Vimm's Lair: DS Reviews - Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing

Nintendo DS
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
8.09
8.05
8.41
8.18
Votes: 22
Reviews: 1


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Reviewer: KolaCookie Date: Jul 11, 2023
I have fond memories of this game. I owned both the Wii and DS versions and I remember playing both a ton despite this one being objectively worse than it's far more powerful and heavy-hitting Wii counterpart. Young me couldn't tell the difference though. Since this is my first review, and since I am not good at writing any form of paragraph, I say we just jump into the review.

Graphics: 6
It's a DS game - were you really expecting good graphics? Okay, that's not to say they're horrible, they do a good enough job at porting the characters from the HD version down to this version. I can at least tell who's who and what's what. The character models are VERY low poly (as is anything on the DS). Looks like something straight out of the PS1. Once again, not saying they're bad. Menus also look nice, despite being quite bland.

Sound: 7
Bitcrushed. Once again, it's the DS. This thing can't do anything other than DS things. Thankfully, character voices remain high quality, or in enough quality to where you would never notice it while racing- even if they did cut a few lines. Characters will say one of their funny lines whenever they get overtaken, overtake another racer, hit a racer or get hit. And they don't play at once, they play IN ORDER which can get very annoying. There's also the god awful ENGINE NOISE.MP34. I know that's how cars sound in real life but I don't wanna hear VRVRVRVRBNRBRVR RBRBRBRBR- I wanna hear the Funny Voice Lines™! And music. Oh yeah, I forgot the music. It's all soundtracks from the HD version, which were soundtracks from other games, but now they're midi-fied! And honestly? They don't sound half bad! Some of these tracks kick butt, even if they are just watered down versions of already existing tracks. Maybe it's just my strange love of midi tracks kicking in.

Gameplay: 7
Honestly, if I were to review this, I'd just be reviewing the Wii version. Hold A, do that better than the others and you win. Also you can pick up powerups. They're weird- like they're fundamentally the same as the console counterparts but like, they feel way different. The bomb is no longer an item you throw in front of you and it rolls, and instead it's now an item you throw in an arch- GOD why did they do that??? It's not hard to hit anyone, but like... Why??? The bomb wasn't the only change, the Big Blue Rocket That Does Nothing But Ruin Your Day A.K.A Blue Shell™®© got changed as well. Instead of being a Big Blue Rocket- not saying that again... Instead of being a Big rocket that mows down anyone in its way and makes a massive nuke when detonated, it now functions like a regular ol' rocket except this time.... It's worse. Yeah this one sucks. The computer does know how to use it properly now though.
There's also a mission mode which is... Literally just the console missions with some changes. Next.
Races are also now gutted to 6 people per race because god forbid the DS do anything. Don't mind it, but it would be really funny seeing 8 people race at once.
As for the All Star moves, they got a pretty noticeable downgrade. They don't look as flashy anymore and even though they're pretty much the exact same fundamentally as their console counterparts (with one exception being Jacky- WHY IS YOUR CAR DOING A ROUNDHOUSE???) they don't feel normal function the same. Also, this may be because the limited amount of racers but, they don't feel nearly as useful as in the console versions. Like, you'll have to feel it to get what I mean but- you'd usually get a big jump forward position wise in the console versions but here... Yeah it kinda just depends.

Overall: 7
Decent port. You're better off with the console versions however. Unless you ABSOLUTELY need Sonic in a car on the go and absolutely despise the now semi lost media mobile version then... Yeah. This game. It exists. You can't really play this game without comparing it to the console versions. If you were to completely disconnect it from the other versions and treat it as it's own standalone game, it'd still be pretty decent. Overall, good game, but is just very overshadowed by it's objectively better console counterparts. Jesus, count how many times I said console in this review and I'll give you one nickel.

First review by the way. That's cool.