The fellas (and ladies) over at DeviantArt have been having a fun little art contest all about Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing. The idea being to design an additional character (plus vehicle) that would fit in SASASR - so pretty much any old SEGA character.

The contest has, unfortunately, finished now - but the good news is that now it has finished we can look at all the entries that were sent in.  Huzzah!

There are some pretty cool ones to look at and it's clear that DeviantArt holds some hardcore SEGA Nerds amongst them, because some of the entries featured some very obscure characters from little-known titles on platforms such as the MegaCD/SEGA CD and the 32X - well you had to be a hardcore SEGA Nerd to own those machines [jk].

It would be pretty sweet if SEGA/ Sumo Digital

Developer: Sumo Digital.
Publisher: SEGA.
Platform(s): Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PS3, Wii, DS.
Release Date(s): February 23^rd (US), February 26^th (Europe), March 4^th (Australia).
Reviewer: Graham.

Ah SEGA, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t aren’t you?  Ever since SEGA announced that they would be working with Sumo Digital on Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (SASASR) it seems that the gaming community has been a bit divided.

On one side you have all the people saying “OMG SEGA is copying Mario Kart” and on the other side gamers are saying “About bloody time!” (A bit like how long it’s taken to get this review up, eh?)

But really I think even those that believe that SEGA are trying to copy Mario Kart are secretly

If you haven't been checking Xbox Live's Game Add-On section in the last few days, then you might have missed that SEGA has released some pretty nifty Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing gear to dress up your avatar.

Items like Dr. Eggman's glasses, Beat's awesome shades and even Ryo Hazuki's jacket are all available for your avatar to wear.  Or, if you like to see your avatar playing with toys, then you can also download items like a remote controlled 'Crabmeat' (the crabs from Sonic) or a remote controlled AiAi in a ball - which is the closest thing I think you'll get to having a real monkey in a ball (without getting into trouble from the RSPCA or PETA).

Now I'm not usually a fan of paying for items like these for your avatars.  I mean it's pretty pointless spending real money

Ok so here's SEGA's first gameplay trailer for the DS version of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and it looks good.  The voice-over, however is not.

I know the advert is going to be aimed at kids, but there is just something about the scripting on these kinds of adverts that just really winds me up - same goes for a lot of movies.  Actually puts me off wanting the game.  But I'm a big boy now - so I should remember to ignore all forms of advertising and make up my own mind when I play the final game.

Anyway in other Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing news the demo for the PS3 version of the game is now available.[nextpage]

Well it's definitely available in Europe (according to SoE), but I'm not sure about the US version - so any US guys, please give us an update

I'm sure a lot of you are still eager to hear about SEGA Nerds' trip to Alton Towers at the weekend, where we got to ride on the new Sonic Spinball rollercoaster and play some more Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (including getting hands on a special character).

Well I haven't forgotten, just having trouble trying to sift through the tons of crappy/good photos taken at the event and get my video footage edited and uploaded (apparently Windows Vista has given up on trying to play videos from my camera entirely now).

So in the meantime, here is something Sonic related we were just shown - gameplay footage of the DS version of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.[nextpage]  Now, you are never going to get the DS looking anywhere close to the big console counterparts, but from

Oh yeah! SEGA has now released a playable demo of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars racing on Xbox Live Marketplace.  The demo allows you to play as Sonic or Banjo (oh you love him really) and on one of tracks, "Lost Palace".

Weirdly though on the SOE Blog they say that you play across "a selection of tracks" - but it looks like you can only play on one - though that's not a weird thing for a demo.  But that doesn't stop it from being a really fun demo; I've already played through it about five times and that's only the single player, I'm still yet to tackle the multiplayer option.

The only downfall is that the demo is a pretty weighty 1.03GB download.  Not the biggest ever, but it'll take a little longer to arrive on your hard drive and if you are impatient, like me, then it's

Think that online petitions don't work? Think that fans bitching about something missing from a game should shut up and accept that life isn't fair? Well thank God that fans of NiGHTS don't think the same way.

Sumo Digital has officially confirmed that NiGHTS will appear in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. The confirmation comes via the NiGHTS fansite, NiGHTSintoDreams.com, who have been (possibly) the biggest source of petition for NiGHTS to appear in the game.

The only downside is that NiGHTS won't be playable, at least not at launch. Instead he will be acting as the 'Flagman' at the start and end of each race.  Speaking exclusively to NiD.com Steve 'SOL' Lycett (from Sumo Digital) explained just how and why this has happened:

"We've given NiGHTS a very important role. He starts

That's right Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing fans, SEGA has just released another trailer for the game, plus a new website devoted to the game.

From the trailer, the game still looks awesome and confirms that there will be 24 tracks to race on, which should be awesome. Side note: I had some Mario Kart-loving guy trying to tell me that All-Stars Racing only had 8 tracks on it or some rubbish the other day. I hope he is reading this now, sucka.

Also, there's been such a huge amount of excitement over some of the characters included in the game, like Ryo Hazuki and Billy Hatcher (oh you know you love him really), that I completely forgot that B.D. Joe, of Crazy Taxi fame, is in the game.  The yellow taxi came as a lovely surprise... again.

And before I forget, here's

We reported the other day that the Wii version of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing was to come bundled with a Wii steering wheel.  But now SEGA has announced another little feature for Nintendo fans and that is Mii support.

"SEGA is pleased to confirm that Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing will allow you to race as your Mii on the Nintendo Wii version of the game. Take on the likes of Sonic, Dr. Eggman, Ryo and Amigo, as your Mii races towards the checkered flag on tracks inspired by your favorite SEGA worlds! 

"Winning is only part of the fun in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing!  Each character, including your Mii, can unleash a unique All Star move specific to them, allowing a quick way for competitors to get back into the race!"

So the Wii version has two little 'exlcusives'