There are a lot of game genres I love, one of them has to be racing games. I remember hearing about Sonic R a very long time ago and thought it was a decent racing game, not as good as Mario Kart 64 but still decent. Heck, my friend JBHamHam(https://www.furaffinity.net/user/jbhamham) found this game to be one of his biggest guilty pleasures, and he’s going to talk about this game with me. JB, say hello!
JB: Hi everyone! So yeah, as Ben said, this is a game that I tend to enjoy and we can see each others’ perspectives on what we like about this game.
GH: What are these things we like about this game? Let’s find out. A little disclaimer before we start: we’re just sharing our opinion about this game and aren’t forcing people to like this game, that being said, let’s begin. One thing I found very interesting is how unlike Sonic Drift, Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, and Team Sonic Racing; Sonic and the majority of characters actually run on their feet instead of driving a car(except for Amy who does drive one and Dr. Robotnik who rides in his iconic ship.) which feels very interesting for a Sonic game since he was about running fast and it makes perfect sense as to why he’s on his feet in the first place. Positive #1 is the concept of a Sonic racing game where he runs on his feet, instead of driving a car.
JB: Despite it feeling out of place, the soundtrack sounds very catchy whether it’s Super Sonic Racing or Living in the City.
GH: I will admit, even if they feel out of place, they fit well with the tracks and for at least a racing game.
JB: Hey, you’re right! They do! Positive #2 is the soundtrack being catchy, even if it feels out of place.
GH: Even though there are five tracks in the game, they at least have different themes from a city to an island, and if we ignore the tracks’ open boundaries and shortcuts, their layouts are really nice for a racing game. Positive #3 is the tracks’ themes and layouts.
JB: The collectables for unlocking characters scattered around the tracks tend to make the game a bit slower in a racing game, but honestly, we found the concept kinda interesting since there aren’t many other games that have you do that whether it’s Chaos Emeralds for Super Sonic or the Sonic Tokens for the other four characters besides Eggman.
GH: Heck, for the later’s collectables, after placing 3rd or better, you compete against that character in a 1-on-1 race which reminds me of how Super Smash Bros uses for its secret characters.
JB: That’s true, although the games don’t have you collect things unlike this one. That being said, Positive #4 is the concept of collecting things to unlock characters. Speaking of characters, for some reason I find it interesting how this game has the only appearance of Tails Doll and Metal Knuckles even if just like Metal Sonic and Eggrobo, they’re clones of existing characters in the game.
GH: Both of their Sonic wiki pages say that Dr. Robotnik made both of them to prevent Sonic from getting the Chaos Emeralds(or if they were in other games, they would be made to kill Tails and Knuckles)
JB: Heck, it would be cool if we got these characters in a new game! Positive #5 is the characters Tails Doll and Metal Knuckles’ origins in here.
GH: If you really want to play this game, I would highly recommend playing the PC version of this game since the Saturn version has problems with the draw distance that thankfully this version along with the Sonic Gems Collection fixes this as well as giving you bonus weather effects: rain which increases water hazards and snow which freezes them. Positive #6 is the PC and Sonic Gems Collection ports.
JB: So with all these positives, we could say that Sonic R isn’t as bad as some people think it is. There are plenty of other bad Sonic games we can think of whether Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric or Sonic Drift.
GH: As well as racing games too like Monster Truck Madness 64 or Race With Ryan. I think if the tracks had more boundaries and less shortcuts, they can work much better. Plus, after hearing each other's points of view and both of our positives, I can see why this is one of your biggest guilty pleasures JB.
JB: That’s great Ben! Do you mind if I take over from here?
GH: Not at all, go ahead!
JB: Okay, until next time, we hope to see you soon! Also, be sure to check out both of our channels for plenty of fun stuff!