KIBORG isn’t the prettiest game in town, but it’s been one of 2025’s more pleasant surprises and it absolutely deserves a shout-out. A substance over style sort of stuff.

In an already crowded roguelite genre, it somehow held my attention long enough to complete it 100% across all seven difficulty levels. That’s rare for me these days, especially after clearing a game once or twice.

A core reason is how easy KIBORG is to pick up. Yes, your first few runs will be miserable until you achieve that initial clear, but once you do and start investing in permanent upgrades, everything starts to click. And when it clicks, you realize just how well Sobaka Studio understands the genre. There’s a certain “PS2-tier” jank here, but the gameplay itself feels surprisingly smooth. The pacing is consistently solid, and even with runs lasting 35–45 minutes, boredom rarely sets in.

The synergies —both within and between builds— are wonderfully wacky. Certain augments can shift the game’s complexity in unexpected ways. While I’d argue they can break the game enough to make even the highest difficulties manageable (I certainly had no trouble), I’m also the kind of player who loves a good power fantasy. And KIBORG delivers there: you can stand your ground, dart around with incredible agility, shoot and punch, specialize in one or the other, fire lasers from your eye, become a minion overlord, or do it all at once. Is every build equally viable? I'd argue not. But each has its own distinct strengths for sure. I respect that it allows you to go nuts and have fun.

https://eo.steamhost.cc/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3624532532

Even when you have certain disadvantages (negative status effects) due to some builds, you'll be able to tank them or negate them through other mutagens, skills, permanent upgrades etc. and there are high risk/high reward situations where it's really cool to see they pay off.

I encountered a few bugs along the way, but it’s great to see an in-game feedback system tied to a keybind, one that automatically attaches a screenshot for the developers.

Overall, this is a game you’ll keep coming back to until you’re sure you’re done. And even then, its addictive loop might just pull you back in for more.

★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆

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Sonic racers have generally been fun, even if they sometimes lack depth. To be fair, SEGA has some wild cards up its sleeve, despite its often atrocious marketing decisions. Here, I believe the game stays humble, offering free content rotations and reasonably priced season pass/individual DLC. The gap between content drops and DLC releases feels just right.

I don't usually prefer games with character stats, but similar to Mario Kart (which is impossible to not compare to), weaker characters are still capable of winning. Ultimately, your vehicle and build matter most. It's a really fun racer. It has the chaotic ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ power-ups (which lead to strategies like "bagging") that every kart game in existence features. I haven't played enough to be a constant in Legendary lobbies, and I've mostly stuck to multiplayer. Looking at the builds of players I encounter and the global leaderboards, the meta is rather clear: people usually use Boost-type vehicles and "snake" a lot with drifting gears. It's not a style I particularly enjoy (and can get done), but it is what it is, every game develops its meta. Players always data-mine (there's already a probabilistic table for item distribution lmao) and optimize. This will likely change with future tweaks and content.

There are plenty of useful gears that enable different strategies. You can build to collide with others and steal rings (which is maintaining your speed), perform air tricks for rings (that is already incredibly fun on its own), or go on the offensive /w Omega by drifting near opponents to spin and knock them out.

The maps are vibrant and fun, featuring neat shortcuts. The changing-worlds mechanic is a sound addition that makes each race feel more unpredictable. The game runs smoothly, has great customization options, and the guest characters (Miku, Ichiban, Joker, SpongeBob & Patrick, and the Minecraft crew) have been neat additions.

One thing I can't quite figure out is the common criticism toward Acceleration-type vehicles. I'm not confident with them either, but they seem to be effective for frontrunning? The problem, as far as I can read the room, is that taking a hit is almost inevitable, so you need to leverage vehicle kits and quick recovery to get back on track. Without those gears, I'm unsure if they have another strength that other types don't, which might make them feel like a liability.

Regardless, one thing I sincerely like about this game —and think is well done— is that you can use any build universally on any vehicle and get good results (they may not constantly win you races but you can still be in top 4, top 5 and grind your way up). In that regard, you could even apply a Power vehicle build to an Acceleration type and see how it performs. It has a high degree of freedom for sure but as far as min-maxing goes maybe there can be more fine tuning to each vehicle.

I too usually choose Boost (or Speed when I feel my build needs more protection). Boost vehicles are like one trick ponies. If you get unlucky (or do a deadly mistake) it's really hard to recover from and you can instantly go 12th but I lowkey like that adrenaline rush as well as being on the edge constantly. I feel they are much easier to drift with (even moreso than handling type).

Leaving all this behind though, the ultimate charge at its current state is quite hard to deal with (and it's the only strategy that you can safely use to win other than... bagging I guess, even than you might need to get quite lucky). I think you can still compensate with slipstreams, even air tricks, but it seems like they are a pain to deal with when you get hit. The people who use ultimate charge are the people who mostly go offensive (unless they are already frontrunning) as they don't need to rely much on defensive items (and probably don't need a gear/kit either). It's interesting because I think overcompensates the faults more than anything in the game so I would be interested to see if it gets nerfed or completely banned in higher lobies.

There is a notable lack of Boost characters overall (currently only Miku, though another is coming soon). With such a crowded roster, it's puzzling why someone like Jet isn't a Boost character.

I'm unsure if Crossworlds can top MK8 for me personally, as I'm deeply familiar with that game. However, I think Sonic Racing Crossroads has an upper hand over Mario Kart in its world-building and mechanical depth. But it must be noted that the longevity is where MK excels at and it remains to be seen if CrossWorlds can be with us for a long while (I would hope so!) as Sonic racers rather do well at singleplayer content and people then drop it off.

While I find it fairly balanced and engaging enough to keep coming back when you frustratingly hit that quit button, Sonic Racing needs better on-track indicators and more protective utilities. This is part of the deal when you get targeted by players holding onto items. As counterintuitive as it sounds, being in the lead (if you can't build a gap) comes with a hefty cost. This aspect needs better balancing, as ever, and I believe it can be massively improved even if it's never perfected.

In its current state, CrossWorlds can't be missed even if you are likely to throw a few temper tantrums here and there.

[Go get that Best Sports/Racing, champ]

★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆

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