Ever since it burst onto the video game racing scene in September 2025, SEGA and Sonic Team’s Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has seen an influx of guest characters from numerous other franchise IPs, including Steve from Minecraft or Joker from Persona 5, with the latter made available in a limited-time event and is set to be added in a later patch. The kart racing game is now digging deep into the history of video games with two more icons – NiGHTs and Pac-Man – revving up their engines and joining the title’s already stacked line-up.
NiGHTs hovers onto the scene as free post-launch racer
First up, racers can select NiGHTS, who was added via a free post-launch update as a new playable racer in the Speed class. She comes with her signature machine, the Dream Sleeper, a speed-type hoverboard, which excels in speed and power at the expense of acceleration and more difficult handling. That’s not all, as five new songs from the NiGHTS franchise have been added to the game’s jukebox, including background music like “Dreams Dreams” and “Growing Wings”.
Who is NiGHTS?
Making her first video game appearance in the 1996 Sega Saturn action game NiGHTS into Dreams, NiGHTS is one of the Nightmaren, residents of the Nightmare in the Night dimension, a place where, as its name suggests, humans (known to Nightmaren as Visitors) go when they have nightmares. These beings launch an invasion on the Nightopias, a series of paradises throughout the Night dimension, although NiGHTS is unhappy with the orders given by her creator, Wizeman the Wicked, the ruler of Nightmare, leading to her allying with the game’s main protagonists, Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair.
Over the years, NiGHTS has appeared in numerous titles in the Sonic gaming franchise, including cameos in 1998’s Sonic Adventure and its sequel, 2005’s Shadow the Hedgehog, and 2011’s Sonic Generations. NiGHTS first debuted as a playable character in the 2006 racing title Sonic Riders, and would go on to make playable appearances in two more racing games, 2008’s Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and 2012’s Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, the latter of which she humorously appeared in a vehicular form.
Pac-Man and the Ghosts go from maze to race track
The game’s second guest character needs no introduction, as Bandai Namco’s iconic yellow puck mascot Pac-Man is also waka waka-ing his way into the game. As part of Wave Three of the title’s Season Pass, the Pac-Man and Ghosts pack not only introduces two new racers, Pac-Man and one of the Ghosts (the remaining three will be selectable as interchangeable skins), but also adds the new Pac-Man Mobile machine to go along with them. Pac-Man and the Ghost are part of the Acceleration and Speed classes, respectively, while the machine excels in Handling.
And like the earlier SpongeBob Squarepants and Minecraft DLC waves, the Pac-Man pack will also include a new stage within the game’s Crossover Grand Prix, Pac-Village & Maze. This colourful track is inspired by both the original Pac-Man arcade games and the newer Pac-Man World platformers, and adds a bunch of stage-specific features, such as replacing the default Rings with Pac-Dots, fit with the iconic waka waka sound effect, and even a neat feature where players will jump directly into an arcade Pac-Man machine and race within the pixelised maze itself.
Check out both NiGHTS and Pac-Man in action in our preview gameplay video above. Sonic Racing: Crossworlds’ NiGHTS DLC is now available for free, with the Pac-Man and Ghosts pack available for owners of the game’s Season Pass.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
