"Everybody's Super Sonic Racing, try to keep your feet right on the ground..."
TJ Davis, "Super Sonic Racing", the game's main theme.
Sonic R is a Racing Game starring the spiky blue speed demon and his friends, developed by Traveller's Tales, who also made Sonic 3D Blast, and was released in 1997 for the Sega Saturn and later for the PC.note In 2005, it was re-released for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 as part of Sonic Gems Collection, which is based on the PC version of the game. It was also made available for download on GameTap for a short time in 2007.
The game is known for its Eurodance soundtrack by Richard Jacques with songs performed by British singer Teresa Jane Davis. Like many CD-based games of the era,† both the Saturn and PC versions can be played in any standard CD player, in case you want to listen to the music without having to play the actual game.
This game is notable for being the final game of Sonic's "Classic" Era, with Sonic Adventure coming out about a year and a half later. It is also the only fully 3D console game wholly featuring the original character designs until Sonic Superstars 26 years later.note
Compare with Sonic Drift, Sonic Riders, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and Team Sonic Racing.
Sonic R contains trope examples of:
- The Alleged Car: Amy's car, which is much slower than every other racer going on foot — or hovering, as is the case for all of the unlockable characters — and means she can't jump. Although she does get a Turbo Boost and the ability to drive on water unimpeded with it, those are rendered moot pointsnote when all of the aforementioned secret characters can do the latter anyway... while still maintaining their own jumps and other such movement options (except for Eggman and Eggrobo) to boot.
- Alphabetical Theme Naming: Every race course in the game starts with the letter "R".
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Radiant Emerald is a literal example in that it constantly changes colours as you race round it.
- Attract Mode: If you wait a while at the Title Screen (or in the PC version, hold the Confirm+Cancel buttons), the game will play a demo of Sonic racing through some of the tracks in the game.
- Award-Bait Song: Nearly the entire soundtrack is made of techno-pop versions of this.
- Call-Back: Several to Sonic 3D Blast:
- Resort Island shares several elements in common with Green Grove Zone.
- Reactive Factory features elements from Gene Gadget and Panic Puppet Zones (the large machines which decorate the area).
- The pinball area in Radical City and some of the surrounding area look like they came straight from Spring Stadium Zone.
- Canon Foreigner: Tails Doll and Metal Knuckles have never reappeared in any other game.
- Casino Park: Radical City combines this with Metropolis Level, with one corner of the track taken up by numerous giant slot machines and a pinball table.
- Competitive Multiplayer: Depending on the version of the game you have, up to 2-4 players can race against each other in split-screen multiplayer in a race or collect balloons. The early 1998 PC release also featured LAN support for multiplayer but this was lost in the 2004 re-release.*
- Defeat Means Playable: To unlock the robot racers, you have to collect all of the Sonic tokens around the tracks, finish in third or better, and beat them in a one-on-one race.
- Dub Name Change: As was standard at the time, Dr. Eggman became Dr. Robotnik in the international releases; although since the game was developed in England, this is mitigated somewhat.
- Early-Bird Cameo: A near-finalized version of Sonic's design that was used in Sonic Adventure actually first appeared in a 1997 Japanese strategy guide for this game, almost an entire year before that game would release, as it contains a page that featured the game's official album, which, for some reason, used the modernized design.
- Eternal Engine: Reactive Factory consists of a stretch of highway that loops through and around a variety of a metallic machinery.
- Evolving Credits: The section of the credits where all the playable characters run around in a circle starts off with just the main five, and any hidden characters you've unlocked will be added to the circle until you end up with all ten characters in the scene.
- Excuse Plot: It's referenced in the manual, but not in the game. The game is just a straightforward racer, with no story mode or attempt to make a plot.
- Game-Breaking Bug: There is a bug in the Saturn version where if you complete a course with the Chaos Emeralds, all the Sonic medallions, and finish first (which is normally what is required to hold onto the Chaos Emeralds after the race ends), you'll challenge the course boss. When that race is over, however, it negates the first place victory you won in the original race and you can't keep the Chaos Emerald(s) you collected. Thus you have to redo the course in order to get the Emeralds.
- Game Mod: The PC version has Sonic R Updater, which patches the game to run better on modern systems, can convert a copy of the 1998 vanilla release to the updated and obscure 2004 re-release, and adds various new tweaks and enhancements — such as widescreen support, windowed and full-screen modes — as well as modding support via the Sonic R Mod Loader.
- The "Sonic R-edux" mod replaces several characters for a different cast: while Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy — now reworked to run on foot like everyone else — and Metal Sonic remain in place, retraux versions of Fang the Hunter, Blaze the Cat and Silver the Hedgehog are added.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: With Robotnik, plus Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, Tails Doll, and Eggrobo. Though the manual makes an admirable effort to pass it off as an evil plot.
- Joke Character:
- The Tails Doll. His profile on the Sonic Channel website states that no effort went into creating Tails Doll after Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles. It's just a doll that can float around. This is supported by the fact that he has the lowest speed of any of the robots and his special is just to float higher up. The fans think differently, though.
- Eggrobo is essentially a clone of the already slow and hard-to-maneuver Dr. Robotnik, but without the ability to perpetually hover above water. He hovers for a brief amount of time before gradually grinding to a halt and sinking, which is more of a hindrance than just sinking by default.
- Lethal Joke Character: Amy is this. She is one of the slowest characters in the game, and lacks the ability to jump since she drives a car instead of running on her feet. Her lethality is her ability to drive over water without losing speed, decent acceleration and good turning (in a game that's notable for its bad turning), and a rechargeable Nitro Boost ability that allows her to reach a top speed faster than Super Sonic for a few seconds, but takes away her superior steering ability when in use. Add onto this the fact that when a character goes into a loop or enters an extended falling state, their speed gets locked in unless they decelerate. As such, you can use Amy's boost on the path leading up to a loop with it petering out just as she launches into it or launch yourself off of a big drop at the last moment and effectively gain an extra 25-50% bonus of boost depending on the size of the loop or length of the drop while still allowing her to recharge since the boost technically ran out.
- Long Song, Short Scene: Most stages have music that goes on for significantly longer than an average race on that stage willnote , but Resort Island takes the cake. Depending on which character you're using and how many shortcuts you've mastered, a race there will only last between 60-90 seconds, yet "Can You Feel The Sunshine" goes on for a full five minutes. The only way you'll ever hear the whole thing in-game is if you go out of your way to be as slow as possible.
- Love Is a Drug: Most of the soundtrack.
- Master of All: Super Sonic has perfect stats across the board and can glide over water. Metal Knuckles is a close second, having a lot of the same advantages — albeit to a lesser extent — and a long-reaching glide as well.
- Metropolis Level: Radical City is a racetrack in an empty city at night. It also has casino elements. The stage's music is "Livin' in the City", an upbeat pop song about, well, living in the city.
- Multi-Slot Character: The game makes Sonic and Super Sonic into separate characters, the difference being that regular Sonic is simply fast and can Double Jump, but has poor handling and sinks in water while Super Sonic is a Master of All, having max stats and no weaknesses.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: This game has two examples:
- Invoked with Eggman's Robot Me Evil Knockoffs, which include the Eggrobo for himself, Metal Sonic for Sonic, Metal Knuckles for Knuckles... and the Tails Doll for Tails.
- Exaggerated with Amy, who was completely overlooked by Eggman's duplicates (the tenth racer in the roster is instead Super Sonic).
- No Ending: Besides A Winner Is You pics, nothing ever comes of the manual's plot.
- Palmtree Panic: Resort Island. Also overlaps with Green Hill Zone.
- Power Floats: Super Sonic and Tails Doll. Super Sonic in particular does it so effortlessly that he'll simply kick back and lounge in mid-air if left idling.
- Power-Up: À la other Sonic the Hedgehog games, which come in these flavors:
- Deflector Shield: The Water and Electric Shield power-ups, however, they also provide an additional effect such as being able to Walk on Water once with the former and being able to gather near-by rings with the latter.
- Super-Speed: The Fleet Feet power-up grants a temporary boost in speed.
- Promoted to Playable: Dr. Robotnik, who you can unlock by beating the game once.
- The Psycho Rangers: Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles and the Tails Doll… and Eggrobo.
- Purposely Overpowered: Super Sonic is completely overpowered, and intentionally so considering you have to find all the Chaos Emeralds (some of which are tricky to find without a guide): he's by far the fastest character in the game, turns on a dime and can float on water without sinking. He also doesn't suffer from the ring drain he has in other games, so he can still use ring-based shortcuts.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: The robot bosses, who are unlocked by finding the tokens hidden in the stages and then beating them in a race.
- Scenery Porn: Gorgeous backgrounds coupled with impressive visual effects and arguably the most detailed and vibrant environments seen on the Saturn make for one of the most beautiful games of its generation.
- Secret Character: There's Eggman, Metal Sonic, Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles, Eggrobo, and Super Sonic, the last of whom you unlock by collecting all the Chaos Emeralds.
- Shifting Sand Land: Regal Ruins, which overlaps with Ruins for Ruins' Sake.
- Smug Super: Super Sonic. He's so bored by the competition that he'll simply fall asleep when left idle in mid-air.
- The Smurfette Principle: Amy is the only girl in this game. At the time, of course, she was the only female character in the entire franchise.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Most egregiously in the PC version and the Sonic Gems Collections re-release, "Can You Feel the Sunshine" will play no matter what the weather is like. The Saturn version, however, does not have any weather effects at all.
- Theme Naming: Every track name begins with the letter R.
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Work It Out", the song for the Reactive Factory level, noticeably increases in pitch at the end, as does the full version of "Super Sonic Racing".
- Updated Re-release: The PC version and its Sonic Gems Collections port lost some of the visual flair the Saturn version originally had, such as the colored lighting and the translucency effects of Radiant Emerald, but made up for this with tighter controls, a higher draw distance, a time of day system, new weather effects that can affect the tracks, and for the earlier 1998 PC release, online multiplayer through LAN play. The PC version also had another re-release in 2004, which improved compatibility for Windows XP or later, but also lost many of the 1998 version's graphics settings and online multiplayer.
Reach for a new dimension. Ready for new excitement. Road leads you to a new world. Rivals are here. Race it for the victory. "R" is it.
