Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (+ Transformed) Is Better Than Mario Kart Franchise

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (and Transformed) is far superior to that of the Mario Kart franchise in every aspect, whether it's the graphics, music, controls, game modes, items, track design, vehicles, characters, AI, difficulty, and mechanics. Though it may have sold little (approximately 2 million; both games combined) compared to that of Mario Kart (it was sold on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac, Wii, Wii U, DS, 3DS, PS Vita, iPhone, and Android while Mario Kart was only sold on one console per generation excluding the NES), and may not be original or creative as many of its ideas are ripped off of Mario Kart, it still is the better kart racing franchise than Mario Kart. Mario Kart is inferior to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (and Transformed) except for its sales and originality. Almost every Mario Kart game has terrible graphics not only when compared to Sega's kart racing rip-off, but also compared to other games of its generation. The only exception to this is Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Kart 7, and Mario Kart 8; all other games look terrible. Super Mario Kart, while the first true Mario Kart game, does not allow itself to get away with bad graphics just because it was the original one that started it all. Though the SNES was limited, it was still able to produce 32-bit graphics and compete with more powerful consoles such as the Sega Saturn and the Atari Jaguar. Games like Star Fox, Super Metroid, Mega Man X, Mortal Kombat, and Donkey Kong Country were all capable of producing gorgeous looking graphics, so Super Mario Kart certainly does not get special treatment. Same with Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit; Super Circuit is essentially Super Mario Kart on a handheld and 64 has extremely low resolution textures and inaccurate character models. Sega is known for composing excellent music, no matter how bad the game is (Sonic '06 comes to mind), while Nintendo makes average to mediocre music except for their top three franchises (Mario, Zelda, Metroid). Most Mario Kart games have music that is easily forgettable, extremely generic, lacking in diversity, and repetitive (many new songs are just remixes and/or arrangements). Sonic Racing on the other hand have diverse music, memorable sound-tracks, and high-quality music that represents each Sega franchise accurately and makes you want to listen to them all day. Of course, the music is all ripped out from older games, but that doesn't even matter if it was done extremely well. Though Mario Kart never had bad controls to begin with, Sonic Racing simply improves upon the controls for more precise and accurate gameplay. While Mario Kart allows you to steer while drifting and allows for two boost levels, Sonic Racing allows you to have three levels of boosting regardless of the vehicle type and allows you to change direction and drift again immediately after boosting, which makes snaking and fire-hopping so much easier to pull off. Mario Kart allows players to press up or down to send certain items in said direction; Sonic Racing allows you to to do the same and release all items at once up or down if having a triple item. Mario Kart allows you to steer while hand-gliding; Sonic Racing can do that with or without transforming and has a quick time barrel roll dodge that grants you an extra boost if obstacles are dodged at the last second in hovercraft mode. As for the gameplay, Sonic Racing is superior to Mario Kart in every way. Mario Kart has normal racing, grand prix, and time trials; Sonic Racing has that plus missions and career mode - a mix of all game modes at once. Sonic Racing also has shopping which allows you to buy unlockables however you want by earning Sega miles; has an achievement system which not even the newer Mario Kart games have; and actually good online. There is also a huger variety of character and vehicle selection, as Sonic Racing has very little clones, vehicles unique to each character, characters from several different franchises, and being able to transform into boats and hovercrafts. The vehicles themselves are different from one another even if they have the same stats, and the boats and hovercrafts actually bring a new experience altogether - players are actually riding waves and flying through the air entering boosts and dodging obstacles, while Mario Kart is just falling with style and driving underwater with little to no aesthetic and physic change except for a propeller and a hand glider. Other problems that many Mario Kart games had were the items, track design, AI, and difficulty. Everybody knows that items in Mario Kart are extremely bad and broken, and is the reason why it is considered to be luck-based with little skill to play. Sonic Racing, however; while still relying on items to win, they are ineffective against skilled players and having smaller effects than its Nintendo counterparts, making it more skill based than luck based. The only exception is the All-Star Move, which is basically the Final Smash in a kart racing game given to players that are doing extremely bad or simply falling behind. The track design is also great in Sonic Racing, with shuttle loops, slopes, anti-gravity sections, water and air sections, alternate routes, long shortcuts, aesthetically appealing textures and backgrounds, interactive hazards, etc., which are either lacking or not as great as Mario Karts' track design being boring, generic, and lacking of track features. Though newer Mario Kart games may have better track design, many are just gimmicks and do not blend in with the track well enough or are not used properly. The most important thing in any video game is whether how hard and how fair it is, and Mario Kart fails to accomplish that. The AI is extremely stupid compared to that of Sonic Racing, in which even the easiest difficulty racers can outsmart the smartest AI in Mario Kart. They only get better at using items, while the AI in Sonic Racing also takes shortcuts, uses items strategically, uses the stats of vehicle to advantage, knows the layout of the tracks, and actually tries to dodge items and hazards. The difficulty itself in Mario Kart is only challenging because of the unfair items; remove those overpowered, luck based items and Mario Kart becomes a walk in the park. Sonic Racing is actually difficult as the AI is highly intelligent and do not have a catch up ability (Mario Kart allows you to somehow catch up to other racers if falling behind as a form of a handicap even if the vehicle is very slow) , while the tracks and items being much more complex. Sonic Racing is also more fair with the items, has the All-Star Move if you are truly struggling, and will not penalize players with bad ranks. 150 CC is basically beginner difficulty in Sonic Racing, while Mirror Mode is Sonic Racing's medium difficulty. With almost everything being superior to Mario Kart, Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing (and Transformed) is better than its Nintendo counterpart.