The world is pain. In this hellish existence we are all cursed to, there are at least two things that will keep from finally putting a bullet through my goddamn skull: anime, and Sonic the Hedgehog. As such, I’ve found myself replaying Sonic R. I found a modded version of the PC port that has stuff that wasn’t in the Saturn release, and decided to give it another shot.
Some of you might remember when I had written about Sonic R a few years ago. I had more or less said “fuck this game.” I did not like the game’s level design. Hated the way it controlled. It looked nice and sounded great, but that was all it had going for it. Also, the game was developed by Traveler’s Tales, and no amount of Lego games will ever make up for inflicting Sonic 3D Blast on me as a kid.
As far as I was concerned, I was happy to simply label Sonic R a terrible game with an awesome soundtrack, maybe make a couple of jokes about the Jesus Fish in the Regal Ruin stage, and then not bother talking about the game ever again. But folks, I kind of hate to admit it, but I think I might actually like Sonic R now.
Sonic R, I have figured out, is an acquired taste. I hated it because it didn’t play like a Sonic game. I hated it because it didn’t play like the kind of racing game I’m used to; I don’t play Mario Kart style games, where you’re meant to find shortcuts on the track, instead sticking with more simulation based games. I wasn’t using the L and R buttons to fine-tune my movements, not understand that left and right on the D-Pad was meant for drifting around corners (though to be fair, drifting should have been set to L and R). It’s still not perfect, still not as good as a standard racing game, but it is more manageable.
With all of that in mind, I’m going to re-review this game. Sonic R is an incredibly low-stakes footrace with Sonic and his friends. Dr. Robotnik is there, but for once, does not have any ulterior motives for world domination this time. This is an incredibly innocent video game, barring the secret Jesus Fish. It is a bunch of cutesy animal friends having fun outside. And I do want to make an emphasis on Cute here. Sonic R’s character models are the most low polygon count things you’ll ever see this side of the 32X, covered in bright gradients and little texture work. This was almost certainly done in order to maximize performance and getting the game to run at a stable framerate, but in hindsight, it was also an amazing artistic decision.
there is something to be said about how wonderfully dopey metal sonic looks
Playing and replaying this game to learn the track layouts and get all of the secret characters, I began to realize that Sonic R is very similar to Outrun in one particular regard. Much like Outrun, Sonic R is all about escapism. Low stakes. Low stress. No real penalty for failure, you can restart or quit a race anytime. Once you get used to the controls and make judicious use of level shortcuts, you can win races even with slower characters like Amy and Robotnik. Bright, colorful environments set to infectiously sweet EDM with lyrics that sound like something Culture Beat would have made it to the top of the 1993 music charts with. The soundtrack is full of songs about love and friendship. I need to stress this point: Sonic R is a game that is about playing with your friends. It is sweet, it is cute, and it is more “wholesome” than any game that has marketed itself as such.
There’s not really much else to say about Sonic R. Once you unlock everything, it’s a very short game, with only five tracks to run on over and over again to maybe get better lap times. But that doesn’t really matter. Sometimes, all a person needs is a cute little game with bright colors and happy music to converge into a salve to heal your many mental and emotional wounds. Spending an hour of your time relaxing and vibing and taking in the spirit of what Sonic the Hedgehog is: a cool dude in a beautiful world.
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