 Why make a racing game that's not about being the first across the finish line? Especially if that racing game features Sonic the Hedgehog. When he was first created, Sega's mascot wasn't just meant to personify speed. He was specifically envisioned as showing that his home console was the fastest on the market. Far faster than that of his closest rival, Mario. After over 25 years of rushing around, desperately trying to win competitions and prove himself the fastest, Sonic is finally learning to play with others. The brand new Team Sonic Racing penalizes players for rushing to the finish line by themselves. Instead, teams have to win together by helping and supporting each other throughout the race. On paper, this dramatic shift in the Sonic formula seems ludicrous, but Sega has a very good reason for teaching their mascot to play nicely with others. It's all thanks to a group of children who weren't quite having enough fun. Takashi Iizuka has been a dominant force in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise for decades. His first game for the series was Sonic 3 on the Sega Mega Drive, or Genesis if you live in the United States, and in the years since, he's risen through the ranks at Sega to be the overseer for all games that feature the blue blur. So how does Takashi find ideas for what should go into Sonic games? For one thing, he watches his son playing. One day, Takashi's son had a few friends over, and they were playing some computer games. As he spied on their escapades, Takashi noticed that not everyone was having a good time. There was a lot of frustration and annoyance being expressed as they played together. One of these children was having a great time, because he was winning. But everyone else was a little less enthusiastic about the whole experience as they found themselves unable to catch up to the leader. Takashi thought long and hard about this. Competitive games could be a pretty unpleasant experience, he realized. In theory, they might seem like fun, but in practice, not everyone got to actually enjoy themselves. Takashi started thinking about what could be done to fix this, especially in a racing game. What if, instead of all battling against each other to come first, a group of friends had to work together? What if a racing game's mechanics were built around fostering communication and cooperation, rather than bitter rivalry? And so, the core idea for Team Sonic Racing was born. When the game debuted, early reviewers praised the title for doing something bold and original. While some had been wary of cooperative gameplay at first, they couldn't deny. This focus on teamwork made the game a lot more fun for everyone. The moral of the story is that we all have a better time when we work together. Sure, it can be fun to race towards goals by yourself, but if you can bring a friend with you, then you'll have someone to share your triumphs with when you succeed.