Fun post.
I will say my 12-year old plays co-op with me and he doesn't have much of an issue getting into the top 3 on medium. Haven't tried hard yet.
I'm just gonna go on record and say this is not a kid friendly game in my opinion. It's hard as balls. Some games hold your hand too much, but this one is definitely lacking in the instructions department. After almost 17 hours I've pretty much figured out all the controls and weapons, but it was definitely a lot of trial and error.
I've completed the world tour mode on hard and unlocked expert so I'm going back through the tour again. I've spent up to an hour on certain tracks trying to get my stars. Several hundred profanities have been yelled at the screen with gusto, not gonna lie.
If you're highly competitive this game will make you rage, but if you're more light hearted easy going you'll probably have a good time. With other human beings it's probably not quite as bad, but the AI picks on the player big time. I'll be in last place at the start of a race and one of the assholes in a pack of 5 CPU's ahead of me will launch an ice shot or a tornado backwards right into my facepiece, and I'm like BITCH MOTHER FUCKER WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM. And there have been several occasions where the track splits into 2 separate paths and I'll be taking the left one and a bot will be well ahead of me taking the right path and turn at just the right angle to make a diagonal backwards ice shot with machine like precision and nail me just to be a dick.
And don't even get me started on the traffic challenges... FUCK THE PO LEECE. It also doesn't help that I'm leveling all the characters in order as I go through the tour, and always seem to end up with a level one oversized car like Sonic's or B.D. Joe's (which I'm just gonna assume stands for Black Dude and/or Big Dick Joe cause Sega is a bunch of Nazis) tank ass cadillac that handles like crap and can't weave through 3 stacked cars without coming to a near stop.
The no-weapon races are a breath of fresh air cause I've yet to lose one, but they're few and far between. It's definitely a fun game, even though it frustrates the hell out of me I've been playing it in marathons of 5-6 hours at a time. I've only used a wired 360 controller which is set up to go out of the box without any further configuration. Also the original Sonic Racing game was a lazy ass port that didn't even include online multiplayer, so skip that one and just stick with Transformed.
I broke my Xbox 360 controller on Friday night because of the Shinobi level on hard. I tried for over 2 hours and every time I caught the breaks to finish first, I would get bullshitted in the most the ridiculous ways. So I uninstalled because I obviously needed a break.
Game is tough as shit, but fun.
How is it with mouse/kb, or does it need a controller?
I also got this game during the summer sale... I think graphically it is quite excellent - very appealing to the eyes. But as far as comparing it to Mario Kart, I don't see it. Outside of it being a kart racer, the similarities start to break away. I think they tried to add too much to the game by having (some of - not sure how many) the levels change by the lap and your vehicle changes types throughout a race. Also the weapons are not varied as much (possibly I just haven't done the right mode?).
Overall I like the game but I think it is lacking compared to Mario Kart. But of course I could just be biased having grown up on MK & MK64, but I don't think so.
Fun post.
I will say my 12-year old plays co-op with me and he doesn't have much of an issue getting into the top 3 on medium. Haven't tried hard yet.
I am working on Hard right now. Hard is definately a step up from Medium, I am grimicing thinking about Expert
Don't give up on it though
I completely understand frustration with loosing races at the last moment. The battleship stage (forget the name) where you do a lot of flying was a doozy for me but was very rewarding once completed. Luckily I didn't break my 360 controller.
I mostly just did certain events on hard such as the battle, traffic or drift modes. Races with weapons are just too damn random to be forced to get first place!
I really liked the original game but I just haven't had a good time with this yet. The kart racing is great but the flying and hovercraft sections just really haven't been fun.
little late , but i'd say for 7.50 its a steal. definitely worth it. the metal sonic dlc not so much. as it only adds one character. if only for a $1.50 its not bad.
ive putten maybe 12-15 hours and only payed like 8.50.
game runs smooth, levels are neat, characters are pretty cool. not just sonic. Even TF2 guys are in it. Different levels than just racing.