Sonic Rumble

The Steam version is a direct port of the equivalent mobile game. With that come all the microtransaction practices that have become so common place.

The game offers opportunities to buy something at every opportunity. After playing the tutorial are shown a "Great offer" if you have not yet bought anything, which is a bundle of cosmetics for a comparatively low price. Once again, this is shown before you've even had a chance to play the game for real. Whether you accept or decline the offer, you are forced to go to the cosmetics as part of the tutorial. This store includes both free-to-earn as well premium items.

Items in the store are bought with one of 4 currencies, each earned through various methods. All can be earned for free, but some at limited quantities. Some of the currencies are bought with other currencies, which can get rather confusing, obfuscating the real price behind multiple conversions. To further confuse things, many bundles are not available for any of these currencies and can instead only be purchased with real money.

The store includes discounts for many items, either as part of a bundle or as part of a limited time deal. Some of these only available during this time period, making the deal redundant.

Cosmetics are not strictly cosmetic only. Characters and character skins increase your score bonus in-game, making it easier to get higher scores during the match. Skins can be further enhanced with the use of Tune-Up Wrenches, upgrading your items to further increase your score bonus. These Wrenches are bought using Red Star Rings, which can be unlocked for free in limited quantities, or be bought with real money. These comes in packs that do not match the price of Wrenches at all. For instance, 500 Wrenches can be bought for 63 Red Star Rings, but these come in bundle sizes of 30, 78, 160, and more. Always leaving you with left overs. These too are available as limited time offers, granting some small additional benefits.

The game includes a "Claw Game", which essentially is a Lootbox system. This is only available for free, with daily spins.

The game includes a battle-pass like progression track. This includes a free track as well as a premium track, which can be purchased in two versions, which the more expensive version granting additional content. Most items are cosmetic only, but the final level grants a boost to the score you earn for the remainder of the season. The free track increases your score by 15%, the premium track for 50%. This means it's much easier to win if you have purchased and completed the battle pass.

Some skins are crafted using fragments, these are earned for free and are used to unlock a particular skins relevant to that set of fragments. This system can be bypassed by purchasing "Omni Fragments", which can be used to unlock any skins with. These are only available during the season you bought them in. If you do not spend the tokens (which you had to purchase) but the end of the season, they are converted to the free-to-earn currency.