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Developed by Travellers Tales and published by Sega of America, Sonic R is an all- new fully polygonal 3-D racing game that features the world's most popular blue speed demon, Sonic the Hedgehog. It may not be the Yuji Naka designed 3-D platformer that just about every single Sega Saturn owner has been dreaming about since the Saturn launched in May of 1995, but it is a very solid game, nonetheless.

In addition to the tremendously popular blue hedgehog, Sonic R allows you to race with Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Dr. Robotnik, Robot Sonic, Robot Tails, Robot Knuckles and Robot Dr. Robotnik. Although, only Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles are selectable when you play the game for the very first time. In order to race as Dr. Robotnik, you will need to finish first in all five of the courses. And to get the Robot versions of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik, you will need to collect each of the five Sonic Tokens that are located on each course.

Each of the different characters have his or her own strengths, weaknesses and special abilities. Sonic is the fastest of all the racers and he has the ability to jump, to double jump and to do a spin dash roll. Tails doesn't have Sonic's great speed, but he is very quick and he can fly and also do the spin dash roll. Knuckles is the most well balanced of the game's characters and he has the ability to glide and to perform the spin dash roll. Amy isn't gifted with speed, so instead of running the races, she gets to drive a car. Even with her car, she isn't quite as fast as the likes of Sonic, Tails or Knuckles, but her car has the ability to hover over water and has turbo boost capabilities. Dr. Robotnik obviously can't run, so he gets to race in his hovercraft, which can hover over water like Amy's car, but what is more important, it comes equipped with a Homing Missile. The robot versions of each of the characters are pretty much like their counterparts, except all of them can stay afloat over water for a short period of time.

In total, there are five courses available in Sonic R: Resort Island, Radical City, Regal Ruin, Reactive Factory and Radiant Emerald. The Resort Island track is set on a tropical island paradise, featuring a lot of greenery, trees, a nice blue sky and plenty of loops, twists and turns. The Radical City course is my personal favorite and it features plenty of nice lighting effects, several really tight turns and a few really good shortcuts. The Regal Ruin course has got to be my least favorite of the five courses. It is set in ancient Egyptian remains and is loaded with plenty of mazes that will surely have you wondering where exactly you should be heading. The Reactive Factory course is probably the second most difficult of the five courses and seems to have the most alternate paths to choose from. The last course is the Radiant Emerald course, and it is probably the simplest of all the courses.

While Sonic R is a racing game at its heart, it does feature other elements that differentiate it from you standard run of the mill racing games. In addition to just trying to finish first, other goals and tasks can be completed. One of which is collecting all five Sonic Tokens that are scattered on each of the first four tracks. This is needed in order to open up the four secret robot versions of the racers. Also, there are seven Chaos Emeralds that are scattered throughout the first four courses, and if you find all seven and finish the races high enough to keep all of them, you'll be given the option to race as Super Sonic.

Sonic R has three different play modes available; Grand Prix, Time Attack and 2 Player. The Grand Prix mode is the main mode of the game and it allows you to use any of the available characters and race on any of the available tracks. This is the mode where you will need to collect the Sonic Tokens and Chaos Emeralds in order to open up many of the game's goodies. The Time Attack mode is a good place for you to practice improving your times on each of the available courses, with no rings to collect or opponents to beat. In addition to the normal Time Attack mode, you can also race on the reversed tracks, race to see how quickly you can get all five balloons, and play a little game of tag, where the goal is to touch each of your opponents in the least amount of time as possible.

The control set up is extremely basic, as you pretty much steer with the d-pad or analog pad and accelerate by either pressing up or pressing the B button. The jumping, gliding and flying are completed by pressing the A, C or Y buttons. You can also make your character drift to the left or right by using the left and right shudder buttons, or you can make them brake by pressing the shudder buttons at the same time.

While the control set up is very easy to understand and isn't the least bit complicated, learning to navigate each of the characters through the elaborate tracks will take quite a bit of practice. The first time you try to play Sonic R, expect to encounter some frustration, as you will probably not only find it very difficult to finish first in any race, but you'll very likely find it nearly impossible to keep yourself on the track. The control is very loose and this looseness makes it very hard to maneuver you character through the many twists and turns that these tracks contain. But, before you pass off the game as having horrible control, if you give it some time and play it enough, you can get used to the loose control and eventually master the game.

Graphically, Sonic R is a very mixed bag. On one hand, it is quite possibly one of the best displays of the Saturn's 3-D polygonal power this side of the hi-resolution bouncing breasts in Tecmo's Dead or Alive. But, on the other hand, there are numerous graphical glitches, like loads of pop-up and clipping. Each of the characters are fully polygonal and are animated very nicely. The backgrounds are probably the most impressive aspect of the game's graphics, as the textures are very colorful, well detailed, and, at times, visually stunning. There is also quite a bit of impressive special effects being used, including what appears to be some true transparencies in the Radiant Emerald course.

I know many of you may think I've gone crazy by saying this, but I'll go ahead and say it anyway. I love the music in Sonic R. The vocals initially made me want to puke and turn them off, but after listening to them over and over while playing the game, they really started to grow on me. In fact, I started to leave the game on when not playing, just to hear the music. The sound effects in the game are very Sonic-ish and will sound familiar to anyone that has ever played any Sonic game. It's nothing special, but exactly what you should expect.

The bottom line is that if you give it time and don't let your first impressions of the game cloud your judgment, you will find Sonic R to be a very enjoyable game that offers a great deal of play value because of it's steep learning curve and because of all the secrets that the game includes. It isn't the brand new 3-D Sonic platformer that many of us were wishing for, but it is an excellent game nonetheless.

RATINGS

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Control: 7/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Replay Value: 8/10

OVERALL: 9.0/10