Sonic and friends – Tails, Billy Hatcher, Ai Ai, Ulala, Beat from Jet Set Radio, that guy from Samba De Amigo and more – launch their own kart racing game this week. Would you like to win a copy on Xbox 360 along with a Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue figurine?
UPDATE: Tuesday’s draw is now closed.
Thanks to Sega we have SIX copies of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing up for grabs this week. That’s three on PlayStation 3 and three on Xbox 360. Plus, all six winners will also get this limited edition Ryo on a forklift figurine.
Yes, believe it or not, Ryo and his forklift are in the game.
To enter, we want you to mine your knowledge of Sega characters and tell us who would win a kart race between: Sonic, Dr Eggman, Ulala from Space Channel 5, Alex Kidd, Akira from Virtua Fighter, Ryo Hazuki and, because he’s a bonus character in the 360 version, we’ll add Banjo to the list as well.
Leave your entry in the comments by midnight tonight (EDT) to be in the running to win the first copy on Xbox 360. Don’t forget to explain the reason behind your choice. The cleverest/funniest entry will win.
As usual, multiple entries are not allowed. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning when the new draw opens. If you miss out, you can re-enter tomorrow with a brand new entry.
Oh, and the winner of Monday’s PS3 draw is Michael Pannunzio and his triumph of expert analysis.
Greaper
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 8:34 PMUlala would win. Once she gets her grove on, everyone else can’t help but follow behind her and she crosses the finish line in first place.
Michael
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 9:10 PMContrary to popular belief, Robotnik is actually faster than Sonic on foot. Don’t believe me? Look at how fast he runs when Sonic gets up in his grill. This is why Robotnik would win the race hands down.
Neil Williams
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 10:32 PMAs the sun rises over the Lost Palace track, the legends of Sega all get ready for the race that will determine who is the greatest Sega character of all.
Dr. Eggman, with his ridiculously high IQ of 250, believes he’s finally found a way to beat that blue rodent, Sonic. Before the race, he made his way to Sega HQ and forced them to start development on a new Sonic title. That game is Sonic 4. Sonic receives a letter from Sega just before the race informing him about this new development, and Sonic excitedly rushes off to prepare. He never makes the race. However, Eggman, with his one track mind, loses focus on the task at hand, and so is surprised to also receive an invitation to Sonic 4 as well. He leaves to take on Sonic, resulting in him missing the race as well.
Before the start of the race, Ryo Hazuki, in his never-ending quest to track down Lan Di, starts asking around for sailors. Akira, mistaking his questions for advances, gets into a fight with him. As Ryo is rusty from not doing anything in a cave for years, he is unfortunately beaten by the more experienced martial artist. Ryo slinks back to his cave, hoping to find sailors and/or a sequel to finish his quest. Akira, realising the frivolity of the race, goes back into training for the next Virtua Fighter tournament.
Banjo and Kazooie, letting themselves go again after Nuts & Bolts, struggle to fit into their vehicle. Banjo spends a few minutes before the race trying to use Kazooie to shoehorn himself into the driver’s seat, with no success. They instead decide to live off the residuals from appearing in this game.
This leaves only Ulala at the starting line. She is convinced that she’ll be declared the winner by default, and declares so to her viewers. But suddenly, a lone figure appears in the distance. A child forgotten by time. A child who is now a man. A man who has trained since those dark days when he was replaced as Sega’s mascot and had to resort to sleeping in gutters and fighting for his food.
The man rides up to the starting line, on a bike that looks like it was made in the 80s. His glorious billowing sideburns glisten in the light of the sun as he comes to a stop at the starting line. A little boy, only 3 years of age, exclaims “Is…is that Alex Kidd?”. An old man walks up to him and places a firm hand on his shoulder. This old man in a karate gi smiles. A single tear runs down Segata Sanshiro’s face as he turns to the boy and says, “Boy, that is Alex Kidd no more. Now, he is Alex Mann!”
As the two racers line up at the starting line, Alex Mann turns to Ulala and wishes her the best of luck. He respects those who have fallen by the wayside, forsaken by the company that brought them to life. He sees a lot of himself in her…
She smiles. “See you at the finish line, old man.” Alex Mann chuckles. She’ll learn, he thinks to himself. Appearances can be very deceiving…
Ulala grins from ear to ear as she rounds the second-last corner of the track. Thank god for that Space Michael All-Star distraction, she thought. The old man nearly had me. She waves to the cameras, thinking about how famous her win over a real Sega legend was going to make her.
Suddenly, she glances something in her rear mirror. Turning her head, she sees Alex Mann right on her tail! Damn, she thinks to herself. How could I let this happen! He was right there all along! But then her horror at her mistake turns into a realisation…she still had one more bomb left. Grinning like a Cheshire cat, she picks up the bomb and gets ready to throw. “Goodbye, space cat.”
A huge explosion rocks the track. Dirt and smoke and flames lift into the sky. The crowd goes silent. Ulala bursts forth from the smoke. I’m sorry, old man, she thinks to herself. But nobody is taking this away from me. Members of the crowd begin to sob. This was supposed to be a fun race. A celebration of what these characters had achieved. And the child who had started it all, who had given rise to the idea of what it means to be a Sega mascot, was now gone.
The little boy, with tears in his eyes, turns to Segata Sanshiro. “What do we do now, sir?” he exclaims through his tears. “What do we do now?”. The old man smiles. “We wait, son. We wait.”
Suddenly, a shape bursts forth from the cloud of smoke. His sideburns billowing like the mane of an angry lion, Alex Mann flies through the air, his bike aflame. The crowd screams his name as he flies over the head of a screaming Ulala, lands the bike in a powerslide and crosses the finish line to the screams and adoration of millions.
The crowd converge on the finish line. “Our hero has returned!”, they cry. “He’s back!”. But when they reach the bike, Alex Mann is nowhere to be found. He’d done what he came to do. He’d reminded everyone that even those who time had forgotten can still inspire greatness. The young boy smiled.
——–
15 years later, a young man, no more than 18 years old, stands amongst a pack of strange and varied individuals. He leans against his bike, a bike that looks like it was made in the 80s. His glorious billowing sideburns glisten in the sun. A young blue hedgehog turns to him and laughs. “I’ll be at the finish line before you’ve even started, kid!”. The young man smiles. He’ll learn, he thinks to himself. Appearances can be very deceiving…
The young man suddenly turns, peering into the crowd. He thought he saw…something. Something glistening. But it couldn’t have been, he thinks to himself. Nobody’s heard from him since that race, all those years ago. Climbing onto his bike, he waits for the countdown to sound. He was ready.
As the siren announces the start of the race and the the competitors race from the starting line, an old man lifts off his hood. He smiles, as his grey, billowing sideburns glisten in the sun.
Chuloopa
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 10:56 PMOk.. let’s be realistic here.
…Ok.. let’s be as realistic as possible…
I love sonic as much as the next guy, but he’s a Hedgehog. Not that i’m Hedgehogist or anything, it’s just that we all know what happens when a Hedgehog hits the open road… usually the become roadkill. Kid you’re fast – but that Ferrari thundering down the highway is faster… Stick to Casino Zone ol’ Bluey – maybe win back all those rings you lost..
Banjo… well.. you’re a bear dude… you’d be nabbed and dragged back to jellystone park quicker than you could say “where’s my pic-a-nic basket?”.
Alex the Kidd. God where to even begin. Your fists… THEY’RE HUMONGOUS!! how would he even hold the steering wheel? How would he change gears? Hell, who would he even open the bloomin’ door?! Alex… Bro… i love you, i really do, but you can’t win a race with rock, paper, scissors action…
Ryo. Great guy. Dedicated and hard working. Complete family man. But smart? No… The guy chose a freakin forklift to RACE?! Ok, sure it can lift stuff and has rear wheel steering. But it’s the last thing i’d want to be in during a race. You could slam a nitro tank in that baby and you still would be hard pressed to top 20k’s – which is only slightly faster than my mate Mackle’s Kombi Van.
Eggman – He’s in with a chance – if he’d stop being so tight with money. He’s build so much mechanical crap over the years that he is bound to have something fast-ish to race in. Only problem is that most of what he makes consists of shoddy craftmanship. I mean really, this stuff fall apart after a hedgehog bounces off it a few times. My 1991 Honda Civic Hatch could take more of a beating. I mean i could understand if the stuff fel apart after hitting a Kangaroo or a Elf or Rosie O’Donnel – but a hedgehog? I give the guy 2 laps before he’s sliding along with only a cheap piece of balsa wood between his canyonistic but crack and the tarmac.
So that leaves Akira and Ulala. Great…
But when you think about it these are the only two that could possibly finish, let alone win.
first of all Akira. Great fighter. He’s kicked by butt numerous times, and only with minimal mentioning of the things i did with his mother. But check out the veins. Veins popping out his arms, his neck – even his face! You know what that means – Roids. Akira is a fiend for the juice and incorporates it as a part of his daily regimen of kicking butt, taking names and applying hair product. This makes Akira a vicous racer. An angry young man… But increadibly unbalanced ithe hormone area…
..This is where Ulala comes in. Well… dances in… the only girl in this field. Swaying… moving to her own beat. Her curves catching the mid-day sun. She knows she’s got it. Akira, not being able to resist the opportunity to show off, sets off in a display of posing and flexing whilst flinging his hair in the wind. His hormones reacing wildly to the scantilly clad lass.
Sure he might last until race time without having broken something or embarrassing himself to the point of not being able to show his face, or evencrushing the faces of any bistanders that he believes are “checkin out his girl”.
But on the race track it’s a different story…
THE FLAG DROPS and Sonic is instantly flattened by Robotniks current contraption which in turn disintergrates into a million pieces, sending cute little bunnys scurring away into the nearby woods. Alex is still trying to open his car door. Meanwhile, banjo rounds the first corner in first followed closely by Akira, Ulala and Ryo a distant last. Another few corners whizz past and Akira takes the opportunity to impress Ulala as Banjo careens off the track after receiving a direct hit in the neck from a tranq dart. A loud skidding noise as Akira drifts arounda corner contrasts with the faint buzzing noise coming from Ryo’s forklift which is still yet to reach the first corner. Ulala stays close to Akira, but doesn’t yet make a passing move. Alex still can’t get into his car.
The first lap completes and Akira, doing quite well despite his rigid bicps, laps Ryo’s forklift as it finally reaches the third turn, still yet to complete a lap. Ululu is still a close second behind Akira and Alex is still trying to gain entry to his car.
All this changes nearing the end of the lap as Ululu, using her womanly ways, patches into Akira’s headset, making no other noise than what seems to be a cross between a purr and a sexy gasp. Akira’s pent up hormones explode and he looses all control of his body and car as he come down the main straight, not even seeing Alex the Kidd ricochet off his front bumper whilst seemingly in the midst of trying to open his car door by beating it in a “Janken Match”. Rock-Paper-Fender. Akira goes off track and impacts into a safety fence, still visibly having a seizure in the cockpit.
Ulala takes first place and Ryo takes an honerable (yet slow) second which he dedicates to the memory of his father. The rest of the field failing to finish hang their heads in shame – if they have a head left in tact…
JoeMDesign
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 11:59 PMRyo would win because he’s always saying “I will have my revenge” and as long as he REVs” his “ENGine he’ll get a boost start and win every time!
Plus the guy’s been practising for eight long years (he’s still not returned Ichiro’s bike for God’s sake!)