4 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 8.3 hrs on record
Posted: Dec 26, 2014 @ 3:24pm
Updated: Dec 13, 2016 @ 10:33pm

This game has so much potential to be great, unfortunately it has just a few flaws that do enough damage to ruin the game.

You'll see a lot of people give positive reviews without actually playing the game often. I don't know the origin behind this, maybe they got the game really cheap or free and decided it was worth it and that's all that matters. I bought the four pack for $2, but I won't let that impact my review at all because I see the bigger picture that I'm probably not going to play the game a whole lot, no matter how much I want to try and play the game.

The game's positives are many. You have a variety of levels that all have their unique game modes associated to it. Think of it like Mario Kart but much more variety.

You have this unique take of Tag where sometimes the person it loses points rather than gains, which is closer to the traditional sense of tag (the person "it" would want to tag someone) and then sometimes it gets "flipped" where the person it gets points, thus wanting to run away from the other players. If the player reaches zero points, the ability to become it is then in the middle of the map. Additionally, there is weapons in the middle of the map you can gather as well. First player to get a full bar of points wins.

You also have this cool soccer ball mode where you obviously got to get the sockerball into the goal using either your own vehicle or a boxing glove to act like a kick. You have racing and probably numerous more. They're all great ideas and were well thought out.

The game has a garage menu option where you customize your character and vehicle. Not only do you get to select the stuff your character wears or your vehicle style and its wheels, but you also get to customize everything's color with all colors possible using this box and its slider that adjusts brightness (color grid or something, forgot what it's called). The vehicle styles range from your typical vehicle to a tank, my favorite is the skull vehicle. The wheel options are good as well, some are goofy and some are less goofy. I picked the tires with spikes on them to match my skull car. I have the skeleton character and I made him wear the bugging out eyes and a top hat. Yes, you can even customize the color of your character.

The game has an alright soundtrack. It isn't good, it isn't bad. It's just fine. No complaints from me. The graphics style is cartoony, but it's enjoyable for all ages despite it.

Now for some of the negatives that absolutely ruins the game, thus its low price and obscurity. The items the game has does have a healthy variety, not to the scale of Mario Kart or even Jak X: Combat Racing, but the variety is fine. I would have liked to have seen more variety however.The items, however, can also ruin the game for the player using them.

In the game mode, Flipped, you gotta tag people, remember? Well, with the force shield, nobody can touch you and you cannot touch anyone, so how do you tag people when you need to? Flawed design. The force shield also doesn't protect you from everything but rather the players actual vehicle, so bombs and stuff appear to still hit you... unless that's a bug.
Additionally, some weapons help the player you're using them against more than yourself. Bombs, for example, can blow the player forward and they have a fast enough recovery where you still wont catch up to them. Mario Kart did it right where you, despite it being unrealistic, fly upwards more to slow you down. This, I imagine, can be even more frustrating in a racing game where you push a player ahead of you rather than help you. The items could use a bit of a revamp, perhaps even a filter for specific maps. For example, the Kickit map only has punching bags, perhaps flipped should only give the shield to players that can use it for their best interests or not have it at all.

The second worst thing about the game is the camera. I use a controller because mouse and keyboard just doesn't make sense for some games, racing being one of them (wheel>controller>mouse and keyboard). However, both mouse and keyboard have this same issue, the camera is just too frustrating. You could reverse and it IMMEDIATELY snaps backwards but sluggishly continues forward. It should be a bit faster snapping towards the direction you're driving. You could try to turn and the camera feels a bit off, it's hard to see where you're going, especially when chasing someone on an open map. You can use the mouse to move the camera, which is actually good. The controller, however, is painfully useless. It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ racing game and they somehow made the camera horrible for controller players.

The absolute worse of the game that just ruins it entirely, no matter how many positives, is the controls. The controls make the game so unplayable that you'll have to relearn everything you have ever gotten from driving games. The turning specifically. The turn isn't imemdiate, there is input lag. This input lag is frustrating. It makes timing really hard. You know what's worse? The way the turns work. You LUNGE left or right. There isn't a good system of turning because there isn't an easy way to turn slightly left or right, you'll probably zig zag around stuff you're trying to get because of it. There is jumping and *kinda* drifting that *kinda* makes things easier, but not by enough. You'll have to invest a lot of time to get used to the game and even then I don't think you'll fluently be able to drive to what you are targeting.

Online community doesn't exist. No players online. That's probably because of the turning controls and what not.

When hosting your own game, I notice that, even as host, I lag with my friend. I only had problems with him, so that suggests that maybe there is some type of connection similar to Super Smash Brothers Brawl. That's not a good thing, especially since it causes not just me but my friend to teleport, reset all over the place, or go under the map. That's not something the host should go through.

If the developer would invest the time to, at least, fix the camera and controls to be less frustrating, the game would be able to get sales, easily, without having to sell a 4 pack for $2. However, the game seems to be dead both online and the developer side. I really like the idea, but I refuse to say it's worth buying no matter how many laughs I had with my friends because I was more frustrated with the controls than I was having fun. Not to mention the laughs my friends and I were making were more related to how bad and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the game is.

If you're adventureous, you might wanna try buying the game on sale to experience it yourself. If you're looking for a good PC Mario Kart or something, look elsewhere because this is not it.


edit: to update, this game is still ♥♥♥♥. However, my friends and I never touch it because other games, like Rocket League, are better. Don't bother with this.
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4 Comments
Rex Jul 15, 2016 @ 12:40pm 
I feel we had fun, yes. However, that doesn't change the fact there is too many other options out there. This game has soccer and the likes, but we now have Rocket League. This game has Mario Kart like gameplay, we have that Sonic game that's arguably as good. This game has arena death match, so does Gas Guzzlers. What this game really is, it's just half assed take on all our desires. I'd prefer to pick and choose which part of this game I wish to play, and then pick a game from a list that doesn't have frustrating controls that strongly pushes that gameplay.
Fallenglory Jul 15, 2016 @ 4:23am 
I wouldn't rate this game as the best game in my list Rex, but still we had a lot of fun with that sumo mode remember? Still looking for a Mario Kart like game out there, some day perhaps..
Rex Dec 30, 2014 @ 11:48am 
Sonic All Starts is excellent in comparison. It's still a shame since this game has so many potentially fun modes.
Grumpy Dec 30, 2014 @ 8:59am 
I hear sonic all stars racing is a good kart style racer.