SONIC R: AN EXCELLENT TRANSITION TO 3D

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first of all: do not play the pc or ps2 port. sonic r was made FOR the saturn and i adore it in all its graphical crust and cascading render distances. seriously, the way they handle the low render distance is gorgeous and amplifies the look of tracks like radiant emerald. i'm getting aside of myself though

sonic r is a misunderstood gem. i've been on a sega saturn binge lately and i played sega rally championship back to back with this game. intentional or not, sonic r and src are definitely similar games, yet sega rally is beloved and sonic r has been called the "worst kart racer of all time".

"well, sonic r has slippery handling and inconsistent physics!" yeah, so does sega rally. stop playing sonic r like a kart racer

"well, sonic r barely has any content!" sega rally has 4 stages, yet nobody complains. i guess cuz its an arcadey racer and you're supposed to master high scores? i'd definitely argue that's what sonic r goes for as well.

"the music is bad!" nobody says this about either game i made it up

so the biggest complaints about sonic r come down to misconceptions. i think this is also why people complain about the "difficulty spike" when you try to unlock a character! the game demands mastery of the few stages it has for the same reason any arcade racer would. it provides a solid testing grounds for your fastest pathways, and the shitpost-tier ai in the standard races makes it less of a pain in the ass to get back to the challenge again. i don't know what design decisions were legit decisions here, but it all flows together quite nicely. obviously, the greatest part about sonic r are the track layouts and the MUSIC. bright, bubbly energetic music that fails to ever get old when you're practicing your routes. and these stages do have hella routes- they're essentially 3d sonic levels that loop. it's super fun to use each character's power to "exploit" the design. the speedrunning scene for sonic r is probably insane. maybe that physics engine was good all along? the artstyle is perfect too, featuring signature sega sunny skies as well as sparkley space voids and shiny metallic sheens populated by the cutest early 3d interpretations of sonic's cast. exploration is fun and pretty and satiates my need for a 3d platformer on the sega saturn, cuz this is way more interesting as a genre hybrid.

yeah sonic r is basically perfect.

END GAME REVIEW