Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie is a racing game that recently came out for the Xbox 360, featuring characters from many Sega franchises, as well as guest characters. It is being published by Sega and developed by U.K.-based Sumo Digital. It was announced on May 28, 2009 and was originally due to come out on February 10, 2010, but has recently been pushed back to sometime in March, 2010. The game is also being developed for the Wii, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS and Microsoft Windows however these versions of the game are just called "Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing".

Gameplay
The game is a mascot kart racing game, very similar to other games in its genre like Mario Kart, Konami Krazy Racers and Crash Team Racing. Characters race through various race circuits themed on different Sega franchises and collect power-ups to boost their speed or hamper their opponents. Additional boost can be earned by successfully executing drift turns, or performing tricks whilst in midair. Like Sumo's previous Sega game, Sega Superstars Tennis, each character has a special ability (called an "All-Star Move") unique to them that they may use to their advantage (such as Sonic transforming into Super Sonic and AiAi riding in marbles), which they can obtain if they are running behind in the race.

Vehicles are separated into four different categories: racing, off-road, bike and hovercraft. As the terrain on the tracks will vary, vehicles can be either assisted or hindered by the surfaces they drive upon. For example, racing-type vehicles perform best on hard surfaces such as wood or concrete, but are hampered by soft terrain such as mud, sand or snow. The opposite is true for off-road type vehicles. Hovercraft are not affected by any terrain and are able to perform multiple boosts after a jump, but they are unable to drift and have low acceleration. All of the vehicles also have their own specific engine sounds.

By playing through the game, players can earn Sega Miles that can be spent in the in-game shop to unlock additional content such as characters, tracks, art and songs.

The game will have customizable multiplayer options for up to four players on split-screen and eight players online, including Free Races and Arena Modes. There will also be a Grand Prix mode and a Mission mode.

The game was showcased at E3 2009, where it was stated that the final version of the game will have over 20 different characters.

At Summer of Sonic 2009 Steve Lycett, Executive Producer and Travis Ryan, Lead Designer of Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing were present for a Q&A. A PlayStation 3 demo was also available for attendees to play. It was identical to the Comic-con demo.

On November 25, 2009, a special press event about the game was held in France, where the DS version made its playable debut.

As TSSZ News yesterday reported, Sega themselves did upload to their official website the definitive box arts for this third party title, coming in early 2010. The surprise came from the Xbox 360 box art, which was the only one featuring a console specific character: on it, Banjo and Kazooie are chasing Sonic in a big red car, known as the Bolt Bucket, which doesn’t look very similar to their Nuts & Bolts contraptions (It does have elements from N&B in it, however, such as the Engine and Fuel Tanks)

From the Sonic the Hedgehog series

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Doctor Eggman
 * Amy Rose
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Big the Cat
 * Metal Sonic (As DLC)

From other Sega properties

 * AiAi from Super Monkey Ball
 * Amigo from Samba de Amigo
 * Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue
 * Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue in Forklift Truck #5 (DLC)
 * Beat from Jet Set Radio
 * Alex Kidd from the Alex Kidd series
 * Billy Hatcher from Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg
 * Zobio and Zobiko, the zombie couple from The House of the Dead EX
 * The ChuChus from Chu Chu Rocket
 * Mobo & Robo from The Bonanza Bros.
 * B.D. Joe from Crazy Taxi
 * Ulala from Space Channel 5
 * Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone
 * Jacky Bryant & Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter

From non-Sega properties

 * Banjo and Kazooie from Banjo-Kazooie
 * Xbox 360 Avatars
 * Miis

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Trivia

 * Banjo and Kazooie are the only non-sega characters to appear in the game (aside from Mii's and Avatars). There are also no Banjo-Kazooie/Rare related stages or music (aside from the music that plays during Banjo and Kazooie's "All-star" move, Jiggy Rain).
 * Banjo and Kazooie's "All-Star move" is called "Jiggy Rain". Kazooie pulls out Mumbo's Magic Wrench from Nuts & Bolts, and calls forth giant Jiggies from the sky, they fall onto the other players. Any players that collide with a Jiggy spin out, even if in mid-air. The duo also become invincible while using this move.
 * Banjo and Kazooie can, however, due to poor driving from the player, fall off the track, forcing them to respawn. This will ultimatly cancel out Jiggy rain.
 * If the player gets into first place quickly, Jiggy Rain will end early.

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