Sonic Forces (mobile)

Review:
Sonic Forces is essentially an on-rails racer... but a beautiful one.

You join three other characters – all real human players that you're automatically connected to via a server – and you compete for grand prizes. You can move your character side to side over the four lanes, avoiding obstacles as you go, while trying your best to collect the iconic rings (to go faster) and powerups (to slow others down). Each character has its own set of powerups, which means there's plenty of fun to be had across the franchise's cast of characters – including Tails, Knuckles, and more.

Once you get a proper handle on the simple controls, the matching of players by ability and level is impressively well done.

Unfortunately, it all falls down due to the difficulty since unlocking new characters demands so much grinding that it's just not worth it after a while. Plus the live connection means that you need data or Wi-Fi to play, another big bummer in my book.

Being a freemium game, there are ads in it, but fortunately nothing too intrusive. All in all, Sonic Forces is worth a look and it can be a little reflex booster for kids of all ages. But please don't fall into the rabbit hole of paying for characters... it's a beautiful game, yes, but you'll be spending way too much for what's essentially a middle-of-the-road Sonic experience.

3.5 out of 5 Pandas.