
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds was originally balanced around a complete lack of items, which allowed the devs to be ruthless with anything that was too stressful or too powerful.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, veteran Sonic series producer Takashi Iizuka explained that the joint development teams - from the Sonic and Sega Arcade Racing franchises - came together to create a "balanced, fair" racing game, starting almost completely from scratch.