to our Patreon producers. Let's start with the top.

[D]

Yeah. You were out. Yeah, I went to a. I saw the classic blessing. I thought it was gonna be some sporty was playing goddamn music.

[C]

Eclipse concert. Let me tell you, I've never been. I've never been at a place so loud. I've never felt so washed because like I'm there and like three minutes in this concert I was like dude, I.

[D]

Don'T want to go.

[C]

It's so loud. I love the clips. I love how much they love rapping about cocaine. But like man, is it loud in here.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Let me tell you, this is our first time in the GA section of Warfield. Like I was on the first floor.

[D]

Hell yeah.

[C]

It's popping off down there. Oh yeah, yeah, no it's great.

[A]

We played it. Sonic racing, cross worlds.

[D]

Roger bless Greg and Ben Miller.

[A]

Ben Miller. Ben had his first ever preview event which is very, very cool. I can't wait to hear all about what he had to say about Sonic Racing Crossroads. But first I want to start with blessing. Adio Ye Jr. You are a big Sonic fan. I don't know if you're a Sonic Racing fan.

[C]

Not really. Like I liked Sega All Stars Racing Transformed, but it was never the one that I owned. That was one that would go to a friend's house and play a little bit. Not Addison. I think it was Stevie this time. Stevie and I would have like a lot of fun playing it, but it was like never an obsessive one for me. And I remember years ago during one of the streams that we've done here, we pulled it up and started playing a bit of SEGA Racing Transform. I was like this is fun. This is a really fun video game. But I've never been yet an obsessive over the Sonic Racing stuff.

[A]

So Raj, what's your history with the franchise?

[B]

I adored Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, specifically on the Vita. That was probably my most played Vita game of all time. I actually probably played more of this racing Sonic thing than any other Sonic game ever. So I would just. I was just purely a Sonic Racing fan.

[A]

And now you've become a full on sicko.

[B]

Yeah, now I'm. Now I'm back into the whole all of Sonic and now I'm coming back to Sonic with Sonic Racing specifically.

[A]

And I imagine Greg, you have very limited experience with the Sonic Racing games.

[D]

No, I mean more than you'd expect. Right? I mean back in the day at IGN with yeah, Team Sonic Racing, we.

[A]

Had done the switch one.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. We had done stuff there back there with it or unless I'm way wrong.

[A]

I think you're wrong about that.

[D]

At ign, I guess it was the SEGA one was probably All Stars.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And then. Yeah. When the trailer for this one. When did this trailer for Cross Worlds drop the first one.

[C]

Ooh, Game Wars.

[D]

When did they announce it? Game Wars. Is that right? That sounds to the most recent. Mm, sounds like Summer Summer Game Fest would make more sense. Cuz I showed it to Ben who is a Sonic Sicko and he was like oh my God, I want that, I want that. I was like, well you know there. This is the sequel to one and we immediately downloaded that one. We've played a bunch of the original Sonic Racer. Not the original, but the 2019 Sonic Racing one. Right. So I'm well versed in that one from playing with him and watching him play and doing to that degree. It's. I thought that one was a Cool game. I think, you know, load times are bad. It's like one of those things where it hasn't kept up with the times. But I liked what they were laying down.

[C]

This announced trailer is from six months ago.

[D]

Okay, then it must have been some other thing he showed. I showed him that I was like, there's a Sonic racing game you could play right now.

[A]

So bless.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

What'd you get to play and what'd you think about it?

[C]

So me and Roger went to the event together. We shared a station and we were passing the controller.

[D]

You're not bitter about it at all?

[C]

Not at all.

[B]

Not at all.

[C]

So we passed the controller back and forth and so I think we split that evenly. So I got to play 30 minutes, Roger got to play 30 minutes. For me, that was about like maybe a Grand Prix and a half, which was for me, enough to make me go, okay, cool, I want to play this. I'm actually very excited for this. I think off the bat, the thing that jumps out, jumps out of me from this game is that it feels, it's funny, it feels like it's in line with some of the ideas of Mario Kart World, but at the same time it's just, it's so different in all the ways that I want it to be different. Right. Like it's kind of the antithesis as far as how customization heavy it is, how I think fresh it is in some of the ideas and also how it takes things like, you know, in Mario Kart World, how you're going from one kart to the next kart and doing the interstitial track to get there. Right. And Mario Kart World feels like it's about kind of making the experience of experiencing these different tracks more seamless. Sonic Racing Crossroads does that same thing. And I think in some ways does it even better where they take the idea of like, you know how in the Sonic movies and I guess in some Sonic games as well, you have the rings that are more of these, like they're going, they're going to. Yeah. Serve as portals, take you from one location to the next location. That's how Sonic racing crossworlds kind of approaches getting you from one location to the other. As far as having these mid race moments where you go from being on, let's say you're on the mall track, you're doing, you're driving through the Sonic Mall, you get to lap two and you get to a moment in the race where whoever's in first place sees the options of two different portals. That you can go to in that first place player gets to choose. Oh, we're going to go to this separate location that is in the clouds that has like, you know, air balloons that are flying. We're going to fly through this location or we're going to go to this mystery location or we're going to go to this water location or whatever. Right. These mid track decisions, that's. That is dictated by the first place player. And it feels so cool to get to do that.

[D]

Hell yeah. Seamless. It reminded me so much of Ratchet and Clank. Right. We're talking about switching between what universe you're in.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. So for me, I was like, damn, that's a really cool way to do this. And I think taking that even beyond. One of the things that I think delighted both me and Roger was getting to the last track for the Grand Prix. And usually in a typical CART racer, when you're doing the Grand Prix, you have four races here, you have three races, but then the last race is the combination of all three where you do the first lap of all three tracks and you're using these portals to essentially transfer you from track to track. And so it's almost like the. All right, how well did you do your homework here of how to navigate these tracks? Well, that was fucking cool. There's a lot of customization stuff that I think we should talk about, but we can get into the meat of that later. But I really enjoyed my time here.

[A]

Rog, what about you?

[B]

Yeah, was a, it was a really great time. I played as my, my, my, my two goats, Hatsune Miku and Ichiban. I played Hatsumi Hatsune Miku throughout the Grand Prix and I was just smiling the entire time. It was, it was a really, really great experience to be back and to feel like the times when I was playing All Stars transformed on my Vita.

[D]

Oh yeah.

[B]

It feels, it feels like the way that I remembered it, it is fun. It had some difficulty there. So I think we were playing on not like the highest of CCs, we're playing like the way before, but there's a little bit of difficulty there. There was a lot of interesting customization when it comes to the vehicles and the ways that you can build out your perks and your loadouts that I can see myself kind of getting into. And it was fun with me and blessing actually sharing a station, even though, you know, I kind of wish that we can kind of, you know, play together. Yeah. But it's fine. But either way, us sharing the station was Fun, because I built out a loadout. He built out a loadout, and then he. He started using his own loadout and he's like, you know what? Let me try out yours. And we were kind of switching back and forth and figuring out the different ways that you can customize these vehicles and to really go forward. So there's a lot there. And it was a lot meatier than I expected. And yeah, the whole cross worlds element of it, I had no idea it was funny. Like, I think. I think you and I, we both didn't know going into it for some reason. Yeah.

[C]

At least how exactly it works.

[B]

Exactly. So it is so seamless. It is really, really fun. There's a. I forget, do you know the number of cross worlds that they said?

[C]

I think it was like seven.

[D]

Seven.

[B]

Okay. Yeah. So there's seven that are going in between your matches, so you don't know which one you're going to get. Yeah, it was. It was a really fun experience. And honestly, somebody who. Somebody who didn't really love Mario Kart World, or at least it didn't live up to the promise of like a kart racer. For me this year that. That gravitated with me. This one is looking to that. It's going to fill that void for me and definitely very excited for the full release.

[A]

I should look into this. The seven I saw was for the. I saw a trailer today for the closed network or open.

[D]

Oh, okay.

[A]

Yeah, maybe there's more than that.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I want to say. And again, I can't remember exactly. I want to say it was like 20 something, but, I mean, I want to look it up.

[B]

Yeah, we got to find that number. But it was the number they said to me. It seemed good. Yeah. I didn't remember the numbers, though.

[A]

What did you guys play on PS5. Very cool. Very cool. Greg. Hi. What did you think?

[D]

I was really impressed again as somebody so versed in the first game. And I immediately, I jumped in. I was like, this is prettier, obviously, as it should be.

[C]

Right.

[D]

But I mean, this is prettier. It's gorgeous. It's. I think it's faster. I think there's more going on on screen. I think there's more to do, which we're going to talk about with customization. We're going to talk about item pickups. And then, yeah, most importantly for me, if you're still playing the first one, it loads so much faster. That's one of those things of. When Ben does boot Sonic racing, I'm like, all right. You know what I mean? Like there's so many load screens to keep him entertained through or try to explain what's going on. It was snappy. It was easy to get around. I also truly appreciated the level design. This is something I was talking to PR about there while of course Ben was playing is that, you know, Ben by no means is as good as at video games as his father, but he can hold his own. But it was that idea that the levels themselves are so designed to keep you going. And I think not only keep you going, but keep you going fast. Right. To give you that speed of a Sonic game, but not give you that friction of running off the course, falling off the thing, slamming into something, getting turned around. Like Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 is another Ben favorite game. And so many times with that I see him. He knows how to do it now. But him having to reset himself on the track, right. In the old days it was daddy help, daddy help. Now he can do it himself. But he's still doing it. So much of missing a turn doing stuff. As we watch his tails footage you see like the track has the walls up there. So it's got. And there. There wasn't a driving assist on as well. But it was that idea that he wasn't getting turned around. He wasn't getting frustrated. Is keeping you barreling down this path that I think is going to open it up. Especially when we get into customization, we get into weapons. When you get into playing with hardcore folks of what's going to go on how you play it. But I was really impressed. This is one that I was like, okay, cool. Like first Sonic racing. I usually just leave bend his old. His own devices occasionally now, you know, Mario Kart World. He'll want me to play with him and I'll want to play with him too. I got to, you know, eventually turns to me. Can I win? I'm like, yeah. And I, you know, can I win? Fall to the back of the pack.

[C]

I kick the shit out of this participation trophies.

[D]

We ain't going to this new generation. You want to win?

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

You're going to have to earn it. You three and a half years. Yeah. But I really liked what I saw. To me.

[A]

What did Ben think?

[D]

Well, I'm glad you asked him. Of course Ben can't be here because he's in school. That's. That's the. That's the gig. All right. He's got to go to preschool. But I interviewed Ben before during an hour and then I pieced it all together into this audio video package. Okay, Ben, we've just watched the Sonic Racing Crossworlds two trailers. The announcement of the SGF one. How excited to play this game are you today?

[E]

I'm so excited.

[D]

Yeah. What do you. What's the first character you want to be?

[E]

Shadow.

[D]

Why do you like Shadow so much?

[E]

Because he's a. He's.

[D]

He's.

[E]

He can run very fast.

[D]

Right. You know, Sonic can run fast too.

[E]

Yeah, but I don't want. I used to like Sonic, but then I want Shadow now.

[D]

Yeah, because Shadow's cool.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

What. What vehicle do you want to use in the demo today?

[E]

The one that the Shadow it was in.

[D]

Just like the hoverboards. They kind of look cool to me.

[E]

Yeah, like the hoverboards.

[D]

Okay. And what question do you want to ask the developers?

[E]

How do you get the form to get one of those monster trucks?

[D]

How do you unlock a monster truck? That's a good question.

[E]

How to know how to. How to form in the monster truck.

[D]

How to form in the monster truck. Okay. They'll be able to tell you. Are you gonna be upset if you can't play as Shadow today in the demo? No. You'll be okay.

[E]

I'm just gonna play as Tails if they have it.

[D]

That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

[E]

If Tails is not there, I'll play Snuckle. If Snuckles is not there.

[C]

He's got the backup.

[A]

He's got it.

[D]

Oh, wow. Sonic. Really low on the list here. That's really, really low on the list for Sonic. Do you like Sonic at all or do you just like all his friends more?

[E]

I just like all his friends more. Wow.

[D]

Wow. Okay. But you like Sonic.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Okay. There's a baseline enjoyment of Sonic. It's fun.

[E]

I also like Tails.

[D]

First race, Ben, how was it?

[E]

Good.

[D]

What'd you think of it compared to the last Sonic game?

[E]

Good.

[D]

Yeah. Good. It's cool. It loads so much faster. It's gorgeous. I love the customization as a car racing guy. That's really cool. Can I do the next race and then you do the one after that? You want to do one more and then I can play one. Okay. Sounds good. He's like, nah, I'm not passing the controller today, dad. I'm not passing the controller today. Okay. Ben, two races in, you put down the controller to let me play. Finally. What do you think?

[E]

Good.

[D]

Yeah. How does it rank against the other racers? You play?

[E]

Cool.

[D]

Cool. Okay. Do you think it's your favorite one so far? Why is that?

[E]

Because it's so cool.

[D]

But Benny what did you think of Sonic racing? Cross worlds.

[E]

It was cool.

[D]

What was the coolest part about it?

[E]

When I was shadow.

[D]

Yeah. Did you like when Shadowed or when he was in the movie?

[C]

He was just like me when he.

[E]

Was in the Batmobile.

[D]

Yeah. What was your favorite item to use?

[E]

The boxing.

[D]

The boxing glove. I thought it would have been the.

[E]

Monster truck, but I like the boxing.

[D]

What was great about the boxing glove?

[E]

I was aiming it at people.

[D]

Yeah. Do you think it's better than the first Sonic racing game? Why?

[E]

Because it has more Sonic characters.

[D]

That's true. That's. It does have more Sonic characters. It's also. I think it looks better. I personally think it runs better. I think it loads a lot faster, which has always been a big complaint of mine when you play. But it takes forever to load the races, doesn't it, in the old Sonic racing? Yeah, but this one. No way. This one was really fast. Right. Are you gonna play a lot of this when it comes out? And then who's better at this game, me or you?

[E]

But Daddy.

[D]

Yeah?

[E]

Is the Sonic Hedgehog game, is it gonna be on our switch too?

[D]

I don't know. We have to check the fact sheet. It's definitely on PlayStation. It's probably gonna be on Switch. Yeah. Well, it's definitely on Switch. Is it on Switch two? I don't know. So you can play it on the go, though. Yeah. Why do you want to play that in your handheld? You wanna play that on plane rides?

[E]

I'm playing my.

[D]

So, Benny, as you know, we only score reviews, not previews. But since this is your first Preview out of 10, what would you score that? Game one. Being the worst. 10. Being the best.

[E]

Best.

[D]

Huh?

[E]

Being the best.

[D]

Oh, so you think it's a 10 out of 10?

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

It fulfilled all your dreams as a Sonic fan.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Is there anything else the game should do?

[E]

Um. Make a 7 out of 100.

[D]

Make a 7 out of a hundred, huh? I don't know if the game could do that, but I appreciate it. Trying. Overall positive experience. Your first video game preview.

[E]

Nope.

[D]

Do you think when you grow up, you're going to do what Daddy does and talk about games for a living? Or are you gonna do what Mommy does and help make games for a living?

[E]

Help make games for a living.

[D]

Oh, that's a harder job for you. So good luck.

[E]

I mean, I'm talking about.

[D]

Oh, no, it's too late. You chose. I'm kidding. You can do whatever you want, buddy. I love you.

[B]

Aw.

[E]

Or I could do both.

[D]

You could do well. Yeah, you could do both. There's people who do that. Yeah, that's true.

[B]

Wonderful.

[C]

Hell yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

That's cute.

[A]

Great job, Ben. Congrats on your first game.

[D]

Thank you very much for that. Yeah. You know, again, one of the ones where he's like, it's good. Like he didn't breathe while he played. And the photos I sent Jen, she's like, look at him. Little stiff ass legs. Because he's just like, ah, like locked in, trying to play and do all this stuff. He did a great job out there. Sega was great. They gave him a little care package for being a kid. They brought him a hat and a new shirt and little slippers and stuff. He was very stoked about it. And then he rewarded me by all that, as when we signed off there and I said, okay. I packed up his snack bag and he trotted around a pillar in the Marriott marquee and then got lost. It was the first time I ever lost Ben. There was a good 45 seconds to a minute of panic of like, where the fuck just held. I was like screaming in the. It was great. It was great.

[A]

That's awesome. So off camera stuff, like, did you talk to him more about it? Like, did he have any. Any other dynamite insights?

[D]

Very cool. And he likes Shadow a lot. Yeah, he asked me all the time if it's out. Yeah. Yeah. I was surprised he wasn't more into the hoverboards, if you're unfamiliar. So the trailer that. Well, I guess we watched both trailers, so I can even tell you that we're out before this. There is a section in it where you turn into a monster truck in it and been obviously obsessed with Monster Jam and monster trucks. Thought that was the coolest thing. And so when we get into talking about your customization, your build, you can start with an item in the game. And so of course, Ben chose to start with the item that was the monster truck. So you can use it, you know, right away or whatever. But every time the, you know, you'd go. Ben would immediately hit the button, turn into a monster truck and drive. The start of the monster truck that or the race that way. So really into the monster truck. Real into shadow, really into the game in general. Keeps asking about it. And I do think it maybe reawakened isn't the right. Because it hasn't been that long. Thank you very much, Barry. Great job on the B roll. But this ha. I have seen an uptick in him playing more Mario Kart World since we did the demo. I feel like Mario Kart World had cooled, Bonanza had risen, Pokemon had risen. Now we're seeing a return to World I think as he craves that car racing experience.

[A]

Love this for everybody involved, especially me because I love kart racers and I want to play more games with Ben, but I also want to hear more deep thoughts from the boys and we're going to do that after a quick word from our sponsor. This episode's brought to you by Xreal as of August 25th, Xreal One Pro is finally available on Amazon and BestBuy.com plus it's back in stock now on Xreal.com a few months ago my life changed forever when I brought a pair of xreal One Pro AR glasses on a incredibly long flight to New York City. I legit could not believe how easy it was to use and how high quality my experience was. Playing games with my Steam deck and watching movies with my phone on the plane on a theater sized OLED screen right in front of my eyes without too much extra stuff or a giant goofy headset involved. No joke, this is my favorite new piece of tech in years and it has earned a permanent spot in my travel bag. It's only hard to believe it works as well as I'm saying until you try xreal AR glasses for yourself and then you will see that the tech is here. Connect xreal One Pro glasses to whatever you're playing like a handheld console, PC phone or home console and get a massive 150 inch virtual screen anywhere, anytime for any game gaming on the go like a long flight, you need xreal1 next starting to hurt from staring down at your handheld. You need xreal One. It's plug and play with all your devices via usb C built in audio with sound by Bose anchoring your screen literally anywhere inside space. 1080p full HD and you can make it bigger, smaller, farther, closer, ultra wide or regular widescreen, horizontal, vertical, even 3D if you have a 3D movie. It's all built in and can be controlled by pressing a few buttons on the glasses. These are what make Xreal One Pro a must have. Xreal One Pro is now available on Amazon and Best Buy.com and from August 25th through September 1st you can get $50 off if you bundled Xreal One Pro with the Xreal Beam Pro AR mobile device on Amazon or Xray.com there is nothing better than when a sponsor of Kind of Funny is something we are legitimately obsessed with. So get yours today at kind of funny.com/ex reel. That's kind of funny.com/xreal and we're back. Bless. Where do you want to take me on this journey?

[C]

Ooh. I mean, I guess we should talk about customization. I think. I think that for me that was the other big thing where I was like, damn, there's a lot here, right? From the amount of shit you can do with different kind of karts and different car parts. Right. The first race that I did, I was using. I always forget the name of it. I was using the fucking snowboard looking thing. This fucking skateboard looking thing that I know has a fancy name. Is it a gear? Like a gear or something? Chat. If you've played Sonic Riders, let me know. But I was using that, which seems like the more difficult way to go.

[B]

But also, yeah, they're warning you beforehand. They're like, hey, this is hard. And you're like, I got this.

[C]

I was like, but it's cool. So I did that first. But you have all those different, like cart things that you can edit. But then also you have Extreme Gear.

[D]

The chat's popping up.

[C]

Extreme Gear. Thank you so much. But then you have these like customization things that you can do that like. I forget the name of it. I think they might be called gadgets or something. But they look like a license plate, right. That you like customize parts into. And they have different slots. And so I think Greg mentioned that you can like turn that into a thing where you can start off as with a certain item. There was an option there that I saw of like, I think magnetizing rings. There was another one where it's like, if you hit somebody, you can boost off of them. A lot of shit there. And yeah, for the passing back the controller back and forth thing with me and Roger, it was cool because we could have different loadouts to where I was like, okay, I'm going to have this one. Hey, Roger, make one in case I want to pass the controller to you and you want to change your thing, like Mid Grand Prix or whatever. That shit seemed deep in a way where I was like, damn, I really, really like this. Yeah.

[B]

And it has, correct me if I'm wrong, blessing or Greg, if you remember this one, I remember they had one where it was like. I think it was. You can have a second item already there like, like basically like the Mario Kart world thing, but that is locked behind like a Perka. So now you have to go in there and you can customize it and kind of make it however you want. But yeah, the different like the one where you can have multiple items that takes up two slots. So you kind of have to be strategic with the amount of space that you have and what you're picking up and what you're using there.

[D]

Yeah, Tim, to try to lay this out in a complicated thing without the visuals of what they were able to do for ui. Like I took screenshots of the gadget sets because they had pre built things so you could really see their whole idea here, Tim, is the idea that you can really get into the weeds with all these different combinations of gadgets. And so like they had one here they called the Early Earner combo set. Start in the Monster Truck, mow others down, Earn Rings also lets you collect items for the stock increase. Right. And then there's one that you go further on the collision combo set which you were kind of talking about a second ago, collide with other racers and get a boost and steal their rings. So they're talking about your item being the collision boost, your item control being the power tuner one, your ring ability being ring theft and mini Ring theft. Right. Versus jumping back to where you were before with Early Earner upgrade is going to be the. The Monster Truck Starter Item Control Inventory plus Ring gain Item Attack Bounty. And again, these are of different sizes scale so you can't have, you know, it's adding into what you can and can't add in. That's why there's three here versus the others over there.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, there was a lot of customization there. There was a lot of customization when it came to the actual carts themselves where you can replace the wheels. You can replace like the actual body of the thing. No skins for the actual character. Yeah, that's something that I, I made sure to ask about because they have Hatsune Miku. I mean she has endless outfits and I'm like, hey, what's going on with the skins? And they're like, no, there's no skins. That the only customization is with the cards, which is very, very robust. But it is interesting to me that you have these characters that have a million and one different outfits.

[C]

Yeah, it's more surprising than anything. Like I wonder what that is. As far as why they didn't feel that way. I think. Yeah, I would imagine a lot of work. Maybe it was the bandwidth thing, but for me a little bit disappointing. As far as. Yeah, you mentioned Hatsune Miku, but I look at the roster of characters from like the Sonic characters and I think how many different ways we've seen Sonic characters And like, I think there's a community there that would like to, you know, play as a certain kind of Sonic or like a super Sonic or whatever it is. Right. You know, I think I look at that and then I also look at the guest characters where I know this would probably be a step even beyond, but the idea of like having different outfits for a spongebob or like, you know, for Joker or whoever it is. Right. I think would have been fun to do. And so that was surprising.

[A]

Y' all jumping into the customization. Let's just start at the top of game feel. You know kart racing, that's such an important part. How's the drifting feel? What are the different mechanics like in terms of the how the power up systems and all that stuff works?

[C]

Yeah, I, for me, I mean most of the stuff is exactly how you would expect it. As far as how the power up system works, as far as how drifting works, as far as how many of the systems work. It's exactly what you'd expect. I think this goes back a bit to what Greg was talking about as far as how this game keeps you going. There is an arcade aspect to it that feels, I think more to the arcade side than you'd imagine. Based off of like a Mario Kart, for example, right where it is go, go, go. It feels like the action is constantly making you move forward, which I like for this game. It definitely doesn't have like that, I guess, control of a Mario Kart, but I do like how it is like momentum. We're going to keep you moving forward at all times.

[D]

Yeah, I think. Feel wise, Tim? It felt great. I felt. It felt I was stuck to the road. I was able to curve and drift the way I'd want to like. It felt sticky. It felt responsive.

[A]

You having the most experience, it sounds like recently at least with Team Sonic Racing. Do you like the way that game feels?

[D]

I don't love it. I don't think it stands out to me as like, oh, wow, this is a definitive, like this is the way.

[A]

Kart racing should feel and does this.

[D]

Yes. Okay. This, this felt the coming in felt natural. Felt the way again. Speed felt great. Stickiness felt great. Drifting felt great, let alone mixing in items, mixing in power ups.

[C]

Yeah, I'm sorry, go for it.

[B]

I was just gonna say the there's. You stick to the ground, it feels good there. But then when you're also in air, there's some fun stuff there where you can do some tricks. There's also, I believe there was a jump Button if I'm up.

[C]

Yeah, that was one of the things that I was just gonna bring that up of. Like, I couldn't figure out the trick system all the way. And I'm pretty sure it was. Honestly, I think it was just how many things were going on in the first race. And, like, the sheet they gave me for the control, it was a lot. And also I was like, asking. I was like, hey, is there a jump button? And I feel like I wasn't getting, like, as clear instructions. So.

[D]

So the left stick is your tricks.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

So that's like.

[C]

And it's just you moving your left stick. Yeah, gotcha. The way they phrase it, I thought I was like clicking the left stick and I was like, I'm honking. This isn't.

[D]

That's a trick, isn't it?

[C]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. But, like, that was one of the things that early on I was like, okay, I don't know what's going on here. I'm just going to go. But I'm sure as I'm watching the video, I am seeing them pull off these tricks.

[B]

I was flicking that stick, bro. I was going crazy. Yeah, I was flicking that stick. I was going crazy. I was going crazy on doing tricks.

[A]

25:95 in the chat says, what's annoying is that lots of previews are going to be saying that this is great and the game's still going to get a seven. Do you. Do you think from your experience that that is true? Is this going to be one of the ones that kind of, like, bucks the trend and is like. No, no, no. Actually, this one's legit good. It's not just like a fun game.

[B]

I think it's. I think it's tough to say. I mean, I. I think that. I think it's going to be seven in my. In my heart of hearts, but it's also going to be, for us, the 70s that we love, like eight.

[C]

Seven doesn't have to be sevens. Yeah, I'll say. Seven doesn't have to be inherently bad. In fact, inherently, seven on many scales means good. Yeah. And I don't think. I don't know. I think if you wanted to make a 10 out of 10 Sonic Racing, cross worlds kart racer, there's a lot you would have to, like, do to make it even worth doing. Doing with that. I feel like for this, the mission is let's make a kart racer that SEGA fans and Mario, or sorry, not Mario Sonic fans, fuck with and like, and enjoy. Right. And I don't think that needs to be something that's beyond like, you know, the cream of the crop in terms of polish and quality and all that stuff. It just needs to be fun and it just needs to give, I think, the fan service that that audience wants, right? And so I think for all the words we're saying, right, as far as how good it feels, as far as like the robust customization stuff they're giving you, as far as like, you know, even getting to use the extreme gear that I know people who play Sonic Riders, they fuck with that, right? I think those are all the things that that audience wants and needs. And as long as you're catering to the audience, who gives a fuck if it's a 9 out of 10.

[D]

I don't have any problem with swimming at Sevens and Sevens being good and Yeti and I remember so not. I need your help here because there. What. What is the Sonic racing game that came out when we worked at ign.

[A]

It would have been All Stars, okay?

[D]

And I remember that was the one that shocked people because it was a seven or above, whatever it was, but it was good. It wasn't, you know, set your hair on fire, but you're like, holy shit. It's actually a good car racing game. And I feel like Team Sonic Racing had that vibe too, even though it wasn't again, a 9 out of 10 or whatever. For the time.

[A]

For the time, yeah. But it didn't do like the thing. The thing was there, like, the Sonic racing games started back on the Saturn with Sonic R, where they were on foot and they're just running around stuff. And there was the Sonic, the air, the extreme games, right? The where they're actually on the Extreme Gears. Sonic Riders, there was two of those and those were. Those are kind of like cult classic just because of like how different they were. And then when they really went on full on, this is a kart racer, it was Sonic All Stars Racing, okay? And then it was All Stars Racing transformed that. The ones that. That really stood above the pack. Everyone's like, yo, this is legit good. That was like Wii U era.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

And then when Team Sonic Racing came out on Switch, it was kind of like didn't reach the highs of the last one. Like, that was kind of the overall takeaway of it and they changed a lot of things for the worse.

[D]

Okay, so then to enter back into this one in to the comment of every saying how great it is and it's going to get sevens, I believe there's an excellent chance this one gets Higher than a seven. I would say there's an excellent chance this one ends in the eight or ends in the eights. The problem and why it's harder to read into that and give you an answer. As I saw it go by earlier of like, when we're talking about how good it felt in sticking. Yeah. How do the different characters feel? I don't know. We're. You have an hour with it, I'm splitting my time with it. We're jumping around. Yeah. And so you get into. Are the characters going to feel unique? All this stuff we're talking about of the customization. When it's our five of the game, does it still feel like a deep and this is a robust system and my package is different than Roger's package, or are we all just sitting there going like, all right, it's pretty much the same. What are the modes? What are the depths of those? That's what you get. This is why I think people miss the. They were so hot on previews, but they're not in reviews of like, preview is a billboard. It's a stop, it's a commercial. It's a marketing beat. We get to see something and it is fresh, new, exciting and it is faster. It is loading better. It does look better. The rings in the different worlds are an awesome idea, but five hours in, how does that all meld together and mesh together? And that's where I still think this looks. Feels deeper and more fun than the last one that I played with Ben on PlayStation. So I'm excited on that front. But does that mean 85 or does that mean 7 5?

[C]

I don't know.

[B]

It's also different ways that you tackle the whole the game. Right. For me, I'm looking for this to just be the pickup and play for maybe 30 minutes every other day or something like that for a week or a month. I'm not looking for this game to beat take over my entire life. And if it does that, if it, if it, if it gets me into back into the Sonic racing excitement and fandom playing Hatsune Miku, it does its job right and it has the cross world element. It has enough of those gimmicks, it has enough depth already that I'm seeing now, I'm gonna enjoy this. When I start to look at, you know, maybe the other modes that we looked at where I was like, I could take it or leave it. But that's also kind of what these kart racers have. They have to have these like side, you know, side things that are Just not as exciting as just the main Grand Prix.

[C]

We played one of the side things that, again, was so chaotic.

[B]

Co op thing.

[C]

Yeah, that was so chaotic that I didn't even get the sense of, like, what the strategy or what the actual point was. But, like, yeah, we played a co op team race where we're all kind of, like, tethered to each other, and they're like. There was, like, moments where we could, like, jump forward based on, like, where your teammates, teammate is at and stuff like that. Like, it seems like they're offering a lot here in the package. And when we're talking about the billboard of a preview versus what you might want out of the final product, I think a lot of that comes from what is the depth of the final product, right? Where I'll say, similarly, for Mario Kart World, we came off hot off the preview, right? We were like, yo, this is fucking the truth. And that's because we got to play Knockout Tour, which was the perfect billboard for, hey, there's a new mode, and this new mode fucks right. And, like, that game came out, and guess what? Knockout Tour fucked. And, like, there's so many good things about Mario Kart World. There's also things that are lacking that you don't really get to experience until you get to see the depth of the full game. And you might like that or you might not like that, right? I think we're in the same place as on Cross Worlds as far as. All right, what is it going to be, like, past that. But I will say for what I am seeing out of the hints of the depth there, right? Like, again, can't tell. I can't speak to the full quality. But even things like the rival system, which we've not talked about, that seems cool, right? Where every Grand Prix, you get a specific, like, a specified rival, and it's randomized, and you'll see, like, where, like, the level indicator is of, like, how tough that rival is. And so you start and it is, hey, you're beefing with Big the Cat this Grand Prix, and Big the Cat is your rival.

[B]

But that's also the thing. I was a little bit confused with the way that they implemented it, because I was asking questions, and I believe one of the questions I asked was, is this randomized? And they said, no. Like, it's.

[C]

Oh, they said it's not.

[B]

It's, like, based off the characters. And I couldn't. I just couldn't.

[D]

They talked about being there. Okay, in mind. They talked about there being matchups. You Wouldn't normally see.

[B]

Yeah, I thought that that was whatever. Maybe I'm just getting confused here. I, I just couldn't find the flow there because I, I, I thought, at least when I initially played the whole rival system, right. Is that you, you go in there, it says, hey, here's your rival for the Grand Prix, right? And then you beat that rival. And then I thought it was going to, like, upgrade that rival to make them stronger so then you can keep on going back to them, but then, no, it just, that person stays and you move on to another rival. It was, it was just a little confusing.

[C]

I assumed it was like a level system where, like, it's random every time, but, like, the meter goes up as far as how tough the rival is.

[B]

See, that's the issue with playing this game for, you know, 30 minutes at a time. Right?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

If I sit down. But yeah, I was just a little not put off by it, but I was like, oh, this isn't the way that I would have expected this to go.

[C]

Yeah, I do hope that is a fun carrot on the stick, the thing to chase up. Oh, I'm gonna go all the way through the rival system. Like, I want to beat whoever the final rival is. Now, granted, I think the randomization does take a little bit out of that. If that's the case where it's like, all right, well, if, if the last person on this list is just going to be whoever, right? Then, like, I don't care. But if it's Mecca Sonic or. Yeah, if it's Supersonic God, you know, I think that would be fun as far as building up that hype to, like, face the final boss sort of thing.

[D]

Our preview embargo syncs up with obviously everybody else's, but mainly people at Gamescom over the gamer Rion and has a couple of paragraphs on the rival system I think might clarify some stuff. The rival mechanic is by far the best thing Crossworlds has in its corner, even more so than the titular cross worlds itself. But I'll touch on that in a bit. As I played, I noticed that many. I noticed that many characters had unique dialogue if they were, if they were each other's rivals. And I'd wager Sonic fans will fall in love with this. Parentheses others, perhaps less so. No rival dialogue for DLC characters. I didn't know I needed Shadow and Metal Sonic beef in my life, but now I need both of Sonic's rivals to duke it out or like, race it out on the track. Even putting the writing aside, the Rivals don't really don't hold back. My main gripe with the beta version of the game was that it was too far, too easy. But here, as soon as I was on a winning streak, I was put up against a higher level rival and they managed to nab the place ahead of me more times than I would care to admit. Sorry, we got a thing there. That's a cool again addition. To make it harder, to make it more challenging. You're beating through your rival, they'll give you somebody else.

[C]

I want to shout out the tracks as well. They had a few new tracks for this build. One of them I know Roger got excited about.

[B]

Oh, big pop for me. Big pop for me. When they showed the white void from Generations. Oh, yeah, I've been here. I've grown up here.

[C]

Last year there was that. There was the Superstars level, Metal Harbor. Oh, yeah, the Superstars level. Is that Metal Harbor?

[A]

No.

[C]

What's Metal Harbor?

[A]

Metal harbor is just from the other. From.

[B]

Yeah, the new one was Superstars. Right. That was the new one that they.

[C]

That was one of the new ones.

[D]

And then Kronos, they had North Star.

[C]

Kronos was the one I was thinking of as well. Where Kronos is from Sonic Frontiers.

[B]

Oh, yes.

[C]

And then I don't know if this is a new one, but like there was a mall level that I really liked. Every. Every car racer.

[B]

Just a mall.

[C]

Put them all in it. Yeah.

[D]

I think you asked.

[B]

You were like, is this from a game like Naj the Ball?

[C]

Yeah. You know what I like? Malls and car racers. It's a coconut mall.

[A]

In terms of the tracks blast, are you so far, do you feel fulfilled with the variety of them and like, what we're seeing here? It seems all right.

[D]

Cool.

[A]

Kind of par for the course.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, it seems like there you have returning tracks that we've seen in previous stuff. Right. But I think what you do here is. Yeah. What are the latest games that have come out and how do we turn some of those levels into tracks? And they've done a good job. You know, the ones that we just mentioned also. Is this Oceanside from Sonic Heroes Chat. Let me know. No, this transition to something else. But yeah, like from the tracks we just mentioned. Right. Sonic Generations, Cross Shadow, Sonic Superstars. Like we just mentioned Sonic Frontiers. Right. For all those tracks that we experienced, I felt good about it. Yeah. I'm having a fun time. And then also, yeah, the Cross World stuff feels really cool. Implemented in the middle of those as well.

[B]

And that's honestly where my highlight was where the cross worlds are such a smaller experience. They're designed to be small, but I was left wanting more. Like, I looked at them, is this going to be like, there's a casino level, which I thought was so fun. It was so cool. Reminded me almost of like Psychonauts too. Like, it was so dope. And I was like, hey, is this gonna be like a main level? And they're like, no. The cross world stuff is its own stuff. And it makes sense because, you know, if maybe if you expand these smaller things, it would just kind of lose its luster. But it honestly made me want an entire level of these cool levels.

[C]

And I saw somebody earlier in chat mentioned I'll forget if we corrected this, but they said there was like 20 something actual tracks and then nine cross worlds.

[D]

Okay. Interesting.

[A]

How's the music?

[C]

Music's good. Honestly, it didn't stand out to me. I wasn't like, oh, damn, this is the jam right here. But like, it's time for that. Yeah, I think it takes time for that. But like, from what we heard, what we played, I thought it was fun.

[D]

Toss one in. That went by. We got off it. But I saw somebody asked in there, like, how is it compared in terms of. This is from Ben's perspective, I assume, but also just being somebody who plays both a lot. Hot Wheels Unleashed. And then somebody asked, is it more. More Hot Wheels Unleash or more Mario Kart? It's way more Mario Kart than Hot Wheels Unleashed. And again, how Wheels have you played Hot Wheels Unleashed? Yeah, I think, like, I, I feel.

[C]

Like it's a bit more like Mario.

[D]

Everybody had an opinion.

[C]

I fuck with both, but I feel like the, the controls for Mario Kart.

[B]

Karter are a bit more simple and tight.

[C]

Whereas, like, you really gotta focus in on. I don't know, there's something more loose.

[D]

About the way I would make it sound. Yeah. Is that like, as you watch this, you know how it feels because it's Mario Kart Sonic. If you've raced it before. Hot Wheels, I always feel like feels like I'm controlling a toy. It doesn't feel like I'm in a car. Doesn't feel like I'm sitting there with Heft. It feels like I'm racing around in the DeLorean or whatever. Weird ass Hot Wheel Ben made me buy for two bucks. Like, I feel like they're flipping more, they're off track more, crashing more as part of it. Losing control of the car is more part of it.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And I think also the interesting goofy tracks, you know, them coming on the ground again. Like, even Mario Kart. Even with the new Mario Kart being open world, I feel like it's way easier to get off the track and Hot Wheels, because that's part of playing with Hot Wheels on your floor.

[C]

Right.

[D]

As you hit them through the thing, take them through the loops, and they fly off if they go left.

[B]

And I fell a few times. Yeah.

[D]

I'm not saying you never fall here.

[B]

We got up.

[C]

That game is also fairly forgiving. It is like, there's, like, some good quality of life stuff when I. Oh, yeah. When I veered off track on accident because I'm sometimes a terrible gamer. Like, there was a. In, like, a QTE that was essentially like, hey, you have this item. Use this thing to, like, boost off of the, like, grass that you're on.

[B]

Yeah, that's, that's a great. Which is. Yeah, we thought that that was just kind of built in, but it's like. No, it's just. Yeah, when you hit a dirt patch and you have a boost, it'll tell you, hey, use the boost right now. Super smart stuff.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Really interesting. $70 for this one. Yeah.

[B]

Surprising.

[A]

Again, Mario Kart World. $80 should not have been $80. Yeah, this being 70, I understand a bit, but I also think that's crazy. When hot wheels was $40.

[D]

Yep.

[A]

Yeah, it's like, I don't know, man, because I, I, I mean, I haven't played this one, but I imagine it's going to be a lot closer to Hot Wheels than Mario Kart.

[C]

I don't know. I think this, I mean, as far as game style, like, yeah, I think this is unequivocally closer to Mario Kart, if you're talking about quality. I mean, I'm more excited for this than I think I was for the last Hot Wheels Unleashed. And I think I'll probably end up playing more of this than Hot Wheels Unleashed. Like, I think there's just a level of, at the very least, fan service and, like, you know, moment to moment action that's happening on screen, that, that feels a bit more TLC to it than I felt like I had with Hot Wheels Unleashed. Hot Wheels Unleashed was always cool to me because I'm like, oh, damn, there's a Hot Wheels game that is cool when I'm doing loop loops and shit. But here I think the fact that I am playing is Joker, spongebob, spongebob, Sonic Hedgehog, and all these characters. I think that it does add A bit more to it that. I don't know. That excites me more than a Hot Wheels.

[D]

Yeah. I think this brings more to the table than Hot Wheels. Again, we're at a glance. We're just reading bullet points. I do. I race across 24 courses and warped to 15 cross worlds.

[C]

15. Okay.

[A]

Yeah. I'm definitely interested in this cross world thing. That sounds really cool to break up just the normal, like, lap system. Like, that sounds awesome.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And also has that. We didn't play any of the DLC characters. Yeah, that was not there. But I did play as Hatsune, Miku and Ichibone. But those are not DLC characters.

[D]

TMNT coming.

[B]

Huge.

[A]

Getting two super Chats here.

[D]

Super Chats.

[A]

CJ splits on. Just says, nice shirt, Gregory.

[D]

Thank you. I'm our number one Disneyland fan and our number one Pokemon fan.

[A]

Taking everything from me. Kebab says, by the first game, does Greg mean the Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing? Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed or Team Sonic Racing? Team Sonic Racing, as we were saying.

[D]

Thought we clarified that. My apologies.

[A]

Demon Hacker says, do the characters feel unique?

[D]

That's what we're talking about earlier. Yeah, I think I. That I wouldn't be ready to wage a guess on. I'd want to feel the difference as you jump in and do time trials and try it all out.

[B]

Yeah. I didn't feel anything too crazy between Miku and Ichiban.

[C]

Yeah. I get that the vibe is mostly going to be based off of the carts and the customization of the carts more so than just the characters. But I imagine, like, I loosely remember there being a stats thing for the characters, but I don't.

[B]

I think it's mostly based on the carts themselves.

[C]

Right.

[B]

Like when you were on the. The Gear. The Extreme Gear.

[C]

The Extreme Gear.

[D]

Wrong.

[B]

Yeah, that.

[C]

That called a board.

[B]

Exactly. Come on, Grub. That did feel different than the other card. So I think that is the right question to be asking.

[A]

And then Resolute says, was there any Persona music?

[D]

Oh, I don't think there was.

[C]

No. Not in the. I don't think we had any Persona tracks.

[B]

I don't think we could play as Joker right now.

[D]

Right.

[C]

No.

[D]

Yeah, they were. I don't think they said we couldn't.

[B]

Yeah, so.

[A]

And the Resolute also says, I'd love to see some throwback levels like Curry and Mansion from House of the Dead. How it was in All Stars. Yeah, I mean, we know we're getting some fun, like, crossover levels in this one. And then there's Returning tracks from some of the other racing games too, that aren't just like themed after Forces or Unleashed or whatever, but are actually like. I forget what it was called, like Dragon Speedway or something that's from Mario Kart, but it's Dragon highway or Dragon something or other.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And I saw that. That one's in this.

[C]

I said Dragon D. Nuts.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Sucks to get God, huh?

[A]

It does. Everybody, do you have anything else do you want to talk about with crossworlds?

[D]

Dragon Road.

[A]

Dragon Road. Thank you.

[B]

There's five red ranks hidden around every level. So it was a little bit of. A little bit of fun there to. For fans that want to 100% and complete everything. But yeah, I had a. I had a really great time. I'm excited. Switch. It is coming to Switch to, but I don't think at launch.

[D]

No, it isn't.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Holiday Digital. And that's a little sad.

[B]

That's a little sad. That would be the preferred way to play this, but I'm very excited to get my hands on it. I'm gonna do a game night at the house. I'm gonna try that out with a few people. So, yeah, I'm excited to get back in there and hopefully I can get a few. Few other Sonic sickos on my side to play this instead of Mario Kart or they're just gonna look at me and spit my face and say, fuck you.

[D]

Whoa.

[C]

I hope we can get a few streams out of this. Play this.

[D]

Yeah. I'm anxiously awaiting the call for review code on this one.

[C]

Are you gonna play this?

[A]

Oh, hell, of course.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

It's a Sonic kart racer.

[D]

I don't know.

[A]

Well, this has been an episode of gamescast, everybody. Hopefully you liked it. If you like Sonic, if you like kart racers, please let us know in the comments below how excited you are for Sonic racing cross worlds. What levels do you want to see? Come back? What characters do you hope to see? It's endless possibilities at this point.

[D]

You know what I mean?

[B]

Garfield.

[A]

Anyone could be in this game. But stay tuned, he's an uploading character.

[D]

Well, nobody's got his own car racing game.

[C]

Sonic and Pac man just had a crossover between. Why not Garfield?

[D]

Pac Man's game wasn't a car.

[C]

They have Minecraft, man, in this game. They're not going to keep that crazy.

[A]

You're hearing that people are liking Bubsy4D, dude.

[C]

I knew.

[B]

I'm excited.

[C]

I knew it. Like, come on. Look at that game. Looks cool.

[A]

Look at that game, everybody. Hey, we're about to do a super cool interview with Greg Miller and Erica Ishii. You're definitely going to want to check this out. Until next time, I love you all. Goodbye.

[C]

Bye.