Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is fantastic. After spending a significant chunk of last weekend playing its open network test, I am convinced that it’s worth the steep $70 asking price. I’m also convinced that the full version of CrossWorlds will be a better game than Mario Kart World, but even if I’m right, I’m not sure that the hierarchy of power in kart racing will ever change.

Despite its incredible attach rate thanks to the Switch 2’s Mario Kart bundle, the verdict on World is that it’s just fine. A solid entry in the series with quite a few missteps (mis-drifts..?), including its uninspired open world, and Nintendo reacting to criticism about its connected courses by adding an update that forced us to play them. But it’s Mario Kart. No matter how mediocre, it rules the roost.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Is A Better Game Than Mario Kart World

Sega

I’m actually more of a Mario Kart World defender than a detractor. While I don’t care for the open world, I’m fine with the connected courses, and, even though it’s not as good as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I think World is a fantastic game, more than worthy of carrying the Mario Kart name.

The thing is, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is just better. I’m not being blinded by my 30-year-old love for Sonic, either, I swear. I’ve played all of the other Sonic racing games, and none of them were that great. It physically hurts to admit that, but it’s true. CrossWorlds is the first one that feels like it has something special, and that’s before I’ve seen everything it has to offer.

Sega

I went into the open network test expecting to play for a few hours and ultimately decide that I don’t need the full game. That’s not how it went. I wound up investing a lot of hours during that relatively short window. I quite literally lost sleep over it and found myself not wanting to play anything else after the test ended, and the game was cruelly taken from me until release day.

Sega knows exactly what it has with CrossWorlds. It knew that people would be willing to pay for the full game after being given a taste. Fine, Sega, take my money. Just know I’m not happy about it.

I actually am happy about it. CrossWorlds being good, that is, not the money part.

CrossWorlds Sidesteps Most Of The Problems People Have With Mario Kart World

Sega

CrossWorlds does a lot of things better than Mario Kart World, particularly the things that are bothering Mario Kart players most. Even though there are a lot of devastating items, there’s very little in the way of slingshotting. If you find yourself at the back of the pack, you won’t miraculously be back in the top three after sliding through a single question block. The same applies to those in first. If you’re leading the race, it’s going to take a lot to pull you back so far that you end up in last, particularly in the latter stages of the race.

CrossWorlds manages to do that while still providing a more frantic and exciting experience than Mario Kart World. It’s pretty impressive.

CrossWorlds also has the connected track gimmick, but it does it in a far more inventive way. Rather than racing to the track everyone voted for and then spending a single lap on it, the middle lap of each race takes place on an alternate track. You don’t have to drive there; you’re thrust into the heart of it via a portal, and then brought back to the track everyone picked for the final lap.

Sega

Sonic’s racing game also allows for far more customization, making your car feel unique to you. Not only aesthetically, but performance-wise, too, via your gadgets. Those gadgets provide upgrades that include the ability to carry more rings, being able to perform tricks more quickly, and starting each race with a monster truck power-up. I really hate it when people have that last one.

Experiment with perks to see which ones work best for you. There’s more to it than finding the best character/kart combo. There are things to mess around with to customize your experience and give yourself an edge, but since this is a Sonic game aimed at fans of all ages, it’s still a simple system that anyone can learn to use pretty quickly.

It Doesn’t Matter If CrossWorlds Is Better Than Mario Kart World

Nintendo

All of that has me convinced that CrossWorlds will be the best kart racer released this year, but it doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t really matter what anyone thinks. CrossWorlds could be the best kart racer of all time; it will still be overshadowed by Mario Kart World.

While I don’t necessarily buy into the belief that Nintendo has become too big to fail, I do think it has found a rhythm with its flagship series, where they would need to be downright awful not to sell tens of millions of copies, while also taking up all of the oxygen in the industry whenever one of them drops. After Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 60 million copies (and counting), Mario Kart may well be the biggest of those flagships, and Mario Kart World definitely isn’t downright awful. It’s doing more than enough to maintain the series’ stature and, for the most part, overshadow all of the good CrossWorlds is about to do.

Mario Kart World is a good game. It has issues, and there are legitimate reasons to dislike it that Nintendo could have easily avoided, but it didn’t need to. As long as it’s good, it will outsell CrossWorlds despite being locked to a single platform, and Mario will continue to be the face of the kart genre for years to come. CrossWorlds won’t be the Mario Kart killer because there’s no such thing; I just hope enough people give it a try, as it’s shaping up to be the best Sonic game since Mania.

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Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

Racing Action Systems OpenCritic Reviews Released September 25, 2025 ESRB Everyone / Mild Fantasy Violence Developer(s) Sonic Team Publisher(s) Sega Engine Unreal Engine 5 Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer Cross-Platform Play Yes - Online
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