Sonic's Takashi Iizuka dunks on Mario Kart World as Sonic Racing: Crossworlds unveils Hatsune Miku, Persona 5, and Minecraft Steve
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Sega has revealed a new trailer for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds at Summer Game Fest 2025, which confirmed that the spirit of the all-timer Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is alive and well.
The new Sonic racer features a host of Sega guest characters like Hatsune Miku, Persona 5's Joker, and most importantly, Ichiban Kasuga from the Yakuza series... oh, and Minecraft's Steve and Alex are there, too, cause why not?
The racer is set to launch on September 25 on PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Nintendo Switch, and it's also been confirmed for the new Nintendo Switch 2. Note that the PC and current-gen console versions are more expensive. Sega says via a press release, though, that "there will be a paid upgrade path available for owners of the Nintendo Switch version."
After the trailer debuted, Sonic's dad – Sega developer Takashi Iizuka – decided to throw hands at "another kart racing game" by announcing that Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will have online cross-play. This was presumably a dig at Mario Kart World, which is odd, since that game is only on Switch 2... unless there was another recently released, major kart racing game we don't know about.
Despite not mentioning it at the show, the game's Steam page confirmed that the Minecraft characters will be included as a part of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Season Pass. With every subsequent DLC getting two characters, except for one which gets four. There's also a Sonic Prime pack with variants of Knuckles, Tails, and Amy from the Netflix series coming at launch. So to get all the characters you'll need the Digital Deluxe version which is $90, so maybe don't throw shade at Mario Kart so soon.
Shockingly, Sega did not mention CrossWorlds containing SpongeBob SquarePants or other Nickelodeon series (more like SoNick am I right?) like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which were leaked for the game as DLC over the past few weeks. Minecraft characters also leaked alongside these other characters, so I'd wager we might be seeing SpongeBob drifting before too long, anyway.
Make sure to check out Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule so you don't miss any new game reveals.
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