Team Sonic Racing is now available on Nintendo Switch and other platforms, finally letting us blast around a variety of race tracks as our favourite blue blur and friends. As a matter of fact, we've just shared our full review of the game if you're interested in learning more, but there's something mysteriously absent that we want to investigate before you go.
After spotting a number of online users mentioning the lack of an opening movie on Switch, we decided to fire up our own copy of the game to take a look. Sure enough, sitting on the main menu for a good ten minutes presented us with nothing more than said menu, yet copies of the game on other platforms treat their players to a super-duper movie to get you all pumped before hitting the track.
You can see it for yourself below.
So why on Earth can't an opening movie be present in every version? We can understand a slight dip in performance or visual spiciness thanks to the Switch's lesser power, but plenty of games feature gorgeous cutscenes on Nintendo's machine all the time. Surely this is no different?
A quick survey around Nintendo Life HQ brought up a couple of suggestions. The game's full size on Switch just so happens to be around 7GB, which means that it would just about fit on an 8GB Switch cart. As we've explored before, upgrading to a larger Switch cart costs a game's publisher more money, so did Sega remove any data-heavy scenes to squeeze the game onto a smaller and cheaper cart?
If this is the case, should we expect the movie to be patched in digitally in the future? Just last month, Mario Tennis Aces received a brand new opening movie. We thought it was an odd choice to add a new movie after the game had already been out for months, but this tactic could make a lot of sense in this particular case, especially if space needed to be saved at launch.
We don't know the answer to this particular puzzle for certain, so we've reached out to Sega for comment. We'll make sure to update this article if Sega chooses to provide us with a statement.
Does it seem strange to you that such a feature would be missing from one version of the game? Are you annoyed at all that it isn't available to watch on Switch, or does the inclusion of a movie not bother you at all? Make sure to let us know in the comments below.
Comments 74
It’s the handheld port syndrome.
Didn't Mario Tennis Aces later add in a new opening cutscene?
Maybe it was for that same reason, storage space on the cartridge?
@RupeeClock It did. We mentioned it in the article ^
That was my thought. That movie and perhaps more would send the file size up to the next cartridge and they wanted no part of that. However, if they're going to add the movie via patch then it should've been day one and it would've been a decent day one sized patch.
Complete deal breaker by removing the 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦! 0/10.
I’m inclined to agree they did it to allow for a 8GB cart. Despite my distaste of the half & half approach, I kind of understand them doing this as the opening movie isn’t exactly essential to the game and with a business hat on, it would be a hard sell increasing production costs just to include an opening movie. Of course they least they could have done is include it as a Day 1 Patch with an explanation.
I would normally get upset for this but a least they released it physically which almost no one does these days. And like people are saying they could always release it in a version 1.1 patch that wouldn't take up to much space.
It makes sense that Sega would want to conserve space, but that still doesn't explain why they didn't add it in via the Day 1 Patch. It was so anticlimactic to boot up the game yesterday and not be greeted with any sort of opening cinematic. It would have been nice to hear that god-tier theme music at least one time before starting the game.
Someone forgot to hit CTRL-V lol!
More reason why All-Stars Racing Transform is better than Team Sonic Racing. Great opening and wasn't bastardize by Sega. Let me guess they are going to sell the opening movie as paid DLC later on too. That's beyond greedy Sega especially since this is the second time you pull this bs (yeah don't think I forgot about the 2 Wonder Boy games you purposely removed on the Sega Genesis Classic Collection for Switch). In this day and age you can't just remove contents from the game or else people will call you out.
Hmm, it certainly seems likely. It's the easiest thing to remove quickly to get the game on an 8gb cart....
"Let me guess they are going to sell the opening movie as paid DLC later on too."
Jumping to conclusions much @retro_player_22?
@Galarian_Lassie I wouldn't had said these things if it didn't end up like it is. Company like these deserve these kind of treatment when they kept pulling these kind of bs.
@Rafke I side with no fanboy nor company, if they pull bs they get bs. It's just that simple.
They should do an update then, it might seem like a very minor thing, but every Sonic game has an intro movie or cutscene of sorts.
Flashback to the GameCube, Sonic Heroes had a similar issue, so they cut the Japanese voices and made the video cutscenes half the horizontal resolution to save space, what's interesting is that the opening movie was kept at full res. It arguably looked better than Nintendo's jpeg-based videos.
Makes sense. I wouldve done the same. Even Nintendo do the same with their games. Blame them expensive cartridges
@retro_player_22 But, Sega hasn't removed anything from a Switch release and sold it back as DLC. The WB games you used as an example weren't sold off as DLC later on.
I've been a Sonic fan since I was a boy, but things like this make me think I should get this game only after the next patch or two.
They should add the opening video via a downloadable patch, if the game card size limit was the problem.
I didn't even know it had an intro like the previous Sonic & All-Stars games. Doesn't bother me too much to be honest. I'm just happy the game itself is on the cart. I was in a rush to play it, so I didn't bother with the update until later. Game was playable without the update, and I like that.
Can't say I expected a SEGA game to not deliver everything on Switch. Even if the cut content was...well, this.
Lets be honest. We all would’ve done the same.
@Anti-Matter how. Please explain
Seriously games companies are just exploiting the switch market at this point.
Huge day one digital patches on physical games.
Sloppy ports
Missing features
Higher price points.
All blamed on hardware yet they managed to include these missing features on Xbox/360 and ps2/3.... its a joke.
The usual apologists will be posting here saying no big deal... if it was no big deal why include it on other versions.
It’s lazy, low hanging fruit approach to milking the switch market
If they can't figure out how to do it via a patch an easy solution - for now - would be to have the opening cinematic pop up in the Switch News feed for those who want to watch it gefore playing.
Not ideal obviously, wouldn't work offline, but it would also serve as an acknowledgment be Sega that it isn't in the game.
FYI for those who never check the News page there are always videos being added on there. The Directs, Nintendo Minute, game trailers.
Another solution could be a link on the main game menu to the video, that I'm not sure how that works, seems like an easy access for hacking.
Should have been an optional zero day patch.
Usually I am not a fan of publishers being cheap and try to save one or two bucks using the smallest possible cartridges (and media outlets like here, pretending these companies would need to shell out tens of dozens of dollars to use a bigger cartridge).
But in this case I have to say: I donˋt care in the slightest. Itˋs just a opening movie for a racing game.😐
@Anti-Matter Why is the opening movie on Xbox and PC then, if it's a Sony loyalty thing? Big think 🤔🤔🤔
Will I like the game even less now? Don't think so.
@LuigisCube
If i rembered from my friend's story, SEGA was actually prefer their games on Sony brand or Microsoft rather than on Nintendo after Dreamcast had discontinued and SEGA turned into 3rd party.
@Anti-Matter They've made dozens of Nintendo exclusives though.
@Anti-Matter That really, really makes no sense. Sega games, particularly Sonic games, sell better on Nintendo platforms than the others.
This is just being sloppy. I mean, I can understand the financial reason to not splurge for the bigger cart and drive costs up, but there are ways of making it work.
First on the list: streaming. Have the game stream the intro from the web when online is available, skip it when offline. This, I think most could live with.
Second: Make it available as optional (and free) DLC.
I mean, it's not like there are no solution to this. Not having the cinematic intro, even if not essential to the game, hints at Switch version being an "incomplete", cut-down port. Like an afterthought.
@Orpheus79V
Oopsie, i remembered one thing.
Actually, after Dreamcast discontinued, SEGA wanted their games continued by Microsoft help on Xbox if i remembered from my friend's story.
It will be Day 2 DLC
They should've brought back Travelers Tales to squeeze it down to a few hundred KB (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IehwV2K60r8 )
You know I just thought, considering it's a less than 2 minute video, I think it would have been possible to fit it onto the 8GB cart with minimal compression.
@retro_player_22
The fact that you're calling SEGA "beyond greedy" for something they didn't actually or do (or even hint at doing) is absolutely hilarious to me.
This will be patched in. Awful practises!
Everyone knows you can't fit FMV on a cartridge!
Better off just leaving it out altogether at this point rather than patching it in later. No point wasting valuable storage space on something you'd probably only watch once anyway.
Maybe someone forgot. It sounds dumb, but it's possible lol.
Or maybe the Switch is too weak to render that cutscene. I'm sure some people believe that
Has anyone ever published the prices of the different cart sizes and who pays for them? I know in the past Nintendo passed that cost onto the publisher and that is what made the original PSOne so popular were the larger capacity and the cheap disc cost. Seems crazy Nintendo is letting this happen again.
@Anti-Matter Microsoft helped with the Dreamcast OS.
Microsoft has/had(?) a tendency in the 90s to help a company in a parallel industry, and then swallow them up by taking what they learned from the partnership. See Netscape/IE saga. The original Xbox is basically the Dreamcast 2.
But it was really Segas own incompetence combined with the PS2 that finally sank their hardware business. Looking back, Sega was only really successful with the genesis, and that only sold about as many as the N64 did.
I'm not going to complain as if it's like the previous title it will be little more thansomething I'm pissed I can't skip sooner.
@Anti-Matter: English much?
@Lordd_G
Pardon of my "Engrish". 😅
I'm Indonesian, still keep trying to speak with proper English.
I don't see it as a big deal myself if it means getting the FULL Game onto the cartridge
This is so scummy. It may only be an opening cinematic, but it is part of the overall experience of the software, which is pitched as being more or less the same across multiple platforms. More and more often, publishers are cutting corners on Switch not due to technical constraints, but miserliness, as no other platform provides such flexibility with physical storage sizes (whereas other consoles only have 25GB and 50GB discs to work with, even for games that could be only a few GB or even less than 1GB).
It should have been on the cartridge. There is no justification otherwise. Developers seemed to have had no problem fitting their games on DVDs and Blu-rays on other platforms for all these years, but suddenly cartridge sizes are a point of contention? Please. Optimisation is the responsibility of the publisher/developers. The user shouldn't have to provide their own storage due to the incompetence of these publishers to compile a decent product.
Plus, I would much rather they not include the cinematic as DLC because it would be a waste of microSD storage for extraneous content. I suppose one could just watch it on YouTube, but it is pathetic and typical of Sega to disregard the overall quality of their software, even if it is only a cinematic. And it couldn't possibly have required a great deal of space for a cinematic of only a couple of minutes in length.
@Orpheus79V : Exactly. But heavily compressed videos in games is a huge pet peeve of mine. There shouldn't be any conspicuous artefacting, just as one would not expect likewise from a Blu-ray disc, for example.
The end credits of Mario Kart 8 on Wii U made my skin crawl with it's hideously heavy compression, which was even less excusable due to there being so much unused space on the disc.
@Silly_G I messed around in Adobe premiere a bit and found a 2 minute FMV could easily be less than 200MBs at 1080p with a high bitrate, so there actually wouldn't even be the problem of artefacting. It just makes this decision even stranger.
It makes no sense at all why the movie would be missing. I mean it's a what 30 second compressed video file that even at 1080p we are talking would only be maybe 10MB, yes megabyte or 0.01GB. Even at bluray H.264 compression and 30fps this would have only been 46MB (0.05GB). So it's exclusion is just utterly bizarre and should be patched in.
It's like SEGA wants every Switch owner of the game to see the movie
Oh no, poor Sega, having to add a movie file to a game would require such concerted effort and must be so taxing for those poor, tired programmers.
@Doktor-Mandrake I was referring to his first comment bud
@LuigisCube Oh, I see, my bad xD
Well yeah that seems unlikely they'd defend sony, i think sega and nintendo have a pretty good relationship, these days xD
The music's so dated I'm not surprised. #cheersemo
@Doktor-Mandrake I agree and sega have made many exclusive games for Nintendo.
I would’ve done the same thing in segas position and remove a video to save space. At least the game is fully playable off the cartridge.
Just add a Wario and Waluigi cutscene later.
Just how much more expensive is it for the larger card? It's not like Sega is a small indie studio with highly limited resources.
Classic case of releasing an inferior product on a Nintendo system. But to be fair, Sega had to know this game stands no chance against Mario Kart 8DX.
@Silly_G Exactly. The overall presentation and experience. Thank you. Even if you skip it in later play sessions, just the fact knowing it's there in cases you might want to watch it again is what makes it feel a more, complete deal.
Meh. Watch it on YouTube. Done.
@AlienX If the opening movie really is the reason, then it's a gigabyte or more in size. I don't want an update that makes the save data balloon by a gigabyte on my Switch. They can keep the movie. I can watch it on YouTube.
@8bitforever There's no proof that it is happening. All the controversy surrounding the issue is fueled entirely by speculation.
@Orpheus79V Decision is a strong word. You're speaking about this like it's a matter of public record. It's literally errant speculation by a Nintendo Life writer. At best it's a decent guess.
@Heavyarms55 It doesn't have to stand a chance against Mario Kart. The coop aspect makes it different enough that it can stand on its own.
@Deltath Well there a lot of games that seem to be half digital half on cart that aren’t that big. I’d say it is happening. I’m all digital so I could care less and I only buy exclusives for Switch, everything else goes on my PS4, but that why I asked because it seems odd that this only happens to Switch games.
I was gonna ask why people were throwing a hissy fit over a single opening movie, or even positing the idea that a single opening cinematic could be enough to get a 7 GB game to 8 GB, but then I remembered.
This is Nintendo Life.
@Borngis I'm not. I usually watch pre-title screen opening videos once whenever I start a new game, and skip after that each time I play. Given third party devs sometimes make a good chunk of the game a download, I'm just happy the game itself is on the cart. Then again, I'm usually positive when it comes to games.
So the game contains less content, yet costs more because of the Switch tax? That's just ridiculous.
@Deltath I was thinking more like how Xenoblade X had optional downloadable data packs to reduce the loading times of the disc.
A forced update would suck as you say.
But they're still charging more for the Switch version, than the other versions...
@RupeeClock So you didn't read the article at all.
@Yutface
I skimmed chunks of the article in a hurry.
Then asked a question that was answered in said article.
It should be added with an update if they have a bit of decency.
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