Video Game / Sega Superstars

Notice how Sonic's mugging for the camera on each cover?

A series of Massive Multiplayer Crossover games, each of a completely different genre, published by Sega and, except for the first one, developed by British company Sumo Digital. As the name implies, they feature a good deal of Sega's major and cult classic franchises.

Sega Superstars: The first one, a 2004 Minigame Game by Sonic Team for the PlayStation 2 EyeToy accessory. It's 12 simple minigames in one, using (as with every other EyeToy game) your body to control them. Descriptions of the minigames are forthcoming.

Also notable is that it isn't a crossover in the proper sense. Each series is sequestered to its own minigame, with no interaction otherwise save for the opening cutscene.

Sega Superstars Tennis: In which Sumo Digital picked up the mantle and followed suit with. Building on their own experience with the Virtua Tennis series, the game is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Also features a bunch of Sega-themed tennis minigames.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing ("With Banjo-Kazooie" on the Xbox 360 version, at Microsoft's request): Released in February 2010, it can be easily described as "Mario Kart meets Sumo's OutRun games". That is, you get the item-filled Mascot Racer of the former combined with the arcade racing action, handling and speed of the latter.

While All-Stars Racing might be completely shameless about its inspirations, it does its elements so well that, to the surprise of just about everyone, it received a very high amount of praise for that reason alone, joining the likes of Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing in that regard.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed: Dropping the "Sega" from the title (due to the inclusion of more than one Guest Fighter), Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed is the sequel to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, released on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and Vita in late 2012 and on PC and 3DS in early 2013. Featuring a gimmick similar to Mario Kart 7, Sonic and crew's vehicles will now be able to traverse different racing environments, such as water, by having their crafts morph to meet the demand. Disney's Wreck-It Ralph appears as a guest character, presumably in exchange for the Sega cameos in his film.

See also Fighters Megamix, an earlier, unrelated Sega crossover game, Project × Zone, another unrelated Sega (and non-Sega all-stars) crossover game released between the two All-Stars Racing games, and Sega Heroes, a later Sega crossover Mobile Phone Game featuring your favorite all-stars. There's also Team Sonic Racing, a Sonic racing game also by Sumo Digital which features nine Nostalgia Levels from this series.

Not to be confused with Sonic Superstars, a 2D classic sidescrolling entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

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The series features a large stable of series and games produced by Sega over the years as well as a few guest series. Here are the series represented in at least one of the four games, including those with just mere in-game cameos:

Represented series

Sega series

• After Burner^note Basis of a court in Sega Superstars Tennis and the track Carrier Zone in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed; in the latter game, AGES' plane form is a F-14 Tomcat.
• Alex Kidd^note Alex Kidd is a playable character in the three Sumo Digital games.
• Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg^note Billy is a playable racer in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. Basis of a mini-game in Sega Superstars and the track Chilly Castle in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Bonanza Bros.^note The Bros. are a singular playable racer in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
• Burning Rangers^note Basis of the track Burning Depths in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Crazy Taxi^note B.D. Joe is a playable racer in the racing games. Basis of a mini-game in Sega Superstars.
• ChuChu Rocket!^note Four ChuChus piloting a rocket are a singular playable racer in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. Basis of mini-games in Sega Superstars and Sega Superstars Tennis.
• Company of Heroes^note A generic Soviet general named General Winter is a playable racer in the PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Daytona USA^note AGES' car form in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is the Hornet.
• Ecco the Dolphin^note Ecco cameos in the track Burning Depths in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Fantasy Zone^note Opa-Opa is a playable racer in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
• Football Manager^note The Football Manager - that is, The Faceless guy on the series' cover arts up until Football Manager 2018 - is a playable racer in the PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Golden Axe^note Gilius is a playable character in Sega Superstars Tennis and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed; basis of the track Adder's Lair in the latter game.
• Hang-On^note Ryo Hazuki's boat vehicle in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a Hang-On cabinet modified into a hovercraft.
• House of the Dead^note Zobio & Zobiko from House of the Dead EX are a singular playable racer in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. Basis of a tennis court and four racing tracks in the three Sumo Digital games, and of a mini-game in Sega Superstars. Rebranded as "Curien Mansion" from Tennis onward. The Japanese version of Transformed uses the original name, however.
• Jet Set Radio^note Beat is a playable character in the three Sumo Digital games, joined by Gum in Sega Superstars Tennis and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Basis of four tracks total across the racing games.
• NiGHTS into Dreams...^note NiGHTS and Reala are playable characters in Sega Superstars Tennis and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed; basis of the track Dream Valley in the latter game and a mini-game in Sega Superstars. NiGHTS is the flagman in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
• OutRun^note Basis of a court in Sega Superstars Tennis and the DLC track OutRun Bay in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Ryo Hazuki's car vehicle in Transformed is an OutRun cabinet.
• Panzer Dragoon^note Basis of the track Dragon Canyon in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Puyo Puyo^note Basis of mini-games in Sega Superstars and Sega Superstars Tennis. The Garbage Puyo repalces the blowfish item in the Japanese version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Ristar^note Ristar is the flagman in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Samba de Amigo^note Amigo is a playable character in the three Sumo Digital games. Basis of four tracks total across the racing games and a mini-game in Sega Superstars.
• Sega Dreamcast^note AGES' boat form in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is an oversized Dreamcast controller.
• Segagaga^note Taro Sega cameos as a sticker in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Segata Sanshiro^note Segata cameos on the track Race of Ages in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Shenmue^note Ryo Hazuki is a playable racer in the racing games (base game in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, PC DLC in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed).
• Shinobi^note Represented in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed with playable racer Joe Musashi and the track Seasonal Shrines.
• Skies of Arcadia^note Represented in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed with playable racer Vyse and the track Rogues' Landing.
• Sonic the Hedgehog^note If the titles of the racing games didn't clue you in already... Sonic and his friends are playable characters in the three Sumo Digital games and the series is the basis of 13 tracks total across the racing games. Basis of a mini-game (based on the Special Stages in Sonic Heroes) and a watered-down Chao Garden in Sega Superstars.
• Space Channel 5^note Ulala is a playable character in the three Sumo Digital games, joined by Pudding in Sega Superstars Tennis and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Basis of a mini-game in Sega Superstars.
• Space Harrier^note Basis of a mini-game in Sega Superstars Tennis. In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, its theme song is rearranged for the track Race of Ages and Ryo Hazuki's plane vehicle is an Space Harrier cabinet.
• Super Monkey Ball^note Aiai is a playable character in the three Sumo Digital games, joined by MeeMee in Sega Superstars Tennis and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Basis of four tracks total across the racing games and a mini-game in Sega Superstars.
• Total War:
  • Rome: Total War/Total War: Rome II^note A generic Roman soldier named Willemus is a playable racer in the PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
  • Shogun: Total War/Total War: Shogun 2^note A generic Shogun is a playable racer in the PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Virtua Cop^note Basis of a mini-game in Sega Superstars Tennis, where it is rebranded as "Virtua Squad".
• Virtua Fighter^note Jacky Bryant is a playable racer in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Akira Yuki riding shotgun. Basis of a mini-game in Sega Superstars.
• Virtua Striker^note Basis of a mini-game in Sega Superstars.

Guest series

• Banjo-Kazooie from Microsoft^note Banjo and Kazooie appear as a singular playable racer in the Xbox 360 version of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
• Miis from Nintendo^note appear as playable racers in the Nintendo console versions of the racing games
• Danica Patrick^note appears as a playable racer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Team Fortress 2 from Valve Corporation^note "Team Fortress," a shapeshifting Composite Character of the Pyro, the Heavy and the Spy, is a playable racer in the PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Wreck-It Ralph from Disney^note Ralph is a playable racer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Yogscast^note Simon Lane is a DLC racer in the PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Xbox Live Arcade Avatars from Microsoft^note appear as playable racers in the Xbox 360 versions of the racing games

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The series provides examples of:

Tropes specific to most or all of the games

• Demographic-Dissonant Crossover: For starters, Billy Hatcher is in the same game as characters from House of the Dead.
• Fake Shemp: To save on the budget, the games normally use voice clips or sound effects from the various original SEGA games for the characters from them where they can. Curiously averted with Team Fortress on the PC version of Transformed. The characters use several lines that Sumo could have lifted from Team Fortress 2, but they decided to get voice actors anyway.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Most Sonic the Hedgehog based characters share an affinity for finger pointing poses, especially in All-Stars Racing. Most likely as a reference to Sonic's series-long iconic finger pointing pose. Sonic himself takes it up to eleven with the sheer amount of pointing he does during and after a race.
• Go-Karting with Eggman: And playing tennis and go karting with Reala. And go-karting with Metal Sonic and the Bonanza Bros.^note Their in-game bio makes it clear that they have been reverted to their Japanese backstory, in which they were villain protagonists.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: "And that's how you dish out the BEAT!"
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover
• Recurring Character: Sumo and SEGA seem to have a line-up of characters they like to see return in each title before they start adding new faces. Sonic, Tails, Shadow, Amy and Eggman, as can be expected, but also AiAi, Amigo, Ulala, Beat, and even Alex Kidd. In fact, Sonic, Shadow, Ulala, Amigo and AiAi have been playable in every title if you include SEGA Superstars and NiGHTS and the ChuChus have at least made an appearance in every game.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: In the first racing game, the realistic Jacky, Akira, Ryo Hazuki, and B.D. Joe race against the cartoonish Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends, Aiai, Billy Hatcher, and others. They can also have cartoonish things happen to them. And then in the sequel, real-life racer Danica Patrick joins the party.
• Rubber-Band A.I.: Downplayed. It is there throughout the series, but not quite as bad as a lot of other games, most notably Mario Kart. The AI can never move faster or hit harder than a human player can, but they can play very well with tight racing and superhuman reaction times. In the Racing games, they also tend to get the best items like All-Stars and Swarms far more often. That said, there's also a feature in Racing and Transformed called "rubberband snap" that outright breaks this. If you're way out in front, the AI will simply stop trying to catch you.
• Running Gag: Sonic foiling Dr. Eggman's schemes in the opening movie, starting with Superstars Tennis.
• Shown Their Work:
  • A great deal of the achievements/trophies/challenges' names fall under this.
  • The four Chuchus have individual names in their in-game bio. Those names, as well as the character's designs, are brought up in nowhere else but the ChuChu Rocket! instruction book.
  • The promotional Archie Sonic comic for Racing Transformed (Sonic Universe #45), aside from listing off a few names from Super Monkey Ball and Jet Set Radio, actually shows that current Archie Sonic writer Ian Flynn took some detailed amount of research for Skies of Arcadia as Vyse lists, among other things, being shipwrecked on Crescent Island, the names of some Valuan Admirals, and most impressively, the rumors of the Black Moon which was a very minor footnote in the actual game.^note This may possibly be down to Flynn claiming Skies of Arcadia is one of his favourite games ever.
  • It's amazing how many little familiar nods and details Skies of Arcadia actually got in Transformed. In the third lap of Rogue's Landing, a Valuan Ship crashes into the stage after a single cannon shot. Where was it hit? In the back, where its engines are.^note During ship battles in Skies of Arcadia, you can gain the upper-hand by maneuvering behind an enemy ship and attacking from there, where in most cases they're defenseless. In addition, every successful hit would do critical damage. Moonstones can also be seeing falling from the sky in the track as well. ^note Vyse and Aika go to fetch one that has crashed into a nearby island at the beginning of the game. And once more in Lap 3, you can see the Albatross and a Valuan Spectre flying along side by side shooting at each other, before moving away from each other in a circular movement. This is exactly how ships tended to behave in ship battles in the game.
  • Pudding's vehicle in Transformed is based off her bike from Space Channel 5 Part 2. Said bike only got about five seconds of screentime in the actual game.
  • For anyone in naval aviation, the attention to detail on Carrier Zone is noticeably extensive.
  • The fires in Burning Depths not only look the same as they did in the original game, but they also move in the exact same manner too.
• Squashed Flat: In the All-Stars Racing games, there are many ways to have this happen to you (or others), whether it be from Billy Hatcher or Amy's All-Star move, having a rolling pillar land on you, being run over by a steamroller, landing on another racer, and more. It is then accompanied by a cartoonish *SPLORT* sound.
• Super Mode/Limit Break: Super Sonic and Super Shadow in the original's Sonic the Hedgehog minigame, Superstar Mode in Tennis, All-Star Moves in Racing and Racing Transformed.
• Version-Exclusive Content:
  • Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed allows Xbox 360 players to use their system Avatar as a racer, while Wii U and Nintendo 3DS players can use their Mii as a racer. The PC version (on Steam) features a Team Fortress 2 racer (a vehicle piloted by the Heavy, Pyro, and Spy), a Shogun from Total War, a football manager, and a Russian general from Company of Heroes 2.
  • The Xbox 360 version of the previous game, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, added Banjo and Kazooie as a racer. The Wii version was planned to add Mario, but they decided to leave that for Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Sega Superstars

• Minigame Game

Sega Superstars Tennis

• Go-Karting with Bowser: Sonic can play against Eggman and Shadow and NiGHTS can play against Reala.
• The Cameo: Chao, Morolians, Nightopians and zombies all appear from Sonic, Space Channel 5, NiGHTS and House of the Dead respectively. Many Sonic characters like Knuckles and Metal Sonic appear on the court as well. Others include Professor K from Jet Set Radio and even the OutRun Flagman!
• Mundane Utility: Sonic and Shadow transforming into their Super forms...to gain a temporary edge while playing tennis. Lampshaded by Sonic, who casually asks "Aren't you worried?" when returning a volley in Super form.
• The Voiceless: Amigo somehow communicates through random music that comes out of nowhere, mostly songs from the soundtrack of his game. This accounts for many a funny splurge of terrible trumpet music whenever he fails.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Sewer Scrapes takes place in an absolutely massive sewer built under Curien Mansion. The sewer is so large that there's a three-headed dragon living down there.
• Adapted Out: The DS version removes all of the group racers, replacing them with one member of the team driving on their own. As a result, Robo, Zobiko, Akira, and all of the Chuchus except for Chuih (the blue one) are not playable, though Robo still appears to drive the blimp during Mobo's All Star move, and Akira appears with Jacky during the intro cutscene.
• Amphibian at Large: When Big the Cat uses his All-Star move, his pet frog, Froggy, grows to an enormous size and hops across the track, with Big hanging onto Froggy's tail^note the tail he acquired from Chaos in Sonic Adventure for his life.
• Announcer Chatter: He's quite hungry for intense racing action. He's also quite a jerkass, and also has a thing for Ulala.
• Ascended Extra: The Chuchu pilots' only appearance prior to this game was the instructions manual to both versions of ChuChu Rocket!. They're mentioned briefly on one page to add a little spice to the Excuse Plot and nowhere in the game itself.
• Ascended Meme:
  • The loading screen blurb is "Sonic Says..." which is a reference to the memetic PSA segments of the same name from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
  • One of Ryo's missions in mission mode says you won't find any sailors.
• Author Avatar: If you don't have an avatar assigned to your account on the 360 version, the game gives you a random generic one to play as. Some of these are actually the employees of SUMO Digital.
• Background Music Override: The characters' All-Star themes will play over any background music the track normally has.
• Banana Peel: Banana peels litter the track in Treetops. Any racers that run them over will spin out.
• *Bleep*-dammit!: Just as in the first game, the lyrics to one of the Jet Set Radio songs (in this case, the one that plays in Graffiti City) are left uncensored. Said lyrics include the phrase "The music just turns me on!".
• Blow You Away: Tails' All Star move has him create a giant tornado that travels along the track. The funnel cloud drags Tails along for the ride to boost his speed while causing any other racers that get caught in it to spin out.
• Brick Joke: An early mission has Eggman finding Chaos Emeralds hidden in Seaside Hill. A late mission has Sonic take back those Chaos Emeralds from Final Fortress.
• The Cameo:
  • Ristar can be seen on the side of the Death Egg track waving at the racers.
  • At Rokkaku Hill, people who you can see in the crowd are Yoyo, Rhyth, Soda, the Love Shockers, a Rokkaku Policeman, and some of the civilians. (Poorly-rendered) Sprites of Cube and Garam can be seen in the store windows.
• Casino Park: The Trope Namer appears with three tracks taking place in the zone from Sonic Heroes: Roulette Road, Pinball Highway, and Bingo Party. All three tracks take place on roads floating above a neon-lit city with all kinds of casino games adorning the place. Roulette Road features a massive roulette wheel the racers loop around, Pinball Highway has a giant pinball table the racers drive through, and Bingo Party has giant bingo cards they make giant leaps over. Other decorations include giant dice and playing cards, and large poker chips fall onto the road and act as obstacles.
• Comeback Mechanic: When racers who are falling behind collect an item capsule, they have a good chance of receiving the All-Star, a powerful super move unique to each character. These moves tend to come with massive speed boosts and other abilities that will allow them to easily catch up to the leading racers.
• Console Cameo: Avatar's car is modeled after the older Xbox 360, and the Mii's car is modeled after the Wii.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Sure Amigo doesn't speak and is ditzy, but he's a competent racer and when a race starts, expect him to come out in first place.
  • Big The Cat in most Sonic games is a Mighty Glacier who moves at a leisurely pace and specializes in angling fish and powerlifting cars and boulders. In this game however, his Green Hopper bike has a blistering top speed and wicked turbo boost. Give him the ability to get a turbo chain going(Easier than it would appear due to his ability to perform boost granting wheelies) and he can easily leave everyone in the dust.
• Cute Monster Girl: Zobiko.
• The Cutie: AiAi, Alex Kidd, Amy Rose, Billy Hatcher, ChuChus, and Tails qualify, due to their lovable natures and lines.
• Deadpan Snarker/Large Ham: The announcer.
• Demoted to Extra: NiGHTS, is reduced to flagbearer in this game after having been playable in Sega Superstar Tennis.
• Downloadable Content: For the 360/PS3 versions. Includes:
  • An unlock key to let the player select Ryo Hazuki driving his forklift from the get-go.
  • Metal Sonic and a Death Egg racetrack (with a Ristar cameo and music from Sonic the Fighters and Shadow the Hedgehog).
• Down the Drain: Sewer Scrapes has the racers drive through the sewer system beneath Curien Mansion. The sewer is flowing with canals of slimy green water.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: This game has several noticeable differences from Transformed and Team Sonic Racing despite all three games using the same basic gameplay:
  • The Sonic characters were voiced by their 4Kids Entertainment actors instead of the 2010-era Studiopolis cast.
  • Characters drove cars, bikes and hovercrafts together on the same track. In Transformed, all characters drive cars by default and change to boats or hovercrafts upon reaching the appropriate areas, while Team Sonic Racing only features cars with no other vehicles.
  • Boosting had different mechanics, with the amount of time needed to drift and when to hold the accelerate button at the starting countdown both varying depending on the character's boost stat and each character having three randomly generated air tricks of varying length. In the following games, the drift time is the same regardless of character, the starting countdown was changed to have you press the accelerate button once each number appears on-screen, and each character has four air tricks (two flips and two rolls) that depend on what direction you push the right stick and grant the same amount of boost.
  • This game had no form of Character Customization whatsoever, but allowed you to change the music that played in each race. Transformed and Team Sonic Racing removed the music selection, but added stat customization depending on the kart's mod (Transformed) or installed parts (Team Sonic Racing).
• End of an Era: This game marked the last time the Sonic characters were voiced by the 4Kids Entertainment cast. Starting with Sonic Colors and Sonic Free Riders, the entire cast (except Mike Pollock for Eggman) was replaced by a brand-new cast, most of them reputable anime voice actors.
• Eternal Engine: The Final Fortress levels, Turbine Loop, Dark Arsenal, and Thunder Deck, all take place inside Dr. Eggman's mechanical flying fortress. Giant machines can be seen all over, and robots appear as obstacles that the racers can crash into.
• Expy: The Sunshine Tour level is very reminiscent of Rainbow Road.
• Forklift Fu: Ryo Hazuki's All-Star move causes him to get off his motorcycle and get in a forklift.^note If you're using the aforementioned forklift DLC, he slams the pedal instead. The forklift knocks enemies behind Ryo by flipping them. There's also an achievement where you have to use it to take out Jacky and Akira.
• Gangplank Galleon: Floating Pirate Ships appear in Monkey Target for the racers to drive through. In particular, the final section of the track has the racers make a series of 180 degree turns as they climb boardwalks up to the ships.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Or Eggman, in this case. And he doesn't even stop to cheat — more than anyone else, that is.
• Green Hill Zone: The first track of the first cup is Whale Lagoon, set in a tranquil coastal area with lots of beaches. The track is based on Seaside Hill from Sonic Heroes, which used the trope namer as the inspiration for some of its aesthetics.
• Guest Fighter:
  • The Xbox 360 version features the Microsoft-owned Banjo and Kazooie as a duo racer. The pair use their character designs from Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
  • Both the Xbox 360 and Wii versions allow you to play as that console's user avatar driving a vehicle based off their system: the Avatar for Xbox 360 users and the Mii for Wii users.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Opa-Opa, has no vehicle to drive in. Rather, being a sentient starship, he flies as himself.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Zobio is a large, hulking zombie man, while his partner Zobiko is a short, petite zombie woman.
• Interface Screw:
  • The Shooting Star item flips the screen of any players it hits upside-down.
  • The Rainbow item causes any racers that drive through it to have their screen get covered in a rainbow that barely be seen through and obstructs the entire screen.
  • Beat's All-Star covers his opponents with graffiti that covers their screen and blocks their view of the track ahead of them.
• Jungle Japes: Treetops is a track built atop a jungle lush with massive green vines everywhere, and banana peels left on the track by the monkeys that live there.
• Lethal Lava Land: Lava Lair takes racers through a volcanic mountain. Certain portions of the track have only small portions of cooler rock to drive on, surrounded by lava, and cascades of lava can be found pouring from the higher areas.
• Loading Screen: While the game is loading, the screens are accompanied by "Sonic Says..." messages, giving the player tips to playing the game.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Dr. Eggman's All Star move has his Egg Monster temporarily ditch its tires and transform into an offensive mode where he unloads a barrage of missiles on any opposing racers in front of him.
• Metropolis Level: The Jet Set Radio tracks are located in the city of Tokyo-to, with the city streets surrounded by massive skyscrapers and construction sites.
• Mighty Glacier:
  • Of the "slow to start, hard to stop" variety, Eggman, Zobio and Zobiko, Jacky and Akira, Big, and the Chuchus all have great top speed stats, but middling to low acceleration.
• Mythology Gag: The levels based on Jet Set Radio Future actually reference beta content, most notably the JSRF logo on a red screen which was featured prominently in trailers but never appeared in the game.
• No Smoking: The Spy's cigarette is still on his model, and yet no mention of smoking is made in the game's rating on the PC version, though it's probably because you'd never notice it during gameplay.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: "Curien Mansion" is a popular Sega series where you shoot at "Creatures." And the series representatives are "Ex-Humans." Part of this is because the series is banned in Germany.
• Palmtree Panic:
  • Whale Lagoon, Lost Palace, and Ocean Ruin all take place in Seaside Hill, a tranquil beach inhabited by whales.
  • Monkey Target features racers driving between a series of tropical islands in the middle of the ocean. The islands are joined together by boardwalks.
• Pinball Zone: Pinball Highway has a massive pinball table that racers drive through during the race. It's the section of the track with the most width, and there are bumpers that get in the way that racers must drive around.
• Retroactive Wish: Occasionally when a racer has an All-Star move ready:
  Announcer: "I wish there was an All Star on the track! What's that? There is!? SAH-WEET!!"
• Scenery Porn: Lampshaded in the profile for one of the Casino Park maps, telling you to not get too distracted by the environment while you're racing. They're not kidding.
• Shark Tunnel: Much of Ocean Ruin has the racers drive through a glass tunnel under the sea, with all kinds of aquatic plants on the outside.
• Shifting Sand Land: Sandy Drifts takes place in and around ancient ruins out in a sandy desert. The ruins are decorated with giant statues from an ancient civilization of monkeys.
• Single-Use Shield: The shield from the Sonic the Hedgehog series appears as an item during races. It protects any racers that use it from one hit from either rival attacks or track hazards one time before disappearing.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The first two Billy Hatcher tracks, Icicle Valley and Rampart Road, take place in Blizzard Castle. Icicle Valley takes the racers through an icy valley surrounding a snowy mountain, while Rampart Road is set within the castle itself, with the bridges and ramparts being covered in snowbanks.
• The Smurfette Principle: Ulala and Amy are the only playable females in a cast of 23 characters, unless one counts female Avatars/Miis, Zobiko and Chupea.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: In the Billy Hatcher tracks— "Volcanic Orchestra" and "Billy's Courage" can be played in Icicle Valley or Rampart Road, while the other three songs ("Tumbling Xylophone", "Bossa Nova of Briny Air", and "A Jack-in-the-Box!") can be played in Lava Lair.
• Sphere Factor: Aiai's All Star move encases him in a Monkey Ball from his home series, and his friends all join him as well. In his ball, Aiai can bowl over any opponents in his way as he rockets forward.
• Two Girls to a Team: Amy and Ulala are the only girls you can play as.
• Version-Exclusive Content:
  • The Xbox 360 version has Banjo & Kazooie and your Avatar as exclusive playable racers, while the Wii version lets you use your Mii instead.
  • The DS version includes a different mission mode from the others, with a more non-linear progression system and different objectives.
• The Voiceless:
  • The Bonanza Bros., the ChuChus, Amigo, Opa-Opa, and Metal Sonic only make sighs, chirps, maraca shaking, retro-sounding beeps, and robotic noises respectively.
  • Mii and Avatar are totally silent during any race they take part in. The announcer never comments on them, either.
  • As are Akira and Zobiko; Jacky and Zobio are the only ones of both pairs to make any sort of noise, while their partners are completely silent (which is surprising in Zobiko's case, as she's the driver).
• Who's Laughing Now?: Metal Sonic's All-Star Move gives him the same laser wall that he was scrapped by in Sonic CD AND speed boosts whenever he desires.
• Wolverine Publicity:
  • No doubt justifiable, but yes, Sonic's name is separate and unique from the "Sega" banner in this game.
  • The 360 version of the game adds "With Banjo-Kazooie" to the title.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

• Adaptation Expansion: Rogue's Landing and the Curien Mansion are way, way bigger here than they are in their original games.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In Rogue's Landing, the race takes place during an Valuan Fleet invasion of the Blue Rogues' pirate haven.
• Ascended Extra:
  • NiGHTS is again a full member of the crew, including serving as a vehicle.
  • Ristar moves from The Cameo in a DLC track, to taking NiGHTS's former place as the flagbearer.
• Announcer Chatter:
  • Still present, just toned down due to some reception the announcer got from the previous game.
  • Graffiti City has DJ Professor K of Jet Set Radio commentating briefly at the beginning of each lap.
  • Chris from Burning Rangers takes over in "Burning Depths" repeating lines from the original game as the level changes shape to suit the dialogue.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Ordinarily, Ice has no Mercy Invincibility—but it does in Battle Race and Arena. In both of those modes, racers are eliminated if they're hit three times, and you always receive three Ice shots at a time. The Mercy Invincibility is to prevent potential One Hit Kills from people with good aim (or lucky players), who can fire all three Ice shots at one player and deplete their HP near-instantly.
• Art-Style Clash: Being a huge crossover racing game featuring many of Sega's characters and beyond with varying art styles, this is to be expected. Character designs range from being cartoony (the entire Sonic cast, AiAi, Amigo, NiGHTS, and Ralph), to middle-of-the-road stylistic (Beat, Ulala, Gilius, Team Fortress, and Ryo), to realistic (Football Manager, Willemus, General Winter, Shogun, and Danica Patrick^note Justified because she is a Real Life person.). Vyse is the only character in the entire roster to have a distinct Japanese anime design since he is from a JRPG.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Some of the console mods, which give you the best speed, but drop handling to 1.
• Badass Boast:
  • One of Vyse's victory lines is "Even the Valuan Empire couldn't catch me!"
  • It would not be much of a stretch to say every line of Gum's dialogue is this.
  "You'd better believe it's on now!"
• Background Music Override: The characters' All-Star themes will play over any background music the track normally has. Likewise, in the rare occasion more than one racer has access to an All-Star Move, the last one to be activated overrides the preceding All-Star themes.
• Big Budget Beef-Up: The amount of content and detail should give it away.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Ralph will sometimes question the player's bad driving when he crashes.
• The Bus Came Back: After being playable in SEGA Superstars Tennis and then being either absent or non-playable in All-Stars Racing, NiGHTS, Reala, MeeMee, Gum, Pudding and Gilius all make their return here.
• The Cameo: A massive step up from the first game;
  • Big can be seen in Ocean View fishing.
  • Rogue's Landing features many recognizable airships from Skies of Arcadia, such as the Hydra, the Lynx, the Delphinus and the Albatross. In addition Rhaknam can be seen swimming under the course.
  • Burning Depths has the Burning Rangers fly off together at the start of the track. You can then spot them throughout the track tackling the raging fires. Ecco can be seen here as well through one of the windows.
  • Graveyard Gig features one boss from each of the main four House of the Dead games: The Hangedman (HotD), the Tower (2), Death (3) and the Lovers (4). Also, look on your right as you pass through the church near the end of the final lap and you can see Zobio and Zobiko's wedding.
  • The Golden Axe character selection skeleton appears as the signature monument of Adder's Lair. Other cameos include a large statue of Death Adder, the dragon used for one of the full screen attacks in the game and one of these potion-stealing elves.
  • Graffiti City features several GG members such as Yoyo dancing on the track.
  • Dream Valley features three bosses from the original NiGHTS game in the "Nightmare" sections. Gillwing appears on Lap 1, Puffy on Lap 2, and Wizeman on Lap 3.
  • Dragon Canyon has the Shelcoof from Zwei and Saga flying in the background.
  • The guy who waves the flag in OutRun 2 can be spotted near the starting line in OutRun Bay.
  • Chick Poacher, Rolly Roll, and Bantam appear in the crowd at Chilly Castle.
  • Quite of a few characters cameo as stickers, such as Billy Hatcher, Silver the Hedgehog, and even Taro Sega (from Segagaga).
  • Be in first place as you begin the final lap on Race of Ages and you'll see Segata Sanshiro riding the rocket from his last commercial while holding a Sega Saturn.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: AiAi isn't playable or shown in the app version.
• Console Cameo
  • Avatar's car is modeled after the Xbox 360 slim console. The 360 controller is even the steering wheel.
  • AGES' boat form is a Dreamcast controller with a motor in the VMU slot. AGES even makes the grinding sound the Dreamcast disc drive makes when he crashes in this form.
• Convection, Schmonvection: The Golden Axe track has the racers boat over scorching hot lava. This is promptly more ridiculous with NiGHTS and Reala, because they are the vehicle!
• Conveniently Empty Roads: One of the race tracks called Graffiti City (set in Tokyo-to from Jet Set Radio) plays this straight. Parts of the track are set on stretches of highway that contain no civilian traffic at all, despite looping around the busy heart of the city and the Rokkaku Police showing up in helicopters to interfere with the race by destroying parts of the highway in the final lap. Given the presence of steamroller vehicles on the highway as obstacles though, it's implied that it's under construction and not accessible to the public, effectively justifying the race.
• Cool Airship: Rogues' Landing is filled with these, but the Delphinus is definitely the crowning example. Dragon's Canyon also has the Shelcoof.
• Cool Versus Awesome: A sky pirate versus a ninja versus monkeys versus super fast hedgehogs versus...
• Composite Character:
  • AGES, who can morph into the Hornet stock car, a F-14 Tomcat, and a Dreamcast controller speedboat. For its map icon and at the winner's podium, AGES is shown to be a (smiling) Dreamcast VMU.
  • The PC exclusive Team Fortress 2, which combines three different characters from Team Fortress 2 in a single vehicle. Who drives the vehicle depends on what it is (the Pyro drives the car, the Heavy drives the boat, and the Spy drives the plane).
• Creator Cameo:
  • The Avatar and Mii's voice clips were provided by Steve Lycett, the game's producer.
  • The chanting for each character when they do well in races was done by SUMO Digital employees.
  • The Football Manager is voiced by Football Manager director Miles Jacobson.
• Cultural Translation: The Japanese version of the game, which released after the western version, replaces the blowfish powerup with a Garbage Puyo powerup, which functions the same. The announcer is also dubbed by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, best known as the composer and singer for Daytona USA.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • The announcer doesn't comment on the race anymore, he just calls out the items you get or if someone goes All-Star.
  • Big the Cat sits this race out, but he can be seen fishing in Ocean View.
  • Zobio and Zobiko are also sitting out, for they're getting married in Graveyard Gig on the day of the race.
  • Billy Hatcher went from being a playable character to a sticker.
  • The Race Of Ages track features hologram statues of Mobo and Robo, Ryo Hazuki, Akira Yuki, Opa-Opa and the Chuchus, who were all racers in the first game. Ryo later returned as DLC for the PC version, however.
• Easter Egg: If you play around with the audio options, the announcer praises or scolds you depending if you turn him up or down.
• Expy: Race of Ages is one to Mario Kart's Rainbow Road even more than the previous game's equivalent, Sunshine Tour. It takes place primarily on a rail-free, thin, twisting road in a neon-colored cyberspace.
• Explosive Overclocking: Invoked with the Hot Rod powerup, which is essentially an ersatz version of the Boost powerup. When first activated, it slaps a giant yellow engine on the back of your vehicles, then immediately sets it to full power. At the start, it provides a level 1 boost, but as the tachometer on the back (which conveniently doubles as a five-second timer) gets into the yellow, then red sections, it gives a level two and three boost, respectively. Where the "explosive" part comes in is that when activated a second time, it literally explodes, creating a blast-wave that blows aside other racers and stuns/slows them significantly. The former effect is especially nasty on Galactic Parade, as even a relatively weak blast could knock a car clean off the track. Subverted, however, if you let it overload, or someone attacks you while it's active, in which case it'll simply collapse instead of exploding, stunning you in the process.
• Fake Difficulty:
  • Curien Curves, the Curien Mansion Drift Challenge, involves staircase ramps that cause you to launch away from the drift tracks and requires you to see the red tracks in rooms with red floors and lights.
  • Performing transform boost combos with the Football Manager is a bit trickier than every other character because his vehicle transforming animation briefly obscures him inside a giant soccer ball/European football, making it difficult to nail the timing of his stunts without wiping out post-transformation. The lack of visual feedback means you'll have get the timing down during his tranformations mentally through some trial-and-error.
• Flawless Victory: Completing a lap without wiping out or getting hit by an item will have the announcer shout "Clean lap!" as you cross the finish line.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: NiGHTS and Reala enter the race with themselves as their vehicles. Granted, they do have drivers—in this case, a Nightopian and a Goodle Nightmaren.
• Flanderization: Most of Ralph's dialogue consists of him wanting to get a medal and "Top Shelf!" (a line he only said once in the movie).
• Guest Fighter: Professional NASCAR racer Danica Patrick, Ralph from Disney's Wreck-It Ralph; the Pyro, Heavy, and Spy from Team Fortress 2^note Those three are one character collectively labelled as "Team Fortress." How is that possible, you ask? In their case, it's not just the vehicle that transforms, it's the driver too. and Simon Lane of the Yogscast as racers.
• Hammer and Sickle Removed for Your Protection: As the Willemus update coincided with Company of Heroes 2 facing a counterattack in Russia over its depiction of the Soviet Union massive enough that Russian retailers are bailing out on that game, General Winter has since been bowdlerized during that update to have all Soviet imagery removed from him (except for his All-Star move, oddly enough). Witness.◊
• High-Altitude Battle:
  • Rogue's Landing (from Skies of Arcadia) has the Blue Rogues vs. the Valuan Armada battling it out in airships all around a series of floating islands. It's so chaotic that the track gets decimated by quite a bit.
  • Carrier Zone (from After Burner) also has this with jet fighters.
  • Near the end of the final lap on Dragon Canyon, several dragons can be seen attacking the Shelcoof.
• Holiday Mode: Alex Kidd automatically and permanently unlocks once the system's date is set to December 25, 2012 or later. This effectively makes him a starter character on the PC and 3DS versions, released in 2013. As a tie-in, he wears a Christmas-themed suit instead of his usual clothes.
• Hub City: According to supplementary material, Rogue's Landing is this for the air pirates in Skies of Arcadia, but due to Transformed lacking bios in this game like the first one had, you wouldn't know that just by looking at it (the name might be a bit of a giveaway, though).
• Ink-Suit Actor: Willemus is pretty much◊ a Roman version of Creative Assembly employee Will Overgard.
• Interface Screw:
  • In the Race of Ages, the radar that normally gives you an overhead view of the track is jammed for the entire race. Given the way the track twists, turns, and morphs during laps, it would probably look odd.
  • The Twister item flips your controls for a certain amount of time or until you crash.
• Irony: Beat, the main protagonist of Jet Set Radio, uses "Grace and Glory" for his All-Star theme. In JSR, "Grace and Glory" is the theme of the main antagonist.
• It's Always Spring: Seasonal Shrines, the Shinobi course, averts this by changing seasons each lap.
• Jack of All Stats: While vehicle mods allow most racers to be this to a degree, NiGHTS stands out as their stats remain mostly balanced no matter which mod is equipped. In fact, NiGHTS' specialty mod is the Balance Mod.
• Lampshade Hanging: Even Ralph wonders why Sonic needs a car.
• Land, Sea, Sky: The main gimmick that separates this game from its predecessor (and most racers outside of maybe Mario Kart 7 and 8). You can race on land, in boats, or in the sky.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The first lap of Rogue's Landing is very adventurous and heroic. And then the Valuan Armada shows up in Lap 2, causing things to take a distressed and frantic tone as they attack the Blue Rogues. It reverts back to the Lap 1 atmosphere for Lap 3 when the Blue Rogues begin to turn the tide of the battle, however.
  • Dream Valley: You're flying through a cheerful, whimsical dream world for the first part of the track, and then you fly through downright creepy nightmares.
• Musical Nod: Richard Jacques scored the soundtrack for Transformed. A few of the in-game songs are remixes of tracks he composed previously, such as "Super Sonic Racing" and "Back in Time" from Sonic R, and "Everybody Jump Around" from Jet Set Radio. The "Splash Wave" remix for OutRun Bay also nods to his earlier remix from OutRun 2.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Like the first All-Stars, the red JSRF logo from that game's beta is used, though its appearance in this game◊ more closely resembles its appearance in the◊ trailers.◊
  • Joe Musashi's design has a similar resemblance to his father Jiro from Shinobi (2011), particularly the mask.
• Nintendo Hard: This game is generally considered to be very challenging, with a difficulty level that approaches that of many older racing games like F-Zero GX! However, except for a select few missions, even the hardest difficulty level can be mitigated with situation-appropriate character choices and some practice, and the game's AI plays a lot more fair than its peers thanks to a lack of Rubber-Band A.I. and good item balance (every incoming weapon can be deflected or evaded in some manner).
• Nostalgia Level: The whole game is an epic nostalgia voyage through Sega's history.
  • Sunshine Tour, Shibuya Downtown, Roulette Road and Death Egg Hangar return from the previous game.
  • The Race of Ages is one big example, as it's basically a race track through a Sega museum.
• Oh, Crap!: Whenever a racer right next to you gets their All-Star.
• Original Generation: Somewhat with AGES, a living Dreamcast VMU.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Shadow seems oddly peppy here in general, even going as far as to stand up in his seat (while his vehicle is still in motion), turn around, and happily bow if he muscles his way into 1st Place during a race.
• Promoted to Playable: NiGHTS, who was the flagbearer in the previous game, is made playable as an unlockable vehicle, being replaced by Ristar.
• Sdrawkcab Name: AGES is Sega backwards.
• Sigil Spam: The Football Manager's vehicles are plastered with the logo of Football Manager developer Sports Interactive.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • The All-Star Moves with their Background Music Override make a lot of situations this, such as Ulala's and Amy's All-Star Music playing on tracks like Rogue's Landing and Adder's Lair.
  • The music for Burning Depths is a cheesy, funky 90s Title Theme Tune that plays on a track that features fires exploding everywhere, water levels constantly rising and aquatic life in peril. But as you might expect, it works very well.
• Spiritual Successor: Transformed is one to Blur thanks to the work of Gareth Wilson, former lead designer at Bizarre Creations. This becomes a pretty ironic case of "if you can't beat them, join them" when one considers Blur's infamous commercial dissing mascot racers like All-Stars Racing Transformed...
• Spiteful A.I.:
  • The opponent racers can be vicious, especially on S-Class. Taken a step further for multiplayer races where the AI, for some odd reason, will only focus on Player 1 and will never attack the other players unless it happens by accident.
  • The traffic challenge has variants of the trope; yellow cars swerve all over the road to make it difficult for you to stay on an optimal path and blue/police cars will purposely swerve into your path to block you.
• Stealth Pun:
  • The Spy pilots the team's airplane, essentially making him a spy plane. And the Pyro drives their car. You could say he drives a hot rod. The Heavy's boat has miniguns for turbines. He's driving a gunboat.
  • In Puffy's room in Dream Valley, there's a hidden Super Pickup that gives three blowfish, otherwise known as pufferfish.
  • The achievement for unlocking every on-disc character is named "Takes AGES"...
  • AGES' boat form is essentially a dreamboat.
  • Ages shuffling through SEGA references for his different transformations makes sense when you realize that he's a memory card.
• Stuff Blowing Up:
  • Explosions occur all over Burning Depths, particularly if you're in first place which is the trigger for the explosions as you drive through the track.
  • Rogue's Landing features a lot of explosions as well due to the battle between the Valuan Armada and the Blue Rogues.
• Suddenly Voiced: Mii and Avatar now speak gibberish, as opposed to being silent. The announcers also actually chatters about them too.
• Swap Fighter:
  • In the PC version, Team Fortress is a selectable racer with the driver changing based on what mode the vehicle is in. Pyro drives a car in land mode, Heavy maneuvers a boat in water mode, and Spy pilots a plane in aerial mode.
  • AGES, the final unlockable character in all versions of the game, also switches between various Sega references depending on vehicle modes. Car mode is the Hornet from Daytona USA, plane mode is the F-14 Tomcat from After Burner, and boat mode is a Console Cameo in the form of a Sega Dreamcast controller.
• Vehicle-Based Characterization: Each character has specific vehicles themed around their personalities and traits. To name a few, Sonic's vehicle is a sleek blue sports car befitting his free-spirited personality and desire to go fast, Beat's vehicle is a 4-wheeled ATV that reflects his nature as a rollerblading, graffiti-spraying Gang Banger, AiAi and Meemee's vehicles are themed around bananas to reflect their nature as monkeys, Amigo's vehicle is a toy train that shows off his playful personality for parties, and Vyse's vehicle is a Steampunk-esque car based on his airship The Delfinus, matching his nature as an adventurous Sky Pirate.
• Version-Exclusive Content:
  • Once again, Avatars and Miis are respectively avalible in the Xbox 360 and the Wii U/3DS versions.
  • The PC version has Team Fortress, Shogun, Football Manager, General Winter and Willemus in the base game, with Ryo Hazuki and Simon Lane being available as DLC.
• Visual Pun:
  • Appropriately enough considering the Product Placement on her vehicle, Danica Patrick's All-Star move consists of throwing Hot Wheels on the track... Literal Hot Wheels.
  • When a console mod is unlocked for certain characters, the icon reflects what "console" they originated from.
  • In JSRF, Professor K describes Gum as "a real cool lady who leaves a trail of broken hearts wherever she goes." In this game, Gum's All-Star attack involves her literally leaving a trail of broken hearts.
• Vocal Evolution: Vyse sounds very different from how his voice actor portrayed him in Skies of Arcadia. Justified in that the last time his actor voiced him was over a decade ago.
• The Voiceless: Amigo (once again), and AGES who responds via radio transmissions in car and plane modes, and in boat form communicates via sounds from the Dreamcast start-up menu, the VMU's low battery beep, the Dreamcast's notoriously loud disc reader sounds.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: DJ Professor K and Chris Parton update developments on the racing environment for the racers in their respective IP tracks.
• X-Ray Sparks: The result of driving through the electrical currents on the House of the Dead track, the laser grids on Race of AGES, or being attacked by Gillius or Metal Sonic's All-Star Move. They also reveal that Metal Sonic inexplicably has a skeleton, the Sonic characters have toe bones despite not having toes, Amigo's skull is rectangular because of his rectangle head, Shadow's quills are part of his skull, Ulala and Pudding have very slim and nice-looking bones, and Wreck-It Ralph has a gigantic skeleton because of his gigantic body structure. The Mii and Avatar avert this due to their customizable nature. Averted in the 3DS port, in which being shocked simply makes the player spin around instead.

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