Today Sega released a new trailer for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, the sequel to the surprisingly awesome 2010 kart-racer Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. While we were mainly focused on the jaw-droppingly awesome CG animation on display here, we also took time to notice that the trailer also announces an official release date of November 16, 2012.
There are two types of intelligent game design. There's the Fez style of compelling, deep, thoughtful puzzles and messages. But there's also the type of game that is so perfectly focused on exactly what the audience wants that even though it's gameplay is relatively dumb, it's still a super smart product. From the looks of it, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed falls triumphantly in that latter category.
Super fast cars and awesome levels featuring our favorite underserved characters? Yes, please. Wait, the cars can also transform into planes and boats and shoot missiles and there are dragoons and vikings racing inside what appears to be an Aztec temple inside the Grand Canyon!? Sega, you might just have hit the nail on the head with this one.
Sonic gets an official lore timeline that goes "tens of thousands of years" into the past and 200 years into the future, and somehow canonizes a party game spin-off
We'll finally learn if Sonic is faster than the Flash as Sega's famous hedgehog and pals team up with the Justice League in a new mash-up comic
