Sonic the Hedgehog Lead Throws Shade at Mario Kart

Summary

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds offers cross-platform play, unlike Mario Kart World.
Mario Kart World’s roster is Mario-centric, while Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds includes characters from Sega and other companies.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds introduces a free roam mode and has a diverse roster, rivaling Mario Kart World’s popularity.

Takashi Iizuka, who has led, supervised, or produced most of the Sonic the Hedgehog series since Sonic the Hedgehog 3, had some choice words for Mario Kart World at Summer Game Fest. While gamers are barely getting their hands on the Nintendo Switch 2, it seems that the Sonic lead has some interesting thoughts on Mario Kart World.

Mario Kart World is the latest entry to the long-running kart racer, and it’s introduced a series first, adding a free roam mode to Mario Kart World where players can cruise around with friends and explore at their leisure. The title also made other improvements that take advantage of the more powerful hardware the game is on, like having the capability for up to to 24 players to play. However, its exclusivity to the Nintendo Switch 2 system is something that some have objected to.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Already Sets a High Bar for Mario Kart 9

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has just been revealed fully, and its eponymous gimmick sets a pretty high bar for the next mainline Mario Kart entry.

It seems that Takashi Iizuka is one of those people. The Sonic team lead was giving a presentation at Summer Game Fest, revealing new details about Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Sega’s own upcoming kart racer. In part of an effort to distinguish between the two titles, Iizuka stated that unlike “another kart racing game,” meaning Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a multi-platform release game, and will have online cross-platform matchmaking, ensuring that players across different systems can still play with their friends, no matter what modern console they’re playing on. This includes Nintendo Switch owners, as the game will be releasing for that platform, as well.

As Mario Kart World Reels In Its Roster, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Goes All-Out

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was a popular hit on the original Switch for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest excitements was the inclusion of non-Mario game characters. Link, Isabelle, the Villager, and the Inklings were all available as racers, even before the game got its Expansion Pass. However, the Mario Kart World roster has gone back to being Mario-centric, at least at launch. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, on the other hand, is doing the opposite, adding numerous racers from Sega properties, as well as those from other companies entirely. For example, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will let players race as Persona 5‘s Joker, Like a Dragon‘s Ichiban, the iconic Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, or even as Minecraft‘s Steve.

Of course, a playable roster isn’t everything in a kart racing game. Players are excited to see more and learn if the game will live up to the hype in terms of actual gameplay. With Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds landing on September 25, the interest in Mario Kart World may have died down enough by then for the upcoming Sega game to see a major boom in players looking for a new kart racer.