History YMMV / SonicR

** Metal Knuckles is a surprisingly popular villain for someone who only appeared once in the entire series; due to his cool design, being the strongest character in the game next to [[PurposefullyOverpowered Super Sonic]] (as elaborated on below), and [[FanficFuel his sheer potential for being elaborated upon]]. He eventually made a surprise return to the games in ''VideoGame/SonicSuperstars''.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: '''The entire soundtrack.''' And for those who cannot ''stand'' the [[SoBadItsGood lyrics]], the instrumental version of each song is still pretty good:

** No matter if you do the previous challenge or not, taking [[LowTierLetdown Amy]] to complete the game at 100% is a challenge by itself, as she needs to take a special road to get a token which is only accessible by jumping on a spring. You can spice up the challenge '''even more''' by setting the weather on cold ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOl7p09Bg6A&ab_channel=Zwataketa%28LoganHolt%29 as this player did]]), which freezes the water and makes the road slippery, stripping her from her rare advantages.

** A bug makes the Metal Knuckles race a complete joke, as the robot hits some walls starts turning around at some point (can be seen in this video [[https://youtu.be/ig5Ji2j3B2s?t=230 this video]]).

** A bug makes the Metal Knuckles race a complete joke, as the robot hits some walls starts turning around at some point (at 3:50 on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig5Ji2j3B2s&ab_channel=ABlob this video]]).

** Metal Knuckles is a surprisingly popular villain for someone who only appeared once in the entire series; due to his cool design, being the strongest character in the game next to [[PurposefullyOverpowered Super Sonic]] (as elaborated on below), and [[FanficFuel his sheer potential for being elaborated upon]].

* LowTierLetdown: Amy, Eggman, and Eggrobo are generally considered by most players to be the worst characters in the game due to having overall poor stats, mostly-useless special abilities and being unable to jump. Their only redeeming factor is being able to drive on the surface of water... which becomes a moot point when all of the other {{Secret Character}}s can do that anyway while still retaining the ability to jump and use their other mobility options. Many have commented that Amy in particular would have worked far better simply racing on foot, instead of [[TheAllegedCar chugging around in her slow, clunky jalopy]]. (However, Amy's Turbo Boost comes with the mere advantage in speedrunning for clipping out of bounds to lap around a small area to complete laps in mere seconds.)

* VindicatedByHistory: Not the game itself, which has always been considered SoOkayItsAverage, but the soundtrack. Back in the 2000s, the music was infamous for how cheesy and screamingly '90s it was; "Can You Feel the Sunshine?" was the biggest target, being considered a punchline at best and a MadnessMantra associated with the Tails Doll creepypastas at worst. As time went on and its '90s synthpop sound had a nostalgic reappraisal, the soundtrack is now considered easily the best part of the game, due to its catchy melodies and TJ Davis's soulful performance. While the music [[SoundtrackDissonance doesn't really fit the gameplay at all]], this is generally understood to be a problem unrelated to the music itself.

* SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming: Say what you will about the quality of the gameplay, but the visuals of this game are spectacular for the platform. It features full 3D graphics, something that was very difficult to achieve on the Saturn, along with several graphical effects that were thought to be flat-out impossible on the hardware (due to the Saturn lacking hardware acceleration for said features). One of the game's developers has a [=YouTube=] channel called [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfVFSjHQ57zyxajhhRc7i0g GameHut]] where he details how this was achieved, with several effects achieved through clever use of the Saturn's many sub-processor chips, some careful juggling of color palettes to create a fading render effect to prevent crude polygonal pop-up, and the careful use of mirrored textures to produce the shiny metallic effect.

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Doing the final race -- Radiant Emerald -- as [[SecretCharacter Super Sonic]]. There's just something so exhilarating about racing through the game's most beautiful course with [[GameBreaker its strongest character]] against its best opposition, with ''[[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic "Super Sonic Racing"]]''[[note]][[EasterEgg which replaces "Diamond in the Sky" when you're Super Sonic]][[/note]] triumphantly blasting all the while. If you're doing well, the pitch change syncs perfectly with the final lap. Better still, Metal Sonic is capable of catching up to you at the last few turns, often leading to a brief but very intense showdown to clutch out the victory.

* NarmCharm: Many find the cheesiness of the soundtrack to be ''why'' it's so endearing.

** Setting the difficulty on Hard is a self-imposed challenge by itself, as all [=NPCs=] seem to be unstoppable.

** "Super Sonic Racing" [[BootstrappedTheme has become so heavily associated with the franchise]] that it's up there with Green Hill Zone as one of the most iconic ''Sonic'' tracks, going on to see use not only in other racing spin-offs like ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sonic & All-Stars Racing]]'' and ''VideoGame/TeamSonicRacing'', but ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', [[MilestoneCelebration the series' 20th anniversary celebration]]. It's even been used once or twice as a general anthem for Sonic and the ''Sonic'' series similarly to tracks like [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 "Live and Learn"]] or [[VideoGame/SonicColors "Reach for the Stars"]]. All the more impressive considering it comes from a spin-off largely considered to be mediocre at best.

* SoOkayItsAverage: The general consensus of the game. It's perfectly playable, but the short length, clunky controls, and repetitiveness are the major flaws that really detract from the overall experience.

** [[AstralFinale Radiant Emerald]] deserves special mention. In the Saturn version, the ''entire'' track is translucent, which really sells the idea that the track is located within a Chaos Emerald. The PC version loses out on the translucent effect thanks to technical limitations, but more than makes up for it by bathing the entire track in so many rainbow lighting effects that the entire thing looks like a giant discothèque, essentially making it the ''Sonic'' version of [[VideoGame/MarioKart Rainbow Road]]. In 2019, the modding community, however, managed to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me6k8VPtFTI bring back]] the original translucent effects from the Saturn version back to the PC port [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs while using its own]] [[SceneryPorn rainbow lighting effects]].

* SignatureSong:

* VindicatedByHistory: Not the game itself, which has always been considered SoOkayItsAverage, but the soundtrack. Back in the 2000s, the music was infamous for how cheesy and screamingly '90s it was; "Can You Feel the Sunshine?" was the biggest target, being considered a punchline at best and a MadnessMantra associated with the Tails Doll creepypastas at worst. As time has gone on and its '90s synthpop sound has had a nostalgic reappraisal, the soundtrack is now considered easily the best part of the game, due to its catchy melodies and TJ Davis's soulful performance. While the music [[SoundtrackDissonance doesn't really fit the gameplay at all]], this is generally understood to be a problem unrelated to the music itself.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKeTuZ-zoeA Livin' in the City]]" is classic '90s techno-pop that sounds like something straight out of ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'', or ''[[Literature/DirtyPair Dirty Pair Flash]]''.

** The credits theme, "Number One". It manages to mix the Europop theme, romantic lyrics that manage to come off as mostly genuine rather than cheesy with a swinging horn section to make a track that's both incredibly triumphant and surprisingly sincere.
* BootstrappedTheme: Weirdly enough considering it comes from a spin-off largely considered to be mediocre at best, but the track "Super Sonic Racing" has become so heavily associated with the franchise that it's up there with Green Hill Zone as [[SignatureSong one of the most iconic Sonic tracks]]. It's even been used once or twice as a general anthem for Sonic and the ''Sonic'' series similarly to tracks like [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 "Live and Learn"]] or [[VideoGame/SonicUnleashed "Reach for the Stars"]].

** Radiant Emerald's theme is "Diamond in the Sky". In 2012, Music/{{Rihanna}} would release "Diamonds", which has the lyric "diamonds in the sky."

* SoBadItsGood: The lyrics to ''every single song''. The music itself is also strangely unfitting given the racing theme of the game, and it's awesome.

* SweetnessAversion: The lyrics to "Can You Feel the Sunshine" come across as blissfully unaware to how obnoxiously saccharine they really are.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY9m2sHQwLs Can You Feel the Sunshine?]]" is one of the most integral parts about ''Sonic R'', to the point that it got an official [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ke1Toz8Nbc Special Remix]].

** "[[https://youtu.be/xAeBXh25NiQ Back in Time]]" was so beloved that a [[https://youtu.be/ZXYzGxyrkjA?t=67 remixed version]] was made for the second half of Sanctuary Falls' theme in ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed]]''. The flute music sample was also used for the ''[[https://youtu.be/q9V363tCcHU Jungle Joyride]]'' stage in ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed''.

* BootstrappedTheme: Weirdly enough considering it comes from a spin off largely considered to be mediocre at best, but the track ''Super Sonic Racing'' has become so heavily associated with the franchise that it's up there with Green Hill Zone as one of the most iconic Sonic tracks. It's even been used once or twice as a general anthem for Sonic and the Sonic series similarly to tracks like ''Live and Learn'' or ''Reach for the Stars.''

* GameBreaker: With his perfect-across-the-board stats, Super Sonic is capable of winning any race with ease once unlocked. Metal Knuckles comes a close second in this regard: being very fast yet controllable, capable of moving on water, and having a wicked glide that puts the original Knuckles' to shame.

** Radiant Emerald's theme is "Diamond in the Sky". In 2012, Music/{{Rihanna}} would release "Diamonds", which has the lyric "diamonds in the sky".

* LowTierLetdown: Amy, Eggman, and Eggrobo are generally considered by most players to be the worst characters in the game due to having overall poor stats, mostly-useless special abilities and being unable to jump. Their only redeeming factor is being able to drive on the surface of water... which becomes a moot point when all of the other {{Secret Character}}s can do that anyway while still retaining the ability to jump and use their other mobility options. Many have commented that Amy in particular would have worked far better simply racing on foot, instead of [[TheAllegedCar chugging around in her slow, clunky jalopy]].
** However, Amy's Turbo Boost comes with the mere advantage in speedrunning for clipping out of bounds to lap around a small area to complete laps in mere seconds.

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Doing the final race -- Radiant Emerald -- as [[SecretCharacter Super Sonic]]. There's just something so exhilarating about racing through the game's most beautiful course with [[GameBreaker its strongest character]] against its best opposition, with ''[[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic "Super Sonic Racing"]]''[[note]]which [[EasterEgg replaces "Diamond in the Sky" when you're Super Sonic]][[/note]] triumphantly blasting all the while. If you're doing well, the pitch change syncs perfectly with the final lap. Better still, Metal Sonic is capable of catching up to you at the last few turns, often leading to a brief but very intense showdown to clutch out the victory.

** To complete the game at 100 percent, you have to get 5 tokens to unlock the robot characters, and 1 or 2 Chaos Emeralds per level to unlock Super Sonic. While you can do both quests separately, you can also do both at the same time, making races like Reactive Factory even more difficult.

** Setting the difficulty on Hard is a self-imposed challenge by itself, as all [=NPC=]s seem to be unstoppable.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Despite being SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome most of the time, there's one example of this to be found. The game is notable for being one of the few Sega Saturn games to have silky smooth fade-in draw distance rendering thanks to a special transparency algorithm. However, the final track of the game, Radiant Emerald (in the Saturn version) locks the draw distance algorithm to a certain point regardless of the actual distance in order to create a nifty transparency effect across the entire track. The end result is a stunning looking gem-like translucence... with distant chunks of the level simply popping into existence as they draw near because the fade-in effect to mask it is effectively broken.

** [[AstralFinale Radiant Emerald]] deserves special mention. In the Saturn version, the ''entire'' track is translucent, which really sells the idea that the track is located within a Chaos Emerald. The PC version loses out on the translucent effect thanks to technical limitations, but more than makes up for it by bathing the entire track in so many rainbow lighting effects that the entire thing looks like a giant discothèque, essentially making it the ''Sonic'' version of [[VideoGame/MarioKart Rainbow Road]]. In 2019, the modding community, however, managed to [[https://youtu.be/Me6k8VPtFTI bring back]] the original translucent effects from the Saturn version back to the PC port [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs while using its own]] [[SceneryPorn rainbow lighting effects]].

* VindicatedByHistory: Not the game itself, which has always been considered SoOkayItsAverage, but the soundtrack. Back in the 2000s, the music was infamous for how cheesy and screamingly '90s it was; "Can You Feel the Sunshine?" was the most infamous, being considered a punchline at best and a MadnessMantra associated with the Tails Doll creepypastas at worst. As time has gone on and its '90s synthpop sound has had a nostalgic reappraisal, the soundtrack is now considered easily the best part of the game, due to its catchy melodies and TJ Davis's soulful performance. While the music [[SoundtrackDissonance doesn't really fit the gameplay at all]], this is generally understood to be a problem unrelated to the music itself.

* VindicatedByHistory: Not the game itself, which has always been considered SoOkayItsAverage, but the soundtrack. Back in the 2000s, the music was infamous for how cheesy and screamingly '90s it was; "Can You Feel the Sunshine?" was the most infamous, being considered a punchline at best and a MadnessMantra associated with the Tails Doll creepypastas at worst. As time has gone on and its '90s synthpop sound has had a nostalgic reappraisal, the soundtrack is now considered easily the best part of the game, due to its catchy melodies and soulful performance by TJ Davis. While the music [[SoundtrackDissonance doesn't really fit the gameplay at all]], this is generally understood to be a problem unrelated to the music itself.

* BootstrappedTheme: Weirdly enough considering it comes from a spin off largely considered to be mediocre at best, but the track ''Super Sonic Racing'' has become so heavily associated with the franchise that it's up there with Green Hills Zone as one of the most iconic Sonic tracks. It's even been used once or twice as a general anthem for Sonic and the Sonic series similarly to tracks like ''Live and Learn'' or ''Reach for the Stars.''

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKeTuZ-zoeA Livin' in the City]]" is classic '90s techno-pop that sounds like something straight out of ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'', or ''[[LightNovel/DirtyPair Dirty Pair Flash]]''.

** The songs are goofy as hell, yet TJ Davis sings them with the utmost passion and conviction.

* MemeticPsychopath: For some strange reason, the Tails Doll has gotten this reputation in fanfiction.

* PolishedPort: The PC and ''Gems Collection'' versions give characters less slippery movement, in addition to better resolution and different weather effects, and split-screen multiplayer now handling up to four players. There was a much rarer 2004 re-release of the PC version in select countries that sadly loses the online multiplayer features from the 1998 release and graphical options, but it has better compatibility on XP and later Windows system.

* FridgeBrilliance: Tails Doll's existence as, well, an evil doll rather than a proper robot. Unlike Sonic and Knuckles, who Eggman has actual grudges with, he likely considers Tails JustAKid who he only really opposes because he's Sonic's {{sidekick}}.

* MemeticBadass: For some strange reason, the Tails Doll has gotten this reputation in fanfiction.

* BootstrappedTheme: Weirdly enough considering it comes from a spin off largely considered to be mediocre at best, but the track 'Super Sonic Racing' has become so heavily associated with the franchise that it's up there with Green Hills Zone as one of the most iconic Sonic tracks.

* ItsShortSoItSucks: Most of the poor reviews the game received were not due to the gameplay, which seemed effective enough, but with only five quick courses, you could cap the game off in less than an hour.

** To complete the game at 100 percent, you have to get 5 tokens to unlock robot characters, and 1 or 2 Chaos Emeralds per level to unlock Radiant Emerald. While you can do both quests separately, you can also do both at the same time, making races like Reactive Factory even more difficult.

** No matter if you do the previous challenge or not, taking [[TierInducedScrappy Amy]] to complete the game at 100% is a challenge by itself, as she needs to take a special road to get a token which is only accessible by jumping on a spring. You can spice up the challenge '''even more''' by setting the weather on cold ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOl7p09Bg6A&ab_channel=Zwataketa%28LoganHolt%29 as this player did]]), which freezes the water and makes the road slippery, stripping her from her rare advantages.

* TierInducedScrappy: Amy, Eggman, and Eggrobo are generally considered by most players to be the worst characters in the game due to having overall poor stats, mostly-useless special abilities and being unable to jump. Their only redeeming factor is being able to drive on the surface of water... which becomes a moot point when all of the other {{Secret Character}}s can do that anyway while still retaining the ability to jump and use their other mobility options. Many have commented that Amy in particular would have worked far better simply racing on foot, instead of [[TheAllegedCar chugging around in her slow, clunky jalopy]].
** However, Amy's Turbo Boost comes with the mere advantage in speedrunning for clipping out of bounds to lap around a small area to complete laps in mere seconds.

* SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming: Say what you will about the quality of the gameplay, but the visuals of this game are spectacular for the platform. It features full 3D graphics, something that was very difficult to achieve on the Saturn, along with several graphical effects that were thought to be flat-out impossible on the hardware (due to the Saturn lacking hardware acceleration for said features). One of the game's developers has a [=YouTube=] channel called [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfVFSjHQ57zyxajhhRc7i0g GameHut]] where he details how this was achieved, with several effects achieved through clever use of the Saturn's many sub-processor chips, some careful juggling of colour palettes to create a fading render effect to prevent crude polygonal pop-up, and the careful use of mirrored textures to produce the shiny metallic effect.

* TierInducedScrappy: Amy, Eggman and Eggrobo are generally considered by most players to be the worst characters in the game due to having overall poor stats, mostly-useless special abilities and being unable to jump. Their only redeeming factor is being able to drive on the surface of water... which becomes a moot point when all of the other {{Secret Character}}s can do that anyway while still retaining the ability to jump and use their other mobility options. Many have commented that Amy in particular would have worked far better simply racing on foot, instead of [[TheAllegedCar chugging around in her slow, clunky jalopy]].

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** The entire soundtrack. And for those who cannot ''stand'' the [[SoBadItsGood lyrics]], the instrumental version of each song is still pretty good.

* NightmareFuel: [[EldritchAbomination Tails Doll]]. There's a reason why there are so many creepypastas about him.

* SelfImposedChallenge:

*** You can make this challenge ''even harder'' by taking [[TierInducedScrappy Amy]], who needs to take special roads to get a token which is only accessible by jumping on a spring. You can spice up the challenge '''even more''' by setting the weather on cold ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOl7p09Bg6A&ab_channel=Zwataketa%28LoganHolt%29 as this player did]]), which freezes the water and makes the road slipery, stripping her from her rare advantages.