We’ve gotten some new readers lately, people who don’t know me in real life. These people don’t know a lot about me, so I’m going to take this opportunity to let them get to know me a little better. A big part of my personality is that I like things that are rad, and also things that are awesome. Something that is both rad AND awesome is Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, which I picked up over the weekend.

It’s no secret that I love Sega. I sided with the Genesis during the Console Wars of the early 90s, and I love my Genesis and my Dreamcast dearly to this day. I love Mario games, but I’ve always preferred Sonic as a character (that is, until his fans start writing fanfiction… gross). Sega’s roster of superstars might not be as recognizable as Nintendo’s best, but with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Sega may have just out-Mario Karted Nintendo.

I bought Sega Superstars Tennis when it came out, and I had a lot of fun with it. It was cool having so much Sega fanservice in one game, but it was kinda… lacking in some places. It didn’t have a ton of characters, and they were all kinda predictable. Fortunately, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing goes even further, bolstering the usual lineup of Sonic characters, Ulala, Beat, Amigo, AiAi and Alex Kidd with Billy Hatcher, Zobio and Zobiko from House of the Dead, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, my man B.D. Joe from Crazy Taxi, the Chu Chus from Chu Chu Rocket, the Bonanza Bros, Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone, Akira and Jacky from Virtua Fighter, and on the Xbox 360, Banjo and Kazooie.

Rather than having a series of tracks made up just for the game, they’re all based on locales from old Sega games, including Tokyo-to from Jet Set Radio along with a zillion Sonic levels. They all look gorgeous on the 360, really showing off how good an HD game can look when they use more than brown and grey. The music is the same deal, instead of new tracks for the game, it’s a celebration of Sega’s finest with each track paired with a corresponding song from the game it represents.

Now, I love Mario Kart. HOWEVER, there is one thing about Mario Kart that drives me (and everyone else) absolutely nuts: no matter how good you do, no matter how far ahead of the pack you get, they will ALWAYS catch up to you. When you’re about to cross that finish line in 1st place, you can bet your plumber’s booty that you WILL get hit with a blue shell, 3 red shells, and get run over before you finish 6th. This “rubberbanding” is intended to keep the game challenging, but instead it makes it frustrating the point of being unenjoyable. It’s in every Mario Kart to some extent, but Mario Kart Wii was unflinchingly brutal. I gave up trying to unlock things when I realized that it was going to rely more on luck than skill.

Fortunately, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing doesn’t do that. When I was playing on a low difficulty, I’d finish in 1st with a good 10 second gap between me and the 2nd place racer. Sometimes, the last place racers would get a Did Not Finish instead of a time. You can adjust the difficulty to be more challenging, but that’s what it is: more challenging. They don’t out-and-out cheat like in Mario Kart.

The different multiplayer modes are a blast too, with fun modes like King of the Hill and others along with the standard Race and Battle. Single player gets a huge replay boost with Mission mode, consisting of dozens of ranked challenges like hitting targets, collecting rings, and other character-specific tasks.

The achievements all even have funny references to Sega’s history, like “Streets of Rage” for knocking an opponent off of the track, or “Mega Driver” for earning a AAA rank on any mission.

I can’t say enough good things about the game. It’s a blast. I haven’t even gone online with it yet and I’m having a ton of fun every time I pick up the controller. It’s even retailing for $49.99, $10 less than most other Xbox 360 games.

(I’m sure the Wii version is a lot of fun too, but I wanted the Xbox 360 version for Banjo & Kazooie, pretty graphics and music and achievements, plus online. The 360 version has the most bonus characters of any version as well, with Banjo & Kazooie and your avatar. The Wii gets Miis. The PlayStation 3 has no exclusive characters.)

Seriously. Go get it. LOVE IT. It’s a celebration of everything Sega, and it’s really nice to see them knock one out of the park like this. Go buy it so they release downloadable content, like Toe Jam & Earl. If we don’t get Toe Jam & Earl as DLC for this game, I’m blaming you personally.