What surrounds those fundamentals is far from flashy and, based on the demo at least, pretty underwhelming. Team Sonic Racing has 15 characters, six of which were playable for me: Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, and Omega. Each had different stats: acceleration, speed, defense, handling, etc. But while hedgehogs Sonic and Shadow are supposedly the fastest, and characters like Knuckles and Omega prioritize defense, the differences didn’t feel pronounced enough in practice. Each stat goes from one to 10, but most characters’ numbers in each category hovered around the midway point, never going more than two points beyond or below it.
The finished game might allow a much greater amount of customization and diversity, but what I played all felt very similar, whether I was barreling down a dirt path in Rouge’s bubblegum pink car or Knuckle’s red tank-like dune buggy.
In addition to determining who wins, the team racing dynamic also affects the moment-to-moment action by giving certain people boosts, letting players on the same team share items, and building up an ultimate meter that, when deployed, gives the entire team a speed boost and invincibility.
The catch is that these interactions require you to be around other drivers, which you aren’t always. Shooting someone with a Crimson Wisp or driving super close to a teammate to give both of us a boost is only possible when you’re climbing the ranks or knocked back down to the back of the pack. But on single-player, at least, you’ll likely be doing your best to stay in first place, and as a result your AI friends will be left to fend for themselves, making the team driving aspect feel kind of moot. I won every race but one, and even then my middling finish was enough to get us close to a tie on overall points. Maybe the demo just wanted me to feel empowered, or maybe Team Sonic Racing is just going to be kind of a snooze on the standard difficulty.