At Tokyo Game Show 2025, we had the opportunity to sit down with Ryuichi Taki, the producer behind Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, and Takashi Iizuka, Sonic the Hedgehog’s Creative Officer. After five years since Team Sonic Racing, SEGA has released their most ambitious racing title yet—one that brings together elements from previous entries while introducing new features to the genre. During our conversation, the two developers shared their vision for a game that combines classic Sonic racing with cross-platform play, dimension-hopping mechanics, and a roster of guest characters from across gaming and pop culture.

The Meta Question

One of the first things players want to know about any competitive game is simple: what’s the optimal way to play? For CrossWorlds, Taki’s answer might surprise some. “There’s various play skills and course differences, and of course different answers to different problems,” he explained.

“For CrossWorlds, there’s just many different random elements that’s going on, so there isn’t one fixed answer for all of this.”

Rather than offering a definitive strategy guide, Taki encouraged players to experiment. “What I’d advise is to just develop a more general type of skill. Use various different techniques for different courses and different situations.” He pointed to the time trial mode as a valuable training ground, and highlighted how items placed on courses can serve dual purposes—offensive and defensive. “There’s all sorts of gadgets, and part of the fun is finding gadgets like which one you prefer to play style,” he added.

Five Years in the Making

The gap between Team Sonic Racing and CrossWorlds wasn’t an accident. According to Iizuka, development began almost immediately after the previous title. “After Team Sonic Racing, we already began our next racing game development,” he revealed. But the team had heard the feedback from fans who missed features from earlier games—the hoverboards from Riders, the transforming rides from other entries.

“The omission of these features makes some people voice concerns over that. And so for the next game after Team Sonic Racing, we decided to build something that included all of these previous elements into one whole package.”

The timing also aligned with where racing games and technology had evolved. With 2025’s hardware capabilities and online infrastructure, the team could finally realize features that would have been challenging or impossible years earlier.

The Travel Ring: Racing Across Dimensions

When asked what sets CrossWorlds apart, Iizuka didn’t hesitate. “We just didn’t want to make a great race game, but we also wanted to make something that’s different from every other game.” The standout innovation? The Travel Ring, which teleports players to a completely different course from the second lap onwards. “That is a very different feature from other types of games,” Iizuka noted.

This mechanic has sparked questions about its origins, particularly its similarity to the rings in the Sonic movies. Iizuka clarified the connection: “The Ring that appeared in the movie was based on the Big Ring in classic Sonic, like the way you choose stages in the Mega Drive. The similar Ring does appear in the movie, but the Sonic Racing CrossWorlds and the movie Sonic, they both reference the same Big Ring.” Both draw from the same classic source rather than being directly connected to each other.

Crossplay: The Feature Everyone Wanted

If there’s one feature that has players celebrating, it’s crossplay. Taki confirmed it was a priority from day one. “The Crossplay feature was something that we wanted to do from the very beginning stages of development. We wanted all the players from around the world to match with each other online.”

But wanting a feature and implementing it are two different challenges. “Different hardware has different specs,” Taki explained. The team consulted with SEGA’s arcade development division to overcome technical hurdles.

“There are definitely hardware computing issues. So different computing speeds for different hardware, If you use inferior hardware on that aspect, you might be on the disadvantage.”

Their solution involved smart design choices from the start. “We created a race to accept those kinds of things in the first step. That is why we created an online racing game. You didn’t really feel the lags or difficulty, even if you played with lower specs hardware,” Taki said. The team implemented forecasting systems to predict car positions and compensate for lag, ensuring that players on different platforms could race together seamlessly.

Dynamic Courses and The Gadget System

Racing game tracks can sometimes blur together after repeated plays. The CrossWorlds team tackled this by making courses more interactive. “For racing games, the landscape changes and doesn’t really affect the players, so we thought that we needed more gimmicks that affected the gameplay,” Taki explained. Rather than having the same racing lines every lap, courses feature elements that change the optimal path. The key was telegraphing these changes clearly.

“We tried to make it so that it’s obvious to the players. We decided to include that and make it so that players would not be overwhelmed.”

When we asked about specific surprises players could expect, Taki kept things mysterious. “We can’t say anything too specific because that would be taking some of the fun out of the user experience.” He did confirm that the next 12 months will bring regular DLC releases featuring new courses, characters, and cars through the season pass, plus free updates with SEGA IP-related content.

One of the game’s more unique features is its gadget system, which Taki traced back to his previous work.

“Previously, I worked on the title with Kohayagawa-san called Chunithm, and within the game there’s a skill system within there, and so the gadget system for this title is based on that.”

The goal was to add strategic depth while maintaining accessibility. “I definitely wanted to make something that makes the gameplay feel a little bit more deeper and unique. And I wanted to make each player be able to race in their own personal way,” Taki said. Balancing such a system required extensive testing, with the arcade development team contributing their expertise on game balance.

Unexpected Collaborations

The recent announcement of a Don Quijote collaboration raised eyebrows outside Japan. Taki explained the thinking behind these partnerships: “For this installment of the series, we wanted to make it kind of like an F1 car where there’s many different corporation logos on stickers on the cars.”

These aren’t just random sponsorships—players can choose which decals to put on their vehicles. “We also do these collaborations with different companies all the time. With them, they can help us, and we can help them, so it’s kind of like a win-win situation, and the players can have fun with it,” Taki said. Iizuka added that more decals could come through updates, even inviting feedback: “If you guys have any companies in mind back in your home country, please let us know.”

Long-time Sonic racing fans will recognize locations from across the franchise. Iizuka described the approach to adapting these maps: “We included the courses so that you can re-experience the course, and you can kind of have memories coming back to you.” The team focused on incorporating memorable elements—like the giant on Kronos Island or the red bridge on Speed Highway—as visual landmarks that trigger recognition.

Balance Between Characters and Vehicles

When designing vehicles and characters, the team made an interesting choice. “We made each car very different in style, and we also wanted so that there wouldn’t be a big power difference between the different cars to have good balance between them,” Taki explained. They established a maximum parameter total to maintain balance while allowing for different handling characteristics. Characters, however, received different treatment.

“We also decided that each player can use their own favorite characters, so we didn’t make each character different too much. Each character is not too different, but we made the cars more different in parameters rather than characters.”

This means players can pick characters based on preference rather than competitive advantage.

During our hands-on time with the game, we noticed that weapon items pack a serious punch. When this was brought up, Taki acknowledged the impact but stood by the design. “For each offensive item, we included defensive ways to counter that offensive item. We think that this type of gameplay is also an integral part of our game.” He emphasized that counterplay options exist for every offensive item, though he noted they’d monitor feedback after launch.

Future Additions and Online Events

The roster of guest characters has been one of the game’s biggest talking points. With Joker from Persona, Hatsune Miku, and Ichiban Kasuga already announced, we asked if more characters from these franchises might join. Iizuka confirmed the plan: “New characters will be added each month for the next 12 months, and right now we have Joker, Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga, and we still have nine characters left for the updates.”

The selection process for guest characters followed specific criteria. “Firstly, the IP has to be well-known across the globe and it has to be a global IP,” Iizuka explained. “We also made new courses for these IPs, so we wanted an IP that has this unique world that you can build a course out of.” The team researched various properties and reached out to see if they’d be interested in collaboration. The result includes confirmed characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and Minecraft representatives.

The online component extends beyond casual racing. Taki outlined plans for regular events: “For the online event, we decided to have the Hatsune Miku festival in the beginning of October. And for each update, we’re going to include various online festivals like the Joker Festa.”

Tournaments are on the team’s radar, though details remain unclear. “We would like to hold tournaments in the future, but we are not sure about the details and the timing,” Taki said. The team also plans to improve their Discord channel to foster community engagement.

Lessons from Team Sonic Racing

The previous entry in the series wasn’t forgotten. When asked what elements carried over, Taki highlighted in-game character communication as a key feature worth preserving. “In Team Sonic Racing, there was communication between the in-game characters, which was a really good thing that we incorporated in this new entry as well.”

This communication system appears in Park Mode, where players can compete in teams. The Festa mode from previous titles also returns. “We definitely included the good parts of Team Sonic Racing for this installment as well,” Taki confirmed.

In a more playful moment, we asked what genre of music CrossWorlds would be. Taki’s answer reflected the game’s eclectic nature: “In this game, within the soundtrack there’s many fast tempo songs that’s included. And there’s many different elements in the game, and it changes very rapidly, so we can’t really narrow it down to one single genre.”

He settled on an interesting comparison. “To me personally, I feel like it’s a little bit sort of like jazz, because there’s various different elements that are included.” The soundtrack features multiple genres, making the overall experience “kind of like a jukebox as a whole.”

Final Thoughts from the Developers

As our interview wrapped up, both developers shared their hopes for the game. Taki emphasized the game’s accessibility: “This is a new type of action racing game, and it’s fun to play solo, as well as with friends, families, and online as well.” He encouraged players to try the demo before purchasing.

Iizuka focused on the bigger picture. As someone who oversees the entire Sonic brand, his goal extends beyond just making a good racing game. “For Sonic Racing, our goal is to create more Sonic fans across the globe and this Sonic Racing game is very fun to play as a person who is not familiar with Sonic.” He sees the game as a gateway, something Sonic fans can use to introduce friends to the franchise. “So we definitely want these Sonic fans to bring their friends together and create new Sonic fans.”

With character interactions built into the races, even newcomers can learn about the Sonic universe while playing. CrossWorlds serves not just as another entry in a racing series, but as an introduction to Sonic for players who may be discovering the franchise for the first time.