A few things to talk about surrounding Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing today. First up, a new trailer with a slight tilt towards the PlayStation 3 version of the game, though that’s only through the controllers and packshot at the end:
Over at TSSZ News, they have note that of the 24 courses presented, only six SEGA IPs are represented, while the characters hail from over a dozen franchises. Nine of the tracks are from Sonic, and Sonic Heroes at that:
Seaside Hill has three tracks: Lost Palace, Ocean Ruin, and Whale Lagoon. Casino Park is divided up into Roulette Road, Bingo Park, and Pinball Highway. And Final Fortress is composed of Turbine Loop, Thunder Deck, and Dark Arsenal.
…there will be three House of the Dead related courses in ASR: Deadly Route, Sewer Scrapes, and Outer Forest. The Samba de Amigo, Jet Set Radio, and Super Monkey Ball franchises will also get three each, as will Billy Hatcher–bringing the grand total to 24 courses.
As a result, fans seem to be a little mystified, even disappointed at the decision to put the bulk of the diversity on the character roster, and maybe the music– that much remains to be seen.
Sumo Digital employee “SumoRex” responded to the discussion on the SEGA Forums, stating that “There are multiple tracks of the same IP for a very good reason.”
Among the courses, “There is some sharing of assets between them, which means we can get more raceable tracks but without having to develop entirely new content,” SumoRex said. “It’s not laziness, it’s the only way to keep to schedule, and budget.”
To diversify further would mean not only a longer wait for the game, but likely a higher price tag as well. For now, there remains hope that possible downloadable content will help balance things out.
Personally speaking, this doesn’t bother me too much; it is the first game in what can hopefully become a strong franchise for Sumo Digital and SEGA. And thinking back to Super Mario Kart, that had some repetitious tracks as well. Granted, it may not have been to this degree, but then, I imagine creating tracks for Mode-7 scaling would have been a lot cheaper than fully-rendered 3D courses, too.
With the foundation set, hopefully future installments (and DLC) can lend themselves to more variety in racetracks. Just look at Mario Kart now; repetition is mostly in name only, with reuse largely being confined to “classic” tracks.
Just one other note before moving on: I’d love to see a track based on Stardust Speedway from Sonic CD, with the first lap in the past, the second in the present, and the third in the future. I bet that would blow some peoples’ minds.
Elsewhere, PlayStation LifeStyle (via TSSZ) posted an interview they conducted with Executive Producer Steve Lycett. With Avatars and the tandem of Banjo-Kazooie appearing in the Xbox 360 version and the Wii at the very least getting Miis (I’ve given up hope for Mario at this point), they ask point-blank whether or not the PlayStation 3 version will have anyone exclusive. And the answer?
Unfortunately it doesn’t! That’s not to say we haven’t been putting in the effort though, in fact throughout development it’s been the PS3 version that’s been the lead platform. You’ll have noticed that at E3, GamesCon and Summer of Sonic, it’s always been the PS3 that’s been the demo machine of choice. We’ve also ensured that PS3 features, like PSN, Trophies and online chat are all supported. I think we’re also one of the few recent games to include SixAxis motion control too. If DLC happens, we very much want to do it on PS3 too!
Too bad, Ratchet and Clank would have been awesome. Or Sackboy, perhaps.
Another question related to characters asked about characters they would have liked to include, but didn’t. Lycett said:
I know there’s been a lot of fan calls this time for Vectorman and Ristar too, but they should have shouted more at the end of SST! By the time they were being requested heavily, we’d locked the character roster! I can’t say just yet who I would have like to included either – then I’ll have de-confirmed someone as not being in. I keep getting told off for that!
And finally, a little bit of fun for Facebook users:
We’ve just launched a fun new Facebook application on the Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Facebook fan page. It allows you to take photos of your friends and put them into classic photos and paintings as well as characters from Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing!
By participating in the photo tag fun, you can also enter to win copies of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing as well as other great prizes.
For more details, check out the SEGA America Blog.
