Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed disscussion

[Kori-Maru]

Looks like a Sega forumer spotted MeeMee from Super Monkey Ball. http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?424113-Tidbits-I-found-at-the-Manchester-Expo

Looks like the roster is going to be Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed + Tennis if this is true. Kinda wish we had more unique characters than two characters from 1 IP.

[Nameless 24]

Looks like a Sega forumer spotted MeeMee from Super Monkey Ball. http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?424113-Tidbits-I-found-at-the-Manchester-Expo

Looks like the roster is going to be Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed + Tennis if this is true. Kinda wish we had more unique characters than two characters from 1 IP.

Yeah, I was there too...Sumo's booth wasn't even what I would call a booth. It was more in a dark corner...with only a few people there to actually find it, no Sumo or SEGA logo in sight...and I was sad.

What was more surprising was that they were done by the very early afternoon! I went to have another go at the place and it was gone!?!

SEGA and Sumo...at least in my experience, weren't trying to promote the game as much as I'd hoped...and I was optimistic because the local Gaming Newspaper had the game on the front page!

Mee Mee doesn't actually bother me for some reason, but the lack of showcasing the game did.

[Kori-Maru]

Very disappointed right now with the game coming out next month

[Barry the Nomad]

I know you're all bitching about the game and hate it (why can't it be better!? WHY!?)

but here's a video anyway, check out Ristar:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/-d5Up9iyXmk[/youtube]

GREAT references with the achievements! Cosmic Smash! Mega Jet!

Mega Jet is pretty crazy, given it was an obscure version of the Mega Drive primarily used for commercial airlines.

[Pao]

^ Wow, that's the best footage I've ever seen for this game! Kudos to whoever was playing!

[upsidedown fuji]

I know you're all bitching about the game and hate it (why can't it be better!? WHY!?)

but here's a video anyway, check out Ristar:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/-d5Up9iyXmk[/youtube]

GREAT references with the achievements! Cosmic Smash! Mega Jet!

Mega Jet is pretty crazy, given it was an obscure version of the Mega Drive primarily used for commercial airlines.

Looking good. I'm happy a sequel even exists even if it is a very limited roster. At least we get some big names like Skies of Arcadia, Panzer Dragoon, and Golden Axe in the game this time. I can't wait for the game to hit!

[ROJM]

I asked S0L about what will be the changes for the Japanese version and he said this.Sad times. Japanese fans will probably not be pleased with the game's cast that'll appeal to Western gamers.

And S0L is just going to give in and tell you before the game's released over here let alone for Japan?!  ;D There is NO way, Sega Japan will let that version of this game be released like that in Japan without some changes to appeal to the japanese consumer. Were not talking about a game originally created by Sega west for western gamers here, were talking about a game using many characters that were originally created by Sega japan. That alone is why the game wont be left alone in its current form because the segabase in japan is (as you are aware Kori maru)different and expect at least something to appeal to the old and the new. Which is why i very much doubt that the two characters that dont mean  squat in japan wont be in japanese version but REPLACED by other characters that will appeal to that market.

[Nameless 24]

Someone mentioned that on the video, there's 10/23 characters unlocked.

23 on the 360 confirmed?

Also, I don't get the "They'll make a Japanese version that caters to them" posts...since when have Japan even had a Superstars game? If they were going to have one, it'd be back on the first All Stars Racing...but it seems the game only did decent numbers here...putting the extra effort in for the Japanese audience would be asking for trouble/asking for losses asthey prefer to buy Yakuza/Sakura Wars over a cross over game, it'll sell...but not as much as we'd think.

[Barry the Nomad]

I've been trying to figure out that 23 number over at Sonic Stadium. But seems S0L already replied to it over at the SEGA forums:

You can't take that character number as final - but I can't tell you why. You'll see in time...

So there is some sneaky way that 23 is not the final count. In fact, Sumo has been dropping sneaky hints about this for a while. There are a number of possibilites: additional DLC is to come, some racers exist outside that count of 23, some racers have alternate drivers, some racers have multiple drivers or some nutty reason I can't think of.

---

For those who haven't been following the roster closely, for the longest time 29 was the number had all assumed was the total count for racers across all platforms. Taking what we think we know, we broke it down as this:

• 5 guest characters - Danica, Ralph, Avatar, Mii and one unknown (hints point to PC guest, perhaps a Valve character?)
• 1 DLC character - Metal Sonic
• 23 SEGA characters (29 minus 5 guests, minus 1 DLC = 23)

However, as details have been revealed, that total of 23 SEGA characters seems to be less. Several press releases state 20 SEGA characters are available in the game (this 20 character total does not count Metal Sonic, as he is bonus DLC not on the disc, so the count is actually 21), while others (specifically one press release for the Wii U version) lists 22 SEGA characters (which most likely includes Metal, so there is one extra character).

Something to note, all the official press releases that give these totals (20, 22) state that this is a "character" count, not a roster count. So S0L's sneaky hints could point towards certain racers having more than one driver that swap out... somehow. Or one racer has multiple drivers that change with the transformation, thus bringing us up to our count of 23 SEGA characters + 1 DLC + 3 guests + 2 console specific avatars = 29.

So in that sense, the 360 version would have 23 racer slots (as seen in the long demo video) + 1 DLC slot = 24
• 20 SEGA slots - but technically more as some racers have more than 1 driver
• 1 SEGA DLC slot
• 2 guests - Danica & Ralph
• 1 user Avatar

[CrazyT]

And to think the latest news was only going to het better. The latest news has been terrible and i'm actually not going to buy the game anymore. The roster seems worse than the previous game. Granted alot of awesome characters are in transformed but some decisions are starting to make no logical sense anymore. Sumo has explained again and again what proces they went through in picking the characters. If raeala and meemee are the result of that than a facepalm isnt enough to describe my frustrations.

I just cant find an explanation for meeme unless it had to do with budget, time and whatever. Worst character and a major waste. More female characters shouldnt all of a sudden remove the criteria of iconic, uniquely looking and popular characters. Meemee is none of those

Anyway, screw this. You win Aki

[Barry the Nomad]

I understand your frustrations Crazy Tails, but I wouldn't skip the game on account of your roster frustrations. That new 20+ minute video shows a game that looks beautiful, appears to be jam-packed with modes and features and has the potential to be the best kart racing game of all time in terms of gameplay polish and inventiveness.

I do think, however, that the character roster falls short in comparison to the rest of the game (and that includes the track selection, which I think is fantastic).

I did a nerdy in-depth look at the racer roster, and compared it to the past game. You can see it all here:
http://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/12688-all-stars-racing-transformed-the-racer-roster-thread/page__st__2760#entry568873

I won't give a "tl;dr", because you should take a look at it, but I will say that as of now, the previous game does have the new one beat in the total of IP's represented by RACERS. The first represented 14 total. Transformed, at the moment, represents 10. However, I do think that Transformed has some very strong new additions with Gilius, Vyse, Joe and NiGHTS being far more awesome than Chu Chus, Zobio & Zobiko and Billy Hatcher. However, on the flip side, the first game had Ryo, Alex Kidd, Opa Opa, Bonanza Bros and Jacky & Akira while Transformed gives us too many secondaries like Gum, MeeMee and Reala.

I'd understand if Opa Opa, Bonanza Bros and Jacky & Akira didn't return, but I'd be peeved if Ryo and Alex Kidd do not return.

The final roster would be redeemed in my eyes if the final two slots include either Ryo or Alex Kidd (my hope is for Alex Kidd) and the final slot is an incredibly awesome AM2 vehicle that is the Hornet on the ground, the After Burner jet in the air and something like a Hang-On style jet ski on the water. Bonus points if Ryo is driving it.

Of course, that is just a crazy fanboy dream.

My prediction is that the game will be much MUCH better in all forms of gameplay compared to the last game, it will have a MUCH better variety of tracks, music will be amazing and the character roster will be good at best, with a few really awesome racers, a few racers sadly not returning and a few stupid decisions like MeeMee.

[Pao]

Yeah, the character roster is rather shoddy, but other aspects of the game are fantastic, especially the track designs...

I'm not too bothered with MeeMee's inclusion because I stopped caring about the roster since Gum was announced, the only thing I'm interested in is seeing this ultimate fanservice character, hopefully it will make up to the string of disappointing reveals lately.

Anyway, the game overall looks great, and if you really liked what you saw about the gameplay so far I don't see why would you won't buy the game anymore because of the character roster.

[Nameless 24]

It seems that there are 138 mods in the game.


I assume most of the characters share a few (when S0L Explains the mods in the video, Sonic has  7 slots beneath the rotation of the mods...so I am guessing a few characters will share a few).

It seems interesting that you can use the mods to change things around.

It'#s interesting anyway.

[CrazyT]

Yeah I thought this game was gonna improve in every aspect and most certainly at least keep it on par. The roster just seems like one of those important things in a game like this so I just find it unacceptable for them to make such strange and almost careless decisions. But also because I put them in high regard with high expectations all this time.

You are being very reasonable Barry and you've listed the exact 2 characters (Ryo and Alex kidd) I hope for as well.

Let me put it this way, if Ryo Hazuki ends up being in the game, everything is forgotten. If the last 2 characters end up being neither one of the 2 than i'm sad to say that I won't be supporting such lousy decisions. That's basically where it comes down to. I recognize that it's going to be a great game, but i'm not supporting them for putting so little importance to the roster.

Gum is a great addition imo because she's distinct enough from Beat. But raeala and meemee are just cheap and inexcusable imo.



Edit: Oh and about the videos, i'm not gonna spoil myself anymore. The last one i've seen was the panzer dragoon track (new build) and the flight controls looked amazing.

[Barry the Nomad]

S0L has commented on the secondary characters:

What you all call the 'Secondary' characters were additional characters we added 'for free' (i.e. without any extra development budget) in order to increase the roster size from the original figure agreed. This happened when we went from 8 players in a race to 10 (as you need 10 characters to start with to allow 10 player online).

Hence we've taken some characters from ASR and SST. When I say 'for free', we've still had to design and build vehicles, do a whole set of animations, do All-Star moves, source VO, balance and bug fix and more.

So whilst you may not like the inclusion of some of them - or our choices - the alternative wasn't different characters - it was they wouldn't have been included at ALL.

So please, before you accuse us of laziness, not caring, not listening or any other number of things that you feel easy to level at us, understand that we added these at our cost, in our evenings and in our weekends.

That might put a slightly different context to everything

---
S0L
---

So that is his explanation for Reala, MeeMee and Gum.

Though that makes me wonder, if they DIDN'T add these characters, just how small would the roster have been? I wonder what the original figure was. I mean, without the secondary characters that would mean that initially SEGA and Sumo agreed on a roster number much smaller than the first game.