Developed by: Sonic Team, Traveller's Tales
Release date: November 18, 1997
Platforms: Sega Saturn, PC, GCN
I have a feeling that a lot of people probably agree with what I have to say here: Sonic R is OVERHATED.
For years I remember watching and reading people’s horrible opinions about this game, calling it one of the worst Sonic games ever; But this simply isn’t the case. Sonic R is by no means a fantastic game, nor is it a great game; BUT it by no means is a BAD, horrible, STINKY no good game like all these angry raging gamer reviewers and their evil clones say it is.
The game is literally the embodiment of JOY and HAPPINESS, taking place in the world of classic Sonic, vibrant colors and all. The music is upbeat, with inspiring lyrics about caring for those around you, making stuff happen, and LOVE.
I’d like to start off by making it clear that I have fully experienced EVERY version of this game: Saturn, GameCube, and PC; And while there are some differences between all of these versions, they aren’t big enough to matter in the grand scheme of my review. The Saturn version has SLIGHTLY better lighting than PC and GameCube, and PC and GameCube run SLIGHTLY better than the Saturn version. With that out of the way, everything written going forward will be UNIVERSAL for all versions.
The biggest gripe I’ve seen about this game is the controls. Yes, it is a little slippery, but you probably aren’t playing correctly. A lot of people don’t know that you can use the left and right triggers to take sharper turns, so they go sliding around like butter on a hot pan. Also, you’re probably playing as Tails, who slips and slides all over the damn place for some reason. Other than that, if you can’t get the hang of it after playing for two minutes, I don’t know what to tell you… Actually I do: TRY HARDER.
Lot of complaining about the gameplay on top of that; I really don’t see the issue, it's simple, fun, and extremely short. There are five courses in the game, each taking less than three minutes to complete three laps around. On top of these races, there are five sonic coins, and chaos emeralds to collect to unlock new characters. You can easily finish this game in an hour or two; Hell, maybe even thirty minutes if you really know what you’re doing. It's so simple and harmless, I really don’t see why so many people ever had an issue with it; I had a great time unlocking everything. Perhaps you could argue that there’s a lack of content but it's a Sonic racing game from 1997, I really can’t see the issue.
Visually the game looks great with bright and colorful graphics; And being able to see the classic Sonic cast in TRUE 3D, OFFICIALLY, is just great. Yes, Sonic Jam exists, but that really wasn’t much of anything. Levels are fairly well designed, and look like they came straight out of Sonic 2 and 3. The only course I didn’t really LOVE was Radiant Emerald (very clearly inspired by Rainbow Road) which I felt could have been a little more unique. Apart from that, no issues.
And of course, I can’t talk about this game without talking about the soundtrack. I’ll keep it brief: It’s one of the best soundtracks ever, and I truly cannot even begin to tell you how much I listen to it. It’s so good that it will cost you over $200 to officially own it on CD, it's THAT good. I know that Jontron fella said that the music didn’t fit the game but that bastard had no clue what he was talking about, because it fits perfectly into this game, and if you were to put it over any other classic-era Sonic game it would fit perfectly there as well.
And that's all I’ve got to say about Sonic R. If this review were an image, it would be that wolf with the arrows in its back guarding the baby wolf, but I would be the big wolf guarding Sonic R because I think this game is pretty nice. As I said: The game is by no means PERFECT, but it most certainly doesn’t deserve all the hate that it has received in the past. It's the kind of game that I want to play sitting next to an open window on a breezy, sunny day in the spring.
