Welcome to another Dream Roster article. If you missed out on our previous entries, be sure to check out the articles looking at Nintendo Kart, as well as MvC4, Kellogg’s vs. Capcom, Fire Emblem Warriors, Disney X Mario Kart, Nintendo vs. Capcom, Microsoft Smash-Up, Kirby Fighters, Pokken Port, 100 character Smash and Konami-Smash.
It is approaching 5 years since Sonic last took to the Road, Sea and Sky in SUMO Digital’s Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It was a fun racing game, but it was plagued by some serious issues that held it back.
Frankly the game was a mixed bag, a disappointment in many ways. Perhaps the biggest offender was its character roster. It succeeded Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing With Banjo-Kazooie, but the development team was forced to cut a wealth of unique characters for clone racers due to the added workload of the transforming vehicles.
The post-game support didn’t improve the hurt feelings of fans who saw their favorite characters slip away. All future content was released solely for the PC version of the game, and by the time post-development was complete, a total of 7 characters were exclusive to the PC. Fan frustration grew when classic SEGA characters were passed over for promotional characters such as Willemus and General Winter. They reached a head when Simon, a member of the Yogscast Minecraft Community was the penultimate DLC character.
But alas a bone was inevitably thrown to fans. Perhaps the most interesting point of development from this game came in the form of a primitive ballot proposed by producer Steve Lycett. Wherein any character who received at least 1000 votes by fans would be presented to SEGA as proposed future DLC characters.
Shenmue’s Ryo Hazuki had (by a significant margin) the highest number of votes and was eventually added as a character!…. Exclusively to the PC version.
While I wouldn’t have any high expectations for a future Sonic & SEGA racing entry, the idea of a third game has long-intrigued me. So our team took to planning out our vision for that game’s roster. We specifically took into account: fan support, past veterans, the ballot and characters who have maintained prominence in recent years.
Let us know what SEGA characters you’d like to see in a hypothetical Sonic & SEGA Racing sequel!
Though Kazuma is easily the second most important character Sega owns out-right (third if you count license they have, Miku), I don’t see him working in a Sonic game. Bayonetta was passed over originally because the devs we’re worried about blow back for advertising a HARD M franchise like Bayonetta to kids (why do you think Zobio & Zobiko of all people got in for House of the Dead?) Ryo and the Virtua Fighters just barely squeeze in because their games are technically T-rated (DoA cross-overs non-withstanding).
While Smash used a bit of Sakurai magic to squeak Bayonetta passed PEGI (and FCC), I doubt Sumo or whoever gets “Sega Smash, but with cars” next will still have the same fears.
And that’s even getting into all the legal bullshit that would cause issues for ToeJam & Earl, Miku, and Sketch Turner.
I have never played this series since I don’t have a PS series and Xbox series, while I my console only plays Japanese games. However, I’ve been wondering how good to see Sega All-stars having a crossover racing game, just like how Mario Kart is doing right now. The choices you made are interesting, but there are some suggestions that I would make for this roster. Here are my characters that I would like to include if possible…
FOnewearl (Phantasy Star Online series)
Sakura Shinguji (Sakura Wars series)
Red & Blue (Gunstar Heroes)
Headdy (Dynamite Headdy)
Janet Marshal (Virtua Cop series)
Bahn & Candy (Fighting Vipers series)
Sir Tongara (Clockwork Knight)
Popo (Mushiking series)
Max (Shining Force series)
Pepsi Man
But even then, some titles are owned not only by Sega, but some other companies like Treasure, and they do need permission to use those characters to join the race, and that’ll be quite difficult upon certain circumstances. However, even there won’t be any chance for me to play the game, I would like to see another Sega All-Star Racing.
i really like the idea of Bayonetta and Jack Frost being in Sonic All-Star Racing! though i’m interested in thier all-star move and theme. Bayonetta i think is easy like using wicked weave and her theme would Mysterious Destiny, for Jack Frost maybe a SMT Battle theme and his move would be like summon Hell Biker who uses Mamduo spells?
That’s a pretty good roster, but I will NOT have Wreck-It Ralph in any further non-Disney game. (He was in SaASRT, and Rich Moore is a dumb.) Danica Patrick was fine, but Jennifer Jo Cobb might take her job. The Sega stars I would like are, Headdy from Dynamite Headdy, Kid Chameleon from Kid Chameleon, Shinobi, Pepper, and Vectorman should go nice! Also, Slash Kamei from Snowboard Kids will do the trick.