Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a racing game developed by Sumo Digital as the sequel to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, directed by Gareth Wilson, the former lead designer of Blur, a similar racing game that also uses power-ups as a prominent feature. It was announced on 30 April 2012.[55]
The game's surname comes from its new transforming vehicle system, which allows players to traverse land, sea, and sky by transforming their vehicles mid-race via transform gates into cars, boats, and planes, allowing for much more varied tracks. Each vehicle type handles differently to simulate the differences between the environments (for example roads for cars versus water for boats). The courses also change with different features during each lap, usually changing the routes traveled on during the race, so the courses are always evolving during the race.
Characters
The game has characters from several of Sega's previous franchises making their debut in the All-Stars Racing series, including Gilius Thunderhead and Vyse who both were cut from the previous title's roster. They were chosen along with new Sega franchise characters and characters from Non-Sega franchises with additional characters planned for DLC. The two Non-Sega characters included are Ralph from the Walt Disney movie Wreck-it Ralph who is in every version, and real professional NASCAR racer Danica Patrick, who is in every version except the mobile versions. Revealed through hacking, there also exists additional characters such as characters from the Football Manager series, Shogun: Total War series, as well as an appearance from another non-Sega property, Team Fortress 2. These characters were officially revealed as exclusive characters for the PC version via a trailer released on January 17th 2013. While they are for the PC version, they appear on the disc for the console versions as well. Ryo Hazuki was announced for the newly revealed mobile versions of the game.
Race for the top position while utilizing power ups.
Boost Challenge
Race to the finish line before time runs out. Any time the vehicle receives a boost,
Battle Race
Race for the top position while utilizing power ups. All players start with three hits. Once all off their hit points are gone, they are out. The last surviving player wins.
Ring Race
Fly through the rings in order before time runs out. Any missed rings will deplete your remaining time.
Traffic Attack
Dodge cars while weaving through the course. Green Cars will stay in one position. Yellow Cars will weave left and right. Blue Cars will try to stay in front of you.
Versus
Race against a rival racer through several rounds. Whoever is in front before time runs out or if they pull far enough ahead, they are delcared the winner.
Pursuit
Collect ammo and fire at a fleeing enemy tank in a race course.
Grand Prix
Time attack
Single Race
Custom Game
The following game modes can be played offline or online and may be chosen when playing online via matchmaking by specifying race, battle or lucky dip which randomly chooses game modes.
Race
Race for the top position while utilizing power ups.
Fight to survive using power ups. All players start with three hits. Once all off their hit points are gone, they are out. The last surviving player wins.
Race for the top position while utilizing power ups. All players start with three hits. Once all off their hit points are gone, they are out. The last surviving player wins.
A Chao balloon and a capture point spawn in random spots. Bringing the Chao balloon to the capture point adds to the players score. Reaching the target limit or capturing the most before time runs out declares the winner.
The following modes are exclusive to the Wii U version and can only be played locally. The player on the Wii U Game Pad will play as a specific character using specialized controls and features.
Banana Heist
Players on the GamePad play as AiAi as he rolls a monkey ball around to crush the other racers.
Ninja Tag
Players on the GamePad play as Joe Musashi as he must run into other racers to tag them.
A Bonus Edition of the game was released, and contained DLC content for the game. The package came with a code to unlock a new course and character like the previous game, an OutRun-themed course and Metal Sonic as a playable racer. The Wii U version did not come with a voucher as the DLC content was already on the disc. The Downloadable Tracks option were renamed to Bonus Tracks.