Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing

[Blue Blood]

S0L is posting. Banjo answer? =D

Biggest and most annyoing glitch is clipping through the floor. It happens to me regularly as I come off of the pinball table in Pinball Highway.

[S0L]

Right, this may be a bit of an epic question answering session. I apologise in advance...

Blue Blood, I keep reading that Banjo and Kazooie are never in the race as computer characters too.

S0L, why is this? Did you make it that way on purpose?

And will the DLC characters be computer characters in a race too? I hope so....

I can't wait to get this game!! I won't be able to get it anytime soon since I'm extremely busy with schoolwork, so hopefully there will still be a lot of people playing online when I get it.

We purposely locked out both Banjo and the Avatar's and Mii's from appearing as AI characters. Partially this is because when it comes to the Mii's and Avatars, well, you don't want to be racing yourself... And partially as we know not all people agree with Banjo being in a SEGA IP game. This way if you want to play as Banjo you can, but if you prefer not to see him, you don't have to. We can change this of course if you don't like it?

I see S0L.

Thank you for an amazing game, I've bought all 4 console versions and I do not regret it

Could you patch the game so that people cant kick Ryo Forklift players for 'cheating/hacking'?

Oh and I cant finish a post to S0L without again saying DS Rumble Pak support is awesome

Aww, we scared him off again

You didn't scare me off. Bear in mind sometimes I check in to see what's being said, but I don't always have time to reply. My day job isn't community manager after all, I'll leave that to AAUK! As for being kicked for playing as Ryo-Forklift, not much we can do, but hopefully as players spend more time with the game, they'll understand the extra special bonus character we did for PDLC. That's not to say Ryo-F might not be available to all at some point...

Well I definitely had more fun with ASR than with MK Wii. Got both the Wii and 360 versions and I do like the 360 version more being that it offers more on the table:

Achievements (which I have got all of them :3) and online futures including DLC and all Xbox Live support.

The Wii version I am disappointed with mainly cause you can't use a GAMECUBE controller you can use a classic controller but don't like using that, like using my WAVEBIRD more .

I saw that the achievements in the 360 are known as rewards on the Wii but I have done the 360 ones they go towards my overall gamerscore .

Overall Steve and the rest of the guys at Sumo Digital you did a bang up job of ASR and look forward to the DLC that comes out on the 360 in the near future.

We did look at GameCube controller support, but if you've played the Wii you'll likely realise that it has an auto-switch control mechanism based on what's connected as you're playing. Adding GC controller support would have meant more complex control selections screens, which, given the Wii's more casual audience would likely have compromised that nice easy system. We did sneak in the Achievements on Wii (and DS!) so you can have the same fun trying to get them, even if it doesn't mean a better gamerscore!

Im really stuck on a misson with Big The Cat misson 62 Every Second Counts i cant seem to do it has anyone else having problems with that misson ?

This is actually one of my favourite missions as it's designed to make sure you understand a number of game mechanics. First you really do need to get the boost start, or do some wheelies near the start. As Big, his boost start is done by hitting the gas as soon as you hear 'Three!' on the countdown. Then it's all about picking the lines and drifting as much as you can. It can seem impossible when you first try it, but it's actually easy to finish with quite a big chunk on time on the clock. Remember, level 3 boosts are your friend, and wheelies are the way forwards...

"Monkeys! Balls! Annnd a whole lot of racing!"

There are some other quotes, however don't know if they've been cut from the game. I haven't heard them in a long while...

I miss Susan and her mop and bucket.

We've not removed that, we just made it less regular. Trust me, the commentator can still say it!

THANK YOU!!

*feels like the Master when the Doctor admits to hearing the drums too*

But how the heck does Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing get away with random swearing?!

I'm always listening to the announcer extra-carefully now.

Whilst I'm sure this will be a topic of conversation for months, what he actually says is... 'Now there is the ship we came to see' - this triggers when the Bonanza Bros. do their All-Star move, when they jump into the Airship. You've all got dirty minds if you think this was something less polite!

I'm wondering if S0L can tell us what these weapons from the early early demos are:

grappling hook??

erm... Gobstoppers in a toy capsule?

They don't resemble any of the current weapons :-/ ???

The springy looking thing is the placeholder for the confusion star, Originally, this was to look like the Dreamcast logo from behind as it fired off, hence the spring shape. We swapped it for a star as nobody got it... Likewise the smoke bomb as was got swapped for the pocket rainbow. You try things out, some work, some don't. You improve and move on!

A dude on the Shenmuedojo forums was digging around in the PC version and found a mention of Toe Jam and Earl. He didn't give further details as to what such a mention was, as he was more interested in Ryo, but it was an interesting find!

I wonder if this is S0L's surprise?

Hate to destroy this, but TJ+E have never been planned for ASR. If there is any mention in there, it's purely placeholder. We've not done art (2D or 3D), animation, sound or music. we knew from SST that TJ+E had some interesting licensing issues, I'll leave it at that.

Hi to S0L and the Sonic Stadium community. I've been a longtime, erm, observer (I guess... there seems to be a lot of us) of this thread and have really enjoyed using it to follow the developments of the game. I've also enjoyed S0L's inputs on the different aspects of the game and his funny comebacks he's given towards all the nitpicking the game's received.

Anyhoo, I read the whole debate that went on about whether or not the Wii could receive DLC, and I had a very obscure idea for how DLC could be implemented into that version of the game since I know many (myself included) will be buying the game for that system. I would like to add that I'm not trying to complain about the lack of DLC on this system since I know that Sumo has considered every possible avenue and simply can't because of the lack of technology with the system, not because they don’t want to. I'm still very satisfied with the roster (only really obscure character is the ChuChus, and I know I'll wind up liking them anyway) and can't wait to race with every character.

Anyhoo, my idea was inspired by the game Rock Band and how there are track packs supplied for the game, y’know, those discs that come with a bunch of extra songs for your game. It may be a bit of a stretch, but maybe Sumo Digital could provide S&SASR media packs which provide various DLC characters and tracks for the price it’d cost to buy them on the PS360 versions (and extra for the costs to manufacture the discs if it’d have to come to that). I think it’d be cool. If something like this is possible, I can even see little billboards being put outside of game stores advertising the current media pack for the game with pictures/art of the characters and tracks so all the passersby can see.

So yeah, I don’t know how character models and tracks compare to multiple songs (I’d assume that the former takes up more memory), but if there’s some chance this can happen I think it’d be just awesome and just may inspire other games in the future limited by the Wii’s storage limits. Other than that, my only other crazy idea was to have special ASR themed SD cards sold in retailers with the added DLC as a bonus, but I think that’s a bit too farfetched. ;P

I would also like to take the time to say that you and your team have DEFINITELY made the Sega crossover and Sonic racer (DOUBLE WIN) that fans have wanted for so long. YES, it bears many similarities to another notable racer that will remain unnamed, but I think the game also stands on its own as a quality arcade/kart racer and crossover game. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get a hold of my own copy yet, but I’ve been reading tons of feedback and have seen all the footage I can of the game and I know I will be very, very pleased. It looks fun, fast, zany, and accessible, and it looks like it has plenty of extras to keep people playing for a while and a very balanced yet roster of characters representing a wide variety of franchises.

I’ve been trying to get as many people as possible to buy it for whatever platform they own, and have been able to grab the interest of a few of my friends and even a Blockbuster employee, so hopefully this game will sell and retailers will get more copies in stock. Can’t think of much else to say at the moment, but perhaps I’ll write a detailed review for it or something once I get it. But yeah, great job on ASR and thanks for taking the time to answer fans’ questions and take their requests (and their crap =P) for the game. Can’t believe just how much you put into making this game (OMG @ the 21 hour workdays) since some could’ve just thrown it together with like mostly Sonic characters or something, but I look forward to seeing all of the creativity and time spent fine-tuning the game pay off. ;D

Lol, long post is long… sry, I’m very expressive when writing. ;

PS: DLC requests, cuz I just had to (even if the Wii doesn’t get it, one of my PS360 friends might get the game for their systems):

1. NiGHTS

2. Ristar

3. Team Chaotix (lol, it’d be cool to see Vector driving, Charmy riding in the back, and Espio in shotgun and throwing ninja stars for the All-Star Move)

4. Toejam & Earl

5. Vectorman

6. Gilius

7. Rouge the Bat

8. Amite

9. Blaze the Cat

10. Silver the Hedgehog

This is pretty much everything I can think of.

And of course, I’d like to see new franchises represented in the DLC stages. =D

EDIT: If NiGHTS becomes playable, it'd be awesome to have the Outrun flagman return for some sweet breakdancing moves! XD

Apologies for the HUGE quote, but there are a couple of good questions in there. First to add DLC we need to change the main executable - which there is no provision to do on the Wii, and second, with what we have planned, you're going to need some space to save it, which the Wii just doesn't have the storage space to do. Believe me, if there was some way of doing it, we'd be all over it, but sadly there isn't. I'd love to offer the same DLC we're planning elsewhere on the Wii, but at this time it's looking unlikely...

That is also a HUGE list of content you're asking for there! It would take us a lot of time to do, please understand that it took us more than 2 years to put in all the content we do have. An extra character and track alone would be a lot of work, don't expect a huge list of extra's for DLC! Wait and see!

Hey S0L, I've got some questions for you, as well as a complaint I'd appreciate you to get back to me on. I'll get the complaint out of the way first:

* I'm having lots of trouble with the Achievements in this game. After unlocking the "Working Man" Achievement, I went to the in-game Achievement menu and found that it hadn't given me credit for obtaining it. Another more annoying problem is the Fighters Mega Mix Achievement, which WILL NOT give me my final point toward unlocking it. I've been struggling against this Achievement from the start, with my All-Star moves not getting credited toward the Achievement, despite clearly connecting with enemies (in most cases, multiple enemies). I know that it's either Alex Kidd or the Bonanza Bros that I need to get the point with, but after about an hour of nonstop All-Star spamming with both vehicles, I've had no luck. Are you planning on addressing this problem? Do you know of any ways to work around it?

* On the Xbox 360 version, I've noticed that both Banjo & Kazooie and the Avatar do not spawn as computer players. Are there any plans to add them as potential AI-controlled opponents? I'd love it if you would!

* While it's not a big deal, is there any possibility that you guys could patch in a Random option for selecting tracks, characters, cups, etc.? I love the surprise of it all. Who will I be? Where will I be racing? Makes for some fun games with friends.

* Are there any plans to add more Cups? There's a lot of cups from the Mission Mode that I'd like to have the option to race in as any character, on any difficulty. The AI leaves something to be desired in the Mission Mode, so it would be nice to race in, say, the Horrible Cup with the difficulty set to Expert.

* Is there any chance that the various multiplayer modes will be made available over Xbox Live? Races are fun, but I'd like to be able to play some of the splitscreen-only modes with my friends online. Also, is there a possibility that you guys could make these available as single-player modes, with AI-controlled opponents?

* Is it likely that Cups will be added to local and/or online multiplayer modes? It would be great to be able to take on a friend in a full Cup without having to exit to the multiplayer menu and select each level separately.

Thanks for interacting with us, S0L. Despite a few minor complaints and glitches, I really love the game. I hope you continue your SEGA Superstars/All-stars series! I can't wait to see what you have in store for us next.

By the way, one last question: Why did you change the name from SEGA Superstars to SEGA All-stars?

Lots of questions again...! One at a time please!

On these....

Achievements - they all do work, if you're struggling with the All-Star ones, make sure you've either flipped or spun a player out, they don't count otherwise...

Random Selections - We want players to try out all the characters, hence we force you to pick someone. We'd rather you try out someone you think you might like than randomly pick someone. It's there to make you think...

Cups - We allow you to pick a cup in GP, but for balancing reasoms the missions are preset. We want here to force you to try a given mission with the preset character so you'd don't just wimp out and pick Sonic!

Modes - we set the modes intentionally, but also for technical reasons. More choice meant more testing which means you'd have had the game later. Again this is a balance issue.

Multiple modes online - Again we looked at some of the multiplayer modes online, but this would have meant delaying the game. You wanted it this year right? Some modes we specifically built for 4 player local play, it's all about spending time where the player would appreciate it. We could have put multiplayer online support in, but you'd be waiting till June? Right?

More cups online: Here it's making sure we do a couple of things well. rather than a lot of things poorly. Lets say we offered custom GP online. You'd have to have some means of defining a cup (which wouldn't be simple to set up, think of the interface required to choose the tracks, rules and player start orders), then think of what would happen should any player quit after a race, or three races in. What would happen if someone new joined in a few races in too? The logic required isn't simple. We decided to focus on letting players join or leave a session have no penalty - and let people keep track of if they're winning or losing. Again, this was to make the game a better experience online.

Glad you are enjoying what we did include mind!

My biggest question (pun semi-intended) is why Big the Cat?! I've yet to unlock him out of protest, he'll be the last thing I buy from the shop. I mean, okay, I have issues with Amy Rose but she's like swearing at the thunderstorm on the horizon... it'll still come and piss all over your barbecue. So she annoys me, but I can live with her (I'll just never use her outside of unlocking Trophies). But who's idea, with only a limited amount of Sonic characters, was it to put that retarded, overweight cat on some child's toy bike? And I know he's utterly rubbish because all I ever hear during races is "Big's got the All-Star!" and then the low, haunting moan of his stupid voice wailing something about Froggy. With so many excellent characters to choose from, why put him in?!

- Silver the Hedgehog

- Team Chaotix (Espio, Vector and Charmy)

- Jet the Hawk

- Sonic the Werehog

Hell, I'd even let Rouge the Bat or Blaze the Cat in the door before freakin' Big! *facepalm*

My best choice for a future DLC character, though? Professor Pickle! He could ride around in an old 1914 Stutz Bearcat going "Oh my...!" whenever somebody shot somebody else, and his All-Star could be to eat a cucumber sandwich and cloud people's vision with epically-thick eyebrows!

Professor Pickle? Really?

Big is in there purely as we thought we could have a lot of fun with his character, All-Star move and animation. As a character design, you can have a lot of fun with Big, and we did. Yes he might not be everyones favourite choice, but surely you can't argue with the results...

Besides, this game takes characters from many different games and series and tries to do something new with them. You might not for example say, like Billy Hatcher. But is that as you don't like the character, or as you don't like the game? Here it's about looking at fun character design and doing our own take on this. Like or loathe Big, you have to admit that from a character design point of view, there is a nice big lovable character you can imbue with life! Plus... FROGGY!

I'm having the same trouble with bike wheelies. On DS I can do it pressing down on the d-pad but the other 3 versions I've tried everything. I'll give it another go then what happens and I too would like to know how you do it using motion controls on the Wii and PS3 please if anyone knows.

On Wii, this is easy, as a bike character, purely shake the wheel to do wheelies. It's so easy it should be in the manual...

*clucking* bell

I just unlocked the Fighters Megamix trophy and it removed ALL my SaSASR trophies, ALL my themes and nothing on my PS3 is saving!!!

Why the *pidgeon* has this happened!?!

Go ask Sony... As far as we can tell this is a result of some DRM checks that fail when the main system clock and the USB daughterboard clock disagree on the date. Something to do with when it thinks a leap year should happen. I'm sure that the clever guys at Sony will have this fixed soom. Until then, as far as I know, it affects all PS3 games, not just ASR.

Can't help, as I've a problem of my own.

I don't play online, at all. My PlayStation3 has the internet connection always "disabled". So, earlier I was playing Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and went to have a bash and getting a few of the Time Trial trophies. I set new personal best scores as Sonic the Hedgehog on the first four courses, took Knuckles out for a spin on two (he's an average of two seconds slower than Sonic, if anybody cares) and then returned as Sonic to the first Samba de Amigo course. I beat the Sumo Ghost after about six laps and sitting an inch from the edge of my seat... best bit of gameplay yet, so addictive and brilliantly fast, my heart was racing... but anyway.

Every time I accessed the Time Trial menu, the PlayStation3 said "Your internet is disabled, sort it out!" or whatever usual message is displayed, followed by Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing throwing up a box that said, frankly, the same thing. All was well until I beat the Sumo Ghost on that first Samba de Amigo course.

The time and date of my PlayStation3 reset to 01/01/2000, 23:55. When I played another race and saved again, it fell even further back, to 01/03/1999, 23:50.

Check the time and date settings of your system, mate. While the in-game trophies menu (found within the Licence sub-menu) still lists all my landmarks and tracks my progress accordingly, the XBM of my PlayStation3 has no record whatsoever of any Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing trophies. The block of saved game data was all the way at the bottom of the list of saved games, recorded as being saved on 01/03/1999 at 23:50. Even after resetting the clock of my PlayStation3 to today's time and date, and playing a single race just to register a new saved game and push the block back to the top of the list, the XBM trophies haven't reappeared. They're still all there inside the game, in the Licence sub-menu, but nowhere to be found on my PlayStation3.

Maybe Sumo Digital hate their personal best being beaten?!

In all seriousness, though, check the time and date of your PlayStation3 and then check the trophies menu in the in-game Licence sub-menu. If you've jumped back to before the Millenium and yet the game itself is registering your trophies, you've got the same glitch I have. There's no actual loss of data, but 'tis bloody annoying all the same!

Spanners.

As above. Not our fault this one, it will affect offline users as much as those online. We know Sony are working around the clock to fix it. Apologies, I'm sure they'll have it patched up soon...!

http://bit.ly/97WYA8

There. Someone had to do it. It happened to be me. The madness must end.

And so I can go to bed happy, knowing there is an unbiased review!

Bikes need to loose the ability to gain extra boosts. It gives them an unfair advantage both here and in MKW.

RGamer2009 at Retro brought this up-

And the

if you've never heard it before.

Bikes do have an advantage due to wheelies, but they also have limited top speed and loose more time due to weapon hits. We did try to balance the game before release you know! If you can't beat a bike when on 4 wheels, then send £1 to 'Steves new bike fund C/O Sumo Digital' and I'll explain a simple tip to help you win (which don't tell anyone, is play as a bike character! Kidding!)

Right, epic reply over I hope! Now I may go and sleep

---

S0L

---

[Rusty Spy]

Despite assumptions to the contrary this is not the first time Sega has tried to make a Mario Kart clone.

The two Sonic Drift games on the Game Gear were the most blatant but you could also argue Sonic R and Sonic Riders were aiming for the same thing.

Seriously?

Drift played NOTHING like Super Mario Kart. It had no drift(or anything like MK's), no items aside from character specific items that were just speed boosts or sometimes a weapon, compare the two and Drift is just a very simple racer with basically NO items.

R? THEY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE KARTS FOR CHRISTS SAKE!(aside Amy and Robotnik but I digress). Again, no items, it plays more like Adventure but morphed into a racer, plus crappy controls.

Riders had NO emphasis on using items to gain a lead, the gameplay focused more on racing than anything else and again, NO KARTS.

Seriously I KNOW he either didn't play these games or is just pulling shit out of his ass.

To them, a cartoon franchise that starts running laps with other people is immediately a Mario Kart clone.

[Jinbe]

Thank you for your reply S0L! And I knew that this wouldn't work considering my lack of knowledge of how this stuff works (heck, I can consider this a learning experience in a way), but I just had to make sure partially for myself that this wasn't a possibility. But like I said, I'm going to try and get my Xbox 360/Playstation 3 owning friends into the game so I'll try whatever you guys add on their system probably. No worries. Oh, and LOL, I don't want ALL those characters to be added into the game. That was literally EVERYBODY I could think of. The roster is solid man, it doesn't need that much more additions. You can honestly remove some of the characters (like Blaze and Silver), off that list. That was just me trying to craft a top 10. Best wishes on this game and Sumo's future projects. I'll keep my eyes peeled. 8-D

EDIT: After looking over my list again, the only characters I'd say I NEED to see in are NiGHTS and Ristar, and then Team Chaotix and Amite are like my own personal additions that not everybody wants in (considering everybody wants T&E, Vectorman, Gilius, etc.). ;P

Edited March 2, 2010 by Jinbei

[Blue Blood]

Awesome, dude. I don't like the reasoning for cutting out Banjo, though I suppose it makes sense. And I can imagine the hell of driving through Shibuya Downtown and Sandy Drifts with Jiggies falling from the sky. Oh the HORROR! Re-enabling him would of course be brill...

And about the bikes- avoid/disable weapons. Keep'a boosting and the track flies by.

Thanks again to the whole of the development team for a fantastic game, and extra thanks to those of you that braved the fanbase. How much therapy did you all need after SoS?

EDIT: If a Jiggy fell on my head while climbing that tower in Monkey Target... FFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Edited March 2, 2010 by Blue Blood

[Dr. SEGA Monkey]

The springy looking thing is the placeholder for the confusion star, Originally, this was to look like the Dreamcast logo from behind as it fired off, hence the spring shape. We swapped it for a star as nobody got it...

OH MY GOD, UK Resistance would've loved this! Could you imagine all the high resolution screenshots of that item they would've taken??

[PSI Wind]

Even if us Wii-only owners are gonna miss DLC, I don't mind. MKWii had plenty of content without DLC, same goes for S&SASR.

S0L, if your reading this, you guys are one of the best examples for 3rd-Party support on Wii. Porting a 360 & PS3 game is extremely tough on the Wii, but you mananged. You were even able to provide fluid online. Keep up the good work. I also hope to see more DS games.

[Conando]

S0L is posting. Banjo answer? =D

Biggest and most annyoing glitch is clipping through the floor. It happens to me regularly as I come off of the pinball table in Pinball Highway.

I've noticed that too. It's a pain in the ass when you're doing perfectly fine. I actually tend to rocket into the air for no damn reason at the beginning of Bingo Party as well.

Edited March 2, 2010 by Hero Of Fate

[Blue Blood]

I've noticed that too. It's a pain in the ass when you're doing perfectly fine.

Nothing short of wonderful when you push a rival through the floor in mission mode.

[Detective Shadzter]

Why hasn't Metacritic put up GamesRadar's review, but instead they put up Teletext-whatever's review?

I already sent the GamesRadar review to them, but they will not put it up! The game needs that review to be in the green!

GamesRadar's review is the GamesMaster review, not sure they count as 2 seperate reviews with Metacritic.

On the topic of Pinball Highway, that same fall through the floor glitch just happened to me when me and my wife were playing split-screen on my PS3 version.

[Chooch]

Not sure if this post entirely belongs here or not, but shout outs to Dat Kool Bat Guy and Spicylicious Girl for some awesome races on the PlayStation Network. I had a lot of fun.

[Barry the Nomad]

Thanks for the answers S0L!

and second, with what we have planned, you're going to need some space to save it

oooh, (slightly) hefty DLC files?? Me like!

[Conando]

The sense of speed can be lost entirely if you're cruising along in first place, there's a huge pack of people behind you and you get hit by a missile, knocking you to dead last.

It's happened to me before.

That entirely depends. If they're too busy knocking the crap out of each other, which I've been seeing a lot, one or two missiles isn't going to have an effect at all. I guess I just feel it's too easy to hold onto first in this game.

[Cyberlink420]

You spoil us, S0L, you know that?

Can't wait to see what you and the Sumo team are cooking up!

[Blue Blood]

Too easy to hold first is better than feeling like a toy in some 3 year old's dolls house. Mario is in first, but then the little girl decides she likes Peach better. So poor Mario must endure being picked up and thrown around into all the other dolls, while Peach is lucky enough to avoid the commotion and is the only one who doesn't fall on the floor.

[Detective Shadzter]

Just noticed S0L's post XD Been hooked playing ASR on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii for the past how many hours with my wife trying to unlock as much as possible on all 3 consoles

Thank you S0L, you are the most awesome developer ever for doing this community stuff

[Cyberlink420]

Just hit the 1000/1000 mark. Yay for me!

Now to start bouncing up and down like a giddy schoolgirl in anticipation of DLC.

[Conando]

Too easy to hold first is better than feeling like a toy in some 3 year old's dolls house. Mario is in first, but then the little girl decides she likes Peach better. So poor Mario must endure being picked up and thrown around into all the other dolls, while Peach is lucky enough to avoid the commotion and is the only one who doesn't fall on the floor.

And that's where our opinions differ. I don't know about you guys, but it just isn't fun when there's no possible way to lose because the items are so shitty. The only good ones are the Confusing Star and the Triple Missile, and you're never going to get hit by them in first. Even if you are, you'll have a shield to block them. I'm not saying the game is bad. In fact, the core driving mechanics are more solid than Mario Kart. It's only a few things that make it slightly less enjoyable than Mario Kart to me. Slightly less means just that. SLIGHTLY less, and I love the SHIT out of Mario Kart.

Edited March 2, 2010 by Hero Of Fate

[Detective Shadzter]

And that's where our opinions differ. I don't know about you guys, but it just isn't fun when there's no possible way to lose because the items are so shitty. The only good ones are the Confusing Star and the Triple Missile, and you're never going to get hit by them in first. Even if you are, you'll have a shield to block them.

That happens in Mario Kart alot too though, the only way I fall back from first place in that game is because of the blue shell. You can defend yourself in MK by using items as shields, in first place you get alot of green shells and bananas. You can dangle single or triple bananas, single shells or 3 around yourself stopping you from being hit from the other players shells.

[Conando]

Yeah, I know. That's why I'm making the argument that things such as the Lightning Bolt and Blue Shell should have had an equivalent in this game. I guess I'm one of the only people who doesn't get pissed off when I get plastered with those.

(Or at least have made All-Star Moves work online, because Catch Up mode doesn't do shit. I leave it on and can still lap people.)

Edited March 2, 2010 by Hero Of Fate

[Detective Shadzter]

I find catch-up mode makes things way too easy against CPU's as around the middle of the pack you see characters in front of you driving as slow as a snail until you drive past them but I dont understand how it works in online play as the game cant really slow down human players and I see no difference to items with it on.

[Glenn]

Starting this from scratch today. Stupid yesterday.

But it could be fun. At least I'll be good right from the get-go this time! *hurrah*

Whilst I'm sure this will be a topic of conversation for months, what he actually says is... 'Now there is the ship we came to see' - this triggers when the Bonanza Bros. do their All-Star move, when they jump into the Airship. You've all got dirty minds if you think this was something less polite!

*snip*

Professor Pickle? Really?

Big is in there purely as we thought we could have a lot of fun with his character, All-Star move and animation. As a character design, you can have a lot of fun with Big, and we did. Yes he might not be everyones favourite choice, but surely you can't argue with the results...

Besides, this game takes characters from many different games and series and tries to do something new with them. You might not for example say, like Billy Hatcher. But is that as you don't like the character, or as you don't like the game? Here it's about looking at fun character design and doing our own take on this. Like or loathe Big, you have to admit that from a character design point of view, there is a nice big lovable character you can imbue with life! Plus... FROGGY!

*snip*

As above. Not our fault this one, it will affect offline users as much as those online. We know Sony are working around the clock to fix it. Apologies, I'm sure they'll have it patched up soon...!

Right, epic reply over I hope! Now I may go and sleep

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S0L

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Apologies for the double-post, but I just read this awesome reply from S0L and wanted to say thanks, especially since three of my posts (two which were, honestly, not looking for answers anyway) got quoted and addressed! Very, very cool... thank you!

I'll never get over my loathing of BIg the Cat, but can appreciate why he's there now, so that's all good stuff! I do love, though, how one random guy's ranting against one character out of twenty-plus was enough to make you sit down and justify your actions! That's job dedication right there, people! And as for Professor Pickle, yeah... I was going for pure comedy only (that, and people say they can see me growing up to be just like him)! I'm absolutely not asking for a Professor Pickle DLC because A: nobody would play as him, and therefore B: it would have been a waste of your time, better spent elsewhere!

Again, just thanks for being awesome, S0L!

[Conando]

Another thing I should mention. It seems like you lose more speed slightly bumping into a wall rather than getting hit with an item.

[Detective Shadzter]

Starting this from scratch today. Stupid yesterday.

But it could be fun. At least I'll be good right from the get-go this time! *hurrah*

Apologies for the double-post, but I just read this awesome reply from S0L and wanted to say thanks, especially since three of my posts (two which were, honestly, not looking for answers anyway) got quoted and addressed! Very, very cool... thank you!

I'll never get over my loathing of BIg the Cat, but can appreciate why he's there now, so that's all good stuff! I do love, though, how one random guy's ranting against one character out of twenty-plus was enough to make you sit down and justify your actions! That's job dedication right there, people! And as for Professor Pickle, yeah... I was going for pure comedy only (that, and people say they can see me growing up to be just like him)! I'm absolutely not asking for a Professor Pickle DLC because A: nobody would play as him, and therefore B: it would have been a waste of your time, better spent elsewhere!

Again, just thanks for being awesome, S0L!

Yeah, I was only kidding with my question about stopping people from kicking Ryo Forklift players but S0L answered it anyway You're awesome S0L, we need more developers like you.

Oh and in other news, I got my wife playing the game with me last night. I've been asking her to play the game with me since I got my copies Thursday and she gave in last night with a typical "Do I have to?" Once she started playing she was hooked playing it over and over with me, we even played it on all the various consoles too. So thank you S0L and the rest of you guys at Sumo Digital, it takes an awesome game to get my wife as addicted as me and you guys pulled it off.

[Phos]

Yeah, I know. That's why I'm making the argument that things such as the Lightning Bolt and Blue Shell should have had an equivalent in this game. I guess I'm one of the only people who doesn't get pissed off when I get plastered with those.

(Or at least have made All-Star Moves work online, because Catch Up mode doesn't do shit. I leave it on and can still lap people.)

Rollcage solved this dilemma years ago. It has a leader missile, but it only dispenses them when there's a big gap between first and second. Because the cars don't slow down right away after a boost expires (And they stack instead of just making it last longer) a double or even quad turbo can make up a lot of ground. Rather than simply giving better weapons to people in the back, Rollcage pseudo intelligently gives the competitors the weapons they need for the position that they're in. A person far behind the pack gets a time slower or a worm hole (Yeah, you just open up a wormhole in the middle of the race and skip a bunch of the track). If a pack is too bunched up, it might give you a big AOE attack. First place gets a bunch of shields. I also appreciate that they didn't bother with the extremely pointless and counterproductive landmine style weapons. Oh, and the cars can also drive on walls and the ceilings of tunnels. Would you believe its site is still online?

They also pulled off a few visual effects that I thought the Playstation couldn't do.

And honestly, that's basically my opinoin of the game: Pretty good, but it's no http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-D5HbPhQck. It's a very good kart racer, but it doesn't do anything beyond that. I'll still probably be playing it for a while, as it is a good game.