Going back to an older game in a series once you have played a modern one is always a bit jarring. In the sequel Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed, the tracks dynamic change each lap, providing an interesting and varied experience. Additionally, your kart transforms according to the terrain, so you transform between the three states: car, boat, and plane. So going back to racing in standard, non-transformable karts over standard courses seems a bit bland in comparison. However, at the time of original release, this would have been a great kart racer.
Since the game is primarily branded Sonic, there are seven characters from the said franchise so expect to see Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Knuckles in addition to less popular characters such as Big The Cat. There's a nice selection of other Sega characters though, including Alex Kidd, BD Joe (Crazy Taxi), Ulala (Space Channel 5), Beat (Jet Set Radio), Billy Hatcher, Ryo Hazuki (Shenmue), and some characters from older franchises such as Bonanza Bros and Opa-Opa (Fantasy Zone).
If you play with a controller, the Right-Trigger accelerates and the Left-Trigger applies the brake. Using the Left-Trigger and Right-Trigger whilst turning enters a drift; the longer you hold the drift, the more boost you achieve on release of the Left-Trigger.
The game has a typical Sega, arcade 'look and feel' to the visuals and audio. An announcer comments as the race progresses which gives it a Whacky Races feel. The graphics look a bit dated; they look a bit blurry.
The 24 tracks play pretty similar since they consist of wide, arcing roads. There's different surfaces and hazards to mix things up and a few alternate routes. There's not that many franchises represented by the tracks, but the aesthetic varies wildly since there's a different art-style and colour palette between Sonic, Samba de Amigo, Super Monkey Ball, Jet Set Radio, Billy Hatcher and House of the Dead.
You acquire weapons pick-ups by smashing the item boxes. There's enough variety between them from speed-boosts, mines and various types of missiles. I found the weapons work well and were easy to learn; I actually found the weapon system to be worse in the sequel. Each character has an All-Star mode which you only receieve if you are behind. These are essentially a temporary auto-pilot, and sometimes with an added projectile attack.
There's four single-player modes: Grand Prix, Mission, Single Race and Time-Trial. Grand Prix comprises six different cups with four tracks each. This mode also has three difficulty options. Mission mode is varied. Sometimes you play a series of three races, whereas other tasks involve various set-pieces such as drifting for a certain amount of time, hitting moving targets with weapons, or crashing into certain targets.
In every mode, you are awarded Sega Miles, the amount varies depending on your performance. These points can be spent at the store to unlock characters, tracks to play in Time-Trial, or alternative songs. I like unlocking items in games, so I appreciated this aspect of the game, rather than having everything unlocked from the start.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is a great kart racing game and provides a good alternative to Mario Kart. The genre is flooded with cheap knock-offs, but Sumo Digital have made a quality product.