Sonic R

Sonic R was originally released in 1997 for the infamous Sega Saturn that almost killed Sega. Eventually Dreamcast was the last nail in the coffin for SEGA consoles but that is a subject to be talked later, maybe in a post of its own. It was also released for PC, Playstation 2 and the Nintendo Game Cube.

When we think of Sonic we think of speed. When we think of speed we think of races. So, in the paper, this game was like peanut butter and jelly. Problem is...it didn't went that well. Which is funny because I don't really like peanut butter with jelly that much.

The game, incrediby, has a story. The game focuses on the characters effort to win a series of races to prevent Dr. Robotnik from getting the Chaos Emeralds and enslaving the world. I discovered that today as I was researching for this review. I now know why Dr. Robotnik is an unlockable character.

 In a way this game was the predecessor to Sonic & All-Stars Racing which is a really good game (I really did not liked Sonic Riders). This 3D experience had its flaws but it showed that a Sonic racing game in 3D could be something really good.

Graphics - 2/5 

Sonic R aged horribly. Still, it's Sonic. The main problem are the Saturn famous polygons which are light-years away from the rival Playstation. This is a powerful 2D machine that just happened to manage to render 3D too.

Gameplay - 3/5

Incredibly has an intersting mechanic to it because you have boosts that cost coins, many routes and bonus to get during the race. Easy to learn but you have to prepare every lap very well in order to make the best time possible. It's not an easy game unless you're used to race games or a lot of practice in Sonic R. It has clunky controls that seem to don't do exactly what you want, they should have done better in a Sonic game. It's a very fun game to play despite its problems.

Sound - 3/5

Typical techno\soul mix from the 90's, it's not something you would say you like but still it sticks in your head. You get so used to the music that you eventually will like it.

Longevity - 2/5 

It has 4 tracks when you begin. You can unlock 1 track when you win races in all the other 4 tracks. You have 4 characters when you begin, You can unlock 1 character by beating the 5 tracks which you can easily do in about 30 minutes. There are 4 more characters to unlock by collecting 5 special coins, beating the race and then beating the new character in each of the first 4 tracks. And 1 last character to unlock by colleting the 7 Chaos Emeralds in the first 4 tracks in which you have to win the race, its Super Sonic so its worth it. The game higly benefits in lenght by the Vs mode, tag mode and balloon catching mode.

 
This is it. This is Sonic R. There is not much more to tell about it. It is incredibly small, flawed but fun to  play. I've spent several hours just trying to beat my own records (I remember to have a near perfect time lap time in the first track, just under the 17 seconds). Sonic R gets 10/20.