Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is one of the best racing games I've ever played. It has something for everyone, from fun chaotic races to challenging sweaty competitive matches. Developers listen to their community and make the game better with every update. After playing for 300 hours I'm still not bored of this game.

Pros:
- The game looks good. It's not a graphical masterpiece, but it really doesn't have to be. The artstyle, characters, tracks, all of it looks great.
- Optimization. The game is using Unreal Engine 5, but unlike most of the games that uses it, CrossWorlds is actually very optimized for every platform. I'm consitantly getting 60 fps with 1440p monitor on 150 render scaling. This game also runs on Switch 1 and Steam Deck, so if you have a PC that is better then those two, you can definetely play this!
- Characters. The game has a big roster of characters from Sonic Universe, Sega franchises and a lot of crossovers, from Pacman and Mega Man to Spongebob and Patrick. Developers constantly add more and more characters and I'm looking forward to next additions.
- Racing aspect is very fun and engaging. It's your basic Mario kart controls and feels. It's easy to learn and hard to master, which is how I like my games! Even in singleplayer you won't be bored. With a Rival mechanic you will constantly be neck and neck with your opponent. Your rival will say bold comments your way in the race.
- CrossWorlds mechanic. Every race whoever is in the first place at the end of the first lap gets to choose a crossworld from two available. When the crossworld is decided everyone in the race will race on that track for the second lap. This mechanic makes every race unique and being able to choose lap 2 track encourages front running and is a big reward if you manage to get it.
- Gadget mechanic. Players can choose from a big selection of gadgets that get added with every update. Those gadgets can do a lot of things, from making your drift charge faster to increasing every stat of your vehicle and even altering item probabilities in the race. It's a really good mechanic that allows a big amount of different playstyles in the game. You can either spam drift boosts to always have top speed, or you can use Ring Engine and get a massive boost to your vehicle stats by constantly grabbing rings on a track.
- Vehicle variety. Players can customize their front, rear, tires and apply decals on their vehice. There's 5 different vehicle types: Speed, Power, Handling, Boost and Acceleration. They all look and feel completely different allowing even more playstyles in the race.
- Different Modes. There's a couple of modes you can play. Grand prix, which is normal 4 races in a row; Race Park, mostly team races with an additional objective you have to complete; Time trial, speaks for itself; For online we have regular World Match; Then we have Festivals, which are team races from race park but online. They are run whenever new characters gets added into the game; Legend Competition, a game mode for sweats. You can only participate in it if your online rank is Legend 9 or higher; Friend Match, fully customizable lobby to play with your friends; I would love to see more modes added later, like a battle mode for example, but what we have already works good!
- Modding. There's a LOT of mods in this game. You can change characters, music, voices and even looks of the track you are racing on. And the best part is that developers themself heavily encourage visual modding and you can play online with your mods. (As long as you don't cheat of course.)
- Soundtrack. Not the best soundtrack in the Sonic Series, but it still has a good selection of amazing tracks.
- Writing. Yes. You read that right. Somehow, this game has a good dialogue. When you race in Grand Prix, you have a rival racer that you have to beat. Before the race starts you will witness a small exchange between the characters and it's SO good. You just have to see it for yourself.

But, as good as this game is, it still has problems that need to be addressed.

Cons:
- Netcode. It's just bad. It's a LOT better then it was before, but I still sometimes get disconnected for no reasons. There's also plenty of desync. For example, you fire a glove at your opponent, you hit them, but on their end the glove either didn't even exist, or did not hit them, which means that you basically wasted your item.
- Item balance. It's not great. It's not as bad as people say it is, but it definetely needs some work. The fact that you lose 50 rings when you get hit by a glove is just not fair. Also there's too much of homing items in the game, for example green glove, red glove, slicer, boom boo (only 1st place), weights (only 1st and 2nd place), slime. Slime and slicer also take away your items when you get hit by them.
- Physics. Sometimes game's physics just give up and you get launched into the air for no reason, you also sometimes stop and turn around. It's not often, but it shouldn't be in the game from the beggining.
- Lack of voices for DLC characters. It's not a big problem for me, but the fact that we even have it is ridiculous.

Do I recommend this game? Absolutely! As I said before, it's one of the best racing games I've ever played, and I can't get enough of it. Everytime I'm not home I constantly think about how I will get back home and play it again for hours!

My total score: 9/10.