Sumo Digital have clarified that despite similarities, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed isn’t inspired by the new direction Nintendo undertook for Mario Kart 7.
Unveiled by SEGA last week, the game sees a cast of characters race within unique vehicles capable of transforming between cars, planes and boats.
“It was quite funny, right,” Sumo Digital producer Jem Lee began explaining to GamesTM. “We were sitting in a meeting room at work watching the E3 conferences and Nintendo came on and we all wondered if they’d be doing a new Mario Kart.
“Then they had a montage of things and you had a kart sprout wings, and we all looked around the room, and then you saw a car go into water and we were all like ‘no f***ing way!'”
He continued, “But then they went into each one in depth, and although it’s kind of flying, it’s more falling with style because we’d discussed something similar to that in pre-production, as we were trying to work out how to get these three modes in. We called it falling with style, as you’re always falling but you have some choice.
“Whereas the driving under water… that’s not boating. So what they have is a kart game with additive options, which are really well built on and add to the experience, but we’ve gone away with that in what we were doing.
“There will be a few people who think we’re copying them but no, we’ve been making this game for 18 months,” Lee clarified. “But that’s the nature of it and we feel confident from watching people play it and hearing opinions that people are really enjoying it, especially the freedom of flying and that the boating is actually quite challenging to do. It’s a different game.”
It has also been hinted by the studio that a Wii U version may be on the way.
Sumo Digital: SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed isn’t copying Mario Kart 7
