Memory is a funny thing. It twists and distorts the past, rewriting what actually happened. But occasionally, just occasionally, it stretches one’s memories into elaborate, death-defying race courses. Well, maybe it doesn’t, but that’s exactly what happens in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
Classic settings from SEGA games gone-by have been reimagined as frantic tracks which you traverse as familiar SEGA characters, including Sonic, Joe Musashi, and AiAi. It’s a kart racer, with the emphasis firmly on speed, power-sliding, and power-ups. And you aren’t always confined to a four-wheel kart: your vehicle transforms periodically from a car to a boat to a plane, and back again.
We’ve already taken a look at the All-Star Racing on current-gen consoles but the game is also heading to Nintendo’s Wii U when it launches later this year. As with most games on Nintendo’s forthcoming console, it packs a raft of unique features tailored for the Wii U’s rather unique GamePad.
First up, as with most Wii U games, the action can be pulled down from the TV onto the GamePad. This is done rather simply by swiping your finger down on the controller’s touchscreen, as if you’re ‘dragging’ down the game onto the smaller screen. Conversely, if you want to resume playing on the big screen, flick your finger in the opposite direction. It works well, though I doubt people will use it mid-race; it’s too disorientating, but once you’re playing on the GamePad, the game looks good and handles well.
Allowing you to play the game on either screen, Wii U presents developers with the opportunity to transform (sorry) any console game optimised for large HD televisions into something more akin to a handheld experience. But is this not also a curse? Is something not lost in the transition from the big to the small screen? SUMO – the developer behind the game – doesn’t think so. “I don’t think it’s compromised,” says Steve Lycett, executive producer on the game. “For a start we’re already building the game across a selection of handhelds, on 3DS and Vita, so we consider it one more option the players has.” And compared to these handhelds, the Wii U’s screen compares favourably. “Put it this way, when I’m kicked off the TV as the latest soaps need to be caught up with, I certainly won’t complain about being able to seamlessly carry on playing!”
Adder's Lair
Seamlessly. That’s the crucial word with the Wii U. Used smartly and sensitively the Wii U’s controller allows the game to expand in novel and curious ways; otherwise, it just feels gimmicky and forced. When you’re in a race, jockeying for position, the screen displays a range of pertinent information – the current order of racers, a mini-map of the course. It’s all unintrusive and useful, but I expect most people to keep their eyes firmly on the race. Similarly, when you unleash one of the game’s eccentric power-ups, you’ll be able to see its destiny on the GamePad’s screen. Launch a remote-controlled car loaded with a stick of dynamite and you can watch it travel towards its unfortunate target. Again, it’s unlikely you’ll divide your attention, but if you’re the kind of person who revels in the misfortune of others, the GamePad’s screen will accommodate your sadism.
It’s a subtle expanding of the game’s canvas onto the GamePad; it’s not a crowbarring.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of the GamePad is not its touchscreen or its gyroscope (incidentally, you can also steer using the GamePad like a wheel, rotating it left and right) – it’s the ability to open up weird and wonderful forms of asymmetrical gameplay. Yes, I know it was one of the most of overused and mocked phrases of this year’s E3 but with one person using a GamePad while others use more traditional controllers – Classic Controllers or the new Pro Controller – new types of gaming experiences become possible.
Depending on the circumstances, a GamePad can prove to be an advantage or disadvantage, and All-Star Racing Transformed smartly uses this discrepancy as the basis for its mini-games.
I only saw one during my time with the Wii U version, called ‘Super Monkey Ball Arena’, and whomever had the GamePad took control of AiAi, who was as usual encased in his perspex sphere. Meanwhile, opponents using Classic Controllers played as Sonic and Tails in racing cars. The aim of the mini-game was simple: before the time ran out, squash the tiny versions of Sonic and Tails, who were driving around attempting to collect as many bananas as possible.
The GamePad “gave us a reason to think about how we can use the fact one player has an advantage (or disadvantage!),” says Lycett. And the source of inspiration behind many of these games is an interesting one. “We came back to game you’d play as school kids. So things like Tag, British Bulldog, Hide and Seek, all the classics basically, became the inspiration for what we’d prototype and try. Then it’s how you bend that into something SEGA themed, and luckily we’ve had a bit of experience of doing that.”
Seaside Hill
That’s how the game plays but Sonic All-Star Racing Transformed also looks good on Nintendo’s latest console. I only saw two tracks: Adder's Lair, inspired by Golden Axe, and Seaside Hill which is based on a level from last year’s Sonic Generations. Both looked good – like its predecessor, the visuals are bright and chaotic – but things were obviously still being fine-tuned for Wii U. Ocean View was nicely designed, especially as the level slowly crumbled around you, forcing you to hit the waves, where you weave in and out of the flailing tentacles of a huge mechanical cephalopod. The game is “easily on a par [with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions],” says Lycett. “We’re still very much getting to grips with what we can make the hardware do [...]. So it’s hard to really answer that right now, but yeah, I think once we’ve had a bit more time finding our way around it, chances are you can look to do things that you may not be able to do before.”
2012 is shaping up to be the year of the console racer, with LittleBigPlanet Karting and F1 Race Stars also lining up on the grid. But Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is the only one heading to Wii U, and it seems to be intelligently embracing the new console’s capabilities. It’s there during races, but in a subtle ways, expanding the game beyond the narrow confines of your television screen.
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