Sonic Team has honored the legacy of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama with its latest video game, Sonic Racing: Crossworlds. Prior to the game’s official release, SEGA has unveiled an official in-game item based on one of Toriyama’s many anime mascots.
Recently, SEGA’s official X (formerly Twitter) account showcased several stills from the new game. The company also revealed that it is collaborating with 16 major companies and brands for digital stickers that can be used to customize player vehicles. As noted by X user @SmugStickDB, one of these stickers depicts Toriyama’s official mascot for V-Jump — the magazine that serializes the ongoing Dragon Ball Super manga series. Many of the other stickers feature logos for popular brands such as Hi-Chew, Beyblade X, Alienware and Air Asia, among others. Notably, V-Jump‘s is the only one based on a prominent manga publication.
SEGA’s Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Honors Dragon Ball’s Akira Toriyama in New Design Reveal
As the title implies, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is a highly ambitious title that features characters from numerous fictional universes. Including planned DLC, the game will feature over 50 playable characters, including Steve from MinecraftSpongebob and Patrick from Spongebob SquarePantsPac-Man and Ichiban Kusaga from Yakuza. While Dragon Ball is not one of the included franchises, Sonic Team is incorporating the world of anime to a certain degree. During Summer Game Fest 2025, Joker from Persona and Hatsune Miku were officially unveiled as playable characters in the CrossWorlds roster.
Sonic Team’s inclusion of the V-Jump logo (which just happens to resemble a dragon) appears to be a loving tribute to one of Japan’s most beloved creators. Akira Toriyama, who died of a subdural hemotoma in March 2024, entered the manga scene with a one-shot titled Wonder Island in 1978. On Nov. 20, 1984, his fan-favorite masterpiece, Dragon Ballmade its debut in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. Over four decades later, the series has evolved into a global multimedia phenomenon. Toei Animation, the same company behind One Piece and Sailor Moonreleased its first Dragon Ball series adaptation in February 1986.
In addition to a lengthy list of anime installments, the Dragon Ball franchise also has a prolific line-up of video game adaptations under its belt. The most recent, Dragon Ball Sparking! Zerois a continuation of the highly-popular Budokai Tenkaichi game series. Following the format of previous entries, players can assume the role of over 180 Dragon Ball characters and battle it out in various gameplay modes. As of February 2025, Sparking! Zero has sold over five million copies worldwide. Since the game’s initial release, developer Spike Chunsoft has rolled out additional DLC content that expands the roster with new characters and power forms from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and the standalone anime series, Dragon Ball Daima.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will be released on Sept. 25 for various platforms, including PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super are available in English from VIZ Media.
