Some games suck like the other 31 teams in the NHL, who got smacked around by my
beloved Detroit Red Wings on their way to the Stanley Cup. But every once in a while, a
game everyone craps on isn't that bad and people are just stupid. It takes a little bit of time
(and taking off that lovely pair of rose-tinted glasses) to see the beauty underneath.
Consequently, there are other games that we once thought were awesome, but looking
back, they weren't so great. And some games just suck no matter what.

I like racing games. Super Mario Kart was one of my first gaming experiences, and ever
since then, I've been hooked on the genre. Whether it's F-Zero GX, Forza 2 or Burnout
Paradise, I can't get enough racing.

Sadly, though, I've also run into my fair share of really bad racing games. Not even a
genre as hardcore as racing games can escape the suck. Today, one game spun-off from a
popular franchise faces the music. Has time been kind to it, or does it deserve to be put on
the Racing Game Wall of Shame?

And so, staying on track, it's time for...



Basic Info

Sonic R
Developer - Traveller's Tales
Publisher - Sega
Console - Sega Saturn
Year - 1997



The premise

Screw Attack called this their worst Sonic game. I completely disagree with them on this
point, but that doesn't absolve this game from not sucking.

The basis here was Sonic and friends go racing. Sonic clearly should have blown them all
out of the water, as he's the fastest thing alive, but like other Sonic racing games, his
speed has kind of been dumbed down so he is fast, but not the fastest.

The game



The game featured five levels and ten characters, ranging from Sonic and Tails to Robotnik
and Amy Rose in a car to a doll version of Tails. Each course featured about a billion
different paths you could take, which confused the hell out of me sometimes. I mean, look
at that map. How am I supposed to make sense of that?

Only having five courses when Mario Kart 64 was at the same time busting out 16 courses
that looked better, along with having a more intuitive game play style, helped sink the
game. I remember reading in later years that the E3 crowd crapped all over this game, and
perhaps rightly so.

The controls

Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. I never really liked the controls of this game. They were simple enough,
it seemed, but I always felt like Sonic and Co. were drifting all over the place and turned
really, really poorly. There were supposed to be some differences, of course, but I was
able to discern that they all sucked at turning and were different levels of fast. There were
rings you could pick up to help with speed and such (ripped off from Super Mario Kart), but
really, for a Sega Saturn game, this wasn't that great.

The graphics and sound

Graphically, Sonic R was about as good as you were going to get on the Saturn, though
there are issues with some of the level designs and color selections. I got lost easily or
smacked into walls because they were sometimes hard to see. Even taking into the fact
that this was the Saturn, I'm not entirely impressed by the graphics this game rolls out,
which remind me of those from Sonic Jam. Coincidentally, neither game is regarded that
highly. Coincidence?

But the soundtrack... well that is the stuff of legend. The main theme lives on today as an
Internet meme (thank you, Smash Bros. Brawl), but the rest of the soundtrack is just kind
of generic. That, and the background music by default is way, way, way too low, almost to
the point it's not audible at times.

The conclusion

Traveller's Tales went on to have much better success, and even Sega wasn't sunk by this
game (future Does It Suck? featured games Sonic Shuffle and Sonic the Hedgehog for the
360/PS3 did far more damage). Still, Sonic R has a lasting legacy of being one of the lower
points of the Sonic franchise, and it even went on to produce two future Sonic Riders titles
that really weren't a whole lot better overall than this game. If you're a collector or a die-
hard Sonic fan, or if you've never played the game and really want to see what it's all
about, go for it. Otherwise, you can skip this one.

FINAL VERDICT: Hard suckage. Except for the so-cheesy-it's-fun
theme song, a pretty forgettable game in the Sonic series, and I'm sure that's something
that can be agreed upon by everybody. Everybody, everybody.






































EVERYBODYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!