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 the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, 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, Wii U, 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, and goodies.

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. 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 as if it's 3 racing games in one.

All-Star Moves and other items, such as mines, are returning, though there will be special stars that'll power up a meter for the All-Star Moves. Once the meter is full, the player can use their character's All-Star Move at anytime and any racing position. It has been shown in footage by IGN that there are different or new weapons; two of the known weapons is a snowman's head that sends shots of ice that'll freeze the racers and a baseball glove that catches the item from behind. There are also 16 new tracks, plus 4 favorite tracks from the old game, one includes the Shibuya Downtown track.

Playable Characters
So far, 29 playable characters (including three 3rd party characters) have been confirmed to appear in this game. It has also been said that the game will feature platform specific rosters, and no single platform has all 29. 19 of the full confirmed number of racers include:

Veterans

 * Sonic the Hedgehog: 'Speed Star' sports car with two of his trademark spines on the back.
 * Doctor Eggman: Red six wheeled 'tank' that has his face on it.
 * Miles "Tails" Prower: Upgraded version of the MTP-01 Whirlwind.
 * Amy Rose: New Rounded version of her Pink Cabriolet.
 * Knuckles the Echidna: Strange backwards trike influenced by himself.
 * Shadow the Hedgehog: A black, white GUN vehicle with tank-like treads.
 * Metal Sonic (via Bonus/Limited Edition) Vehicle that has some designs based of Metal Overlord, but resembles the Metal Booster from the first game
 * Amigo: A four-wheeled steam train inspired by his previous kart.
 * Aiai: Yellow F-1 like car similiar to his from the previous game.
 * B.D. Joe: A shorter version of his personal Chevy Impala
 * Beat: Quad bike themed after his gang and his game's titular radio station.
 * Mii: Confirmed during Gamescom 2012. Steve Lycett (S0L) on an official Sega Forum said.

Newcomers

 * Vyse: old-fashioned steampunk race car.
 * Gillus Thunderhead: A bronze animal-eqsue statue
 * Joe Musashi: A yellow and black quad bike.
 * NiGHTS and Nightopian
 * Reala and Nightmaren
 * Gum

3rd Party Characters

 * Danica Patrick: A SEGA-themed stock car.
 * Wreck-It Ralph: A Jeep that has a wrecking ball in the boot

Stages
There will be a total of 21 tracks, with 17 new ones (1 exclusive to the Limited/Bonus Edition) and 4 returning ones from Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. The tracks will all be split up into six eras, similar to Sonic Generations, with each being in a era like the Genesis/Mega Drive era.

Arcade Era

 * OutRun Bay (OutRun) (Bonus/Limited Edition Only) - Car/Boat/???
 * Carrier Zone (After Burner:Climax) - Car/Boat/Plane

Genesis/Mega Drive/Classic Era

 * Egg Hangar (Sonic the Hedgehog)(Returning) - Car only
 * Adder's Lair (Golden Axe) - Car/Boat/Plane
 * Unknown Shinobi track (Shinobi) - Car/???/???

Saturn Era

 * Dragon Canyon (Panzer Dragoon) - Car/Boat/Plane
 * Dream Valley (NiGHTS into Dreams) - Boat/Plane

Dreamcast Era

 * Samba Studios (Samba the Amigo) - Car/Boat
 * Sunshine Tour (Samba the Amigo)(Returning) - Car Only
 * Graffiti City (Jet Set Radio) - Car/Plane
 * Rouges Landing (Skies of Arcadia) - Car/Boat/Plane

GameCube/Xbox/PS2 Era

 * Ocean View (Sonic the Hedgehog) - Car/Boat/Plane
 * Temple Trouble (Super Monkey Ball) - Car/Boat
 * Shibuya Downtown (Jet Set Radio)(Returning) - Car only

Wii/Xbox 360/PS3 Era

 * Galactic Parade (Sonic Colors/Colours) - Car/Plane

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, both of which happen to be sequels.
 * This game's transformation feature resembles 3 other games:
 * Hot Wheels Extreme Racing for the PlayStation, a game which also utilised the abilty to transform into a plane and boat during gameplay.
 * Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64, a game with cars, boats, and planes that raced on different tracks.
 * Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS, a game that allowed players to drive underwater and hang glide during gameplay.
 * Sumo Digital claims that they had the idea of the transforming vehicles before Mario Kart 7 was announced.
 * 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.
 * All of All-Stars Racing Transformed's trailers (excluding the August gameplay trailer) use the song "Promises" by Nero for the BGM. The August trailer uses a generic techno beat.
 * 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 mechanics 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". Every racer now has a kart, a tank-like vehicle or a quad bike instead of a bi-plane (e.g. Tails' Tornado Racer) and a motorcycle (e.g. Shadow's Dark Rider).
 * This is the first Sonic the Hedgehog game (as well as the first spin-off title) on the PlayStation Vita (not counting PSP re-releases on the PlayStation Network) and the Wii U.
 * By the end of the Comic-Con 2012 trailer, some of Sonic's voice clips from Sonic Generations are used.
 * Wreck-It-Ralph, from the 2012 Disney film of the same name, is a playable character in the game, which is most likely a reference to the fact that in the film, Ralph 'game jumps' through different arcade games until he eventually comes across the Hero's Duty shooter game and a kart racing arcade game called Sugar Rush.
 * The tracks on this game are split up into eras, like on Generations.

Gallery
For more: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed/Gallery.