Sega has shared the opening theme to Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and, rather than pulling in familiar faces such as Crush40, Kellin Quinn, or Madeline Wood, there's a very familiar voice to a certain generation of people from the UK.
James Bourne of the British pop-punk band Busted — yes, really — is the lead vocalist on Cross the Worlds, the upcoming racer's opening song. We haven't heard the name Buster for a long time. Pinch us.
Composed by Takahiro Kai — one of the composers on Sonic Superstars — the theme itself is very upbeat and pop-rock flavoured, not a million miles away from what we've come to expect from Sonic. A little cheesy? Maybe. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though.
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We're not sure just how well-known Busted are outside of the UK; the band was formed in 2000 and released two hit albums during their five-year tenure. "What I Go to School For" and "Year 3000" are probably their most well-known hits — the latter of these was covered by the Jonas Brothers, and Busted then re-recorded the song with the boy band in 2023.
The band broke up in 2005 so the members could pursue solo projects. Bourne is also the lead singer of the band Son of Dork and also had a brief solo career under the name Future Boy, before supporting fellow British band McFly and forming McBusted. Busted reunited in 2015 and are still going.
So... there you have it! Not the collaboration we were expecting, and a bit of a blast from the past for many Brits, we're sure. Whether Bourne appears on other tracks in-game, we'll have to wait and see.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds launches on Switch on 25th September, with a Switch 2 version following later. While the game will feature plenty of Sonic characters, we're also getting Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga from Like a Dragon, Joker from Persona 5, Steve from Minecraft, and Nickelodeon characters as DLC racers.
Let us know what you think of Cross the Worlds in the comments.