Move over Mario, SEGA has just released another exciting trailer for its upcoming arcade racer, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, and in doing so has once again signaled the fact that our blue, alien hedgehog pal has ambitions far beyond anything that plumber’s pedestrian park rides could muster.
Dubbed the Customisation & Gadgets Trailer, this thing does exactly what it says on the tin and shows off a curated look at the game’s extensive vehicle and player customisations. You’ll glimpse some of the thousands ways you’ll be able to change up your ride’s looks and performance, as well as how slotting different Gadgets into your racer build can augment the on-track action in fun and surprising ways.
I was lucky enough to get a pretty good taste of this stuff at a recent preview event, as was our very own Ash Wayling, who wrote about it for WellPlayed, saying of the Gadget feature, “These gadgets serve as a super neat way to customise your race experience without feeling massively game-breaking. Serving as slotted micro-buffs you can pick and choose to impact your own racing style, you can mix and match from a variety of defensive and offensive needs to tweak your in-race experience… I fiddled with these for a long while and couldn’t find anything that felt truly broken; instead, they offered a pleasant way for players to cater to individual playstyles.”
Given that so much of the kart customisation and gear game of Nintendo’s long-running series is conspicuously absent from Mario Kart World, this really does feel like a win for SEGA’s underappreciated, underdog racing franchise.
Potentially most exciting for the more diehard among us, the trailer also takes a look at the Werehog Pack, a Sonic Unleashed-inspired DLC available to those that pre-order the game. Finally, the worst/best version of Sonic the Hedgehog has returned!
Take a look at the trailer below:
Alongside the trailer, some news on the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game has also arrived. While the Switch edition of the game is launching alongside the other platforms on September 25, 2025, the Switch 2 SKU is slated for an “Early 2026” release. Owners of the game on the older system will be able to purchase an upgrade pack to access the Switch 2 version once it arrives, and their content and progress will carry over.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is out on September 25, 2025 for PS5, PS4, Xbox, Switch and PC.
Is this a game that’s on your radar for later this year? How much better does this look than what Mario Kart is doing? Let us know in the comments below or over on social media!
Kieron's been gaming ever since he could first speak the words "Blast Processing" and hasn't lost his love for platformers and JRPGs since. A connoisseur of avant-garde indie experiences and underground cult classics, Kieron is a devout worshipper at the churches of Double Fine and Annapurna Interactive, to drop just a couple of names.
