Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed...!

[Djawed]

Ooops, trash pls

Edited December 12, 2012 by Djawed

[S0L]

SOL i want to ask you something. why didn't i get my free car when i got sonic and all stars racing transformed. and yes i know what you are going to tell me ask sega. but SOL when i ask sega on twitter they don't tweet back can you go ask sega for me please.

Well... It is a SEGA question really. I am going to ask if there is a way to get the Danicar if you've already bought the game, but understand we make the software only, we're not involved or have any control over any side of how it's sold or any incentives that SEGA or certain retailers may offer. That side is out of our hands, sorry

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S0L

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[MegasonicZX]

If you've been paying attention to the status updates at all the past few days, you'd probably know that I got Transformed for PS3 not too long ago. ..I'm not really sure what to make of this game really, to be honest. I feel like at the very core of it is an incredibly solid and really well put together kart racing game, but it's hard to see at times because it's buried under so much bullshit.

The presentation values are off the charts. The visuals are great, the soundtrack is fantastic and there's a lot of stuff here to love for a diehard Sega fan. During its high points I think it's the best kart racing game ever made. During its lows I just think it's an experience only befitting to masochists.

World Tour mode can be fun at times, but generally speaking it's just a massive fucking chore that is mandatory to complete if you want to play as half of the goddamn characters. The order of the character unlocks (and dare I say some of the character selections themselves) are really fucking arbitrary and the requirements to get a lot of them are absolutely ridiculous? You're pretty much required to play 90% of World Tour mode on Hard difficulty if you want all of them (except Eggman) and I feel like that is inherently where a lot of my issues with this game lie.

It's not welcoming, it's not respectably challenging, it's not actually fun most of the time playing on Hard or Expert in World Tour and yet you're forced to anyway to unlock all the characters. I don't really want to hear the "You just suck" excuse either because I know I am perfectly capable of doing it. I had been playing on Hard and only Hard up until I unlocked Expert and I've already beaten most things on Expert. The point is that I didn't have that much fun doing it.

On a different note, I feel reiterate a few things that I said in the status updates. First off, a lot of the tracks in this game are so.. busy. Attention to detail is nice and I'm all for it, but a lot of times there's so much shit going on there's no way to reliably juggle everything you're being told to pay attention to all the time. This leads to you getting repeatedly man handled by onslaughts of items you didn't see coming or making wrong turns that lead to you crashing into walls and/or ceilings and flying off the track. This issue is especially prevalent your first time playing a track or when it's mirrored.

And this is a really minor nitpick, but I was just wondering why the hell I have to navigate through so many screens just to retry a challenge that I failed? When you click Restart from the pause menu, you have to confirm that you are restarting with a Yes, and then you're forced to re-select the difficulty level even if you never planning on changing it. If you play the entire challenge out and fail it, you're greeted with a screen that tells you that you failed, another screen showing the experience gained from the failed event, and after clicking Retry you're brought to another screen where you're asked to pick the difficulty level for your next attempt.

I don't know, I just think it'd save a bit of time and be more intuitive if Retry actually meant "Retry with the exact same settings" and there was just an additional button on the menu like "Change Difficulty" if you actually did want to change it? Just one of those things, I guess.

I still like the game a lot, but I'm just not really sure if I can say I'm enjoying it more than the first when a lot of the events I can immediately recall during my time playing were full of immense frustration and anguish. I loathe the boat controls, I loathe Traffic Attack, and I loathe playing through 10 fucking Grand Prix in order to unlock a single fucking character.

Whats a masochist again exactly cause I often here it coined towards people that didn't have much problems with world tour (I wish there were more challenges to it actually).

[Djawed]

I think chooch, like many others will be fine eventually. The game confronts you with a lot of things you have to learn and master. Some people are used to it, others dont like it initially

[Chooch]

..Did you even read my post? I unlocked all of the characters and beat most things on Expert before I even made it.

It's not that I'm not used to it, I just don't like most of it.

Edited December 12, 2012 by Chooch

[Djawed]

No I didn't read everything so I apologies for assuming things.

Well if that's the case, I am quite surprised then

Edited December 12, 2012 by Djawed

[Badnik Mechanic]

..Did you even read my post? I unlocked all of the characters and beat most things on Expert before I even made it.

It's not that I'm not used to it, I just don't like most of it.

It's like what I said in my review, by the time I was halfway through World Tour mode on hard, I was becoming really bored with the game. it was too easy and I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over. However once I hit expert mode, whilst I could still beat the Ai and didn't find it anywhere near as difficult as some people have, it was enough of a challenge to stop me from becoming too bored with it.

It's just a really lonely experience World Tour mode. just wish it had online co-op to at least make the 3 lap races more fun.

[Sega DogTagz]

I played through the entire thing with my bro in local co-op. So I guess I missed out on one of the gripes some of you may have had.

I'm still having a lot of fun with the game. Its biggest short comings are a bit of presentation miscues and a handful of track markings which can be confusing. But none of that is enough to overcome a seriously dedicated experience. The gameplay is 5 stars all around and the vast majority of the stages in the game really let it shine.

My biggest problem with the game is that for whatever reason, my copy lacked the unlock code for Metal Sonic and Outrun Bay (I pray that they come out as DLC - I'm a little miffed, but I wouldn't mind paying a few more bucks to buy them).

Edited December 12, 2012 by Sega DogTagz

[Djawed]

It's like what I said in my review, by the time I was halfway through World Tour mode on hard, I was becoming really bored with the game. it was too easy and I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over. However once I hit expert mode, whilst I could still beat the Ai and didn't find it anywhere near as difficult as some people have, it was enough of a challenge to stop me from becoming too bored with it.

It's just a really lonely experience World Tour mode. just wish it had online co-op to at least make the 3 lap races more fun.

I don't get this lonely experience argument. So you don't like single player experiences in general or is it specifically with this game?

Well I do gotta add that I loved doing a big chuck of world tour in co op mode. Occasionally with friends or my brother joining sometimes as well.

Edited December 12, 2012 by Djawed

[Autosaver]

Well, it IS a racing game so I could see why someone feels lonely.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I don't get this lonely experience argument. So you don't like single player experiences in general or is it specifically with this game?

As I already said, the problem is it's too easy. By the time I was halfway through the world tour mode I was on Hard and winning each race everytime. The challenge had gone and frankly I was becoming bored. It felt lonely as hell knowing there were at least 20-30 more missions to do.

It's the same thing that happens for any game where the difficulty is too easy and theres little engagement or reason to continue doing what you're doing, your mind wanders and you start looking for problems or ways to entertain yourself. Which is why once I got expert mode unlocked, it was the challenge I was after so I didn't end up hating the world tour mode as much as I thought I would.

Also 9999 posts... going on a break for a while so I can decide what my 10k post will be... =p

[Djawed]

In that case, I think I agree. But really I have always been surrounded so it's been an old school "passing controller once you fail" experience for me XD. Something I really missed in a long time

[SilverTH]

If you've been paying attention to the status updates at all the past few days, you'd probably know that I got Transformed for PS3 not too long ago. ..I'm not really sure what to make of this game really, to be honest. I feel like at the very core of it is an incredibly solid and really well put together kart racing game, but it's hard to see at times because it's buried under so much bullshit.

The presentation values are off the charts. The visuals are great, the soundtrack is fantastic and there's a lot of stuff here to love for a diehard Sega fan. During its high points I think it's the best kart racing game ever made. During its lows I just think it's an experience only befitting to masochists.

World Tour mode can be fun at times, but generally speaking it's just a massive fucking chore that is mandatory to complete if you want to play as half of the goddamn characters. The order of the character unlocks (and dare I say some of the character selections themselves) are really fucking arbitrary and the requirements to get a lot of them are absolutely ridiculous? You're pretty much required to play 90% of World Tour mode on Hard difficulty if you want all of them (except Eggman) and I feel like that is inherently where a lot of my issues with this game lie.

It's not welcoming, it's not respectably challenging, it's not actually fun most of the time playing on Hard or Expert in World Tour and yet you're forced to anyway to unlock all the characters. I don't really want to hear the "You just suck" excuse either because I know I am perfectly capable of doing it. I had been playing on Hard and only Hard up until I unlocked Expert and I've already beaten most things on Expert. The point is that I didn't have that much fun doing it.

On a different note, I feel reiterate a few things that I said in the status updates. First off, a lot of the tracks in this game are so.. busy. Attention to detail is nice and I'm all for it, but a lot of times there's so much shit going on there's no way to reliably juggle everything you're being told to pay attention to all the time. This leads to you getting repeatedly man handled by onslaughts of items you didn't see coming or making wrong turns that lead to you crashing into walls and/or ceilings and flying off the track. This issue is especially prevalent your first time playing a track or when it's mirrored.

And this is a really minor nitpick, but I was just wondering why the hell I have to navigate through so many screens just to retry a challenge that I failed? When you click Restart from the pause menu, you have to confirm that you are restarting with a Yes, and then you're forced to re-select the difficulty level even if you never planning on changing it. If you play the entire challenge out and fail it, you're greeted with a screen that tells you that you failed, another screen showing the experience gained from the failed event, and after clicking Retry you're brought to another screen where you're asked to pick the difficulty level for your next attempt.

I don't know, I just think it'd save a bit of time and be more intuitive if Retry actually meant "Retry with the exact same settings" and there was just an additional button on the menu like "Change Difficulty" if you actually did want to change it? Just one of those things, I guess.

I still like the game a lot, but I'm just not really sure if I can say I'm enjoying it more than the first when a lot of the events I can immediately recall during my time playing were full of immense frustration and anguish. I loathe the boat controls, I loathe Traffic Attack, and I loathe playing through 10 fucking Grand Prix in order to unlock a single fucking character.

As much as it does get boring after a while, it is kinda the tutorial for this game. It really breaks you into the game one step at a time. It allows you to dive in or...walk in slowly. It's a cool idea, but it gets too boring. They should've made a tutorial also...

[Conando]

I will say one thing. For some reason, having a few extra players in a sea of computer racers makes the computer play worse. I'm not entirely sure why. Noticed it while playing custom matches.

[Djawed]

Persona

As much as it does get boring after a while, it is kinda the tutorial for this game. It really breaks you into the game one step at a time. It allows you to dive in or...walk in slowly. It's a cool idea, but it gets too boring. They should've made a tutorial also...

Personally I really prefer the world tour idea over a grand prix as the main attraction. I dunno but I loved the variety in general. Yes it may get boring for some, but a lot less than just keep doing grand prixs from difficulty to difficulty. I'm just giving credit where it should be given. Things can always be improved, but allstar racing transformed has the best idea in the genre. Edited December 12, 2012 by Djawed

[Syntax Speedway]

So I was playing with a friend earlier today, and during the flight section of carrier zone the game paused and displayed a message saying player 2 was having a hard time flying, and asked if he wanted to change the Y-axis controls or turn on flight assist. This is a cool touch, but I had never even heard of this before so it probably doesn't appear enough to be useful to first time players.

Edited December 12, 2012 by lbyrd2

[Lady Soniko]

So I was playing with a friend earlier today, and during the flight section of carrier zone the game paused and displayed a message saying player 2 was having a hard time flying, and asked if he wanted to change the Y-axis controls or turn on flight assist. This is a cool touch, but I had never even heard of this before so it probably doesn't appear enough to be useful to first time players.

LOL, it did this to my friend when he was playing as Danica Patrick in Carrier zone for the first time, i'm not even kidding, many lulz were ensued XD

He literally said something like "I fucking suck at this game, especially flying" and then the prompt came up, as if confirming his fail-age, was brilliant.

Edited December 12, 2012 by Super Snowiko

[SuperLink]

ASRT isn't designed to be a single player game, it's a party racer and like many racing game it gets its real feels from multiplay. I enjoy a lot of RPGs, big long single player games, but ASRT in single player? I can fully imagine that not being much fun, don't get me wrong I think ASRT is an amazing racer and the best I've played in years (it and Modnation, also amazing, are proof that Mario Kart needs to shake it up in order to really deliver again)

But I can't see it being that fun in single player, especially World Tour 'n' the like.

2-5 player world tour and Grand Prix though oh boy, it's infinitely more fun and the lack of multiplayer options in Mario Kart are one of the reasons I don't enjoy it as much, why? I want to get through the game and do a variety of multiplayer as I go along without having to set up a dedicated custom game with a stage of my choice and rules of my choice, I want to unlock stuff while playing multiplayer rather than having to force myself through the one player mode of a party game to unlock stuff. If Mario Kart wants to hold my attention.. it needs multiplayer in its single player modes, including GP and hopefully more in the future.

This is pretty much the reason I think ASRT is so amazing, it's not the stages or music, while amazing themselves it takes a lot to get me to keep playing them til I like them, the character selection is mediocre honestly (needs more Ryo), and it's definitely pretty hard, the AI can be ruthless and like Chooch said Retrying takes too long because boy do you retry a lot!

But man, if it didn't have 2-5 player throughout World Tour and GP I feel like I may be already close to saying "I'm done" and dropping the game, instead, nope, my brother and I have been playing through the "single player" modes for almost 2 days straight and we can't stop gushing about how good the game is!

Spoilered for slightly related tangent:

On a related tangent this is why games needs local multiplayer/splitscreen. Ya'll think you're so cool with your online games but when a game has robust online and no splitscreen modes at all, you know how much I play it in multiplayer??

Not

At

All

(different strokes for different folks, but it makes me sad that the industry is slowly moving away from local multiplayer to focus on online play - excuse u games industry I can't exactly play online with my brother in the same house i.e. the person I like to play games with the most now can I.)

[Faseeh]

You had people to play with? Oh...

I am so jealous.

Edited December 12, 2012 by Christmas NiGHTS

[Carbo]

Speaking as someone who lives 24/7 with someone else in the same room who is pretty much always willing to try new things, World Tour Mode becomes a blast when you play it with co-op. It's insane how much the missions are tailored to support additional players and it made me respect so much more of everything the game has on offer. I can see why people would have a hard time getting into it on their own though and I understand not everyone has the fortune of having people over at all times.

[Lentastic]

Yeah Multiplayer makes World Tour more fun and alot easier, except traffic attack, the smaller screen makes dodging those cars even harder, I haven't been able to play multiplayer often though, as the person I live with doesn't really enjoy sucking at games(she gets frustrated easily) and it's rare for me to have friends over, it just doesn't happen much as I live a few towns away from all my friends.

I am very jealous of those who can play games with their friends often, It would've made getting all those 232 stars a bit more enjoyable.

[Mogtaki]

I am very jealous of people who have friends, to be frank D:

Haaahhhhh-but seriously ._." I don't even have friends on my PSN, haha.

While I do enjoy the game, I wish there was a little more love for single players in terms of difficulty; then again, it's not the only all-stars game to had come out that feels like there's something missing for single players, that other game being Playstation All-Stars.

[Thrippa]

Difficulty is very much a matter of individual perception. I really hate seeing a lot of people complaining how the game was too easy on hard and even expert mode, when I'm struggling to even place on medium. On the other hand, I won't have to spend a lot of extra time leveling up all the characters, as I'm fairly certain there will only be the last couple to finish off whenever I do get to the 'end' of the game.

I'm getting better through - last night I not only won the first Grand Prix on B-class, I even won one of the races in it! With Ralph, of all characters.

[Chooch]

I have people to play with offline, but they simply weren't around at the time. Usually when I get together with friends it's during the weekend. I got the game in the middle of the week and I wanted to play it. Shame on me for wanting to unlock all the characters, I guess?

I know kart racers are primarily designed to be multiplayer experiences (I'm not an idiot), but maybe a little more care should have been taken to make sure stuff like World Tour is actually fucking fun by yourself? Or maybe there should have been alternate ways to unlock all of them outside of World Tour mode.

The fact that it's mandatory for all the characters (except Eggman) is what drives me nuts more than anything else. Pun intended.

Edited December 12, 2012 by Chooch

[Nepenthe]

I started World Tour today but immediately invited my brother to join in, so no frame of reference for what it's like by myself, but it is indeed a blast. Due to the lax standards of the B-Class challenges, we're able to cooperate together to ensure at least one of us can carry the baton to the finish line. It's even allowed me to win a few races outright, whereas on the demo I was struggling to just get third place in the race.

Overall though, I'm having more fun than I thought I would considering my abysmal skill level. I'm still trying to wrangle the drift in, but I'm discovering half the time it's about knowing where to use it versus how to use it; I can gain considerable ground just by keeping away from the chaos, which is what this game is: pure chaos. The colors, lighting, effects, the amount of pure stuff and debris is near sensory overload, but that almost makes it whimsical. I figured I would stick with a Sonic character, but Ralph with the Acceleration mod has been my main man. Overall, very glad to have a kart game which takes me back to the MK64 and DKR days. I love it. <3