Binge Gamer owner and lover of Sega games, James Walker, gives us a preview of the upcoming Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (ie "Mario Kart staring Sonic")

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing promises about 20 characters in the final game, including many from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise along with the likes of Amigo (Samba de Amigo) and AiAi (Super Monkey Ball). Hopefully characters like Alex Kidd, Vectorman, ToeJam & Earl… hell, even Wonder Boy, make it into the final game. For the sake of the hands on, I picked Sonic and his blue Batmobile-lookin’ ride.

Throughout the gameplay demo (which you can see below this paragraph), you’ll notice that both Perry and myself say that the game is basically Mario Kart with a Sonic skin. That’s how the game plays. Each character has their own personalized car with its own stats, and the tracks (at least the two demoed) are designed to be over-the-top fast and frantic. As you race you have the opportunity to grab an assortment of power-ups that include speed boosts, landmines and robotic piranhas that act as homing missiles. But in addition to the standard layout of weapons, you also get a special ability for each driver that temporarily turns them into an invincible, Ben-Hur like racing God whose very touch is enough to lay waste to all who challenge — as you can see in the below preview:

PacoDG via bingegamer.net »