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Racing Games
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review: “Even more frantic than Mario Kart World, this has the mileage to be a karting favorite”

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Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is filling the Mario Kart-shaped hole in my life that World isn’t, and I’m as shocked by that as anyone

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The Mario Kart World shade couldn’t be any more obvious as Sega tells you to “leave the open road behind” and play Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds in a throwback to the ’90s console wars

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Platforming Games

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Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ Metacritic score ties it with the best Sonic racing game ever made, but it still can’t overtake Crash and Mario

Scott McCrae

18 September 2025

What do you MEAN Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is only an 83?

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(Image credit: Sega)

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ Metacritic score has tied it as the best Sonic racing game, but it’s not quite high enough to take down its rivals.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds’ reviews over on Metacritic currently land it a score of 82, which places is right next to 2012’s Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, which is a game the community (and myself) hold up in high regard as one of the greatest kart racers of all time, so it’s definitely not in bad company. That score also puts CrossWorlds ahead of 2019’s Team Sonic Racing (72) and 2010’s Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (75) with all the Sonic Riders tiles sitting around the 47-56 score range. However, Sonic R doesn’t have a Metacritic score but we all know that would hit 100 for the soundtrack alone.

However, that score doesn’t quite reach the highs of rival kart racers, with Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled at a still shockingly low 83 for being one of the best racing games ever made (the PS1 original sits at a far more appropriate 88). And of course, Mario still leads the pack with every single game barring Mario Kart Wii (which ties CrossWorlds at 82) and Mario Kart Tour (at 59) having a higher rating, although I’m not sure I trust a website that has Super Circuit as the highest rated entry. What’s also notable is that a lot of reviews say it’s better than Mario Kart World, but it is still behind that game’s score of 86.

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Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review: “Even more frantic than Mario Kart World, this has the mileage to be a karting favorite”

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is filling the Mario Kart-shaped hole in my life that World isn’t, and I’m as shocked by that as anyone

The Mario Kart World shade couldn’t be any more obvious as Sega tells you to “leave the open road behind” and play Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds in a throwback to the ’90s console wars

The GamesRadar+ Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review from Justin Towell gives the game four stars out of five, and says: “Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a slick, ambitious racer with loads of tracks, primed and ready for future, licensed crossovers. At first too slow and then suddenly extremely fast, the racing lacks finesse, but it gets better as you play. A strong offering that’s compulsively playable, but a bit grindy in single-player and not quite S-tier on the track.”

The highest reviews for the game come from The Gamer’s Rhiannon Bevan and IGN’s Jada Griffin, who both awarded the game a 9/10 score. On the opposite end, Gamespot’s Steve Watts gave the game a 7/10 with TheSixthAxis’ Dominic L giving it a 6/10. So even its worst reviews are still fairly positive. The majority of reviews, however, are hovering around the 8/10 mark, giving it a solid head start.
The Mario Kart World shade couldn’t be any more obvious as Sega tells you to “leave the open road behind” and play Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds in a throwback to the ’90s console wars.

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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He’s typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review: “Even more frantic than Mario Kart World, this has the mileage to be a karting favorite”

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is filling the Mario Kart-shaped hole in my life that World isn’t, and I’m as shocked by that as anyone

The Mario Kart World shade couldn’t be any more obvious as Sega tells you to “leave the open road behind” and play Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds in a throwback to the ’90s console wars

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds mirrors Mario Kart World’s move away from traditional 3-lap races with tracks that put you in a whole “different universe”

Veteran Sonic producer says Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds team completely removed items from the game if they were too “stressful” or let players “win all the time”

“Mario Kart World won’t have any influence” on Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, but like everyone else, Sega was “somewhat expecting a new Mario Kart to be released soon” even before its reveal

Latest in Sonic the Hedgehog

The Mario Kart World shade couldn’t be any more obvious as Sega tells you to “leave the open road behind” and play Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds in a throwback to the ’90s console wars

“Mario Kart World won’t have any influence” on Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, but like everyone else, Sega was “somewhat expecting a new Mario Kart to be released soon” even before its reveal

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is filling the Mario Kart-shaped hole in my life that World isn’t, and I’m as shocked by that as anyone

I hope you weren’t hoping to hear Hatsune Miku talk to SpongeBob in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, as none of the crossover characters will be voiced: “This is just unacceptable for a $70 game”

Sega hands physical media a win amid Nintendo’s push toward digital with Switch 2 game-key cards — Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is confirmed to have “the full base game on a 64GB cartridge”

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