The Race Marks,^{[citation needed]} also known as the starting line and finish line or the lap markers,^[1] are objects that appear in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, mainly in racing-genre games and minigames. They serve as the starting and finishing points of races.

Description[]

Race Marks are posts that marks the start and the end (like in normal races) of a stage/track. When a character starts a stage/track, they will be put on the start mark and then the timer will appear counting down from 3 (or 5) to 0, once this the character will run through the stage/track. While the goal mark is located at the end of an Act as a replacement of the Goal Ring, the character have to cross it a certain number of times (laps) to finish the stage/track.

Game appearances[]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3[]

Race Marks first appear in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and the lock-on game Sonic 3 & Knuckles. They only appear in the Zones of the games' Competition Mode. Here, a singular Race Mark is the start and the goal. The Race Mark sign posts are similar to the Star Posts. If the player crosses the mark at the start before the time count runs to 0, the character will be brought back to the start. In total, the player must cross the Race Mark five times in order to finish the Zone.

Sonic Drift series[]

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Sonic R[]

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Sonic Adventure[]

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Sonic Adventure 2[]

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Sonic Advance 2[]

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Sonic Heroes[]

In Sonic Heroes, Race Marks are present in Bobsled Race of the 2P Play mode. In this game, they mark the start and finish of a lap at the stage where the players' teams' race around on a Bobsled. Upon passing the Race Mark, any characters lost from getting attacked by the obstacles of the stage are restored for the following lap. The first player to pass through the Race Mark three times is the winner.

Sonic Rivals series[]

In Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2, the Race Marks are different in their start and finish functions. While the starting Race Marks are identical in both games, only the finish line is given a name.^[2]

When starting an Act, either character can charge up the Spin Dash as the countdown starts to get a fast start in the Act. If both characters do this, the character that performed the Spin Dash first will travel faster.

Sonic Riders series[]

In the Sonic Riders series, the Race Marks indicate the start and finish of a lap of the course. In some courses, some Race Marks are only used at the start of the course and cannot be accessed during the race. There can also be multiple Race Marks at different locations of some courses depending on the route the player takes for that particular course.

When starting a race, the participants all move on foot in the starting area and will only start riding on their Extreme Gear once they pass the starting line (except in Sonic Free Riders, where participants are always on their Gear). However, the starting line area is always electrified during the countdown. Touching the electrified starting line will electrocute the player and stun them briefly after the countdown finishes. The player therefore must time their movements so that they reach the starting line just as the countdown finishes. In Sonic Riders and Sonic Free Riders, upon passing the starting line, the game displays information including the timing and speed they passed the start as well as a rating based on how well the player passed the start while in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, the participants gain varying amounts of Gravity Points based on how well they passed the start.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing[]

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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed[]

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Team Sonic Racing[]

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Sonic Speed Simulator[]

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References[]