Sonic R

Developer: Traveller's Tales
Publisher: Sega

I may not have understood the thought process behind Sonic The Fighters, but Sonic R is as obvious as it gets, take a character known for his speed and put him in a racing game, simple right? What I don't quite get is why they decided that Sonic should handle like a freaking Semi-truck.

No wonder Sonic only went back and forth in his 8 bit and 16 bit games, he couldn't make a turn even if his life depended on it, the other characters are slightly better in this regard, but not by much.

On the upside, the maps are actually pretty good, with alternate paths, secrets and a chaos emerald per map and the graphics are actually superb for Saturn standards, everything is colorful, there are a lot of 2D effects that look awesome, the characters though a bit on the low poly side do look good, the only real exception is the water, lakes tend resemble the sky a lot more than they do water.

I know a lot of people hate the music for this game but I actually like it, sure, it doesn't feel like an old school Sonic theme and it's really, really cheesy, but it's also pretty catchy.

It's kind of sad to see that a game with pretty high production values and good level design was ruined by the simplest mistake of them all: Poor Controls.

If you can put up with this issue, the game is not a total loss, though you'll definitely spend more time fighting them then you will your opponents

Trivia: If you don't own a Saturn or don't want to deal with compatibility issues for the PC version, you can always play it on the Sonic Gems collection for the PS2

Pros:
- Some of the best 3D graphics I've seen on the Saturn
- Alternate paths and secrets create value
- I actually liked the soundtrack, yes I'm weird like that

Cons:
- Go left, LEFT! I SAID GO LEFT DAMN YOU!
- Go right, RIGHT, I SAID GO RIGHT DAMN YOU!

Final Score: C-

 I usually don't like Saturn covers that feature mid-90's CGI, but for this game I'll make an exception, it's nice, colorful, energetic and I like the detail how sonic is half-covering the logo screen, it's a nice and detailed image, even if it is a bit too cluttered.

Unfortunately it's a case of more flash then substance, as it only comes with a very flimsy manual (I lost my color manual), detailing very basic info and little else.

I'll cut the packaging some slack for its flashy cover.

Packaging Score : C+