Sega releases Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed on iOS and Android

The screens are smaller, but that’s not slowing down Sonic the Hedgehog in his racing game for mobile.

Sega has released its Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed for iOS and Android after making some small tweaks to the go-kart game, which includes some in-app purchases. It is available now for $5 on the iTunes App Store and Google’s Play market. That includes 75 events, 13 courses, and a World Tour game type.

All-Stars Racing Transformed still features its extensive cast of drivers from the console and PC version. Players can zoom around the different zones using Tails, Knuckles the Echidna, or Doctor Robotnik. For the first time, Sega is also including Ryo Hazuki, hero of the Shenmue games, as a playable character. Hazuki drives an Outrun arcade cabinet on wheels.

Since All-Stars Racing Transformed is a kart game, it’s best played with other people. The racer includes four-player local multiplayer as well as full synchronous and asynchronous online play.

Of course, Sega didn’t just plop All-Stars Racing Transformed onto mobile without making some changes to take full advantage of the alternative business practices common in iOS and Android games. While players have to plunk down $5 to download Sega’s karting title, that only opens access to the easy races. Players can slowly play through those races to unlock tougher challenges, or they can use the game’s new in-app purchase system to unlock them.

Finally, Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed now, of course, works with touch and motion controls, but Sega also included controller support. Physical controllers are fully functional with the game on Android as well as iOS 7. Older version’s of Apple’s mobile operating system do not support gaming controllers.