These days, I've learned to be wary when it comes to 'Sonic' games because you never know what you're going to get out of them: you can get a surprisingly enjoyable title like "Sonic Mania" or "Sonic Lost World," or you can get an absolute clunker like "Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric." Hell, you can even get something like "Sonic Forces," which lands somewhere between being surprising and disappointing. That said, when it comes to the non-platformer titles, it should be abundantly clear that they aren't held to as high a standard as something like "Forces" or "Mania," and so that's why I was able to properly temper my expectations with "Team Sonic Racing." It certainly looked enjoyable, but I was still going to keep my expectations in check and not expect anything over the top. So what did I get out of this new "Sonic" racing game? Well, something that wasn't too bad.
"Team Sonic Racing," at its core, is a "Mario Kart" clone. There's no two ways about it, this is a game that's definitely riding the coattails of the Italian plumber's brand of racing titles. Still, that doesn't mean there's a lack of effort here because there is certainly a good deal to like about the game: I love the gorgeous and colorful visuals throughout the courses, I love how the game features so many throwbacks to older games in the series, and the musical soundtrack is pretty amazing, too. And from a gameplay standpoint, this is a smooth, tight racer with a relatively varied mission structure in the campaign mode and an interesting focus on teamwork. The team-based play works well in the main story mode, and it adds up to a game that delivers on most fronts.
That said, it's definitely got some flaws: for starters, while I don't go into "Sonic" games expecting a brilliant story, I do feel like this one is a bit too juvenile and silly even by the series's standards, and a lot of the constant voiceovers during races can get frustrating because of that. Also, while the campaign is relatively varied in terms of mission structure, I couldn't shake the fact that the game started to feel repetitive because of how many courses were reused. For a rather long, seven-chapter story mode, it felt like they didn't have nearly enough stages to work with, and the fact that they just rehashed the same levels made the game start to slow to a crawl by the end.
Flaws and all, though, "Team Sonic Racing" is a reasonably fun spinoff and, despite being a "Mario Kart" clone through and through, this is not a bad one at all. It's probably not going to win the series any new admirers, but if you're a fan and your curiosity is piqued, go ahead and give it a shot. I doubt you'll fall in love, but you might have some fun with it.
Final rating: 7 out of 10 "Good"