Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is the sequel for the first racing game of the SEGA Superstars series. The game was leaked by Kotaku at the New York Toy Fair by revealing, according to Kotaku, "Sega's Sequel to Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing". Pictures depicting the side-view of the shelf revealed boxes for Sonic, Tails, Beat, and Aiai. Shortly after this event the website called Starland.com also added info on the game. They listed it in the pre-order list for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. It was listed as $57 for pre-order. This was then removed by SEGA at the website. It was also listed for release on 11/30/12.

On April 30th an announcement trailer was released revealing the game's official name as well as a new mechanic that transforms the character's vehicles to land, air and water capable forms. The confirmed platforms of release are PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Vita and 3DS.

You will be able to earn points to put towards a leveling system, which can potentially unlock vehicle mods and other items.

Gameplay
Gameplay, for the most part, is the same as in the prequel, where you choose different settings and characters before a race. The biggest edition to the game is the 3 different modes of racing: on land, sea and air, a concept previously used in Diddy Kong Racing and Mario Kart 7 (though this game was planned way before MK7 was first shown at E3). The karts can now change into a plane when in the air and a boat when on water. The Sumo Digital staff have said in some interviews that it will be 'proper boating, proper flying and improved kart racing', almost has if it's 3 racing games in one.

All-Star Moves and other items, such as mines, are returning, though it's been said that there will be special stars on the tracks that will power up a meter that will possibly change the way the items act.

Playable Characters
All the racers from All-Stars Racing are returning, though the karts will be different, possibly due to the transformation concept (see trivia for examples). So far, two new racers have been confirmed to appear in the game: Vyse from Skies of Acardia and Gillius Thunderhead from Golden Axe (one of the scrapped racers from the first racing game).
 * Sonic the Hedgehog: 'Speed Star' sports car with two of his trademark spines on the back.
 * Miles "Tails" Prower: Upgraded version of the MTP-01 Whirlwind.
 * Knuckles the Echidna: Strange trike influenced by himself.
 * Amy Rose: Car themed after a Volkswagen New Beetle.
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Doctor Eggman: Red six six wheeled 'tank' that has his face on it.
 * Amigo: Unknown.
 * Akira Yuki: Unknown.
 * Aiai: Unknown.
 * B.D. Joe: His personal Chevy Impala, only shorter.
 * Beat: Quad bike themed after his gang and his game's titular radio station.
 * Vyse: Armored old-fashioned race car.
 * Gillus Thunderhead: Bronze statue.
 * Opa Opa
 * Ulala
 * Alex Kidd
 * Billy Hatcher
 * Big the Cat
 * Ryo Hazuki
 * ChuChus
 * Zobio and Zobiko
 * Bonanza Bros.

Stages

 * Dragon Canyon
 * Temple Trouble

Trivia

 * This is the second time in which a Sonic game was leaked due to the premature release of toys, the first time being when toys of Rouge the Bat and Shadow the Hedgehog had been revealed before both characters' debuting game, Sonic Adventure 2, was even announced.
 * This game is similar to Diddy Kong Racing due to the karts turning into planes and boats, instead of karts using gliders and propellers like in the 3DS title, Mario Kart 7. They made it more like Diddy Kong Racing with the transformations. Another hinted transformation is a dune buggy on rough terrain.
 * However, the development team thought of the idea of planes and boats before Mario Kart 7 was announced at E3. In other words, SEGA came up with the land, air and water racing concept first.
 * Note that Tails' kart (the MTP-01 Whirlwind) has an uncanny resemblance to Mario's kart, the B Dasher from Mario Kart DS. (and later appeared in Mario Kart 7)
 * Unlike the first game, the PC version will feature online multiplayer.
 * There is a minor change in the title from the first All-Stars Racing game as the "SEGA" is missing, just making it Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed rather than Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed. This was most likely just an effort to make the title shorter.
 * The announcement trailer for All-Stars Racing Transformed uses the song "Promises" by Nero.
 * This makes All-Stars Racing Transformed the second Sonic game to have a trailer that uses non-Sega music, the first being Sonic Generations which had trailers that used the songs "Tenderoni" by Kele for the Gameplay/Green Hill trailer and "Na Na Na" by My Chemical Romance for the City Escape trailer.
 * Although Beat appeared in the first All-Stars Racing game with his Jet Set Radio Future design, he appears in All-Stars Racing Transformed with his original design from Jet Set Radio.
 * The Karts in the game have undergone a radical design change, probably due to the transformation gimmick in this game. Notable examples include Sonic's Speed Star which now has sharper angles, different wheels and less 'Sonic spines', Amy's car loses the tire cover and gets a bigger wind shield and becomes rounded, and Doctor Eggman's monster truck now is a unknown six-wheeled red 'tank'. Others have changed to different karts compared to the prequel such as Beat, whose "De La Custom GG's" is replaced by some sort of street bred quad bike influenced by his games. The best example in this case is Tails' kart, which is a F1-esque racecar that is essentially a modern, teched up version of his MTP-01 Whirl Wind from Sonic Drift instead of the Tornado Racer.
 * This is the first Sonic the Hedgehog game on the Playstation Vita.