Sega added Amigo, the monkey from its Samba de Amigo series, to Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds on September 8 as a free guest character for all players, Video Games Chronicle reported.
The game's official account described Amigo as the 12th and final free character of the game's first year. Players do not need to find and download him separately: he is added to the roster automatically the next time they update the game.
Along with the character, the free drop includes:
- A standard Amigo skin and an Amigo (Classic) skin that has him wearing his sombrero
- A new vehicle, a train called the Locomotive de Amigo
- Special emotes
- Two music tracks
Amigo takes the total roster of playable characters to 57, a count that includes unlockables, pre-order bonuses and DLC, according to VGC. Sega also scheduled a Samba de Amigo Festival in-game event, which was set to run from September 10 at 8:00 p.m. ET to September 13 at 7:59 p.m. ET.
Sega has added a free guest character from its other properties roughly once a month since launch. Before Amigo, those additions were Hatsune Miku, Joker from Persona, Ichiban Kasuga and Goro Majima from Like a Dragon, NiGHTS, AiAi from Super Monkey Ball, Tangle and Whisper from IDW's Sonic comic books, Red from Angry Birds, Arle from Puyo Puyo, Classic Sonic, and Axel from Crazy Taxi.
Season 1 DLC packs have run alongside the free characters. Five have been released so far, bringing characters, vehicles and tracks from Minecraft, SpongeBob SquarePants, Pac-Man, Mega Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a sixth pack based on the animated series Avatar is due in October.
Sega confirmed at Summer Game Fest that a Year 2 pass will add six more DLC collaborations, the first two based on Godzilla and Evangelion. VGC noted that the official account's description of Amigo as the final free character of Year One implies that more free characters will follow in the second year.