Team Sonic is a game made by Sumo Digital, the same company behind the Sonic and All-Stars series. However, despite being okay, this game is flawed before it reached the starting line.
In the main mode, Team Adventure, Team Sonic meets Team Rose while the latter is having a picnic. After Sonic tells Amy about a mysterious invitation he, Tails, and Knuckles got, a tanuki named Dodan Pa appears and gives Team Sonic vehicles he made. This makes Amy suspicious, but she, Big, and Omochao (who replaces Cream because Sega made the stupid decision that she was too young to be driving, and I say it's stupid since most of the roster is not of the legal driving age, as well as the Mario Kart series allowing baby characters to race). As the story progresses, more teams are added, like Vector, who enters after hearing of a cash prize and gets Blaze and Silver (the two characters who are more likely to not team up with the crocodile for noble reasons) to join him, Team Dark, who are there to investigate, and Team Eggman (Team Robotnik to me, as Eggman was a stupid change that never should have happened), who plots something sinister.
In this game, it's racing like Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing and its sequel, Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed, only the roster is Sonic characters only. Also, the mechanics are changed to where races are done as a team. Each character is put in a team of three, with each team member driving a different vehicle based on a type (speed, technique, or power). Here, getting top position with your character alone is not going to be enough to win a cup, as you need to use teamwork with the other two members of the team your character is on to get them in high positions, as the better each teammate scores, the more points the team earns.
As a result, you have a lot of options for aiding you allies. One notable change is the ability to transfer items (which are the wisp abilities) to teammates who may need them. Also, you can leave a trail to allow an ally to slingshot by following you, using the slipstream to gain speed. Each time you succeed, the team gains energy that when full, can be used to activate Ultimate Team Power, which makes the team who uses it temporarily fast and invincible. This mechanic is a neat change, but it can be very difficult to master, especially when later chapters add the other teams in (and the game has no easy mode, so younger players and those who want to experience the story will have to get good).
Other than the races, there are other events in Team Adventure Mode. Survival Races add the rule of whoever finishes a lap in last place is eliminated from the race. Daredevil events task you with collecting points by performing a certain task, and Ring Challenge tasks you with collecting rings for points. The Daredevil and Ring Challenge events reward medals based on how many points you managed to score, with the totals varying between levels, with platinum being required to earn a star. Also, the characters tend to talk a lot when certain actions are done,
Other than Team Adventure, there is Local Play, which allows you to play some grand prix either with a team or individual (the latter I advise against, as racing solo has you being attacked a lot), online play, and customization, where using credits earned by completing races, you can buy mod pods that unlock parts that can modify a specific character's vehicle, which also alters the stats. While this is a good addition, the problem is the game only has fifteen racers, and there is no plans to add more characters, which can easily kill interest in the game, especially to online play (and this has to be mentioned since this was released a month before Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled, which basically did post-launch content that added characters and even tracks via free updates, and get this, it even allowed baby versions of characters like Crash and Coco to race, making the reason to remove Cream even dumber than ever).
The game offers 21 tracks, each taken from past Sonic games, and they have a good selection. But the best thing about this game is the music, which is a mix of new songs and new versions of classic songs, and the gameplay controls well. This game is okay, however, with the difficult team mechanics and the small amount of content, some players may look for a better, more content-filled racer like Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled or even Mario Kart 8 Deluxe after beating Team Adventure and unlocking every customization part.
