Platform: PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
Price: $69 / £64 (Standard Edition), $79 / £79 (Digital Deluxe Edition)
Release date: September 25, 2025
Genre: Racing
When I was younger, Sonic Riders was one of my favorite games, and I always looked forward to sinking a couple of hours into it every day after school. In my mid-20s, I got a Nintendo Switch, and Mario Kart 8 quickly became another favorite of mine — so imagine my glee when Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, a game that looked like the perfect cross between the two, was announced at The Game Awards in 2024.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a spinoff in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe and part of the long-running racing series, and it takes what Mario Kart games have done well and massively improves on it. It’s the perfect blend of chaos and fun, introducing a ‘CrossWorlds’ mechanic that sees you thrown into a portal and onto another track mid-race. With a voiced roster of 23 characters at launch — which will expand to 56 through promised post-launch updates — and a ‘rival’ mechanic that throws an overpowered CPU character onto the track, CrossWorlds poses a learning curve that’s oh-so-rewarding to master.
Multi-platform compatibility makes CrossWorlds the next best thing if you don’t own a Nintendo Switch 2 to play Mario Kart World. Although the number of courses is less than ideal at launch and some items feel so overpowered they might turn your smile upside down, CrossWorlds is still a formidable karting game that gives you little else to complain about.
Read on for my full Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review, where I’ll take you through why the Blue Blur and friends upstage the red-capped plumber’s latest bestselling kart racer…
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review: The Basics
- What is it? Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a spinoff in the Sonic the Hedgehog series that sees the Blue Blur, alongside iconic friends and enemies, take to the track and travel across colorful worlds to battle it out.
- Who is it for? It’s a fantastic alternative to Mario Kart World, especially for those who don’t own a Nintendo Switch 2. It’s also a brilliant party game for up to four players, so rope your friends and family into going head-to-head.
- What’s the price? The standard edition of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds costs $69 ($59 on the Nintendo Switch), with the digital deluxe edition costing $79 and it includes a season pass, extra characters as well as six content packs comprising additional vehicles, emotes and more.
- What other games has the developer made? Sonic Team has made all other games in the franchise, including the latest single-player Sonic x Shadow Generations. Oh, the developer has made non-Sonic games too, like Puyo Puyo.
- What games is this similar to? The Sonic Racing series, which includes Sonic Riders and Team Sonic Racing, is a Mario Kart clone, so Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is eerily similar to Mario Kart World — albeit more chaotic and lacking a free roam mode (and I’m not complaining about the latter).
Follow me through the stratosphere
As someone who has spent over 50 hours playing Mario Kart World, it didn’t take long for me to realize that Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is heavily inspired by the red hat plumber’s latest racing title. It follows a similar format: you (and up to three other local players, if you wish) compete against 11 other racers in a four-track Grand Prix cup, with the finale being a mix of the first three courses.
Simple enough, but things get chaotic when the game’s CrossWorlds mechanic comes into play. Halfway through every race, you’re transported to an entirely new track where the terrain changes quickly, going from floating on water to flying through the sky. You’re then brought back to the original track for the home stretch. It’s like the connected track gimmick in Mario Kart World, but it’s executed more naturally.
CrossWorlds’, well, CrossWorlds mechanic is something I haven’t seen in any other Sonic karting game before, which is what makes it special and the most memorable entry in the racing series to date. Unlike Sonic Riders, for example, the tracks don’t feel mundane and like you’re just going around in circles. With the ever-changing terrain and not knowing where I was going upon entering a mid-race portal, I was always on my toes, and aiding me was my Gadget Plate.
Gotta go fast!
In many ways, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds feels like the grown-up version of Mario Kart World, and it gives players plenty of customization options. While Mario Kart World only lets you pick your kart, CrossWorlds allows you to customize its aesthetics as well as add significant upgrades in the form of Gadget Plates — and this is my favorite part of the game, as it adds a deeper layer of strategy beyond just picking the best-looking kart.
Gadget Plates have six slots that you can unlock by completing races, and they’re essentially loadouts that give you both passive and time-sensitive power-ups. Some power-ups take up more than one slot. For instance, I ensured I had a three-slot acceleration booster in my Gadget Plate at all times, alongside a one-slot power-up that made me perform air tricks quicker. They feel like a cheat code and significantly impact gameplay.
As karting games go, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a hard title to master. Tracks wind a lot and, yes, the CrossWorlds mechanic throws a spanner into the works, but some items are ridiculously overpowered, which can be a boon or bane, depending on where you are in the pecking order. I could be leading a race and then get bombarded with items, and quickly returning to your previous position isn’t the easiest either. There isn’t a power-up that will magically take you to the top three.
At first, I found this frustrating, but it pushed me to ‘git gud.’ I needed to nail every drift and get in as many air tricks as possible. I thoroughly enjoyed drifting in CrossWorlds as it feels extremely smooth. I love that if I changed direction suddenly while drifting, it didn’t prevent me from getting a level three boost. Similarly, the number of air tricks and flips you perform gives you a hefty boost. Using the Gadget Plate that let me perform more tricks meant I was pulling off 2880° flips on the regular!
Live and learn
CrossWorlds has another trick up its sleeve in the form of a rival. It introduces a CPU rival character at the beginning of every grand prix, and each has a difficulty rating. These rivals are seriously powerful and they will try to ruin your race. I was being significantly outperformed by some rivals for the first few hours, which forced me to restrategize and install better gadgets.
Sometimes, though, your rival can seem a bit too overpowered. There were moments when I thought the difference between a level three rival and a level four one was a lot, and it felt like my rival was getting all the offensive power-ups. It was almost like the game was plotting against me! Combine that with how chaotic the races can get and it’s a recipe for disaster. Again, gotta git gud, right?
Thanks to voice acting, your rival will quip at your character, too — and voice acting is something I wish Mario Kart World had. For instance, I thoroughly enjoyed CPU Shadow throwing shade at my Sonic, bantering away, and yelling, “What?! How did this happen?!” every time I overtook him. It gave me even more pleasure to hit my rival with an item or finish ahead of them. I didn’t really care that I didn’t finish first; all I cared about was that my rival didn’t either.
The voice acting doesn’t stop there. I love that your usual teammates will be upset if you hit them with an item. If I hit, say, Omega with my glove item while playing as Shadow, he’d say, “Really, Shadow?” and I could hear the disappointment in his voice (even though he’s a robot). Friendly fire, but there are no friends in karting.
A splash of color
As you’d expect, the tracks in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds are heavily inspired by characters in the Blue Blur’s universe. You race on tracks like Chao Park, Eggman Expo and White Space. As someone who has played many Sonic games, I loved racing through these colorful tracks as they instilled a feeling of nostalgia within me.
Alongside the familiar tracks, I couldn't stop bobbing my head to the truly Sonic-esque music. The high-energy soundtrack sounds like it has been inspired by previous entries, such as Sonic Colors and Sonic Unleashed. I do, however, wish some of Crush 40’s tracks (with an EDM touch) had made it into CrossWorlds, as the band’s heavy rock music is something I’ve yearned for since the good ol’ days.
CrossWorlds doesn’t rely on OG tracks and characters alone, though, as Bikini Bottom from SpongeBob SquarePants and a Minecraft-inspired grand prix will be making an appearance in a post-launch update, along with SpongeBob, Patrick and Creeper being playable racers, to name a few. Oh, and Joker from Persona 5 and Hatsune Miku will be playable at some point in the future too.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review: Verdict
I’ve already put over 20 hours into Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and I can confidently say that I like it more than Mario Kart World. For those who don’t own a Switch 2 but still want a solid karting game, I can’t recommend CrossWorlds enough.
Being teleported to a different track with a different terrain adds a highly chaotic element to the game and it’s implemented extremely well, as is the roster of voiced characters. Extensive kart and Gadget Plate customization means you can tailor your vehicle to fit your own racing style. It’s like Need for Speed but sillier and goofier while maintaining a respectable level of competitiveness.
I can’t wait for more grands prix and characters to be added post-launch, as the slim number of tracks at launch has me yearning for more. CrossWorlds’ multi-platform compatibility makes it more accessible and as someone whose favorite console is the PS5, it makes me want to ditch Mario Kart World for the time being. Watch out, Nintendo: there’s a new kart-racing champion in town.
