![]() ![]() Ambition sometimes gets the better of it - the four-player splitscreen that sits across the campaign as well as its own handful of bespoke modes understandably takes a performance hit, but it's a shame that the same's true of some of the single-player offerings. All-Stars Racing Transformed is never less than handsome. The love-in runs so deep I was half-expecting Segata Sanshiro to make an appearance - I didn't spot him, sadly, but the final unlockable cameo that I'll leave you to discover yourself is perhaps even sweeter. ![]() Other tributes are lavishly produced and just as heartfelt: there's a rush through lava and red stone that's pulled from Golden Axe, a run across an aircraft carrier that ends with players taking to the skies and a track culled from the opening of OutRun 2 SP that takes a detour into the choppy waters of the bay. It's almost worth the entrance fee alone. Richard Jacques' re-imagining of classic Sega themes is unsurprisingly brilliant. When, on the third and final lap of a race within the world of Arcadia, the village crumbles away and all the racers take to the sky to dart between battling galleons, there may well be others who can't hold the waterworks back. Sega's mascots and its cult figures are handled with an exquisite care: on seeing Sumo's recreation of Skies of Arcadia, the game's original producer was reportedly moved close to tears. Hell, it's even about Burning Rangers, an extended and note-perfect tribute to Sonic Team's masterful Saturn action game forming the basis of one of the more memorable tracks. This isn't just about Sonic, Tails and Robotnik it's about Vyse, it's about Ulala and it's about Panzer Dragoon. Sumo Digital's karting game Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a little helping of silver service for those fans. Ryo Hazuki's probably never going to make his way out of that Guilin cave, but in so many other ways Sega's fans have been exceptionally well served. ![]() Sega's holding tight to them, too, restoring the likes of Daytona, Jet Set Radio and most recently NiGHTS. The blue-sky dreams of the '90s may have faded to grey, but no one's taking those sweet memories away. "It used to be Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis," raps Scroobius Pip as he riffs off Biggie Small's Juicy, "but Sega went and choked man, I couldn't picture this." One of hip-hop's most famous shout-outs to video games got a cruel update earlier this month.
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