Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has a lot of systems in place that gear it towards being very competitive and technical. If you’re just starting out, this can be overwhelming, so here are the key things new players ought to keep in mind on the road to Legend rank.
Starting Out
Before beginning the game proper, go into the Options menu and check out these settings:
Steering Sensitivity: As the name implies, this adjusts how much you can affect your steering when making sharp turns. Turn this setting all the way up to the maximum of 10, as this will greatly enhance your ability to make subtle, yet impactful adjustments to your turning radius while driving.
Camera Settings: This does not affect gameplay or control, but instead presentation. You have two options, the “Standard” camera which is on by default, and the “Dynamic” camera, which you have to turn on in the settings. I highly recommend turning on the Dynamic camera, as it conveys the sense of speed much better and makes the game more enjoyable moment-to-moment.
Flight Controls: Controls for flying segments are left inverted by default. If you prefer to play with non-inverted controls for these segments, this can be changed here.
Control Settings: You have three different control options. The one enabled by default uses a very similar control scheme to Mario Kart, with acceleration and deceleration done with the face buttons while drifting and using items is done with the shoulder buttons. The second control option uses a control scheme that is the same as previous Sonic Racing titles, where acceleration is done with the right shoulder buttons and using items is done with the face buttons. If you’re struggling with muscle memory, I highly recommend checking these options out to see what suits you.
Character and Machine Builds
There’s a large smattering of customizable vehicles and vehicle parts to choose from in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, and you might be asking how to choose the best vehicle for you. What stats you’ll end up with are decided by four main components: Machine Type, Machine Customization, Characters, and stat-affecting Gadgets.
For each of these, they come in five different categories:
- Speed Type, which has very high top speeds, but relatively middling acceleration and turning on sharp corners.
- Acceleration Type, which has very fast acceleration, but has low resistance to offensive items and relatively lower top speeds.
- Handling Type, they can make much quicker, more precise turns than all other machine types, but are slower than most other categories.
- Power Type, these have lower speeds and relatively lower stats across the board, but make up for this by recovering far more quickly from offensive items. They can also bump into other racers and mess up their routing.
- Boost Type, which has low top speed, acceleration, and takes much more time to recover from offensive items. They make up for this with incredibly smooth handling and having many more benefits to using all kinds of boosts, especially drift boosting.
While Boost type machines only have two parts to customize, every other type of machine has three parts that can be mixed and matched to give you different results. It’s worth it to unlock extra parts to find out what suits you best by mixing and matching until you find a winning formula. Each track has a different layout that rewards different stats and combinations, so diversifying what kinds of machines you use can be incredibly handy.
Characters matter by far the least in terms of how they affect your stats, so there’s nothing to fear if you’re worried that your favorite may or may not be “meta”. Keep in mind that there are subtle differences between them, even within the same class. While Sonic, Shadow, and Blaze are all Speed characters, Shadow and Blaze have superior Handling while Sonic has superior Speed.
What are the Best Gadgets to Use and When?
Gadget Builds are some of the most fundamental choices that affect success and failure in a given race while playing Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. These provide a long list of buffs to the player that help them gain certain advantages over opponents, so you might be asking how to choose the best gadget build. The truth is that every build will be imperfect in some way, so it’s important to have a good range of Gadget presets for different courses that capitalize on different strengths and weaknesses.
Ring-based Gadgets are immediately useful because they provide the player Rings for fulfilling certain requirements like getting a good start, boosting off-road, or performing tricks. Rings are powerful because they provide a noticeable increase to your top speed, and can be handy when trying to close gaps with other players. Out of these, I feel the best Gadgets in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds are:
- Runoff Bounty: Gain Rings when using boost items over off-road areas.
- Starting Boost Bounty: Gain 30 rings at the start of a race by boosting successfully.
- Ring Thief: Gain 5 Rings each time you collide with an opponent racer.
Technical and Drift-based Gadgets are also very powerful, providing a smattering of buffs to both control and certain techniques. Drift Gadgets usually increase the speed in which you build up Boost as well as the power of them, making them especially strong on vehicles that already have good Handling. Technical Gadgets instead provide buffs to things like Air Tricks, making them far faster and thus giving you much stronger Boosts when you finally land on the ground with them. Which is better will depend on the courses you play on. A Drift-based build is better for maps with huge turns like Wonder Museum or Chao Park, but tracks with huge jumps like Metal Harbor or Dragon Road will see a lot more mileage out of Trick-based Gadgets.
In addition to these, you have Stat-boosting “Kit” Gadgets that play into each of the five Machine types. These will boost stats in their respective categories, as well as provide a specific buff that fits neatly into their playstyle. Speed Machines accelerate faster when collecting Rings, Power Machines get a small Boost when bumping into other racers, and so on. You won’t unlock all of these at once, so don’t fret about being overwhelmed.
There are also Support Gadgets which are tailored more so for newcomers. These will provide extra bonuses for players who mess up or need some added protection in a race. This includes Gadgets like Crash Pad that reduces Rings lost when attacked, Second Wind which gives you a free Boost item if you fall off the course, or Item Keeper to keep your items safe if you get attacked. These are reasonably useful, but as your skill increases, these will likely be phased out in favor of the more technical Gadgets that will help you no matter what.
Then there are the Starter/Add Items. Add Items can be quite useful, providing permanent buffs to fairly common items like the Rocket Punch or Spike Ball, which are regular pickups even in high race positions. The Starter items are given to you at the very start of every race, like White Wisps or a Monster Truck. These are tempting since they are very strong items to have at the outset of a race, but these are ultimately far from practical choices. Relative to how much use you’ll get out of them, they. The only exception to this is the Dark Chao starter item, which causes every player in a race to be granted two items. This can be useful during the start of the race if you’re positioned far in the back, but it’s not foolproof.
Item Etiquette
Getting the most out of your items in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds can be difficult in a game as chaotic as this, so here are some strategies around where and when to use your items that can become good habits the more you try and use them.
Offensive items (Rocket Punches, Slicers, Slime) are generally powerful and quick enough to the point where it’s worth using them as soon as you lock onto an opponent who doesn’t have any defensive measures. If you’re nearing the final stretch of the race, it’s also worth stalling for a bit if they have the means to cross the final off-road shortcut so you can keep them trapped and halt their momentum.
Defensive or Speed-based items (Tornado, Drill Wisp, White Wisp, Laser Wisp, Shield, Void Wisp) should be used whenever you risk taking damage. Items like the Slime hit every player at once and slow them down, so saving your items to avoid that can be critical to getting ahead of them while they’re slowed down. Additionally, while you’re in the Top 2, save your White Wisp or Shield items until the last possible moment, as both of these can be used to block King Boom Boo, who always targets 1st Place and hits anyone just behind them. For Boosting items, it’s generally best to save them if you know a shortcut is coming up that will need them.
Trap Items such as the Spike Ball and Magnet can be used for two things. The first is to defend against incoming homing items (Rocket Punches or Slicers) by placing them behind you just as you are about to get hit, and the second is to use those traps to trip up incoming opponents. To get the most out of them as traps, place them in areas that are popular to drive through. These include offroading sections, in front of boost panels, through narrow driveways such as the start of Apotos, or tight corners that are best to drift through. These areas usually give little time for opponents to react, and can be especially punishing for them because they’re in areas where getting back to speed is a lot more difficult.
Taking Sharp Turns and How to Drift
There are quite a few tracks in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds that have incredibly sharp turns that will lead to you bumping into the walls even if you’re drifting the entire time. During moments like these, it’s important to hold the brakes and/or let go of the accelerator button. If you’re worried this will slow you down too much, keep in mind that you lose speed far slower than you gain it, and the time you save by making tight turns is ultimately going to be of far greater benefit. If you need somewhere to practice these sharp turns, I recommend heading into Time Trial mode and practicing on courses like Wonder Museum, Sand Road, or Chao Park.
This is especially important during the game’s boating sections. Unlike in All-Stars Transformed, these do not have drifting capabilities, as it is instead replaced by a charge jump. In order to take sharp turns, you have to let go of the accelerator and turn as you slowly decelerate. While this might sound like it will slow you down a lot, it actually doesn’t in practice and can prove to be an invaluable time saver. If you need to practice the muscle memory for this, I recommend heading into Time Trial mode and getting the hang of it on tracks like Water Palace, Ocean View, or Aqua Forest. Keep in mind that character stats, vehicle builds, and gadgets can also have an impact on how smooth your turning might be.
Advanced Tips
- Boost panels that glow a blue-white color function the same as a Boost you would get from using a White Wisp item. This means you can use the Boosts from these panels to cross off-road areas. For the most part, this has a niche application, but it can prove essential on certain tracks. It’s also required to get E-Stadium’s S Rank time on Time Trial mode.
- Obtaining Rings will allow you to hover, letting you safely pass over off-road areas without losing speed. This can be very useful with the Omochao item, which supplies you with a steady supply of rings for a short period of time and lets you take a shortcut with them. Note that this is not the same as a White Wisp Boost, so hazards in off-road areas can still hurt you or slow you down, and your top speed will only see a comparatively nominal increase.
- Save the Laser and Drill Wisps for sharp turns. These items temporarily take control away from the player to zip them across the map, but an exploitable quirk for them is that they only ever turn you back to normal on straightaways. Using them before large curved or S-shaped roads allows you to stay in them for even longer, which is extremely useful for players trying to catch up with the pack or even pass them.
- When using the Charge Jump while on boating sections, players with the Trick Adept Gadget should only ever charge the jump to Lv. 1, as that will be enough height to perform two tricks for a faster landing boost.
Once you’ve gotten comfortable with all of these things, head out onto the track and have fun!
Review: Click Here
If you would like to see more Sonic, you may be interested in our review of Sonic X Shadow Generations.
Many thanks go to SEGA for a Nintendo Switch review code for Sonic Racing: Crossworlds.
A hobbyist who took up the pen to write about their favorite pastime: games. While a lover of many genres, Isaiah Parker specializes in Platformers, RPGs, and competitive multiplayer titles. The easiest way into his heart is to have great core gameplay mechanics. Self-proclaimed world’s biggest Sonic fan. Follow him @ZinogreVolt
