Sonic’s had a pretty good run in the past few years, buoyed most recently by the launch of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, which topped a million sales. Amid that fanfare comes Sonic Rumble from Rovio of Angry Birds fame. “Wait, that’s out?” you’re no doubt asking, and no one could blame you – it’s had a relatively low-key marketing cycle since the last delay.
Well, it’s finally available on iOS, Android, and PC, but the reception on Steam is far from positive. The battle royale party hybrid has a “Mixed” rating with only 44 percent of its 1,418 user reviews approving. Much of the criticism stems from the game’s monetization, including skins costing as high as $60, a gacha mechanic, numerous battle passes, a subscription, signature moves, and everyone’s favorite – the incessant nagging to spend.
“In what world can you get a whole, fully featured, actually fun racing game for less than the price of two skins here?” asks one reviewer, referring to Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. And while some reviews point out the misinformation of skins providing pay-to-win benefits, they’re not calling the monetization anything less than predatory either.
Even if it is 100 percent playable without spending money, there are several other pressing issues, including “large round mobile game buttons that eat your screen” in the UI, Kernel-level anti-cheat, delays when picking up items, and perhaps worst of all, “Almost nothing about Sonic gameplay carried into this game, except the characters.”
Neither Sega nor Rovio has said anything about fixes or improvements. However, with a peak concurrent player count of 5,465, perhaps they’re content to focus on the mobile gaming market and quietly ignore the Steam rating.
