Kart racing games rank perhaps a notch above licensed cartoon platformers in the category of "assumed quality at first glance" - which is to say they don't rank highly at all. The only kart racer that a "serious" gamer will even give the time of day is the stalwart Mario Kart, and even that series has offered up some recent disappointments: Mario Kart Wii was utterly blasé, and Mario Kart 7, as fun as it is, squandered promising chances to deliver some much-needed retooling to the formula.

With such low expectations, it's much too easy to write off Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed as a cynical cash-in featuring a past-his-prime mascot. But I'm here to deliver an important message: if you do that, you will be depriving yourselves of what might be the best racer of its kind to come along in years, and that's no exaggeration.