WMG / Sega Superstars

Sega Superstars

There will be no more newcomers

• Highly demanded characters such as Vectorman, ToeJam & Earl, Phantom R, Hatsune Miku, Wonder Boy, and even Blaze the Cat have been deconfirmed. Reala is a full character, not a reskin. It's not likely Ristar or Bayonetta will feature either. I think the rest will all be returning from the first one.
  • Jossed - During the SUMO Digital panel at Play Expo in the UK, it was confirmed that not everyone from the first game will be returning, and some console exclusive characters were set to be announced in the weeks before release. It was also revealed that the final unlockable would something the fans would be very pleased with, and that Classic Sonic isn't in the game.
  • Lycett has recently confirmed that one of the characters listed above has been approved as potential DLC. However, Classic Sonic has been ruled out entirely, as the only condition that Sega would relent to putting him into the game alongside Modern Sonic would be if the game had a time travel element to justify his appearance a la Generations.

The rocket Segata Sanshiro rode to his death and in the Race of AGES was launched by Sony by proxy of Sackboy.

When we last saw Segata, he sacrificed his life to save the Dreamcast from a rocket launched by one of Sega's competitors, whose identities weren't disclosed. Given than LittleBigPlanet Karting is the direct competitor to to All-Stars Racing Transformed (so much that Sony denied Sega permission to use Sackboy as a Guest Fighter), it seems plausible that Sackboy took a tip from his masters years ago and attempted to blow up the race with the same rocket to achieve total market domination, only to be denied by the same person who foiled them before. Sackboy is a Not-So-Harmless Villain, is he? (... give or take that one time he attempted to befriend a Little Sister.)

In Transformed, Sonic is Turbo.

Presumably he followed Ralph out. It'd explain why he never leaves his kart and runs.

• Sonic can't swim or fly, he needs a vehicle to compete. Also, Turbo is dead.

Joe Musashi will ride on a motorized/mechanized Idaten from Shinobi III in the eventual third All-Stars Racing title.

What? Date Masamune isn't the only guy with the chops to ride on a motorhorse. Plus, with "Idaten" already being featured as half of the theme for Seasonal Shrines in Transformed, you'd figure its namesake would show too, right?

Similarly, Eggman will be riding his Drill Eggman from Emerald Hill Zone in Sonic 2 (sans the drill, maybe).

Honestly, I can't believe this hasn't happened yet. For bonus points, maybe it morphs into another one of Eggman's numerous boss vehicles for its All-Star.

Green and Seven Force will make an appearance in the next game.

Now, yes, Gunstar Heroes is a Treasure IP, but the original game was released on the Genesis and was featured as part of Sega's Sega Ages line of compilations and re-releases. And with the transforming vehicle mechanic introduced in Transformed, Seven Force is a no-brainer. All they have to do is scale it down a bit. By any means, it makes a bit more sense than say, Danica Patrick or the Team Fortress 2 crew.

The drivers of the Team Fortress car are all actually the Spy.

The vehicle transforms in either an explosion or a flash of light (both of which could conceal the Spy changing his disguise with the disguise kit). It would certainly explain why Heavy and Pyro don't sound like themselves, as the Spy could just be enjoying the adrenaline rush gained from the race a little too much to worry about keeping their voices as well as his own improbable accent straight.

Transformed will be the last game to feature, outside of a Classic Cup track, Seaside Hill as a locale.

Regardless of Heroes' somewhat mixed reception among the fanbase (personally, I actually liked it), the resurgence of Seaside Hill (and by proxy, Ocean Palace) in more recent Sonic titles comes across as a bit odd. It has this weird form of Wolverine Publicity going for it: Seaside Hill had three courses in the first All-Stars Racing and another in Transformed, not to mention a winter variant was featured in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and Seaside Hill was used as the representative for its game in Sonic Generations. Granted, it has yet to be milked to death in the same way Green Hill Zone has, but it runs the risk of doing so, especially since Seaside Hill is the GHZ throwback level of Heroes (mixed in with Palmtree Panic, but the inspiration should be readily apparent). Even if every track has to feature at least two of the three vehicle types, there are certainly more interesting choices across the board: Angel Island Zone, Launch Base Zone, Flying Battery Zone, Lava Reef Zone, Sky Deck, Metal Harbor, Grand Metropolis, Egg Fleet, Cool Edge, Dragon Road, Aquarium Park... The list goes on and on, and that's not even getting into the handheld titles or other spin-offs. Sega and Sumo had to have realized this if they were willing to include Sky Sanctuary and Starlight Carnival in Transformed.

• Jossed. Whale Lagoon, Lost Palace and Ocean View return in Team Sonic Racing with a fresh coat of paint and fresh remixes and parts of the story mode explicitly take place at Seaside Hill. The tracks taking place in Casino Park and Final Fortress also get brought back alongside Seaside Hill to make up roughly half of the tracklist.

PS3-exclusive characters

• Kazuma Kiryu: He remains one of the only PS3-exclusive Sega characters, and the Yakuza fanbase is still a sizable one. The only problem would be his vehicle, since we already have a taxi driver (BD Joe), but you never know, as the Yakuza games run on Mundane Made Awesome.
• A team consisting of Ratchet & Clank, Jak and Daxter and Sly Cooper. They fit the cartoony style of most of the Sega titles, and are closely associated with each other. Realistically, Jak would handle the land vehicle, Ratchet the plane and Sly the boat.

Nintendo will eventually get a guest racer, but it won't be Mario.

The Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games titles are the reason Mario didn't make it into Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing in spite of the game being a perfect fit for the Mario Kart alum. However, he's not the only Nintendo character (first or second-party) to have their own racing game. As sorely tempting as it'd to be to say, "Put Captain Falcon in the game!", him riding in the Blue Falcon would be akin to Sonic actually getting out of his car on the land-based tracks and running on foot unless you shoved him in a go-kart version of the F-Zero machine (a la Wii and 8) and gave it the ability to transform (which would be amusing to see in action). Diddy had his own racing game with three distinct vehicle types (each corresponding to the types found Transformed quite well) and Wario has his own muscle car (best seen in Wario Land 4 and Double Dash!!), making them both feasible options. Personally, I'd bank on Kirby. I'd assume that the Warp Star and most of the Air Ride Machines from Kirby Air Ride would be relegated to All-Star Move status if implemented, but the problem of the Wheelie Bike being only a land vehicle could be circumvented by sticking Kirby on a metallic-looking Air Ride Machine (particularly the Dragoon or Hydra) or in the Starship/Star Chariot/Star Shooter, and then giving that vehicle transforming abilities (you could even make the car mode a mechanized Wheelie Bike). In the case of the Dragoon/Hydra, you'd even get "Legendary Air Ride Machine" as the All-Star Move theme. Even better, Lycett said that if they had asked Nintendo for an exclusive character in the Wii U version, their pick would've been Kirby.

There'll be a Super Smash Bros.-like game eventually

Sega has more than enough characters to make one. They already have racing and tennis games, a fighter won't be absurd. Sony made PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale so it's not like it'd be seen as too ripoff-ish.

Axel and/or Blaze will find their way onto the next racer's cast of playable characters.

Not much to explain here. SoR is one of the more notable Sega IPs that, oddly enough, has yet to be included in the series (same goes for Phantasy Star, which at least has been considered for both character and track representation in past titles). It's only fitting that their All-Star Move would somehow include the allied squad car from the original game, complete with the driver's rocket launcher-toting, napalm-firing wingman.

Mishaela from Shining Force will be in the next game.

She's a somewhat notable character (and villain) from a long-running Sega series yet to be included in the Sega Superstars titles. Her chances are about as good as anyone else's. For bonus points, Mishaela's appearance would be updated to resemble the unnamed Sorceress from Wreck-It Ralph, since many presumed that's who the Sorceress was supposed to be in the first place.

Banjo and Kazooie went Turbo.

They felt that Nuts & Bolts was their last adventure.

And then they died outside and thus is why they were never seen again.

Alex Kidd hates everyone else in the game.

Especially Sonic, who he feels robbed him of his stardom. His goal in these games is vengeance. He feels that if Sega had kept him as the mascot they'd still be making consoles today and he would have defeated Mario (he's generally alone in that opinion). And the reason he seems skinnier now is because he's been starving without work for over twenty years.

Danica Patrick is trapped in the Sega world.

Dr. Eggman brought her into the Sega world using the Master Emerald so that she would beat Sonic, and now she's stuck there.

Sonic drives a car because it's only fair.

If he got out of his car and ran, he'd lap everyone and finish the race before anybody reached their second lap. But he's too good of a sport to do that. Shadow drives a car because he wants to defeat Sonic fair and square, without cheating.

Initial D

Why not? Takumi Fujiwara is competent enough to race against other racers. And here's his dad, Bunta, who's Jack of All Stats.

• Rin "Shinigami" Hojo would be an insane bet too.

If the series ever makes a comeback, there will be a full-on sports game.

In 1995, Sega had planned to release a game called Sonic Sports for the Sega 32X. Sonic Sports would have been similar to Tiny Toon Adventures: ACME All-Stars for the Sega Genesis, as it would have featured such sporting events as Basketball, Soccer, and Volleyball. Characters planned for the game were Sonic, Tails, and Ristar the Shooting Star. Unfortunately, due to the 32X's commercial failure, the game was scrapped. However, Sega has revisited the concept of having crossover games with this series of games, with the latest being made in 2012. If the series were to make a comeback with one more game, it could revisit the concept of the cancelled Sonic Sports game by adding all of the planned sporting events and characters, plus some new characters, as well as modern graphics and music.