Let's Take A Look Under The Hood In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed ($4.99) by SEGA is the newest racing game featuring our favorite hedgehog. As reported yesterday, this sequel to Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is hoping to kick things up a notch by bringing better graphics, more challenging courses, and a variety of vehicles. So, how does it hold up when we take a look under the hood?
This first thing you notice is the simple game controls. They’re optimal for people who want to play with their thumbs like they would with a game controller. The left side of the screen only has your steering button. The other side of the screen has your drift, boost, and star buttons.
The racing is challenging for any ability level. Each course has an easy, medium, hard, and expert option. You need to finish the race in the top three to unlock the next difficulty. At the end of each race, you win rings. These rings are one of the two currencies in the game. The other currency is stars. You earn a star when you finish in first place.
Once you’ve completed the race on easy, you can move on to medium. You’ll have to pay 400 rings for the medium difficulty, 500 for the hard difficulty, and one star for expert. Luckily, if you run out of rings, you can go back and replay the courses on easy to earn more.
Part of what makes this game challenging is its break from traditional race vehicles. Your car can transform into a boat or a plane so that you can play on water or air courses. You can test your flexibility as a racer while converting back and forth from different vehicles over the course of the race.
There are some in-app purchases available. There’s the option to waive all the entry fees on all difficulties which costs $9.99. The character boost pack which unlocks all characters instead of having to earn them costs $9.99 as well. The boss pack and rivals pack cost $4.99 each. You can also buy packages of stars that range in price from $0.99 for 10 to $14.99 for 170. However, you can convert your rings into stars instead of having to buy them.
Considering the initial price of the app, the in-app purchases are definitely over the top. However, the racing events, challenges, and courses that are offered definitely make this app a must-have for those who love racing games. I especially love getting to play as my favorite video game hero. Sonic never gets old.