Gaming Mojo

Those anxiously awaiting the release of Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, will be pleased to know (myself included), that a demo has been released on the Xbox 360 Marketplace. At the moment the demo is only available to Gold subscribers, with it becoming available to everyone in the next few days. The demo is 1.3GB.

You can choose between Sonic or Banjo Kazooie in the demo, with one map open.  While it may be great for Sonic fans, it is very much like Mario Kart and Crash Kart Racing, with power ups to collect which give you items to throw at other players, or power ups which give you a speed boost, or shield.

Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii (with an optional wheel), DS/DSi and on PC. American release date is 23rd of February, while Europe will get the game on the 26th.

Sonic is set to go back to his 2D roots in the next part of the Sonic saga. Following on from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 4 will see Sonic return to the 2D world, set after meeting Knuckles. Sonic will be the only playable character in the game, where the world and story is bigger than before. Sonic 4 is due to be released in chapters/episodes, where Episode 1 will be released this summer. It will be available as a downloadable game through Xbox Live Arcade, PSN and WiiWare. The Wii version will naturally make use of the motion control, while the PS3 version will make use of the SIXAXIS controller.

Brand manager Ken Balough had this to say on the episode content:

“I think the best way to view it is as a first part in a much larger adventure. When Sega released Sonic 3, ultimately it was the part 1 of a story that saw its conclusion in Sonic & Knuckles. In that same spirit, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is a bigger story, and this is that first chapter. I think it’s also safe to say that by the end of the episode one, fans will be very excited to see what’s in store for episode two!”