In 2012, SEGA released a racing game featuring characters from a bunch of their franchises called Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed. It was released on multiple systems including PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo 3ds, PS VITA, Windows, Android, IOS, and the Wii U, which is the one I'll be reviewing today. That game was one of 3 that I got when the Wii U launched back in November of 2012, and it happened to be the one I spent the most time playing. Since it's Sonic's 25th anniversary this year, I decided to go ahead and make a review for this game since I have no idea if I'll make any other Sonic reviews for the rest of the year.

Graphics: 9/10 Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed even now is one of the better looking games on the Wii U. Nearly every track in the game are some of the most amazing looking tracks in the history of racing genre. Whether you're flying through the Skies of Arcadia track with all the airships flying around, the gorgeously remade Sky Sanctuary from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, or the futuristic Galactic Parade track that's pretty much the Sonic equivalent of Rainbow Road, you'll be amazed by how beautiful the visuals are in this game. There are few Wii U titles that have better visuals than this title, so I'm giving the graphics a 9.

Sound: 9/10 The music in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed showcases SEGA's history in such a magnificent way. I can never seem to get the Adder's Lair theme in particular out of my head. It's not just Adder's Lair that impressed me though, the entire soundtrack is filled with awesome remade themes from some of SEGA's most iconic games. That includes Sonic of course, but the music brought over from other games such as Skies of Arcadia, Shinobi, Panzer Dragon, and much more. Before Mario Kart 8 came out, I considered this game to have the best music of any racing game on the Wii U. Even now, Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed's soundtrack is great enough to get a 9 out of 10 from me.

Addictiveness: 9/10 Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Transformed is one of the most addicting racing games I've ever played. The tracks changing from car racing segments to boat racing segments and even plane flying parts are a huge reason why this game has so much replayability. This idea was far more innovative than the underwater and gliding features introduced in Mario Kart 7 on 3DS. Also, the World Tour mode provides plenty of hard objectives that you need to complete such as avoiding traffic on a track while trying to reach checkpoints, and unlockable content as you progress. These unique challenges are a huge reason why the single player content in this game is some of the best I've ever seen in the racing genre. Multiplayer in the Wii U version on the other hand unfortunately doesn't have enough people in it to be as enjoyable as it was when the game first came out. Even with the lack of an active online multiplayer, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed's single player content and replayability is more than enough for me to give the addictiveness a 9.

Story: N/A Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed doesn't have a storyline, therefore I'm leaving this category blank.

Depth: 10/10 There are a total of 21 unique tracks in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed, along with mirrored versions of each track, making a total of 42 tracks to race on. There are also of 25 characters to race as in the Wii U version of the game, with your Mii being a Wii U and 3DS exclusive. In addition, there's 4 different game modes to choose from. Grand Prix mode, Time Trial, Single Race, and World Tour, and there's plenty of unlockables to get as well. There's enough content in this game to keep players racing for many hours. In fact, I spent over 100 hours of my life playing this game because of just how much content this game has. Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed has the most single player content I've ever seen in a racing game, and because of that, I'm giving the depth a 10.

Difficulty: 9/10 Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed's controls can take awhile to get used to. When I first started playing this game, I personally had a tough time getting used to how the drifting and flying sections worked, but after awhile I got the hang of the controls. In addition, some of the tracks are so massive that it sometimes gets a bit confusing figuring out which way you're supposed to be going. Another reason why this is one of the tougher racing games out there is because of how tough the AI can be on the harder difficulty settings. These reasons combined with some very hard World Tour Missions are enough for me to give the difficulty a 9.

Overall Score: 9.2/10 Regardless of which version of the game you play, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed is one of the best racing games so far this decade. It has beautiful graphics that show just how magnificent SEGA games can look if they would make more games for some of their other franchises besides sonic. It's nostalgic soundtrack that contains some music that's actually more enjoyable to listen to than in the games they came from. Also the unique and innovative gameplay and massive single player content make Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed one of the best racing games on the Wii U, though not quite as great as Mario Kart 8. For these reasons, I think the overall score for this game deserves to be a 9.2 out of 10 in my eyes. It's a great game that you should try out, whether you get the Wii U version like I did or if you get it from somewhere like STEAM. I hope you enjoyed this review, and happy 25th anniversary Sonic!

Sweet. Thanks for reviewing this man, I've toyed with the idea of picking it up for my PS Vita for a while now, and this was the final push I needed. I'll go to Amazon and grab it as soon as I finish typing this, assuming there is a physical copy of it. If not I may still get it from the PlayStation store (I only know about it from the demo that I wanted to download but couldn't).

So glad to hear the PS Vita has a good game like this besides Modnation Racers and maybe Ben 10 Galactic Racing, as I've been wanting a kart racer for a while now.

Eirinn : Well, I can't say how good the PS Vita version is compared to the Wii U version (the one I reviewed), but I think that's a good game to buy for a system that doesn't have a wide selection of games to choose from. Btw, how is Modnation Racers on Vita?

Sorry, just now got back on (busy weekend). I haven't played Modnation racers yet sadly, I've heard nothing but rave reviews for it on the Vita though, so I have it on my to-buy list, but I have a few expenses to get out of the way first. I'll pick this one up first though because of the history I have with the characters.