'Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed': Sumo explains omitted licences

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed's developer has explained why it had to omit certain fan-favourite franchises like Shenmue and Daytona.

Sumo Digital said that for courses it wanted specific themes that could cater for three vehicle types - car, boat and plane - which Sega's various properties had to fit into.

"We took a different route on this one [than the original]," design director Gareth Wilson said.

"What we wanted was the game experience and the visuals to dictate what IPs were in the game. So we did the George Lucas approach of scene setting, so we said, 'We want a desert, we want a water section, an ice level, some lava, we want space'.

"[For peaceful scenery] we wanted forest, so we went with Shinobi. For Billy Hatcher, we picked an ice level. For a lava level, we had Golden Axe."

Wilson also explained why one particular franchise that appeared in the original Sonic & All-Stars Racing - Shenmue - couldn't be included.

"We didn't want a dock - if we wanted a dock then Shenmue could have gone on the list! We did want an urban area, but we decided to go for Jet Set Radio because it was a lot more stylised and it fit better with our game, to be honest."

[squallheart]

no shenmue :(