Gameplay

There are several collectible rings across each of the five racetracks. Each ring regenerates shortly. These rings can serve one of three purposes.

• Stepping on a speed boost will consume up to 50 of a player's rings, and boost the player ahead along a preset path. The boost is at a speed approximately three times the normal maximum speed of a character and lasts for a duration proportional to the number of rings deducted. If a character has more than 50 rings, only 50 will be used.
• Special doors on the tracks can open if a player reaches them with twenty or fifty rings (depending on the door). Twenty-ring doors frequently hide tokens, shortcuts, or both. Fifty-ring doors frequently hide Chaos Emeralds, shortcuts, or both. After being opened, the doors remain open for all players for the duration of the race.

There are also inexhaustible emblem bonuses. Touching an emblem gives the racer one of multiple possible rewards, including a random number of rings and the water and lightning shields that appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The water shield allows the racer to walk on water once, after which it disappears. The lightning shield attracts rings to itself, but is eliminated upon touching water (or after having it for a long enough time).

There are five racers in each race. The four racers selected depend on what character the player chooses. If the player chooses a secret character, he'll face the other secret characters that have been unlocked. If the player chooses a starting character, he races against the other starting characters. For the purposes of selecting the racers, Dr. Robotnik is treated as a starting character.

Some racers can run on water for a while, and all characters can "swim" in it indefinitely, at greatly reduced speed. In addition, each of the ten playable characters has a different speed and a unique set of abilities. Unlike most racing games, these abilities are designed such that certain characters, even among characters that are initially playable, have a clear edge over others.

 Other modes

Aside from the main game, there are three special gameplay modes accessible from Time Attack mode: reverse, in which racing occurs facing the opposite direction, break five balloons, and tag four players.

 Courses

Sonic R has five racetracks, based on staple Sonic level themes. The first four are playable from the start, and the final, Radiant Emerald, is unlocked by completing the initial tracks in first place with any character. Also, the environment for the courses will change at random. For example it will sometimes be raining or dark outside.

• Resort Island: The traditional tropical opening Sonic level, based around a beach environment with mountains, a waterfall and small ruins. The course song is Can You Feel the Sunshine?.
• Radical City: A night-time city that includes casino elements, among which is a giant pinball table. The course song is Living in the City.
• Regal Ruin: An Egyptian-themed course at sunset, resembling Angel Island. The course song is Back in Time.
• Reactive Factory: This zone is a future-set, metallic, industrial factory setting based on Robotnik's fortress. This is the only level with a "fountain" of rings where you can obtain an infinite amount of rings. The course song is Work it Out.
• Radiant Emerald: A surreal course seemingly set inside a giant Chaos Emerald in space. In the Saturn version, the course is completely translucent, but this transparency is gone in the PC version. The course song is Diamond in the Sky, but when the course is played as Super Sonic the full version of the main theme Super Sonic Racing plays. To unlock the track you must win in 1st place in the other race tracks.

Characters

 Default characters

The following are the characters that are initially playable:

• Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic is the fastest of the characters that are initially playable. He can double jump. He has quick acceleration and high top speed, but has poor handling, so he is not a good choice for beginners.
• Miles "Tails" Prower: Can fly at a fixed level for a limited period of time. He can take shortcuts that the others (except for Knuckles) could not while doing so. He has good acceleration, but is difficult to turn with at high speeds.
• Knuckles the Echidna: Can glide for an unlimited period of time, gradually losing altitude.
• Amy Rose: Amy drives a car (similar to her cart from Sonic Drift) and can hover over water. Due to her poor handling and low acceleration and top speed, she is said to be worst default character.

 Secret characters

With the exception of Dr. Robotnik and Super Sonic, all other secret characters can be unlocked by collecting all five tokens on a racetrack and finishing first, second, or third. Upon doing so, the player will be challenged by one of the following characters, depending on the racetrack. If the player loses the race, the tokens must be collected again in order to race the unlockable character.

• Dr. Robotnik: is unlocked by completing Radiant Emerald in first place with any character. He races in his trademark Eggmobile which can fire a short-range heat-seeking missile after collecting ten rings. He is not particularly fast, but can hover over water.
• Metal Sonic: He has a very high single jump and does not immediately fall into water, instead floating above it while losing speed, and then falling in after he has stopped completely. He is unlocked in Resort Island.
• Tails Doll: A Doll version of Tails. It is unlocked in Radical City.
• EggRobo: A humanoid robot whose head and body are shaped like an egg, first seen in Sonic & Knuckles. Its abilities are similar to those of Robotnik, but it is slow compared to the other secret characters. It is unlocked in Regal Ruin.
• Metal Knuckles: A robotic Knuckles who is faster than the original, and has a faster glide. He is unlocked in Reactive Factory.
• Super Sonic: It is the fastest racer, and also the hardest to unlock. He can double jump and can run on the surface of water, provided that he does not slow down. His only flaw is that he can be hard to control at times. To unlock him, the player must collect all seven Chaos Emeralds from the original four starting racetracks. When a player collects one, he/she must finish in first place to keep it. Super Sonic is available via pressing down on Sonic in the character select screen.

 Reception

• After a poor E3 reception, original Sonic designer Hirokazu Yasuhara was drafted into the project by Sega, having previously left the series with the completion of Sonic & Knuckles.

• Fan reviews were generally positive, praising its graphics and wide variety of unlockable features. Some felt the graphics were some of the most impressive on the Saturn, some going as far to say that they were better than what Sonic Team had achieved with NiGHTS, and rivaling PlayStation and N64 graphical offerings.

• The soundtrack also had some controversy. Some fans liked the light hearted tunes, however a large number of fans and critcs didn't like the soundtrack due to the abundance of vocals (Sonic R's soundtrack was entirely vocal excluding the end of the race results and the menu systems).