Sega Revives Console War Energy with Bold Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Trailer

Sega has dropped a new trailer for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, and it doesn’t shy away from throwing shade at Nintendo’s Mario Kart World.

The trailer, cheekily titled "Come Race on Our Level," immediately leans into nostalgia for the classic Sega vs. Nintendo rivalry.

It opens with a pixelated clip that looks suspiciously like Mario Kart World. A narrator begins, "We all know that kart racing game, it’s great, we don’t need to show it to you. But what if you could blast through and race on a whole other level?" From there, Sonic takes over the screen, racing through vibrant tracks with car customization, dimension-hopping, and cross-play features highlighted.

Things get spicier when the ad directly contrasts the two games. While CrossWorlds is shown alongside a sleek race car tearing down a track, Mario Kart World is humorously represented by an old camper van sputtering smoke. At one point, the van even stalls while a tortoise crawls by, a not-so-subtle jab at Nintendo’s more relaxed, open-world approach. The narrator piles on with a dry line: "Or, er, what if you want to roam around on the open road?"

Long-time Sega fans will probably recognize the callback here. The entire setup mirrors Sega’s famous ’90s "blast processing" ad, where a TV playing Sonic the Hedgehog was strapped to a race car, leaving Nintendo’s Super Mario Kart in the dust. This new ad ends with the same slogan: "Welcome to the next level."

Fans have been quick to respond, with thousands of comments across social media praising Sega’s playful shots at Nintendo. "Damn, Sega didn’t come to throw shade, they threw the whole tree," one fan joked, while another added, "So that’s why CrossWorlds wasn’t in the Nintendo Direct."

Beyond the trolling, Sega is making it clear that CrossWorlds is designed to offer what Mario Kart World might not. While Nintendo’s latest focuses on an open-world map and connected Grands Prix, Sega is going more traditional with separate cups, arcade-style action, and a roster filled with crossover characters like Pac-Man, Hatsune Miku, and Persona’s Joker. Early impressions suggested that Sega’s approach could fill the gap for players who aren’t sold on Mario Kart’s new direction.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is set to launch on September 25, 2025, for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version will arrive in early 2026, which feels like a calculated move, giving Nintendo some breathing room before the two rivals clash head-to-head on the same platform.