For once, I'm entering a review with zero idea of what final score I'll give the game. Sonic R's flaws and oddities have been dissected like an open book, not that identifying them takes much work: the controls are slippery and weird for an on-foot racer, the course design is surprisingly labyrinthine, made worse by how the game makes use of tank-like turning, there's an embarrassing lack of content compared to other racing games, and the soundtrack is definitely love-it-or-hate-it.

If you walked up to me and told me that you dropped the game immediately over each one of these points, I'd definitely see where you're coming from. This isn't my first playthrough - I've already been somewhat acclimated, even though my last playthrough was probably a decade ago at this point (oh no, how the time has flown).

Sonic R is clearly not perfect, and I'm not going to even attempt to make a case that it's anything but absolute 90's jank. But I'm the kind of person who adores Super Mario 64, and defends Super Mario Sunshine, games with their fair share of jank that people these days find themselves split on.
And you know what? If you're willing to give this game a chance to speak for itself, I think it's possible you could see like I do how much of its oddities can be charming.

You might call me crazy for attempting to defend the loose, imprecise controls (especially considering both Sonic's reputation up to this point as a series with immaculate control, and my love for Super Mario 64), and honestly, you should. But... hear me out, if you will - and I assume you will if you've gotten this far into this review.

Like I mentioned earlier, Sonic R is extremely thin on content. With only four initial courses, one unlockable course and six unlockable characters that either have overly pathetic or overly broken stats, Sonic R would be exhausted in about fifteen minutes if it were structured like any other racing game. But Sonic R sprinkles in collectables within the first four courses: one or two Chaos Emeralds, and five coin... token... Golden Circular Things With Sonic's Face On Them.

But why on earth am I describing game mechanics? Wasn't I supposed to be making a defense for controls that don't deserve defense?
It turns out that in order to actually retain the Chaos Emeralds you collected, you need to finish a race in first place, and in order to challenge (not unlock!) an unlockable character, all five tokens need to be collected within a single race. These two objectives can be done separately, but this means that Sonic R asks for players to demonstrate a grasp on both execution and navigation.

Even if you hypothetically knew where all the Emeralds and tokens were from the start, it's quite possible that you might slip up on getting one your first time because of the controls, and by the time you've circled back to get it, you might have fallen quite behind on the competition. That doesn't mean it's a wasted run, though - by freeing yourself from the thinking that you have to win this race, it opens you to explore the whole map without the pressure of competition. And that's when Hirokazu Yasuhara's mentality of Sonic-like multiple paths shine brightest, turning these places into playgrounds to explore and find details, discovering how to get to a part of level in the distance, figuring out what's the fastest routes for the unlockable character races and... even taking in all the scenery in.

Did I mention Sonic R is a brilliant, impressive game for its time? Its graphics are gorgeous, having fully modeled 3D environments and characters in contrast to Mario Kart 64's rather basic geometry and pre-rendered character sprites. The fog and fade-in is done with excellent taste, allegedly all the more impressive considering that the Saturn had difficulty with effects like fog and transparency.

It's this level of visual fidelity that lets each individual route and the entire vast, open track as a whole breathe. And on the topic of the sheer amount of alternate paths that exist in Sonic R's tracks: you know how Mario Kart 64 doesn't show you racer positions in Yoshi Valley because the game can't actually determine it alongside gameplay? Sonic R manages to pull it off with every single track, while still keeping the visuals pristine and the gameplay smooth.

And no review about Sonic R and letting it speak to you would be complete without a mention of the music. Super Sonic Racing, Can You Feel The Sunshine and Living In The City are simply anthemic - there's no way denying that.
Funnily enough, I started this playthrough with the vocals disabled, only to get this nagging feeling that something was missing. Upon switching the vocals back on, I found myself singing along to the three songs above, and even to bits and pieces of Back In Time and Work It Out that found themselves lodged in my brain.

(I should note that I initially wanted to include a section of why I think Can You Feel The Sunshine is great, actually, but it basically ended up turning into a script for a video essay. I'll link it here if I ever complete it!)

For one short, janky mess of a game, all this adds up to something that's honestly really fun to complete, to go back to tracks multiple times to find and unlock everything. What Sonic R doesn't have in breadth, it offers in depth - it only makes me wish it wasn't as horribly rushed as it was because of the Saturn's lifespan.

...Wow. All this sounds like I love Sonic R to death. To be clear, I don't - I haven't played this game in a decade for a reason, and I probably won't play it again for another decade for those same reasons.
But the more I think about it, the more I feel like Sonic R is a classic example of my video game hypothesis that feels all the more relevant with each passing day:
That a key factor that's essential for games to remain interesting over time... might be a little bit of jank.