Leaderboard Bust: Time Trial Exploit Found in ASR

All Versions, Multiple Courses Impacted

There may be only one way to describe the reaction to what was uncovered over the weekend regarding Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing; in the words of Sega forumer Q_cumberR: “Are you ****ing kidding me.”

That’s in reference to an exploit found in ASR’s time trial mode Sunday that appears to impact all versions of the game, isn’t limited to any particular racer, and isn’t hard to execute.

First spotted by DarkspinesSonic, the video we have at the end of this article complements how he tricked the game into thinking his character was stuck:

Notice how when you use your All-Star move, you can only go left and right so much? Pretend those are invisible barriers, and that they track whether or not you are on the course or not. Stay outside the “barrier” for a good distance away from the start/finish line, and then when you finish your current lap, face the wall and keep your accelerator pressed down. The game will think that you are stuck, and warp you back to the last location where you were considered on the track. If you’re far enough away from the start/finish line, then you’ll be in for a surprise when you cross that line.

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After thorough testing, it appears that an alternative way of doing this is by going outside of the “barrier” before the start/finish line (distance is up to you, but if you want a faster time, start closer to the line), and then staying outside of the “barrier” as you go further into the lap. Then by warping back in front of the start/finish line, you will have completed the next lap.

Under more controlled circumstances, this wouldn’t be a big problem…until you consider the nature of ASR’s online leaderboards.  The glitch can be exploited in Time Trial mode and then uploaded for the world to see, as if it were a legitimate record.  Add into the mix the development of a couple competitive leagues, and were something similar found in proper race modes, this could get very troublesome.

That’s not to say it’s a bother as is.  Almost immediately after DarkSpinesSonic posted his find on the Sega forum, players were eager to exploit it, and so far, numerous course leaderboards across all versions have been tainted with the exploit, including Outer Forest, Dark Arsenal, Shibuya Downtown, and several more–on or about 10 of the game’s 24 main courses, as of the time of this article’s publication.

“I’m so very disgusted with this turn of events,” wrote Sega forumer stupidloginsystem.  “And I’m seriously not happy with some of the legitimate racers being knocked off the records only for them to utilize this same glitch. This makes ironing out the leaderboard even harder because now you lose your time if they find a way to just delete the glitched times.”

Some feel the damage in publicly revealing the glitch may do much more harm than on a leaderboard.

“Thanks a lot, you probably delayed the upcoming patch now (and possibly the DLC too),” wrote another Sega forumer, Clisp.  “I’ve waited long enough for the Dreamarena trophy fix.”

Ultimately, fans fear this may force the hand of Sumo Digital to perform something it had briefly considered in the past when tougher exploits popped up: a total reset of ASR’s online leaderboards.  A patch could be offered for XBOX360 and PS3 players, but those on the Wii and DS would be left out.

As of this article’s publication, we haven’t heard anything from Sumo’s Steve Lycett on this matter.  Given how quick he was to shoot down some speculation from last week, it shouldn’t be long before we know how this will be handled.  TSSZ News will let you know if we hear anything more.  In the meantime, here’s the video of the glitch at work, below.