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Ok, this game had a lot of hype to it and everyone thought that this game was going to be one of those games that was going to make the Saturn's Christmas a better one. Well, I have to admit, it made me happy for about two weeks.

I have to say that this game is too fast. I mean literally. Even to find all of the Chaos Emeralds, etc. doesn't take too long and is not hard to memorize. The races also end way too fast. I feel that there should've been an option to add more laps to the race since the races just plainly end way too fast due to the fact that they implemented the explore feature on the tracks a bit TOO much.

Now don't get me wrong, this game is fun to play in one player mode at times. The tag mode gives you a reason to play one-player more. But I found that the best feature of this game was the 2-player mode. The fun is there, but at times the draw-in can be so bad that you can't even see where you are going. But it does give the element of speed.

The music is somewhat different for this game. SOA handled the music component of this game and instead of concentrating on instrumentals, they decided to go with a rather soulfully put together soundtrack. Now don't get me wrong here either, unlike other games, the vocals in the music are pretty damn good. Many people have said that the music in this game is horrible, and many of them have based those facts on the music by using the "Vocals on or off" option and turning the vocals off. The music takes a little getting used to but once the music settles in, it is quite enjoyable.

The sound effects are standard Sonic fare with the same old ring and item pick up sounds. The jumps sound exactly the same as it should in a Sonic game and the new sound effects just add to the game uniqueness.

In the end I must say that this game is a visually impressive, and a fast blast into the Sonic world with little or no replay value after it's all over. However this game is an interesting experience due to the uniqueness of the title. Something which you would expect by a project that had Yuji Naka at the helm. All in all, I would say that this game pretty much balances out overall but with the fact that it does end a bit too fast will leave you yearning for more.

I suggest playing the tag mode after you beat everything else. It's fun and the matches last pretty long. Basically it's playing tag Sonic-style.

Other than that, that's about it. Here are my scores on Sonic R:

Graphics 9
Sound 9
Music 8
Gameplay 7
Replay Value 6
Multiplayer 8
Overall 8