I've played some of the previous Sonic kart racing games, and they're pretty fun. This latest one, CrossWorlds, was not really on my radar, but it was on Steam with a free network beta test, so I gave it a quick shot.

I played one offline grand prix (4 races) and one online race. The computer AI racers were surprisingly tough, even on normal difficulty. I'd say they're on par or even a little tougher than the AI in Mario Kart World. Races were frantic, and the controls feel great. The game runs great too, and the courses I played are fun and varied.

My issue with the Sonic racing games is more of a personal one: I have next to zero Sonic or Sega nostalgia. I've played a couple Sonic games here and there, and some Crazy Taxi back in the day, but the only Sega franchise I'm a fan of is Yakuza. The characters and the tracks really mean nothing to me, and I have no frame of reference for the powerups either. It's a huge contrast to Mario Kart, where I grew up playing with the characters and seeing all the track locations in other games.

The online race I played was also pretty fun. I ended up winning, which was cool. I did feel like the online race had a huge layer of motion blur lathered on top that I didn't notice in the offline Grand Prix. I explored the settings and turned blur off, but I'm not sure if it would make a difference as I didn't play another race.

All in all this feels like a solid kart racer, probably the best besides Mario Kart, but may struggle to grab people who aren't Sega fans, and the $70 price tag is steep.